RSC Collaboration People

Tom is the University of Birmingham's academic lead for the collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His teaching and research interests move across the early modern and into the Romantic periods, with a particular focus on the way in which later writers respond to, adapt and receive earlier writers. His current projects include research on Charles Lamb's reading of early modern drama for a new OUP edition of his Complete Works, responses to Ben Jonson in the Restoration and Romantic periods, and on early modern manuscript poetry.

• Tom Lockwood staff profile

Geraldine is the Geraldine is the Director of Creative Placemaking and Public Programmes at the RSC. A new role created to shape inspirational change with people and to make Stratford a better place to live, work, visit and invest.

She previously led the Events and Exhibitions department at the RSC, where she was responsible for changing the company’s relationships with artists, audiences and communities. She built daytime visitors to the RSC to c. 500,000, led the £4.5m Swan Wing capital project and a series of events to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016.

She is a Trustee of Fierce Festival and Culture Central.

Prior to this she spent ten years as Director of the UK’s leading organisation for performance poetry, Apples & Snakes; ran her theatre production company, Jericho Productions; and worked at Battersea Arts Centre in many different roles, finally as Programme Manager.

Dr David Evans-Powell is the Partnerships Manager within the College of Arts and Law, managing relationships with critical partners across the cultural, creative and other sectors that further strategic teaching, research and civic ambitions.

David has over 20 years’ experience working in the cultural and higher education sectors in development, stewardship, relationship and stakeholder management. He is a proud University of Birmingham alumnus, holding a BA History with Ancient History and Archaeology and a PhD Film Studies, and has previously published articles and chapters on British screen horror

David is a supporter of the Campaign for the Arts and has lifelong passions for theatre, film, television, museums and heritage.

Michael is the Director of the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute. He writes "My career as a teacher of and writer about Shakespeare’s plays and poems has been devoted not just to examining these extraordinary writings in their sixteenth- and seventeenth-century contexts, but to exploring how they have stimulated and enabled the creativity of other people, individually and collectively, across time – whether actors (both professional and amateur), scholars, directors, philosophers, composers, critics, sculptors, poets, or novelists. As a result I enjoy working as a consultant to theatre directors and actors as well as publishing scholarly essays and books, and although the central focus of my work has been on the interpretation of Shakespeare in the theatre down the centuries since his death, and on the history of our continuing love affair with Elizabeth and the Elizabethans more generally, I take an enthusiastic and informed interest in most things done in Shakespeare’s name in different media around the world."

Ewan is Chair, Professor and Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute.  Erica Whyman said his latest book, Shakespeare for Freedom: Why the Plays Matter, "should inspire scholars and theatre-makers alike to treat him once again as a liberating spirit, an existential provocateur and a playwright for our times."Ewan is co-convenor, with Abigail Rokison-Woodall, of the pioneering MA in Shakespeare and Creativity.  His collaborative civic liturgy for St George's Day was performed in major cathedrals across the country.  The novel he co-wrote with Simon Palfrey, Macbeth, Macbeth, was described by Slavoj Žižek as "a miracle, an instant classic."  Fernie is currently working, with Katharine Craik, on a new play for the RSC based on Shakespeare's Pericles, and on the Birmingham-based Shakespearean, activist and heterodox preacher he considers a lost prophet of incomplete modernity, George Dawson (1821-76).

Jacqui leads the RSC’s work with children, young people, teachers, adult learners and partner theatres across the UK and around the world. As a cultural learning specialist, Jacqui is passionate about providing equitable access to high quality creative arts opportunities, progression pathways to diversify the arts sector, and empowering young people to use Shakespeare, arts and creativity to affect social change. Jacqui has an interest in research, particularly finding accessible ways to share and disseminate it to inform real world decision making. Jacqui is Chair of the Cultural Learning Alliance and a primary school governor. She was also appointed as a Commissioner for the Durham Commission in Creativity in Education.

Abigail began her career as a professional actor, training at LAMDA. She completed her PhD at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University in 2006 after which she became a lecturer in Drama and English in the Education Faculty in Cambridge. In January 2013 she became Lecturer in Shakespeare and Theatre at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.  Abigail has written a number of journal articles and chapters on Shakespeare and other drama. Her first monograph, Shakespearean Verse Speaking, was published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press, and won the inaugural Shakespeare’s Globe first book award. She has published two more books - Shakespeare for Young People: Productions, Versions and Adaptations (Bloomsbury Arden, 2013) and Shakespeare in the Theatre: Nicholas Hytner (Bloomsbury Arden, 2017).  She is the co-general editor with Michael Dobson and Simon Russell Beale of a new series of Arden Performance Editions of Shakespeare’s plays for which she has edited A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet.  She is also writing a book for Bloomsbury Arden about the RSC’s The Other Place.

Erica is Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Director of The Other Place. She works closely with Artistic Director Gregory Doran on all aspects of artistic strategy, taking a particular lead on the development of new work, and on extending access, equality, diversity and inclusion across all RSC activities. Directing for the RSC includes Revolt, She Said. Revolt Again by Alice Birch ("witty, invigorating and inventive" Guardian), Hecuba by Marina Carr ("beautiful, terrifying...uncannily eloquent" Independent) and The Seven Acts of Mercy by Anders Lustgarten ("fiercely resonant" The Stage), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation ("dusted with magic" Guardian).Erica was Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Northern Stage (2005-2012), Artistic Director of Southwark Playhouse (1998-2000) and of The Gate Theatre, Notting Hill (2000-2004). She chairs the Board of Theatre503. She was one of the first fellows on the Clore Leadership Programme. In 2012 she won the TMA Award for Theatre Manager of the Year, and was awarded an OBE for services to UK Theatre. In 2016 she won the Peter Brook Empty Space Special Achievement Award.