The Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Art, together with the Faculty of Theatre of the “George Enescu” National University of Arts from Iași, organized on 14 and 15 May 2024 the workshop on Shakespearean adaptations ‘I liked the book better…’ or Why An Adaptation Ain’t Like Its Source, by Nicoleta Cinpoeş (professor of Shakespeare Studies at University of Worcester, UK), at the Theatre Studio Hall of Faculty of Theatre.
Cued by Julie Sanders’ argument that “it is usually at the point of infidelity that the most creative acts of adaptation and appropriation take place” (2006:20), this tandem of workshops explored adaptation as both product and process by focusing on a couple of case studies: Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Despite their striking differences (of genre, at least), both plays have garnered enormous success in adaptations of every kind; indeed, there are no media – artistic or commercial – that have not engaged with, cited or sighted characters, themes, lines from these plays. The participants explored some of these instances and unpacked their and our expectations as part and parcel of the adaptation ‘contract’.
Nicoleta Cinpoeş is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Worcester, UK, where she teaches early modern literature, Shakespeare in print, on stage, in screen adaptation, in the classroom and the digital space. At Worcester she sits on the Academic Board of the university and in the School of Humanities she fulfills the roles of International Experience Lead and Director of the Doctoral Programme. When not dabbling in Shakespeare Studies and early modern drama research, she is a theatre historian, reviewer and occasional translator. Her work has been published in individual books, numerous edited collections and international journals, from Shakespeare Bulletin, SEDERI, Cahiers Elisabethains, to Theatralia, New Theatre Quarterly and MSA in English, as well as in Romanian, Polish and Ukrainian publications. Her latest book: Shakespeare on European Festival Stages (Bloomsbury, 2022), which she co-edited with Florence March and Paul Prescott, focuses on the socio-cultural role of Shakespeare (in) Festivals in Europe. Currently, she is working on a book: Romeo and Juliet – The Eastside Story, which will tell the rich history of this play and its roles in the region through case studies from Poland, Hungary, Romania and Ukraine.
She has been working with Shakespeare festivals – in Romania, Poland and the UK – for almost two decades and has been organising the ESRA Shakespeare in Performance Seminar at the International Shakespeare Festival, Craiova since 2010. She is currently advising on the launch of two new Shakespeare Festivals: in Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, June 2024, and in Chisinau, Moldova, October 2024. She sits on the ESRA: European Shakespeare Research Association Board, re-elected in 2021 for her second and final term.
Workshop coordinated by Prof. PhD Ioana Petcu, within the project InterArt. European values and standards in artistic education and research from UNAGE Iași, financed by CNFIS through the Institutional Development Fund CNFIS-FDI-2024-F-0367.
