How can we make Shakespeare

relavant to a modern audience?

Gender Blind Casting
• A key theme of our show is pansexuality - the cover photo is made up of the
pansexual flag colours.
• “Pansexuality is the sexual, romantic or emotional attraction towards people
regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to
themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determining
factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others”.
• Gender / sexuality and diversity are very relavant topics in 2019 - with many
discussions around the importance of inclusivity.
• In our show, we cast Lydander as a female (Lysandra) and featured a lesbian
couple - this is one way we made the show modern.
• We were inspired by Emma Rice's 'Wise Children', in which they used Gender
Blind Casting - this made the performance more interesting and unique, so we
wanted to include this modern tool in our performance.
• Depite LGBT+ people / couples always existing, in the time of Shakespeare (and
even in recnt years), this would not have been accepted, or a popular idea.
Use of music:
• A Midsummer Night's Dream is not originally a musical, but
the inclusion of music can add a very modern twist.
• The music used in our show was a very specific tone - usually
mysterious and dark, mathcing with the rest of the show and
it's themes.
• We included a song called 'No one else' from the Great
Comet - this automatically added a modern feel to the play as
the song utilises modern language / melody.
• The music in the show was also all in modern English, rather
than Shakespeare, ensuring that a modern audience would
understand the meaning.
Language adaptations:

• Perhaps the most obvious / significant way to make

Shakespeare relavant for a modern audience - the use of
modern English language.
• We were creative in blending Shakespeare with modern
English, ensuring that our audience could keep up with the
plot. I enjoyed blending English and Shakespeare, as I got to
use my English and creativity skills. I also felt a closer
connection to the material I was spaking, as I created a
portion of it. My changes were subtle and I spent time in
making sure they always made sense.
Use of Choreography

• An interpretation I have never seen of Oberon is through

dance as well as speech, so I was proud to be able to utilise
my skills to create an original and unpredictable interpretation
of the character.
• Ballet / Contemporary dance are some of the most popular
styles of dance in 2019 - so the use of these elements helped
give a modern and relevant feel to the performance.
• Alot of my research and inspiration was from modern dancers
/ choreographers, such as Akram Khan. Therefore, this further
ensured that the style of dance remained modern and
relevant.