Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction
Social justice and Social Injustices
Creative Spaces
Performance Spaces
Reflective Spaces
Mediated Spaces
Chapter 1 - The Need to Break Down Silos
Learning Disabilities
Mental Health Issues
Criminal Justice System
Homelessness
Chapter 2 - Creative Spaces
Short-term Projects
Medium-term Projects
Long-term Projects
Conclusions
Chapter 3 - Performative Spaces
Demarcated Spaces
Appropriated Spaces
Conclusions
Chapter 4 - Reflective Spaces
Individual Reflections
Reflections on Group Dynamics
Conclusions
Chapter 5 - Mediated Spaces
Journalism
Documentaries
Low Budget Media
Written Media
Conclusions
Conclusion
References
Index

Promotional Information

This book builds on years of experience of working with marginalized groups to consider the way Shakespeare can be used by and with incarcerated people, people with mental health issues, people with learning disabilities and people who have experienced homelessness.

About the Author

Rowan Mackenzie is founder of Shakespeare UnBard and Artistic Director of three permanent, collaborative, in-prison theatre companies. She has a PhD from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK. She has received a number of prestigious awards for her work, including Shakespeare Association of America Public Shakespeare Award 2021, Butler Trust Commendation 2021, Worshipful Company of Educators Inspirational Educator Award for Teaching Shakespeare 2020, Prisoner Learning Alliance Outstanding Individual Award 2019.

Reviews

Creating Space for Shakespeare offers a vivid, clear-sighted, praxis-oriented account of what has been termed 'applied Shakespeare' - projects which harness the Shakespeare canon and its cultural capital to a range of benign social purposes. While some Shakespearean scholars limit themselves to trying to speak with the dead, Mackenzie shows how the plays can enable us to speak with hitherto excluded categories of the living.
*Michael Dobson, Shakespeare Institute, UK*

What place can Shakespeare have for the most vulnerable sections of our society? If your answer is that he stands only for an imposed high culture, Rowan Mackenzie’s remarkable and deeply moving account of the part his plays can occupy in a wide range of kinds of marginalized communities will make you think again. This compassionate survey of her own work and that of many others redefines what Shakespeare means in 21st century Britain.
*Peter Holland, University of Notre Dame, USA*

Rowan Mackenzie has written a remarkable book, made even more so by her thorough academic research combined with an accessible approach. We are taken on a creative journey through several prison institutions, each unique in their own way, as are the inhabitants, individuals who embark on their own creative journey. Too often attitudes prevail that such populations do not deserve Shakespeare, let alone drama. However the drama holds the very key to change, and Shakespeare a very specific form of drama to facilitate this change. The hard hitting challenges and the profound insights are all the result of applied Shakespeare. Rowan writes with understanding and compassion and her love of her work is constantly demonstrated. We are there in the workshop or performance, witnessing these remarkable events! This book should be read by dramatherapists and all arts and creative arts therapists, educators and clinicians who work in associated forensic fields. Ideally it should be recommended as a model for both practice and research, in prevention as well as rehabilitation. It is a gem of a book!
*Sue Jennings, Visiting Professor of Arts Therapies, University of Derby, UK*