Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London has announced that historian Andrew Gurr will receive the theatre company’s 2008 Sam Wanamaker Award. Gurr is one world’s leading authorities on Elizabethan theatre. His historical research on the original Globe Theatre helped to determine the dimensions and shape of the modern Globe reconstruction.
Patrick Spottiswoode, Director of Globe Education, says, “Anyone who visits the Globe is meeting Andrew Gurr’s scholarship in lath and plaster. The Globe is perhaps his most popular publication to date, a best-seller considering nearly 8 million people have seen it since it opened in 1997. He ensured that academic rigour and integrity underpinned the Globe reconstruction, and the value of his contribution cannot be overestimated.”
Gurr is Professor Emeritus at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and a former Director of Globe Research at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. He has published numerous academic books about Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre including “The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642,” “Playgoing in Shakespeare’s London,” “The Shakespearian Playing Companies” and “The Shakespeare Company 1594-1642.” His new book “Shakespeare’s Opposites: The Admiral’s Men 1594-1625,” will examine the theatre company that performed at the Rose and the Fortune.
The Sam Wanamaker Award was instituted by the Globe in 1994 to celebrate work which has increased the understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare, and which has a similar pioneering quality to Sam Wanamaker’s work. Previous winners include Glynne Wickham, John Orrell, Paul Scofield, Barrie Rutter, Stephen Unwin and Cicely Berry. The 2007 award was given jointly to Mark Rylance, Claire van Kampen and Jenny Tiramani.
Web Resources:
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre website
One Comment
A worthy winner - used Gurr for years, both when teaching and preparing performances. Had one of his books stolen from me on two separate occasions by students!
Surprised he hadn’t got the award before.
One Trackback
[...] the building of the new Globe. Earlier this year, he was recognized by the Globe Theatre with the Sam Wanamaker Award. Gurr will give the Theo Crosby Fellowship Lecture to open the conference on 23 [...]