THE DRAMATURG’S LENS
KING LEAR

WITH DR. Philippa Kelly

WEEK 1: 9/14 @ 4pm, ZOOM + Bonus 9/15 @ 4pm, IN PERSON

Shakespeare’s Great Play

Dr. Philippa Kelly will give this class twice. First on Zoom on Monday, Sept 14 at 4 pm. Then again, repeating the lecture at OTP (1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA 94612) on Tuesday, Sept 15 at 4 pm. Enrollees are welcome to come to one or both.

“Bound upon a wheel of fire:” King Lear, loss, majesty, humanity: the foundations and architecture of Shakespeare’s great play.

WEEK 2: 9/21 @ 4pm, ZOOM

King Lear: Who’s the Fool?

Guest artist: actor Dean Linnard (Edmund)

A deep-dive into Director Michael Moran’s vision for the Oakland Theater Project’s production of King Lear, upcoming at Z Space in San Francisco Oct 9 – 18. We will explore the question of what it means to play the fool, looking in particular at:

• The Fool as a Tool: Shakespeare’s many fools, culminating in the complexity of King Lear’s “wise fool”

• Clowning v Fooling: Edmund as controlling clown, in whose drama everyone is a fool. We’ll explore the connection between Edmund and Iago, two characters who were written in back-to-back dramas, both of whom attempt to control the narrative of their plays, turning tragedy into comedy

• What were the ideas about comedy circulating at the time – Aristotle, Plato, Seneca?

• From goodness to diabolical satire: the multiple lenses for fooling

WEEK 3: 9/28 @ 4 pm, Zoom

Orchestrating King Lear: how music scaffolds our production

Guest artists: composer Paul Dresher and actor/musician Rinde Eckert (Fool)

For an example of Rinde’s unique voice, please see the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PpLYE1OcEk

WEEK 4: 10/5 @ 4pm, Zoom

De-throning the self from the centre of the universe.

King Lear’s legacy: the many faces and themes of Shakespeare’s play.

ABOUT PHILIPPA KELLY

Dr. Philippa Kelly bridges practical theatre and the world of academe. She serves as Resident Dramaturg for the Oakland Theater Project, and she was Resident Dramaturg for the California Shakespeare Theater for 15 years until the company dissolved in 2024. Philippa is a Company Dramaturg for Marin Shakespeare Company, as well as working as upcoming production dramaturg for several theaters across the Bay. The Fulbright, Rockefeller, Commonwealth, and Walter and Eliza Hall Foundations, and the Humanities Research Council of Australia, have honored Philippa’s research with fellowship grants. Her dramaturgy has earned her a National Bly Award for Innovation in Dramaturgy from the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has held fellowships at the Universities of Oxford, New South Wales, Sydney, Berkeley, and the Australian National University. For her theater leadership in colleges and middle and high schools, she has received grants from the California Arts Council and the Walter and Elise Haas Foundations. Philippa has published 11 books with international presses and over 100 internationally peer-reviewed articles and professional playbill articles. She is currently contracted for Dramaturgy Matters with Routledge Press, and for Storybeing, co-edited with Jan Shaw and Liam E. Semler, for Palgrave Macmillan press.