Paratexts to Contemporary Live Theatre Broadcast Productions of Shakespeare Plays

This project will investigate the character and functions of paratextual media within mass marketed live theatre broadcast (LTB) productions of Shakespeare plays. Paratexts of LTB typically consist of interviews with a director, cast or creatives, and short films, and are placed before and in the breaks of the performance. By viewing LTB and its cultural relation to Shakespeare through paratexts, this project will therefore build upon the body of criticism which addresses the efficacy of LTB in attracting broader audiences (e.g. Carson, Greenhalgh, Purcell, Wyver) through a deeper exploration of these understudied media.

The central materials of this study will be mainstream British Shakespearean productions of the period 2014-2018 and are produced by three contemporary companies of LTB: National Theatre Live, Live from Stratford-upon-Avon and Branagh Theatre Live. The productions central to the project base their marketisation on the attachment of a star performer (Greenhalgh 259). Prominent examples of these are the National Theatre's Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch (2015) and the RSC's Richard II with David Tennant (2014). Chapters will be divided by analysis of materials under three frameworks: (1) their commercial function in the mass marketisation of Shakespeare (2) their experiential function in
the context of a broadcast's liveness and (3) their interpretive function as paratextual to the production itself.