Scholar-Practitioner of Early Modern Drama
DR. BENJAMIN BLYTH
Ph.D. (Calgary); MA (Cambridge); MA (RADA)
Website: www.shoreditchshakespeare.co.uk
Email: Benjamin.blyth@ucalgary.ca
EDUCATION
2017-24
Ph.D. University of Calgary, Department of English. Dissertation: “Shakespeare’s Dramatic Style at the Curtain Playhouse (1597-99).”
Supervisor: Professor Susan Bennett.
2016-17
MA, University of Calgary, Department of English.
2012
MA, Christ’s College, University of Cambridge
.
2011-13
MA, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, King’s College London, Drama.
2005-09
BA (Hons) Christ’s College, University of Cambridge, History.
SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS
2021 National Arts Centre of Canada #CanadaPerforms ($1000)
2019 3-Minute Thesis Competition, People’s Choice Award
2018 SSHRC Doctoral CGS Award ($105,000)
2018 SU Teaching Excellence Award (ENGL 300a Literature to 1660)
2018 Literary Kaleidoscope Award for Critical Writing ($1,000)
2017 Issak Walton Killam Doctoral Scholarship ($66,000)
2017 Eyes High International Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship ($20,000)
2017 SU Teaching Excellence Award (ENGL 205 Shakespeare)
2016 J.Allen Master’s Scholarship Award ($6,000)
DISSERTATION TITLE & SYNOPSIS
Shakespeare’s Dramatic Style at the Curtain Playhouse (1597-99)
Building on the remarkable evidence from recent excavations at Shoreditch’s playhouse sites, this innovative study brings together the latest advances in theatre history, textual studies, and practice-as-research to present a new style of Shakespeare at the Curtain. Focusing on the two-year period when the Chamberlain’s Men were resident at the playhouse (1597-99), my Ph.D. dissertation examines the textual aesthetics and dramatic utility of Shakespeare’s Curtain plays in these new playing conditions. The result was a resourceful and riotous, spectacular and violent, direct and interactive style of Shakespeare at the Curtain, quite unlike any other stage in his career or at any other playhouse.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2025
Instructor of Record, SCPA599, “Medieval Drama in Performance”. University of Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, Practice-as-Research approaches, rehearsal and performance in New York and Toronto, enrolment: 20 students.
2025
Adjunct Assistant Professor, ENG381, “Chaucer.” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, weekly lectures and seminars, in-person delivery, enrolment: 35 students.
2024
Adjunct Assistant Professor, ENGL399, “Postcolonial Ecocriticism” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, bi-weekly seminars, enrolment: 5 students.
2024
Adjunct Assistant Professor, ENGL313, “Shakespeare: The Early Works,” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, weekly lectures and seminars, in-person delivery, enrolment: 35 students.
2024
Lecturer, ENGL305, “Here be Monsters: Issues in Later Medieval Literature” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, weekly lectures and seminars, in-person delivery, enrolment: 35 students.
2023-25
Lecturer, ENGL200a, “Studies in Literature: Middle Ages to 1660,” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, weekly lectures and seminars, in-person delivery, enrolment: 30 students.
2023
Lecturer, ENGL315, “Shakespeare: The Later Works,” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, weekly lectures and seminars, in-person delivery, enrolment: 35 students.
2023
Lecturer, WRIT201, “Introduction to Academic Writing,” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, weekly lectures and seminars, in-person delivery, enrolment: 35 students.
2022
Instructor of Record, ENGL253, “Introduction to Poetry,” Dept. of English, University of Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, weekly lectures and seminars, in-person delivery, enrolment: 60 students.
2021
Instructor of Record, ENGL253, “Introduction to Drama,” Dept. of English, University of Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, weekly lectures and seminars, synchronous online delivery, enrolment: 60 students.
2020
Instructor of Record, ENGL251, “Literature and Society: Antagonists & Antiheroes,” Dept. of English, University of Calgary. Curriculum development and grading, weekly lectures and seminars, synchronous online delivery, enrolment: 60 students.
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS
Refereed Contributions:
2022
Blyth, Benjamin. "The Isle of Dogs" and “The Theatre” in London's East End: A Short Encyclopedia, edited by Kevin A. Morrison, McFarland, 2022.
2021
Blyth, Benjamin, “Pandemic Shakespeare: Perspectives on Early Modern Theatre Practice and Pedagogy in Lockdown”, Miranda, 23, 2021, DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/ miranda.42769.
Conference Presentations:
2024
Davies, Callan, Catherine Richardson, and Benjamin Blyth. “The Future of the Past: Using Immersive Tech and AI to Harness Heritage”, Eastern Arc Conference, Norwich, UK.
2024
Blyth, Benjamin. “Shoreditch’s Falstaff: Will Kemp at the Curtain 1597-99.” Seminar 4: Shakespeare’s Players – Their Lives and Legacies (Convenors: Siobhan Keenan, De Montfort University and Tom Rutter, University of Sheffield). British Shakespeare Association, Leicester, UK.
2024
Blyth, Benjamin. “Archaeology, AI, and After in Shakespeare’s Shoreditch.” Seminar 44: Siobhan Keenan and Laurie Johnson: Theatre History Now – Sites and Insights. Shakespeare Association of America, Portland, OR.
2023
Blyth, Benjamin. “Staging Q2 Romeo and Juliet at the Curtain Playhouse.” Pacific Northwest Renaissance Society, Banff, AB.
2021
Blyth, Benjamin: “Unearthing Errors in Shakespeare’s Shoreditch”, Wooden O Symposium, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City, UT.
2021
Blyth. Benjamin: “Jonathan Kent and the ‘Shoreditch Shakespeares’” Seminar 38: Stuart Hampton-Reeves “Shakespeare and the Director,” Shakespeare Association of America, Austin, TX.
Nonrefereed Contributions:
2021
Blyth, Benjamin. “Review: Shakespeare on Stage and Off, edited by Kenneth Graham and Alysia Kolentis, McGill-Queens University Press, 2020”, Sixteenth Century Journal, Volume 51, Number 2, 2021.
2021
Blyth, Benjamin. “Review: Early Shakespeare 1588-1594, edited by Rory Loughnane and Andrew Power, Cambridge University Press, 2020”, Early Theatre, Volume 24, Number 1. 2021.
Forthcoming Contributions:
2025
[Contracted for Publication in March 2025] Blyth, Benjamin. Site-Specific Shakespeare, Elements of Shakespeare in Performance, Cambridge UP, 2025.
2025
[Accepted] Blyth, Benjamin. “’Tap, Tap, and So Part Fair’: Shakespeare’s Combat at the Curtain”, Panel: Social Spaces of Swordplay and Competition in the Early Modern Playhouse, Renaissance Society of America, Boston, MA.
2024
[In Press] Blyth, Benjamin, “Review: Richard III at Shakespeare’s Globe”, Shakespeare Bulletin.
Selected Creative Outputs:
2020-22
Coordinator, Shakespeare Sunday, Malachite Theatre, Zoom, International collaboration with publics
2021
Director, Macbeth and Hamlet, Malachite Theatre & National Arts Centre of Canada, Zoom, International collaboration with UK and Canadian artists during pandemic quarantine, with National Arts Centre Canada #CanadaPerforms.
2020
Coordinator, The Witch of Edmonton and The Merrie Devil of Edmonton, Edmonton Alberta. Rehearsed readings of new adaptations by John Richardson, performed at Winter Shakespeare Festival.
2020
Director, Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Winter Shakespeare
Festival, Edmonton Alberta.
2018
Director, Richard III, Rose Playhouse Bankside & UK Tour
Site-specific production staged on the remains of the Rose Playhouse, Bankside.
2017
Director, Henry V, Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta.
First production in Canadian theatre history to cast a female actor in the title role.
2016
Director and Gravedigger, Hamlet, Guangzhou Drama Theatre, China Tour
International tour to China as part of Shakespeare400 Cultural Exchange.
2015
Director, King Lear, with BAFTA-Nominee John McEnery, staged at the
Peckham Asylum and Rose Playhouse, Bankside.
2015
Director and Adaptor, Macbeth, Site-specific production staged on the remains of the Rose Playhouse, Bankside.
2014
Director, Othello, Malachite Theatre, Shoreditch Church, UK.
Starring Jude Owusu. Off-West End Award Nominated.
2014
Director, Richard II, Malachite Theatre, Shoreditch Church, UK.
Off-West End Award Nominated.
Other Research Contributions:
2021
Podcast Guest, “Dr. Ralph Presents: Episode 3: Script Cutting and Line
Negotiation.” American Shakespeare Center, 21 Aug 2021, https://americanshakespearecenter.com/podcast/. Accessed on 24 Aug. 2024.
2019
Presenter, “2019 Calgary 3MT: Third Place & People’s Choice, Benjamin
Blyth.” https://grad.ucalgary.ca/my-gradskills/three-minute-thesis/three-minute-thesis-videos/2019-3mt-videos/benjamin-blyth. Accessed on 26 Aug. 2024.
2016
TV Guest, “Interview with Benjamin Blyth on Shakespeare Anniversary”
TRT World, 23 April 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9kPXrJCHepQ. Accessed on 24 Aug. 2024.
Most Significant Research Contributions:
[Creative Output] Macbeth, Rose Playhouse Bankside, 2015. This project sparked considerable discussion in public media and academic circles. It played a key role in developing my Ph.D. methodology, and has featured in several academic works including Shakespeare Bulletin (Barnden) and The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Memory(Dustagheer). The production was favourably reviewed by The Stage (Frankl) and will be featured in a chapter of my upcoming book, Site-Specific Shakespeare, contracted by Cambridge UP in their Elements of Shakespeare Performance series.
[Refereed Contributions] “Pandemic Shakespeare: Perspectives on Early Modern Theatre Practice and Pedagogy in Lockdown”, Miranda, 23, 2021.This article resulted from my experiments with Shakespeare on Zoom during the pandemic, and was integral to my adapted research methodology. The “Shakespeare Sunday” project was backed by the National Arts Centre and received national media coverage (Tucker). My article was cited in The Drama Review by W.B. Worthen, series editor of Cambridge Elements of Shakespeare Performance.
[Conference Presentation] “Archaeology, AI, and After in Shakespeare’s Shoreditch.” Shakespeare Association of America, Portland, OR, April 2024. I submitted this seminar paper at the 2024 SAA conference, making professional connections with key Shakespeare scholars. This resulted in an invitation to join the Archaeo-Theatre Research Collective, which explores early modern playing spaces. This summer, the collective developed a new manifesto utilizing the findings of my Ph.D. research, aiming to create an AI-driven 4D program for modeling these spaces. I was part of the team that presented this manifesto at the Eastern Arc conference in September 2024.
OTHER RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
-
2013-Present: Artistic Director, Malachite Theatre
Since 2013, I have worked as the Artistic Director of the Malachite Theatre Collective—an international, site-responsive theatre company that has staged productions in the UK, Canada, Europe, and China. This role involves identifying and booking performance spaces, fundraising and grant writing, developing marketing strategies and designs, assembling the creative team (designer, musical director, fight director, etc.), overseeing production design, casting, and rehearsals, and managing the logistics of touring. It also often includes providing dramaturgical support, such as editing play texts for site-specific performances, as was the case with Macbeth (2015), detailed above. My creative method is rooted in the pedagogies of Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Cecily Berry, Giles Block, Patsy Rodenberg, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Tadashi Suzuki, blending experiential and experimental physical freedom with robust textual control—reflecting my interdisciplinary academic background (Cambridge) and practical training (RADA).
My research and creative works exist in a reciprocal relationship, each mutually informing the other. For example, my creative practice has been essential to the development of my site-specific research methodology, helping to refine my model of dramatic style to examine the interactions between textual aesthetics and performance space. This bottom-up approach is also evident in my commitment to curating collaborative and inclusive research spaces. Rather than approaching a creative project with an overarching concept, I work with actors and texts to create a performance that directly engages with its space. Similarly, my participant-led research model is designed to bring scholars from a diverse range of backgrounds and specializations into productive conversation about Shakespeare’s dramatic style.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
2024- Renaissance Society of America
2024- Malone Society
2024- Marlowe Society of America
2021- International Shakespeare Association
2020- Shakespeare Association of America
2018- British Shakespeare Association
REFERENCES
References available on request.