Shakespeares Weaponry transcript.pdf

Shakespeare and the Citizen Soldier: Shakespeare's Weaponry

Join director, actor and fight choreographer Matt Hawkins and Associate Curator of Arms and Armor at The Art Institute of Chicago Jonathan Tavares as they explore historic weaponry and the art of stage fighting in the context of Shakespearian plays.  Sponsored by Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Many of Shakespeare's works involve fighting—be it by weapon or wit—as a way to build tension, end a conflict, or move the narrative along. Matt Hawkins specializes in the process of training actors portraying Shakespeare's characters in fight choreography to authentically and artistically depict the battles and fights depicted in the Bard's plays.  In a discussion led by Museum & Library President and CEO Kenneth Clarke, Jonathan Tavares, Associate Curator of Arms and Armor at The Art Institute of Chicago and Matt Hawkins will discuss the weapons and fighting maneuvers that bring Shakespearian plays to life on stage.  

MATT HAWKINS  has played various roles at Chicago Shakespeare Theater—as fight choreographer, assistant director, director and actor. Chicago: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Lookingglass Theatre Company, The House Theatre of Chicago, Writers Theatre. Regional: South Coast Repertory, American Players Theatre, The Kennedy Center and Stratford Festival. Matt is the recipient of five Non-Equity Jeff Awards. He earned his BFA at Southern Methodist University and MFA at the University of Iowa . 

JONATHAN TAVARES is an emerging arms and armor scholar with a PhD from the Bard Graduate Center for studies in the Decorative Arts in New York.  While pursuing his graduate degrees he received his training in arms and armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, first as a collections assistant and later as a Jane and Morgan Whitney Curatorial Fellow.   With his knowledge of decorative arts and design he served as an adjunct lecturer leading courses on design history at the Rhode Island School of Design from 2008-2011 and the fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 2010.  He has published articles, received scholarships and given lectures to various arms and armor and decorative arts groups, including the American Society of Arms Collectors, the Armor and Arms Club of Manhattan, and as 2015 Decorative Arts Trust Sweeny emerging scholar-lecturer.  He began at the Art Institute as a Rice Curatorial Fellow in January 2013 and recently promoted in January 2016 to Associate Curator of Arms and Armor with the primary task of preparing the George F. Harding Jr. collection of arms and armor for reinstallation, which will open to the public in March 2017.