Why Bardwire? A Short History
The BardWire site began as a concept to promote a focus for contemporary engagement with Shakespeare, both within and outside of QUT. It was acknowledged that QUT’s Shakespeare profile was rich and varied, and well suited, especially, to relate to community as well as academic interest in the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. In 2004, the Creative Writing and Cultural Studies discipline and the Communication Design discipline at QUT joined forces to design and implement a site that would act as a focus for the many ways in which QUT students and teachers work with Shakespearean material, but also reach out to the wider community, particularly engaging with popular culture. QUT researchers were conscious of the importance of extending the experiences of graduate teachers who will take Shakespeare into the classroom, and they were also keen to promote the diverse ways in which Shakespearean work meets contemporary Australian culture. The site was designed to be interactive and encouraging to a wide cross-section of people interested in Shakespeare. BardWire presents a cross-disciplinary project that has provided research opportunities and pedagogical challenges for both disciplines. As a collaborative effort between teaching staff and students from Creative Writing and Cultural Studies and Communication Design, BardWire provides for a cross-fertilization of ideas and skills that establishes a framework for future collaborative models.

QUT LAUNCH of BARDWIRE SHAKESPEAREAN WEBSITE: November 17, 2005
Ladies and Gentlemen and distinguished visitors:

I am delighted to be invited to address you all. As I am a Masters Graduate of QUT in Research I am at home here at my Alma Mater. My thesis was called Changing Lanes and details my journey from choreography to theatre directing. Both of those journeys have been involved with the exploration of Shakespeare so it seemed appropriate (to myself!) that I should be here today.

Shakespeare has been the inspiration to generations of creators of theatre works, for myself, as choreographer, I created two works directly inspired by Shakespeare, Othello and The Tempest, both for the Queensland Ballet.

The Tempest, which premiered in 1993, was a three act ballet with a wonderful new music score written by Carl Vine. This very bold and evocative score found the then Philharmonic Orchestra playing along with a recorded electronic soundscape in the final act to great effect. As well, I introduced, for the first, and possibly the last time on a Queensland Ballet stage, some text from the play, spoken live from the stage by Prospero, played by guest artist actor/dancer John Nobbs.

Alongside my choreographic career I had often been invited to create movement for theatre directors’ works. I spent time with Rex Cramphorne whose Tempest was a revelation of expressive economy with a reduced text and just 6 actors and a chalk circle on the floor to weave some extravagant magic. As well I worked with, among others, George Ogilvie, Rodney Fisher, Jim Sharman and Helmut Bakaitis. As a trainee theatre director mixing it with the big boys allowed me to learn my way around a text using maverick and exciting methods.

As I moved away from dance due to circumstantial re-adjustments on the local scene I was extremely lucky to find the work of Tadashi Suzuki, an avant garde international Japanese theatre director. I was even luckier that John Nobbs, my conspirator within the theatre arts, became the only Australian actor to be invited to work with Suzuki’s Japanese company which allowed me extraordinary access to Suzuki’s creative processes. If previous encounters with Shakespeare had been energizing and exciting then to encounter director, text adaptor and choreographer all combined within the person of Tadashi Suzuki suddenly opened the floodgates onto the possibilities of the extreme end of the international market.

His use of Shakespeare’s text to re-invent the interior fabric of the works and reveal a new potential soul for these well known narratives proved an exotic and overwhelming encounter for me. For Suzuki this means no pretend Elizabethans, no cod pieces, no setting it in more ‘modern’ times with ‘modern’ dress to assist you with the words…no, he simply edits the text to create stimulating one act dramas based on Macbeth or Lear, his two most famous productions, and keeps you on the edge of your seat while the drama unfolds in unexpected ways. As well he has created a wonderful witty work titled Waiting for Romeo, which deals with an aging Juliet waiting for Romeo in her wicker chair surrounded by ghosts and nightmares.

Watching many international companies take on Shakespeare led me to the conclusion that no-one out there besides the Royal Shakespeare Company, in the 21st century, ever tries to do the entire play. What these other internationals are doing is to take another glimpse into the heart of Shakespeare’s works and to boldly challenge their audience’s credulity and wonder with fresh evidence of Shakespeare’s genius. For example Robert Wilson’s one-act solo Hamlet is a witty, clever, touching glimpse into Hamlet’s heart.

Right now I am making my third Hamlet, titled Hamlet Stooged! for three male and one female actor. Previous to this I made Heavy Metal Hamlet that was shown at the Brisbane Festival ’98, in the Olympic Arts Festival in Sydney and Melbourne, and in Japan at the Shizuoka Arts Festival 2000.

Last year I created a new script and made RatzHamlet for 5 men and 5 women and this year I have used that script as a template for Frank’s very latest work Hamlet Stooged! planned to exist and make itself known in the same year as the 2006 Shakespeare World Congress here in Brisbane.

For this work John Nobbs has, on my insistence, put new words into Shakespeare’s mouth … ‘Shakespeare meets the Simpsons, glances at Wayne’s World and goes to bed with Clockwork Orange. HAMLET STOOGED! reconfigures Willie’s famous words, while sticking to the script, the Rhyme, and the Reason for it all. "So soggy, stale, stinking and slack, seem to me all the burgers at Big Mac!"

We have a delightful young Frank Theatre actor Michael Coughlan playing Hamlet and this time John will play Gertrude!

After Suzuki opened the floodgates on the immense possibilities that Shakespeare offers to the bold and the brave both in the director’s brief and the actor’s skills Frank Theatre took up the challenge and has been a maverick company of players of Shakespeare ever since both in Brisbane and elsewhere on the world stage.

For example, my text adaptation of Macbeth, The Tale of Macbeth: Crown of Blood was initially created for 4 actors but has since become a wonderfully elastic work which permits casts of up to 10 actors or can be done with as few as three! As well, because the story of Macbeth is so well known internationally and the structure of the direction and mise en scene so defined, we have shown it in bi- sometimes tri-lingual productions in such countries as Croatia, Czech Republic, Turkey, as well here in Karnak, Sydney, Bowral, Limpinwood, Pullenvale and in Brisbane many times. The international actors, drawn from our international training workshops speak Croatian, Japanese, Malaysian, Danish and in 2006 Mongolian, very successfully interacting with Frank company members.

Shakespeare speaks the true international language of all of us. Bless him! My text adaptations and distinctive direction has allowed me to deal successfully with all these nationalities!

In 2003 I wrote and directed a Shakespearean masque Midsummer Night’s Romeos for a Japan Performing Arts Foundation/Frank Theatre co-production. It was premiered in a bi-lingual production at the Toga International Arts Festival 2003 with 6 Japanese and 4 Frank actors. Brimming with music and dance it wove together aspects of love drawn from Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet. Two demi gods preside over the highjinks of Cupid stroke Puck as she wreaks havoc with the lovers.

So Shakespeare, the master storyteller, is the great foil for directors such as myself to realise extreme, edgy, witty, charming, poignant works of theatre and, as such, he deserves the best website and the loving care of people such as Sue Carson and her QUT Team to keep enlivening our relationship with the Bard for each succeeding generation. As well, this will impress onto the larger world how active Brisbane theatre practitioners are in their quest to realise Shakespeare’s canon here in Queensland, Australia. There is and always will be only ONE Shakespeare. Long may he live and prosper in Brisbane on Bardwire!

I now officially declare the QUT Bardwire website Open for Business.
Thank You.
Jacqui Carroll November 17, 2005

What is Bardwire?
Bardwire is a new kind of meeting place for people who want to share the world of Shakespeare. Today teachers, students, researchers, community groups, performance companies and management advisors are reading Shakespeare's works and performing Shakespearean plays.

Bardwire showcases Queensland University of Technology's involvement in Shakespearean studies and performance across a range of disciplines.

The site encourages participation in teaching and learning issues, community activities, forthcoming events, discussion forums and publications.

Bardwire hopes to build a strong community that supports existing scholarship and initiates discussion and research, with a focus on how Shakespearean material is understood in contemporary culture.

A Note on Authorship: Who wrote the plays?
Bardwire acknowledges the long standing debate as to the authorship of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare, but the site uses the name, 'William Shakespeare' as a convenient way of addressing the material published in this name. Although the mystery surrounding the life of the playwright continues to provoke fascinating debate, Bardwire focuses on the work produced by the playwright.

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