My Life Around the Globe
Hugh Macrae Richmond
Like many English students I spent much of my time practicing debates and rehearsing for public performances of classic plays. I was cast in four leading roles, as Alan Squire in the American Petrified Forest of Robert Sherwood; as the Noah of French André Obey; as the Machiavellian Russian Mayor in Gogol's The Government Inspector (in another production I was the comic servant); and as Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. All had interesting echoes. As a English intellectual I once found myself in a startling déjà vu with a flirtatious waitress in a cafe within the real Arizonan Petrified Forest - I could have reused my lines as Alan; I have also spent much of my life living, teaching in, and writing about France; my elder daughter and son-in-law are Russian specialists.
But Brutus was the key role. Teaching Shakespeare at U.C. Berkeley, I found myself livening lectures with such performances, successful to the extent that students wanted to compete, and we finished up with some fifty full productions, with many recordings, some still in national distribution. This activity won me the attention of Sam Wanamaker, to assist in his project to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe Theatre near its original London site, which earned me the chance to transfer our production of Much Ado from Berkeley to the new Globe stage. In turn this experience evoked an invitation to publish a Pegasus bibliography of the Shakespearean stage, an activity which encouraged me to respond to Athlone's solicitation of dictionary proposals covering aspects of Shakespeare's career. It led to my Shakespeare's Theatre: a Dictionary of his Stage Context (Coninuum, 2002).
Unfortunately my international commuting (eighteen long-distance flights in one year) led to a double thrombosis with a near heart attack, and triple bypass surgery while the manuscript was only two-thirds completed. When I recovered I found the series format had been altered, with a new general editor, Sandra Clark. Happily she not only allowed me to preserve my original informal presentation but strengthened it enormously through contribution of her own scholarly expertise, resources which combined produced a distinctive study: relaxed in tone, but professionally expert (I have helped build three theatres in all), and buttressed by her thorough scholarship. This combination proved highly marketable, leading to a paperback edition, and then a web version by Credo Reference (a service for libraries with authoritative reference works for online delivery worldwide, 2008), that in turn suggested a supporting website, now available as Shakespeare's Staging.
This site has attracted over twelve million page-visits by some three million individual visitors, no doubt because of its two thousand theatre images, many play reviews and essays, and numerous video clips. We now plan to add to it some fifty newly digitized versions of our earlier productions. My theatrical experience has recently been further consolidated in two books: Shakespeare's Tragedies Reviewed: a Spectator's Role (including data from my performances and productions on various stages, from Brutus onwards; Peter Lang, 2015); and Shakespeare Relocated: Studies in Historical Psychology (an anthology of my essays, including Globe studies; Peter Lang, 2017). My career has indeed revolved around the Globe.
BIO DATA
BORN: 3/20/32, Burton-upon-Trent, England. Married Velma E. Bourgeois, Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 8/9/58. Children: Elizabeth (1964), Claire (1968).
EDUCATION: Burton-upon-Trent Grammar School, 1940-1950; Emmanuel College, Cambridge University (U.K.), 1951-1954, Cambridge University B.A.1954 (First Class Honors, English Tripos) Wadham College, Oxford U. (U.K.):1955-57, D.Phil., 1957 in English: Thesis "Traditional Themes in 17th Century Love Poetry". Diplomas: in Italian, Univ. of Florence, Italy (1952); in German, Univ. of Munich (1956)
EMPLOYMENT: Lieutenant, Royal Artillery,1950-51 (Reserve 1951-1954); Concordia Youth Camp Warden, Summer of 1954; Assistant d'anglais, Lycée Jean Perrin, Lyon, France,1954-55; English Dept., University of California, Berkeley,1957-94 ; (Professor: 1968-94); Emeritus: 1994-; Recalled 1994-6; UCB Osher Instit. Life-long Learning, '04,'05,'08,'09,'11,'12; Director, Shakespeare Program, UCB, from 1973 to present; Director, University of California Shakespeare Forum: 1980-95; UCB Chancellor's Adviser for Educational Development: 1983-6. Director, Education Division, Shakespeare Globe, U.S.A.,1995-9. Instructor UCB Osher Lifelong Learning Institute 2001 - 2018.
AWARDS: United Kingdom State Scholarship in History, 1948; Open Scholarship (English), Emmanuel Coll., Cambridge,1949; Senior Exhibition, Emmanuel College, 1953; Tripos Prize, 1954; Goldsmiths' Co. Exhibition, Wadham College, Oxford,1957. A.C.L.S. Fellowship,1964-5; U.C. Research Professor,1968,1975; U.C. Humanities Institute Awards, 1973, 1976, 1987; U.C. Regents Teaching Grants, 1973, 1974, 1976-78; U.C.B. Teaching Grants, 1975, 1979, 1983, 1985, 1995; Nat. Endowment for Humanities Educ. Grants,1976-8,1984-6; N.E.H. Research Fellowships, 1977, 1988; U.C.B. Senate Award for Distinguished Teaching, 1979; U.C.B. Humanities Center Grant, 1993; California Council for Humanities Grants, 1999, 2000; U.C.B. Instructional Improvement Grant, 2007. Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship. 2020.
PUBLICATIONS: LITERARY AND THEATRE STUDIES: THE SCHOOL OF LOVE: THE EVOLUTION OF THE STUART LOVE LYRIC, Princeton University Press, 1964. SHAKESPEARE'S POLITICAL PLAYS, Random House, 1967; Reprinted by Peter Smith, 1977; SHAKESPEARE'S SEXUAL COMEDY, Bobbs-Merrill, 1971; Questia Media Inc., Internet Reprint, 2001. RENAISSANCE LANDSCAPES: ENGLISH LYRICS IN A EUROPEAN TRADITION, Mouton, 1973. THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTIONARY: JOHN MILTON, University of California Press, 1974. PURITANS & LIBERTINES: ANGLO-FRENCH LITERARY RELATIONS IN THE REFORMATION, University of California Press, 1981. SHAKESPEARE IN PERFORMANCE: "KING RICHARD III", Manchester University Press (U.K.), 1990; Reprinted 1991. SHAKESPEARE IN PERFORMANCE: "KING HENRY VIII", Manchester University Press (U.K.), 1994. Shakespeare's Tragedies: a Spectator’s Role, New York: Peter Lang, 8/30/15. Shakespeare Relocated: Studies in Historical Psychology. New York: Peter Lang, 2018.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES, ANTHOLOGIES, AND EDITIONS . SHAKESPEARE'S HENRY IV, Pt. 1, Bobbs Merrill, 1971. SHAKESPEARE'S HENRY VIII, Wm.Brown,1971. THE ENTERING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT: CHANGES & EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS, U.C. President's Office, 1975, JOHN MILTON'S DRAMA OF "PARADISE LOST", Peter Lang, '92. COLLECTED ESSAYS ON SHAKESPEARE'S "KING RICHARD III", G. K. Hall,1999. SHAKESPEARE ILLUMINATIONS: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF MARVIN ROSENBERG, U. Delaware Press, 1998 (Co-editor: Jay Halio). VHS & DVD ; SHAKESPEARE AND THE RENAISSANCE STAGE & SHAKESPEAREAN STAGE HISTORY:. University of N. Carolina, Asheville,Pegasus Press, 1999. SHAKESPEARE'S THEATRE: A DICTIONARY OF HIS STAGE CONTEXT, London: Continuum International, 2002; paperback reprint, 2005. Credo Reference (Internet Library Access) 2009.
EDUCATIONAL DOCUMENTARYES AND COMMENTARIES: SHAKESPEARE & THE GLOBE,1985, Films for the Humanities. A PROLOGUE TO CHAUCER, 1986, Films for the Humanities MILTON BY HIMSELF, 1986, Films for the Humanities SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE THEATRE RESTORED, 1998, TMW Media. SHAKESPEARE & THE SPANISH CONNECTION, 2007, TMW Media. Articles in: COMPARATIVE LITERATURE, CRITICISM, HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY, JEGP, KENYON REVIEW, MODERN PHILOLOGY, MILTON QUARTERLY, PMLA, SHAKESPEARE BULLETIN, SHAKESPEARE CRITICISM, SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY, SHAKESPEARE STUDIES, SOUTH ATLANTIC QUARTERLY, etc.
TEACHING & LECTURING: Graduate & Undergraduate Courses in European Literature, Drama, Lyricism; Renaissance Literature; Shakespeare, Milton, Shakespeare Performance (on Stage, Film, TV); University Teaching of Literature & Composition, etc. Twenty Ph.D. dissertations directed. Fifty-two Shakespearean and other student productions, live & video. Many articles on teaching - on Shakespeare (2) & Milton (2) in MLA Series; use of Film & Video. Public Presentations & Lectures in: Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, U.K., U.S.A. Lectures at Universities: Bristol, London, Warwick, Moscow, Munich, Vienna, Graz, Bamberg, Bayreuth, Texas (Austin), UCLA, Oregon, Chapman, Westminster, etc. Lectures and broadcasts for: National Public Radio & local P.B.S., N.E.H., Huntington and Folger Libraries, Holburne Museum, Bath (UK), Oakland & S.F. Museums, English-Speaking Union (San Francisco, San Diego, London), Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Globe Centre, California Shakespeare Theatre, UCB Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Lectures from 2001, etc.
OTHER SERVICES AT VARIOUS TIMES: Chair of U.C. Berkeley Senate Committees on: Teaching; Libraries; University Extension; Educational Development. Boards of Directors: Shakespeare Globe Centre, U.S.A.; U.C.B. Art Museum; Pacific Film Archive; CA. Shakespeare Festival. Twice President of Northern California Renaissance Conference. Western Region Representative of Modern Language Association. Distinguished Visiting Professorships at Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz (Austria); Chapman University (CA). Westminster College (UT). Dramaturge: California Shakespeare Festival; Advisory Board of the California Shakespeare Theatre.
WEB SITES: SHAKESPEARE'S STAGING at http://shakespearestaging.berkeley.edu/ MILTON REVEALED at: http://miltonrevealed.berkeley.edu/
ARCHIVAL COLLECTION: Career records, including Shakespeare Program productions, are at the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley.