Topics: Inclusion, Diversity & Equity, Gender Equality, Theatre and Cinema

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Description : In the late 16th century, London women were not permitted to act in theatrical works. Shakespeare’s focus was, therefore, restricted to male-dominated casts and masculine-centric plots (only 16% of all the lines written in his plays are delivered by female characters). https://www.unomaha.edu/community-engagement-center/news/events/2019/03/coupled-and-inseparable.php Now, even though women make up over 70% of the total Shakespeare viewing audience, less than one-fourth of professional directors and designers are women. In performance, the opportunities for men outnumber those available to women 8 to 1. In response to the imbalance of female artistic representation in Shakespeare’s productions, Nebraska Shakespeare launched Juno’s Swans in 2016, a program producing Shakespeare works that explores his characters and text through the female experience and perspective. In this lecture, featuring exciting live performances by Nebraska Shakespeare actors, Sarah Brown, Artistic Director of Nebraska Shakespeare, will explore Shakespeare’s relationship with women, the history of crossed-gendered theatre, and will engage in free-form discussion about how producing Shakespeare with a feminine perspective can illuminate the universal humanity of his plays in a new and surprising way.

Topics: History

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Description : UNO Medieval Renaissance Studies Lecture Series invites you to its first Community Conversation: Dr. Frank Bramlett and Dr. Lisabeth Buchelt (UNO-English Department) will engage participants in a discussion focused around the intersection of the present with the past and the interconnections between the Norse sagas and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since the release of Thor in 2011, the Marvel cinematic universe’s dysfunctional Nordic brothers have rarely seen eye to eye. This is true to the medieval source material of the Norse sagas. However, although the conflict between the two brothers is maintained in the movies, Marvel constrains the brothers' masculine gender identities in ways that are not present in the medieval source material. The first of the Medieval/Renaissance Interdisciplinary Studies Community Conversations invites you to explore the ways in which the original saga material plays with notions of gender identity that the films have chosen to erase from Thor’s and Loki’s narratives in their transition from Norse gods to International Superhero and Villain. So reread Jason Aaron’s and Russell Daughterman’s “Mighty Thor Vol. 1: Thunder in Her Veins” and rewatch Thor: Ragnarok and join us for a conversation about the characters Thor and Loki across time and media. This program is funded in part by Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment and is sponsored by UNO's English Department and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.