Love and Dignity: The Serious Stakes of Romeo and Juliet
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
9:30am–11:00 PST | 5:30–7:00pm BST
Lecture by Julia Lupton
Dramatic monologues by Ava Burton
**Registration information forthcoming**
“Two houses, both alike in dignity”: the first line of Romeo and Juliet offers an unexpected portal into Shakespeare’s most performed and adapted tragedy. “New-baptizing” each other in love, Romeo and Juliet transfigure dignity from inherited status to human worth. They do this not as philosophers but as ethical actors --- through the way they speak to each other, handle poetic language, and imagine their place in the cosmos. In this session, we will explore the aspirational drive of romantic love and the special capacity of lovers to recognize the dignity of creatures in an ethical tradition at once anchored and uplifted by the imago dei.
Julia Reinhard Lupton is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine, where she co-directs the New Swan Shakespeare Center and serves as dramaturg for the New Swan Shakespeare Festival. She is the author or co-author of five books on Shakespeare and has edited volumes connecting Shakespeare to virtue, hospitality, and wisdom literature.
Ava Burton is a graduate of East 15 Acting School, London, and the University of Essex. An experienced actor and scholar of Shakespeare’s characters, Ava is associate producer with Laguna Beach Live, a California presenting company, and co-director and performer in Shakespeare’s Fool, a show of speeches and songs from the plays.
This is the second in a three-part series, Shakespeare's Virtue: Three Lectures on Living, produced in partnership the Van Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Studies, St. Edmunds College, University of Cambridge and the New Swan Shakespeare Center, University of California, Irvine.
PHOTO: Twelfth Night, New Swan Shakespeare Festival, 2024, the University of California, Irvine. Photo by Paul Kennedy.