Brush up your (Kill) Shakespeare!

Over the last few years we have received a great deal of acclaim and had numerous special moments.  Some of our greatest moments have been on the academic side of things.  We have been studied, analyzed and written about by scholars all over the world.  We have been taught in adaptation classes on at least two continents.  And I myself have lectured at Oxford as well as the Globe Theatre, both personal highlights and instances of dreams coming true.However, we are happy to announce something that might top all of that.The amazing Professor Carrie Cole of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania has now designed an entire course around the study and analysis of Kill Shakespeare - our concept, our books, our theatre show, and the brand!  The write-up for THTR 481-004: Interdisciplinary Performance: The KILL SHAKESPEARE Exploratorium  is:The conceptual philosophy of this course mirrors that of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, a museum of science, art, and human perception, “a twenty-first-century learning laboratory, an eye-opening, always-changing, playful place to explore and tinker”. This course shares the Exploratorium’s vision that “following your curiosity and asking questions can lead to amazing moments of discovery, learning, and awareness and can increase your confidence in your ability to understand how the world works.” For more information about the Exploratorium, check out: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ Eventually, I envision “The Exploratorium” as a rotating topics course, but I wanted to begin, however, with a topic (and a world) that I have personally grown passionate about: the creative universe of KILL SHAKESPEARE. KILL SHAKESPEARE is “An epic adventure that will change the way you look at Shakespeare forever”—a series of graphic novels created by Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery as the flagship component of Kill Shakespeare Entertainment Inc. KSE is “dedicated to creating an international transmedia entertainment franchise based on the KILL SHAKESPEARE intellectual property that "mashes up" the stories and characters of William Shakespeare, the most popular writer in history. It has released a successful award-nominated comic book and graphic novel series and is looking to expand into the formats of digital media, merchandise, film, video games, additional comic series and educational products”.  The transmedia projects KILL SHAKESPEARE has already developed include a “live graphic novel” performance piece (think staged reading with art), and a board game that will be debuting this spring (which we may be among the first to beta-test). We are fortunate to have been given access to the franchise—and free reign to explore, tinker, explode and otherwise frolic in the universe that Conor and Anthony have created. Pending their travel schedule, one or both of the creators will be making a campus visit to IUP.And here are some photos of students in the first week of class, reading Kill Shakespeare and starting to learn more about the property:We're hoping that the students will enjoy our story but in addition be inspired by the spirit of it to have fun in the sandbox that we've created and come up with new ways of telling our story.  And we hope to be able to swing by class sometime to visit everyone!