Director | Scholar-Practitioner | Early Modern Drama
BENJAMIN BLYTH Ph.D.
EDUCATION
2017-24, Ph.D., University of Calgary, Department of English.
Dissertation: “Shakespeare’s Dramatic Style at the Curtain Playhouse (1597-99).”
Supervisor: Professor Susan Bennett.
Defence: January 2024, passed with no corrections.
2016-17, MA, University of Calgary, Department of English.
2012, MA, Christ’s College, University of Cambridge.
2011-13, MA, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, King’s College London, Drama.
2005-09, BA (Hons) Christ’s College, University of Cambridge, History.
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
2020, MACBETH, Director, Malachite Theatre & National Arts Centre of Canada, Zoom, International collaboration with UK and Canadian artists during pandemic quarantine, with National Arts Centre Canada #CanadaPerforms.
2020, THE WITCH OF EDMONTON & THE MERRIE DEVIL OF EDMONTON, Assistant Director, Winter Shakespeare Festival, Edmonton Alberta. Rehearsed reading performed at Winter Shakespeare Festival.
2020, JULIUS CAESAR, Director, Winter Shakespeare Festival, Edmonton Alberta.
2020, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Director, Winter Shakespeare Festival, Edmonton Alberta.
2019, MACBETH, Director, Malachite Theatre, Edmonton Alberta & UK Tour featuring a collaboration of UK/Canadian artists.
2017, RICHARD III, Director, Rose Playhouse Bankside & UK Tour. Site-specific production staged on the remains of the Rose Playhouse, Bankside.
2017, HENRY V, Director, Edmonton and Calgary Alberta. First production in Canadian theatre history to cast female actor in title role.
2016, HAMLET, Director, Guangzhou Drama Theatre, China Tour. International tour to China as part of Shakespeare400 Cultural Exchange.
2015, KING LEAR with BAFTA-Nominee John McEnery, Director, UK Tour. Starring BAFTA-Nominee John McEnery, staged at the Peckham Asylum.
2014. OTHELLO, Director, St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch UK. Starring Jude Owusu. Off-West End Award Nominated.
2014, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Director, Rockwell House - site of the Curtain Playhouse, Shoreditch, UK.
2014, RICHARD II, Director, St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch. Off-West End Award Nominated.
2014, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Director, St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch.
2013, TITUS ANDRONICUS, Director, St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch, UK.
2012, TWELFTH NIGHT, Director, Greenwich Theatre and UK National Tour.
2011, THE TEMPEST, Director, New Diorama Theatre and UK National Tour.
CONFERENCES & PRESENTATIONS
2024 Blyth, Benjamin. [Forthcoming] “Shoreditch’s Falstaff: Will Kempe at the Curtain 1597-99.” Seminar 4: Shakespeare’s Players – Their Lives and Legacies (Convenors: Siobhan Keenan, De Montfort University and Tom Rutter, University of Sheffield). British Shakespeare
Association, Leicester, UK.
2024 Blyth, Benjamin. [Forthcoming] “Archaeology, AI, and After in Shakespeare’s Shoreditch.” Seminar 44: Siobhan Keenan and Laurie Johnson: Theatre History Now – Sites and Insights. Shakespeare Association of America, Portland, OR.
2023 Blyth, Benjamin. “Staging Q2 Romeo and Juliet at the Curtain Playhouse.” Pacific Northwest Renaissance Society, Banff, AB.
2021 Blyth, Benjamin: “Unworthy Scaffolds: Q Henry V at the Curtain”, Blackfriars Conference, American Shakespeare Centre, Staunton, VI.
2021 Blyth, Benjamin: “Unearthing Errors in Shakespeare’s Shoreditch”, Wooden O Symposium, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City, UT.
2021 Blyth. Benjamin: “Jonathan Kent and the ‘Shoreditch Shakespeares’” Seminar 38: Stuart Hampton-Reeves “Shakespeare and the Director,” Shakespeare Association of America, Austin, TX.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2024 Lecturer, ENGL305, “Issues in Later Medieval Literature” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary.
2024 Lecturer, ENGL200a, “Studies in Literature: Middle Ages to 1660,” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary.
2023 Lecturer, ENGL315, “Shakespeare: The Later Works,” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary.
2023 Lecturer, ENGL200a, “Studies in Literature: Middle Ages to 1660,” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary.
2023 Lecturer, WRIT201, “Introduction to Academic Writing,” Dept. of Humanities, St Mary’s University, Calgary.
2022 Instructor of Record, ENGL253, “Introduction to Poetry,” Dept. of English, University of Calgary.
2021 Instructor of Record, ENGL253, “Introduction to Drama,” Dept. of English, University of Calgary.
2020 Instructor of Record, ENGL251, “Literature and Society: Antagonists and Antiheroes.” Dept. of English, University of Calgary.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2020, GAR “Rethinking the ‘Global’ in Global Shakespeare”. Research Assistant, Researcher: Professor Susan Bennett.
2018, GAR “Performance Shakespeare 2016”. Research Assistant, Researcher: Professor Susan Bennett. PerformanceShakespeare2016.org (a SSHRC-funded project led in collaboration with Kings College, London and the Folger Shakespeare Library)
PUBLICATIONS
2023, Blyth, Benjamin. [Forthcoming] “Review: The Broadview Anthology of Tudor Drama, edited by Alan Stewart,2021”, Early Theatre.
2022, Blyth, Benjamin. "The Isle of Dogs" and “The Theatre” in London's East End: A Short Encyclopedia, edited by Kevin A. Morrison, McFarland.
2021, Blyth, Benjamin, “Pandemic Shakespeare: Perspectives on Early Modern Theatre Practice and Pedagogy in Lockdown”, Miranda, 23, 2021, DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/ miranda.42769.
2021, Blyth, Benjamin. “Review: Shakespeare on Stage and Off, edited by Kenneth Graham and Alysia Kolentis, McGill-Queens University Press, 2020”, Sixteenth Century Journal, Volume 51, Number 2, 2021.
2021, Blyth, Benjamin. “Review: Early Shakespeare 1588-1594, edited by Rory Loughnane and Andrew Power, Cambridge University Press, 2020”, Early Theatre, Volume 24, Number 1. 2021.
SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS
2019 U Calgary 3-Minute Thesis Competition, People’s Choice Award
2018-21 SSHRC Doctoral CGS Award ($105,000)
2018 SU Teaching Excellence Award (ENGL 205 Shakespeare)
2018 Literary Kaleidoscope Award for Critical Writing ($1,000)
2017-18 Issak Walton Killam Doctoral Scholarship ($66,000)
2017 Eyes High International Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship ($20,000)
2017 SU Teaching Excellence Award (ENGL 205 Shakespeare)
2016 J.Allen Master’s Scholarship Award ($6,000)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
2022- Pacific Northwest Renaissance Society
2021- International Shakespeare Association
2020- Shakespeare Association of America
2018- British Shakespeare Association