Professor Siobhan Keenan

I joined De Montfort University as a Senior Lecturer in English in 2005. I have a special interest in Renaissance Literature, Shakespeare, and Early Modern Women’s Writing. These interests are reflected in my teaching and research. I have published a number of essays on theatre history, early modern acting companies, and Renaissance drama, and I am the author of Travelling Players in Shakespeare’s England (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), Renaissance Literature (Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature) (Edinburgh University Press, 2008) and Acting Companies and Their Plays in Shakespeare's London (Arden Shakespeare, 2014).  I am also the editor of two seventeenth-century manuscript plays for the Malone Society, The Emperor's Favourite (Manchester University Press, 2010) and The Twice Chang'd Friar (Manchester University Press, 2017). My latest book is a monograph on The Progresses, Processions, & Royal Entries of King Charles I, 1625-1642 (Oxford University Press, 2020). 

I welcome PhD applications, especially in the fields of Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, Renaissance theatre history and Early Modern Women's Writing.

I am a member of the Centre for Textual Studies.

View a full listing of Siobhan Keenan‘s publications and outputs.

Authored Books

Travelling Players in Shakespeare’s England. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. ISBN: 0333968204. 250pp.

Renaissance Literature (Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780748625833. 282pp.

Acting Companies and Their Plays in Shakespeare’s London (The Arden Shakespeare). London: Bloomsbury, 2014. ISBN: 9781408146637. 272pp. (see www.bloomsbury.com/9781408146637)

The Progresses, Processions, and Royal Entries of King Charles I, 1625-1642 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020). ISBN: 9780198854005. 236pp.

Edited Books

Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. Cologne: Könemann, 1999. ISBN: 3829030010. (Text edited with a note on the text and critical apparatus). 249 pp. [pp. 243-249].

(Play edition) Anonymous. The Emperor’s Favourite (Malone Society Edition, Volume 174). Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780719086090. (Text transcribed and edited with a 20,000 word introduction). 130 pp. [pp. vii-xliii].

For a short film about this play and its interest for modern students and scholars, see http://malonesociety.com/tag/emperors-favourite/

Malone Society: Collections XVII. Ed. with Eugene Giddens. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016. ISBN: 0719099277. 104pp.

Shakespeare’s Cultural Capital: His Economic Impact from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century. Ed. with Dominic Shellard. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. ISBN: 1137583150. [202 pp.].

(Scholarly Play Edition) Anonymous. The Twice Chang’d Friar (Malone Society, Volume 184). Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017. ISBN: 9781526113924. (Text transcribed and edited with a 10,000-word introduction). 110 pp. [pp. vii-xxvi].

Chapters in Books

(Joint) ‘The Iconography of the Bankside Globe’, with Peter Davidson. Shakespeare’s Globe Rebuilt. Ed. J. R. Mulryne and Margaret Shewring. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN: 0521590191. 192 pp. [pp. 147-156].

‘Spectator and Spectacle: Royal Entertainments at the Universities in the 1560s’. The Progresses, Pageants and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth I. Ed. Jayne Elisabeth Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, and Sarah Knight. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN: 0199291578. 352 pp. [pp. 86-103].

(Joint) ‘Introduction’ with Dominic Shellard. Shakespeare’s Cultural Capital: His Economic Impact from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century. Ed with Dominic Shellard. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. ISBN: ADD. 1137583150. [pp. 1-12].

 ‘Shakespeare and the Market in his Own Day’. Shakespeare’s Cultural Capital: His Economic Impact from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century. Ed with Dominic Shellard. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. ISBN: 1137583150. [pp. 13-31].

 

Journal Articles

‘Recusant Involvement in a Robin Hood Play at Brandsby Church, Yorkshire, 1615’. Notes & Queries, New Series 47:4 (December 2000). ISSN: 0029-3970 [pp. 475-478].

‘An Allusion to a Provincial Play Performance in the Memorandum Book of Richard Cholmeley of Brandsby in 1618’. Notes & Queries, New Series 47:4 (December 2000). ISSN: 0029-3970 [pp. 478-479].

‘A Little-Known Allusion to an Inn Performance in the Suburbs of Jacobean London’. Notes & Queries, New Series 50:4 (December 2003). ISSN: 0029-3970 [pp. 437-440].

‘Patronage, Puritanism and Playing: Travelling Players in Elizabethan and Stuart Maldon, Essex’. Theatre Notebook, 58:2 (2004). ISSN: 00405523 [pp. 48-70].

‘Reading Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II: The Example of John Newdigate in 1601’. Notes & Queries, 53:4 (December 2006). ISSN:  0029-3970. [pp. 452-58].

‘“Embracing Submission”: Motherhood, Marriage and Mortality in Katherine Thomas’s Seventeenth-Century “Commonplace Book” (NLW MS 4340A)’. Women’s Writing, 15:1 (2008). ISSN: 09699082. [pp. 69-85].

‘Staging Roman History, Stuart Politics, and The Duke of Buckingham: The Example of The Emperor’s Favourite’. Early Theatre, 14:2 (2011). ISSN: 1206-9078. [pp. 63-103]. Available at: http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/earlytheatre/vol14/iss2/3.

‘Representing the Duke of Buckingham: Libel, Counter-Libel and the Example of The Emperor’s Favourite’. Literature Compass, 9 (4) (2012). pp. 292-305.

‘The Royal Shakespeare Company at 50’. Shakespeare, 8:2 (2012). [pp. 195-201].

‘The Simpson Players of Jacobean Yorkshire and the Professional Stage’, Theatre Notebook, 67:1 (2013). ISSN: 00405523 [pp. 16-35].

‘Re-Reading Shakespeare’s Richard III: Tragic Hero and Villain?’ Linguaculture, The Journal of Linguaculture Centre of (Inter)cultural and (Inter)lingual Research, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, 8:1 (2017). ISSN: 2285-9403. [pp. 23-34]. (Invited article)

‘Politics, Satire and Caroline Manuscript Drama: The Example of The Twice Chang’d Friar (Arbury Hall MS A414)’. Notes & Queries, September 2017. ISSN:  0029-3970. [pp. 395-401].

‘New Evidence About Shakespearean “Star” Actor, Richard Burbage’, Notes & Queries, 66:3 (September 2019). ISSN:  0029-3970. [pp. 460-4]. Available at https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjz077. 

‘New Evidence about Tudor Royal Players, George and John Birche and their connection with James Burbage’. Notes & Queries, 69:3 (2022). ISSN:  0029-3970. [pp. 204-7.] DOI: 10.1093/notesj/gjac082

 

Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama, Theatre History, Early Modern Women’s Writing. 

Medieval, Renaissance, Restoration and early eighteenth-century literature, Shakespeare.

BA (Hons) English Literature (Cambridge University, 1994)

Postgraduate Certificate in Education (Swansea University, 1995)

MA, English Literature (University of Warwick, 1996)

PhD, Renaissance Studies (University of Warwick, 2000)

Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (UWE, Bristol, 2001)

ENGL2001 Exploration and Innovation: 14th Century to 18th Century Literature

 

Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award (DMU, Leicester) (2007, 2011, 2015) 

Member of the Malone Society Council (2012-): The Malone Society is a registered charity which publishes editions of sixteenth and seventeenth century plays from manuscript, photographic facsimile editions of printed plays of the period, and editions of original documents relating to Renaissance theatre and drama.

Member of the British Shakespeare Association

Member of the International Shakespeare Association

Member of the Shakespeare Association of America

Member of the Society for Renaissance Studies

Member of the Malone Society

Member of the Society for Theatre Research

Member of the Society for Court Studies

‘Touching’ the Duke of Buckingham: Roman History, Stuart Politics and the example of The Emperor’s Favourite’.  Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Washington, USA, 11 April 2009
(Invited Workshop Paper). 

‘The Difference that REED makes: Writing the histories of Early Modern English Drama’, ‘Shakespeare after REED’ Workshop, 9th World Shakespeare Conference, Prague, 17-22 July 2011.

‘Adapting Shakespeare for a “dark corner” of the land: The Simpson Players in Jacobean Yorkshire’, ‘Shakespeare: Sources and Adaptation Conference’, University of Cambridge, 9-11 September 2011.

‘Amateur Shakespeare in Jacobean Yorkshire: Or, Shoemakers’ Shakespeare’.  Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Boston, USA, 5-7 April 2012.

‘Philip Herbert, the King’s Men, and the Influence of Patrons: A Case Study’ (Seminar Paper). Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada, 28-30 March 2013.

‘Beyond the Renaissance Closet: Amateur Playwriting, Manuscript Drama and the Example of The Twice Changed Friar’ (Seminar Paper). Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, St Louis, USA, 10-12 April 2014.

'Shakespeare, the King's Men and Revisiting the theory of "Strong" and "Weak" Acting Companies'. Reforming Shakespeare: 1593 and After Conference, De Montfort University, Leicester, 3 June 2014.

‘Shakespeare and Advertising’ Seminar (Co-organiser with Professor Deborah Cartmell). Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Vancouver, Canada, 1-4 April 2015.

‘Digital Shakespeare: Audiences and Scholars’ Seminar (Co-organiser with Professor Suzanne Westfall, Dr Erin Sullivan and Dr Penelope Woods).World Shakespeare Conference of the International Shakespeare Association, King’s College, London, 6 August 2016.

(Invited Keynote Lecture) ‘How chances it they travel? (Hamlet, 2.2.317): Shakespeare & his Plays on Tour’, ‘Shakespeare Lives – Re-reading, Re-writing, Re-contextualising Shakespeare’ Conference, organised by the British Council and Alexandra Ioan Cuza University of Iasi as part of the British Council’s Shakespeare Lives initiative in Iasi, Romania, 27 October 2016.

(Invited Keynote Lecture) ‘Re-Reading Shakespeare’s Richard III: Tragic Hero/Villain?’. ‘Shakespeare Lives – Re-reading, Re-writing, Re-contextualising Shakespeare’ Conference, organised by the British Council and Alexandra Ioan Cuza University of Iasi as part of the British Council’s Shakespeare Lives initiative in Iasi, Romania, 28 October 2016.

‘Negotiating and Representing Court, Country and Self in Caroline Royal Progress Entertainments: The Example of King Charles I’s 1633 Entertainment at Welbeck Abbey’. Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 5-8 April 2017.

‘Entertaining King Charles I on Progress: Ben Jonson’s Love’s Welcome to Bolsover and Courtly Ceremony, Dialogue and Reciprocity’. English Research Seminar, Canterbury Christ Church University, 10 May 2017 (By invitation).

‘Love and Loyalty on Progress: The Earl of Newcastle and Ben Jonson’s 1634 Bolsover Entertainment for King Charles I’. Loyalty to the British Monarchs, c. 1400-1688 Conference, Nottingham University, Nottingham, 24 January 2018.

(Invited Panel Paper) ‘In Search of the Author of the Arbury Hall Plays (MS A414): Evidence, Interpretation and Manuscript Drama’. The International Shakespeare Conference, The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon, 24 July 2018.

‘Compliment and Counsel: King Charles I’s 1633 Royal Entry to Edinburgh’. Performance, Royalty and the Court, 1500-1800. Society for Court Studies Conference. London, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 11-12 April 2019.

‘Anti-Spanish Drama and the Palatine Cause: The King’s Men’s performance of Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany (1636)’. British Shakespeare Association 2019 Conference, Swansea University, 17-20 July 2019.

‘The City as Stage and Monarch as Spectacle: Charles I’s 1641 Royal Entry to London’, Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA, 15-18 April 2020 [Shared virtually as the physical conference was cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.]

‘Richard Burbage, a “delightful Proteus”: On the acting and reputation of the first Shakespearean star’. Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham (26 November 2020) (By invitation).

 

‘The King’s Players and Civic Drama in London: The example of London’s Love to the Royal Prince Henry (1610)’. Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, 30 March-4 April 2021 (online).

 ‘New Evidence about Tudor Royal Players, George and John Birche and St Stephen Coleman Street Parish, London’, Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Jacksonville, Florida, USA, 6-9 April 2022.

‘“Though this be madness yet there is / method in’t” (2.2.202-3): Richard Burbage and the performance of madness in Hamlet’, British Shakespeare Association Conference, University of Liverpool, 25-28 July 2023.

(Invited Lecture) ‘Richard Burbage (1568-1619): The First Shakespearean Star’, Hall’s Croft, The Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 3 August 2023.

Area of Expertise: Shakespearean Theatre; currently available

Consultancy / Media Work:

Interviewed by NYT journalist Derrick Bryson Taylor to discuss the evidence for Shakespeare having visited King’s Lynn as a player in 1592-3, where he could have played at the St George’s Hall. See Derrick Bryson Taylor, ‘Floorboards (Possibly) Trodden by Shakespeare Are Found in England’, New York Times, 5 October 2023.

Interviewed on BBC Radio Sheffield about Shakespeare and touring players’ performances in Doncaster as part of a Shakespeare feature on their afternoon show (1-3) (20 November 2019). 

Interviewed by NYT journalist Alexis Soloski  for information about travelling theatre traditions in Shakespeare’s era. See Alexis Soloski, ‘3 Days in a Van With a Shakespeare Troupe: Daggers and Dunkin’ Donuts’, New York Times, 22 May 2019. 

BBC – 'Shakespeare on Tour' (2016): ‘Shakespeare on Tour’ is a website of around 200 stories about Shakespeare and Shakespearean performances in and beyond London, from his own day to the present. The online resource was launched on 21 March 2016 to coincide with the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in April 2016 (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03fcz11).

 I helped co-develop the resource with the BBC and contributed sixteen separate stories about touring performances by Shakespearean companies and drama beyond London in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, drawing upon my research on early modern acting companies and their plays. 

BBC’s Countryfile Shakespeare special (April 2016): I advised on a story about Shakespeare's acting company visiting Fordwich in Kent and was interviewed on the programme by John Craven and Dame Judi Dench. The programme had over 6.393 million viewers and the story with which I was involved was the subject of considerable advance press coverage nationally, including articles in The Guardian (19 April 2016), The Independent (20 April 2016), International Business Times (20 April 2016), The Express (20 April 2016), The Irish Examiner (20 April 2016) and The Huffington Post (20 April 2016). In July 2018 the interview was chosen by John Craven as one of his five ‘Magic Moments’, as the programme celebrated its 30^th anniversary (see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1n9kSnFLVp55YKG7YVm2311/john-s-top-5-magic-moments).

Interviewed by Dominic Heale for BBC East Midlands Today at Leicester Guildhall (7 March 2016) about the visits to Leicester by Shakespeare’s acting company; broadcast as part of a Shakespeare feature on the East Midlands Today programme on 21 March 2016

Interviewed by Jonathan Lampon for BBC Radio Leicester (18 March 2016) about the visits to Leicester by Shakespeare’s acting company; broadcast on the morning show on 21 March 2016

 Interviewed by Sophie Law for BBC Radio Oxford (18 March 2016) about the 1610 visit to Oxford by Shakespeare’s acting company; broadcast on the station’s breakfast show on 21 March 2016 and added to the ‘Shakespeare on Tour’ website (23 March 2016)

Interviewed by Ed Stagg for BBC Radio Leicester at Leicester Guildhall (13 April 2016) for ‘Was Shakespeare here?’ feature (broadcast on BBC Radio Leicester’s Breakfast Show with Jim Davis and Jo Hayward and the Mid-Morning Show with Jonathan Lampon, 19 April 2016) 

‘Shakespeare Beyond London’ (15 minute essay), commissioned by BBC Radio 3 as one of a series of Shakespeare 400 essays; recorded on 24 April 2016 and broadcast on 29 April 2016; also available as a podcast.

Interviewed about George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham in Sarah Staples, ‘Loved by the king, loathed by a nation. How court favourite met his grisly end’, Leicester Mercury, 21 February 2012, pp. 8-9. 

Theatrical Consultant for the Four-Part BBC2 Series In Search of Shakespeare (Maya Vision International Production for BBC and PBS, 2003; written and presented by Michael Wood; screened from 28 June 2003): I offered the programme makers advice on touring players’ activity in the North of England at a time when Shakespeare may have been based in a Northern household.

Theatrical Researcher and Consultant for the Real History Television Programme on ‘The Florists’ Feast at Norwich, 1631’ (Maya Vision, 1998; Televised on Channel 4, 19 March 2000): The episode was part of a series commissioned for Channel 4, presented by Bernard Hill.  In this episode Hill leads an investigation of Ralph Knevet’s play, The Florists’ Feast and its historical performance at Norwich in the 1630s.  The programme culminates with a reconstruction of the play’s production before the society of Norwich Florists for whom it was commissioned. I advised the programme makers on the staging of the play and am featured in the episode discussing questions of staging and performance with Hill and the boy actors used in the reconstruction.

 

 

 (Second supervisor): 1 student (part-time) 

British Academy Small Research Grant (2009): for final research relating to my Malone Society edition of The Emperor’s Favourite.

British Academy Small Research Grant (2014-15) and a Society for Theatre Research Small Research Grant (2015): to support the research for my Malone Society edition of a seventeenth-century manuscript comedy, The Twice Chang'd Friar.

Scouloudi Historical Award (2018): to support the research for my monograph on The Progresses, Processions and Royal Entries of King Charles I, 1625-42. 

Society for Theatre Research Anthony Denning Award (2020) and Small Research Grant (2023): to support research for my new project on Shakespearean actor, Richard Burbage.

 

I have acted as a reader for Palgrave Macmillan, Arden Shakespeare and the journals Shakespeare, Palgrave Communications, and Renaissance Quarterly. 

I am chairman (2023-) and an elected member of the Malone Society Council (2012-).

I am on the editorial board for the journal Shakespeare (since 2014).

Member of the AHRC Peer Review College (2021-).