Recent MFA grad receives 2015 Arthur Ellis Award
Award winning author C. C. Humphreys returns to UBC to give a lecture on how he adapted his novel, Shakespeare’s Rebel, into a play now on stage at the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival. Join the students in LLED 368: Multiliteracies in English Language Arts Classrooms on Monday, July 13th from 2 pm until 4 pm to learn about the adaptation process and also stay for a student presentation on a section of his novel. There is also a recommended donation of $5 for faculty and students attending the lecture.
Humphreys embodies the idea of multiliteracies by being a novelist, playwright, actor and sword fighter. His first stage appearance in Canada was a production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream in the early days of Bard on the Beach and he has appeared on stage and screen in London and Los Angeles. His role in Sheridan’s play The Rivals at the Festival Theatre in Malvern, UK, gave him the inspiration to write his Jack Absolute series, one of many historical fictions. This production was also the first sword fight he got to choreograph, leading him on to discover Academie Duello in Vancouver many years later and to continue his interest in medieval martial arts, a key element he brings to the page (and now stage) with Shakespeare’s Rebel.
Humphreys as Lawley at Bard’s Fight Night, June 2013
The story follow the adventurous life of a former Elizabethan player, master swordsman and frequent drunkard John Lawley as he deals with the political rivalry centred on an elderly Queen Elizabeth and her doomed invasion of Ireland. John needs to connect with his lost love Tess, bond with his son Ned, ward off a rival of his own (named Despair), and somehow find a way back on stage with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men as the newly constructed Globe Theatre begins holding “a mirror up to nature.”
Humphreys will be at UBC hot off the heels of his play’s opening night and will be happy to take lots of questions. Please join us on Monday, July 13th from 2:00 until 4:00 pm in room 208 of Neville Scarfe Building.