Papers of Russell Jackson

Scripts and notes used by Russell Jackson in his role as text advisor on theatre productions, radio productions and films, mostly of William Shakespeare's plays and mostly working with the actor and director Kenneth Branagh.

Includes material relating to productions of 'As You Like It', 'Cymeline', 'Hamlet', 'Henry V', 'King Lear', 'Love's Labour's Lost', 'Macbeth', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'Much Ado About Nothing', 'Othello', 'Richard II', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'The Winter's Tale', and 'Twelfth Night'.

Also includes material relating to the film productions 'Shakespeare in Love' (1998), 'The Wolfman' (2010), 'Wilde' (1994), and 'All is True' (2018).

A small number of miscellaneous papers include correspondence relating to Kenneth Branagh's award of Honorary Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute in 1993.

Russell Jackson read English at Oxford University and studied for the degrees of MA and PhD at the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute. He subsequently held posts at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and in the Drama Department of the University College of North Wales, Bangor. From 1978 to 2004 he was a Fellow, and latterly Director, of the Shakespeare Institute before moving to the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts as Allardyce Nicoll chair in 2004.

Since the mid-1980s he has worked as text adviser with Kenneth Branagh on stage and radio productions and on all his Shakespeare films and also on films by Oliver Parker, 'Othello' and 'An Ideal Husband'; and John Madden, 'Shakespeare in Love'. His diary of the filming of Kenneth Branagh's 'Hamlet' accompanies the published screenplay and a commentary by Branagh and Jackson accompanies the DVD release of the film.

Russell Jackson has served on the boards of the Oxford Stage Company and Birmingham Repertory Theatre and as an honorary governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2006 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Bangor for contributions to the study of Shakespeare on film. He also collaborated by Michael Grandage as text adviser on productions at the Crucible, Sheffield, the Donmar Warehouse in London and the Noel Coward Theatre, London.

Sources: Papers of Russell Jackson; http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/drama/jackson-russell.aspx

Material has been arranged chronologically.

Open to all registered researchers.

Deposited by Russell Jackson at intervals from February 2013.

A full catalogue of the collection can be found at:
https://calmview.bham.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=XDSH28

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director of Special Collections (email: special-collections@contacts.bham.ac.uk). Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. The Shakespeare Institute Library: Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material

Available at Shakespeare Institute Library: Renaissance Films Collection; Renaissance Theatre Company Collection; 'Romeo and Juliet' (2016) programme (Library classmark: pPN 2596.L7G37).

Archives of the Renaissance Theatre Company, dated 1986-1992, are held at the Theatre Museum, London. Includes accounts, agreements, contracts, publicity material, papers, diaries, programmes, correspondence, press cuttings, photographs, slides and scripts.