You’re invited to take part in a special programme of talks at Shakespeare’s New Place, as we explore the Women Who Made Shakespeare with a host of the best and the brightest academics and experts.

For this first year of our multi-year theme, we are exploring the impact of the women closest to Shakespeare, his relations, his friends, and the lived experience of women in the late Tudor and early Jacobean period.

You will also have exclusive access to our new exhibition, Hidden Voices: The Women Who Made Shakespeare, that you can explore at your leisure as part of your evening.

Discover our Programme of Talks

15 March - Professor Ramie Targoff, Shakespeare's Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance SOLD OUT

10 May - Amy McElroy, Women's Lives in the Tudor Era

7 June - Margaret Willes, The Domestic Herbal

12 July - Professor Nandini Das, The Life of Eleanor Roe

26 Sept - Dr Jennifer Waghorn, The Women Who Made Shakespeare's Career

31 Oct - Dr Darren Freebury-Jones, Supernatural Shakespeare

Nov - More details coming soon

After Hours Talks at New Place take place between 6.30pm and 8pm. Please arrive at the New Place entrance from 6pm.

Refreshments will be available to purchase, and The New Place Shop will be open for book signings and browsing after all talks.

Tickets are £10 per person, per event. Your ticket price includes exclusive access to the exhibition at Shakespeare’s New Place.

About the Experts

Dr Jennifer Waghorn, The Women Who Made Shakespeare's Career

For our September talk, Jennifer Waghorn, lecturer at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, will explore behind the scenes at the pivotal role women played in the development of Shakespeare's career in the Elizabethan and Jacobean industry.

Women may not have performed as professional actors in Shakespeare's time, but if we look behind the scenes we can find them right at the heart of the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre industry.

Jennifer will explore the stories of some of the women who were involved in shaping every stage of Shakespeare's career, including Shakespeare's refugee landlady Marie Mountjoy, and Jacqueline Vautrollier-Field, who co-printed his poetry.

A question and answer discussion will follow the author talk.

26 September Book Now >

Dr Darren Freebury-Jones, Supernatural Shakespeare

Join Dr Darren Freebury-Jones, lecturer at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, on Halloween night as he delves into the literary, theological, and theatrical context lying behind some of Shakespeare's most magical, and most terrifying, creations.

Darren will explore Shakespeare's engagement with the theme of the supernatural. How might theatre audiences have responded to these representations on stage? And how did some of these spooky figures inform popular play genres? 

A question and answer discussion will follow the author talk.

31 October Book Now >

Authors We've Welcomed This Year

Professor Ramie Targoff, Shakespeare's Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance

In the first of our After Hours events, Professor Ramie Targoff will talk about her exciting new book, Shakespeare’s Sisters, which explodes our notion of the role of women in the Renaissance period.

This insightful talk will use the lives of four female writers from Shakespeare’s time - Mary Sidney, Aemilia Lanyer, Elizabeth Cary, and Anne Clifford – who all managed to find their own voices at a time when women were not expected or sometimes permitted to have the same standing in society as men.

Amy McElroy, Women's Lives in the Tudor Era

For our second After Hours talk, Amy McElroy will be discussing her new book Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era,providing an introduction to the roles of women in the Tudor period across all social backgrounds and how expectations of them differed during the various stages of life. She will explore the expectations and influence of daughters, mothers, wives, and widows in Tudor society.

Margaret Willes, The Domestic Herbal

For our June talk, author Margaret Willes will explore how growing herbs, fruit, vegetables, and flowers for domestic use was vital to the survival of the seventeenth century household. She will also reveal how plants were used for cooking and brewing, medicines, and cosmetics, in the making and care of clothes, as well as for keeping rooms fresh, fragrant and decorated.

Professor Nandini Das, The Life of Eleanor Roe

For our July After Hours talk, we will be welcoming author Professor Nandini Das to talk about her book Courting India and the story of Sir Thomas Roe (first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, under James I) and his wife, Eleanor.

Bringing the story closer to home, it is believed the beautiful, embroidered jacket in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust's collection once belonged to Eleanor herself.

Part of The Women who Made Shakespeare

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Read our FAQs to find answers to your questions about our After Hours Talks.