Following Cymbeline in the Anthropocene’s first planning meeting last February in Santa Barbara, California, our collaborators created a wordcloud of major terms that emerged from its conversations and workshops. After mulling in our collaborator’s minds and Twitter archives during these months of global pandemic lockdowns, the wordcloud has now found physical form in a embroidered rendition, hand-crafted by our project researcher and website manager, Rebecca Salazar. The embroidery, pictured above, represents all the terms in our wordcloud in shades of green and grey as they wheel around a central pink flower, with all elements joined by black vines over a black background.

Episode two of Merced Shakespearefest's Ricardo II: A Bilingual Adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard II features the interrupted duel between Henry Bolingbroke and Tomás Mercedes/Mowbray. As the king enters to invite the opponents in, he first officiously removes a blue cotton face mask before speaking, highlighting how this production has integrated covid-19 safety measures into the blocking and costuming of this live-filmed performance.

In this 2020 Shakespeare lecture presented to McGill University’s Friends of the Library in partnership with the Festival, Cimolino argues that performing and responding to Shakespeare strengthens our existential resilience and empathy in the face of pandemic, climate-change, and political uncertainties.

As theatres continue to adapt their productions to continuing global pandemic measures, theatre companies like Merced Shakespearefest are transforming some productions into film. Enter Ricardo II: A Bilingual Adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard II, a production originally intended for the stage, which has begun airing in weekly episodes on Merced Shakespearefest's Youtube channel.

In the second of our interviews with Cymbeline in the Anthropocene's collaborating directors, we spoke to Dunay Yespaev Amandykovich of the Stanislavsky Theatre in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Read below for a glimpse of how theatres in Kazakhstan are adapting to Covid-19 conditions, and keep an eye on this blog for more directors' interviews soon!