Patrons
Digital Renaissance Editions is honoured to name Alan Cumming OBE, Vanessa Redgrave CBE, and Mark Rylance as inaugural Patrons. All of the inaugural Patrons are distinguished actors of stage, screen, and television, whose passion for early English drama is inspirational. We thank them for their enthusiasm for the project.
Alan Cumming
“This is wonderful. It is a godsend for students and for theatre practitioners. It makes the extraordinary world of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre widely accessible for the first time.”
Alan Cumming OBE is an award-winning actor, singer, writer, producer, and director. He was made an honorary Doctor of Arts from the University of Abertay Dundee in 2006, and made an Officer of the British Empire in 2009 for his work and commitment to the progression of LGBT rights in Britain and the United States of America. His theatre credits include performances with the Bristol Old Vic, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the National Theatre of Scotland, as well as numerous Broadway and West End productions. (Photo: Kevin Garcia.)
alancumming.com :: @AlanCumming
Vanessa Redgrave
“The Renaissance stage was filled with brilliant, powerful plays that are unforgettable once they are seen or read. Digital Renaissance Editions will allow these amazing plays, largely unknown today, to be newly discovered by students and actors.”
Vanessa Redgrave CBE is an award-winning stage, screen, and television actress and a political activist. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1967, inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2003, and received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2010. Her theatre credits include performances with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, the Old Vic, and Shakespeareʼs Globe London, as well as numerous Broadway and West End productions. (Photo: Tristram Kenton.)
Mark Rylance
“Digital Renaissance Editions is a wonderful resource enabling the recovery of the richness of a dramatic tradition too often limited to Shakespeare and a few ‘othersʼ. But the Renaissance stage was a thriving theatrical world with numerous, if now largely unknown, playwrights writing brilliant plays that should be widely experienced in theatres and classrooms today – and this is a project that will make that possible. Bravo."
Mark Rylance is an award-winning actor, theatre director, and playwright. He was the inaugural Artistic Director of Shakespeareʼs Globe London (1995–2005), where he directed and acted in every season. His theatre credits include performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court Theatre, and Shakespeareʼs Globe London, as well as numerous productions on Broadway. (Photo: Simon Annand.)