Hans Jansen

Bionote

Hans Jansen graduated from the University of Groningen, and specialized in late Medieval English Literature. He was always involved in amateur theatre, as actor and director, in English and Dutch, and began lecturing on English and American drama in the local theatres in the Netherlands some 30 years ago. In addition to his teaching on Medieval literature and historical linguistics, he has since then increasingly specialised in Shakespeare, and has been teaching a “Shakespeare at Stratford” course at the University of Groningen since 2002. Since 2006 he has been involved in the Shakespeare theatre in Diever, a tiny village in the North of the Netherlands, which houses an open air Shakespeare theatre and (since 2016) a small replica Globe theatre. Diever has almost become synonymous with Shakespeare in the Netherlands, and the national press will contact “Diever” (or rather, the Shakespeare theatre organization) whenever anything connected with Shakespeare demands attention. Hans acts as dramaturg, pre-performance lecturer, and editor of the magazine William. In his lecture, Hans will talk about the curious development this theatre went through, the impact it has had on the area, and the great advantage of Shakespeare in translation.