Prairie Lights Books invites you to join Gina Hausknecht as she reads from the book she co-edited with Liz Fox (who will not be present at this event), Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Gina will be joined in conversation by Producing Artistic Director of Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, Adam Knight.
Routledge, their publisher, offers this description: "Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration brings together theatre artists, currently and formerly incarcerated actors, and college-in-prison educators and students, describing powerful encounters in classrooms and rehearsal rooms as they explore the complexity of "prison Shakespeare.’”
Dr. Gina Hausknecht teaches early modern British literature, including Shakespeare, British Renaissance poetry and Milton. She also teaches courses on non-fiction graphic narrative and on incarceration. She has published and presented on Shakespeare, Milton, 17th century literature and culture, pedagogy and higher education, graphic novel memoir and gender studies. She teaches and volunteers with Liberal Arts Beyond Bars, the University of Iowa's college-in-prison program. Her ongoing research on the textual history of stage directions in editions of Shakespeare is reflected in the interactive online learning tool All the World's a Stage Direction. She lives in Iowa City and teaches at Coe College in Cedar Rapids.
Adam Knight is Producing Artistic Director of Riverside Theatre in downtown Iowa City. Prior to joining the company in 2018, he was founder and co-Artistic Director of Slant Theatre Project, an Off Off-Broadway company that produced more than two dozen world premieres, working with a large roster of emerging artists. Past directing credits include Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. He is a graduate of the University of Evansville. Adam serves on the Iowa City Downtown District’s Board of Directors. Recent productions at Riverside include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Romeo and Juliet in Lower City Park.