Michael Dobson interviews Greg Doran, Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/shakespeare Greg Doran, the new artistic director of the RSC, was crowned with laurels at the Shakespeare Institute on January 24th to mark his installation as an Honorary Senior Research Fellow. Conferring the honour, the Director of the Institute, Professor Michael Dobson, spoke warmly of Mr Doran's career-long commitment to rediscovering neglected plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries, a project in which the Institute will be assisting the RSC from this spring onwards through a workshopping process involving academics, actors and directors known as 'Scholars' Pitch.' During a candid hour-long interview, Mr Doran discussed this project, together with his wider plans for the RSC in Stratford and London, his preliminary thoughts towards his production of Richard II later this year (in which David Tennant, who played Hamlet for Mr Doran in 2008, will play the king), and his memories of playing Lady Macbeth at a Catholic boys' school in Lancashire.