• Behind The Scenes,  Project Updates

    Shakespeare Republic acquired by National Film & Sound Archive!

    March has turned out to be a wonderful and busy month for the Republic! We are delighted to announce that the entire Shakespeare Republic series (both Seasons One & Two) is now part of the official collection at the NFSA (National Film & Sound Archive) of Australia! As part of their remit to “collect and preserve significant Australian audiovisual productions”, we received a request from them to lodge the series in their archives for posterity early last year. As of this week, copies of all episodes produced to date, plus scripts, stills, behind the scenes footage and more are now catalogued and secure in their archives and on record for as long…

  • Project Updates,  Screenings & Festivals

    Shakespeare Republic streaming globally in new home and more news coming this week!

    We are so delighted to share with everyone that Shakespeare Republic has a new home as of April 1 – with the fabulous Australian streaming service Ozflix! The work of the Republic will be streaming globally alongside some of Australia’s greatest feature films, including Mad Max, Romper Stomper, The Castle, The Man From Snowy River, Proof, Animal Kingdom, Wolf Creek, Kenny, Muriel’s Wedding, the list goes on, as well as short films featuring Guy Pearce, Sigrid Thornton, Jack Thompson, Ditch Davey and more and the new strand of Aussie web series, set to take on the world! We would like to thank Ron Brown and the Ozflix team for all their…

  • Behind The Scenes,  Project Updates,  Screenings & Festivals

    Latest Shakespeare Republic press, Sally’s new work with Shakespeare and yes, we’re doing Season Three! #Shakespeare #filmmaking

    Happy Friday! Things don’t seem to be slowing down around here, but that won’t stop us from doing this final update this week to get you up to speed about what’s been happening over the past couple of months! So let’s get to it! PRESS COVERAGE ROUND UP We’ve had some lovely press coverage about our work with Shakespeare Republic and our Creator, Sally McLean over the last couple of months and here’s a quick list of some of the bigger stuff in case you missed the links on social media: How Do You Do You? Sally McLean – November 2018 In depth interview on podcast “How Do You Do…

  • Project Updates,  Screenings & Festivals

    Noosa International Film Festival trip, David Williamson interview & more Speaking Daggers news! #Shakespeare #film #filmmaking

    Part 2 of our final quarter ’round up of news from the Republic featuring Speaking Daggers and O, Mistress Mine … read on to find out about our latest clutch of awards and more! Over the past three months, we’ve  had our short film Speaking Daggers continue on it’s international film festival tour, and what a run we’ve been having! Since our last update, the film has been officially selected for the Cape Town International Film Festival in South Africa, Île Courts International Short Film Festival in Mauritius and the Fisheye Film Festival in the UK, where it was also nominated for “Best Hair & Make Up”! We were also delighted to…

  • Behind The Scenes,  Project Updates,  Screenings & Festivals

    It takes a village – latest news from the Shakespeare Republic trenches and appreciation post for the web series community #Shakespeare #webseries #filmmaking

    Happy December! It’s been an extraordinary year and we’d like to thank everyone for continuing to support the Republic as beautifully as you have. Knowing such support is out there for the work keeps our energy levels up and the engines firing for the next leg of the project and we are very grateful to all of you. Today, we are in a rather reflective mood and filled to the brim with affection and appreciation for the community we are so proud to be a part of. We have so much news to share, that we’ve decided to do a series of updates this week to fill you all in…

  • Celebrating The Bard,  Team

    “Playing The Bard” returns to Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia in September #Shakespeare #class #teaching

    We are so delighted to announce that Republic Creator/Director, Sally McLean will be returning to Howard Fine Acting Studios Australia with her popular course “Playing The Bard: Shakespeare In Performance” from Wednesday, September 12th! Sally first taught this new course in April/May this year with a fabulous class of 12 students, teaching at the Howard Fine Studio in North Melbourne. Find out more about Sally and her relationship to Shakespeare in this interview by Catherine Hallam at the Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia website: https://www.howardfinestudio.com.au/blog/2018/4/16/talking-shakespeare-with-sally-mclean In this next round of class, Sally will take up to 12 students through the world of Shakespeare and his texts, working on both scenes…

  • Project Updates,  Screenings & Festivals

    Shakespeare Republic & Speaking Daggers win four awards between them – plus more festival screenings to come! #Shakespeare #webseries #lovethebard

    SHAKESPEARE REPUBLIC It has been an extraordinary couple of months here at the Republic on the international festival circuit, with a swathe of new official selections for the series, plus three amazing wins this month!! We were delighted to be officially selected for the Cardiff Mini Film Festival in Cardiff, Wales, the Short Cuts Film Festival in Melbourne, Australia, the Web Series Festival in Utah, USA, the Lit On Film Festival in New York, USA and the New Jersey WebFest in New Jersey, USA (for which we were also an Early Selection) over the past two months! We were even more thrilled to receive the following fifteen nominations for the…

  • Project Updates,  Screenings & Festivals

    St Kilda Film Festival Recap #shakespeare #shortfilm #speakingdaggers #stkildafilmfest

    Is it June already!? Time for an update! Or rather, a re-cap of our wonderful experiences at the 2018 St Kilda Film Festival – two weeks to the day after the Closing Night. May was a huge month, for many reasons, but particularly due to Speaking Daggers being an official selection for the 2018 St Kilda Film Festival, as well as Republic creator, Sally McLean being invited to be on the panel “Let’s Talk Web Series” for the festival alongside fellow web series creators Warwick Holt, Leanne Tonkes and Alyce Adams. The Opening Night of the festival was huge with 3,000 people cramming into the Palais Theatre, St Kilda to…

  • Project Updates,  Screenings & Festivals

    It’s a big two months of screenings coming up for the Republic! #Shakespeare #LoveTheBard

    We have a big two months coming up for the Republic! Both Shakespeare Republic and Speaking Daggers had a HUGE April run of screenings and it’s not letting up from here! To answer people’s questions about where they can see our work (in particular the short film that won’t be available online at any stage, due to distribution agreements in place), here is where you can catch us on the big screen around the world through to June! SPEAKING DAGGERS Screening Schedule May/June 2018 Unrestricted View Film Festival (2 screenings) Saturday April 28 at 2.00pm at the Vintage Mobile Cinema, London UK Buy Tickets: https://www.unrestrictedview.co.uk/buy-tickets/?ee=1472 Sunday April 29 at 1.30pm at the…

  • Discussion

    The Ides of March … Did Shakespeare get it right?

    Thanks to Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, the phrase “Beware the Ides of March” has become something of a common saying. But why? And was Shakespeare correct in the date and depicting the events of Julius Caesar’s death? The answer is “yes” to both, even the bit about the Soothsayer warning Caesar about the “Ides of March” and Caesar dismissing the warning as a bunch of nonsense (which he didn’t live to regret). But what IS the Ides of March? The Ides of March marks the anniversary of Julius Caeser’s murder on March 15, 44 BC, by 60 of his senators at the age of 55. It is also marks the halfway…