I recently had the honour of attending Newington College Litfest 2023 at the invitation of Ann Jagger and her unrivalled team of librarians and teachers. Over the course of three exciting days, I delivered eleven talks and workshops for hundreds …
Commedia dell’arte established itself in Sixteenth Century Europe as one of the most enduring traditions in world theatre. As a high school drama student, I was enraptured with the form, with the Commedia’s stock characters of masters, servants, soldiers, and young …
The Divine Commedia: Reflections on the Commedia dell’arte Read more »
My teaching year has ended for 2021 and so begins a long-awaited summer of reading, writing, watching films, and swimming in the sea. At the end of our encounter with Romanticism (from Blake’s ‘The Tyger’ to Mary Oliver’s ‘The Summer …
Dr Richardson’s Summer Suggestions for My Students Read more »
By Christopher Richardson Reviewing a 2018 production of Bertolt Brecht’s 1941 play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in New York City, Alexandra Schwartz observed that, “the play’s warning about an unimaginable future now feels like a bitter mockery of …
Irresistible Rise? Brecht’s V‑Effekt from The Threepenny Opera to Watchmen Read more »
In April I had the pleasure of attending the Newington College Festival of Literature for 2021. It was my first festival appearance since the easing of Covid restrictions in Sydney and a glorious way to celebrate the return of something …
Newington College Festival of Literature for 2021 Read more »
On the 28th of August 2019 I was invited to address the whole school assembly at Patrician Brothers’ College in Fairfield. It was an honour to visit this tremendous school and meet so many students and teachers. There was a …
Australian Children’s Laureate Morris Gleitzman recently told a packed audience in Sydney that everywhere he travels in Australia he hears young people express bewilderment that adults keep electing to high office men and women whose behaviour, should they – the …
Our Chosen Stories: Reflections on Four Years of Empire of the Waves Read more »
Words seem cheap nowadays. They roll beneath our fingertips on social media feeds, via text messages, and on the news-sites and blogs we browse on trains and buses. First thing in the morning and last thing before sleep, we read. …
On my recent visit to Taiwan, I had the honour of visiting Houjia Junior High School in Tainan as a guest of my friend Yi-Hsiang, a high school English teacher. I had a wonderful time meeting Yi-Hsiang’s students to discuss …
Looking back on the first half of 2018, a turbulent year in world politics – and in my field of Korean Studies in particular – I see how much my reading habits remain an anchor. Having quit Facebook in March, …