GVSU presents the final event of its 2001 Shakespeare Festival by welcoming one of the nation's premier Shakespeare scholars to its stage in downtown Grand Rapids.
Tina Packer, founder and artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., will speak on the topic of Business and the Arts in America at 4 p.m. on Friday, October 19 in Loosemore Auditorium on GVSU's Pew Grand Rapids Campus, 401 W. Fulton St. The lecture is open to the public free of charge and will be followed by a reception for the artist and audience.
Shakespeare & Company, which Packer founded in the mid-70s, is one of the largest and most ambitious outdoor Shakespeare festivals in the United States. Last season the company offered 17 productions on four stages.
Packer cut her teeth in theater at some of the most prestigious training academies and performing ensembles in Britain, including the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and others. She directed and performed widely in films and on stage before relocating to the U.S. and founding Shakespeare & Company.
A teacher and mentor besides theater professional, she recently co-authored a book for the business community entitled Power Plays: Leadership and Management from William Shakespeare. Packer is also the subject of the book, The Company She Keeps, by Helen Epstein and of a television documentary produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, Sex, Violence and Poetry: A Portrait of Tina Packer.
