Shakespeare in a Tweet
*Please note this competition is now closed. Winners will be announced shortly!*
As part of the Shakespeare 400 celebrations the Bodleian Libraries and TORCH have teamed up to run a ‘Shakespeare Play in a Tweet’ competition from 23 April to 7 May.
One of Shakespeare’s most quoted lines is ‘brevity is the soul of wit’, and although he was writing long before the advent of Twitter we like to think he would have embraced its pithy format. We invite you to honour the playwright by capturing the spirit of your favourite Shakespeare play in a tweet.
The competition will be judged by Elleke Boehmer (Professor of World Literature and Director of TORCH, University of Oxford), Richard Ovenden (Bodley’s Librarian, University of Oxford) and Emma Smith (Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Oxford).
The competition is open to all. Simply tweet using the hashtag #OxBard and include a hashtag for the play from the list below.
We’ll award prizes to the most witty, insightful and creative contributions. Prizes include:
1st: £50 of Oxford World Classics (courtesy of the English Faculty and TORCH) and the Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (courtesy of Oxford University Press)
2nd: £30 of Oxford World Classics (courtesy of the English Faculty and TORCH) and the Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (courtesy of Oxford University Press)
3rd: £20 of Oxford World Classics (courtesy of the English Faculty and TORCH) and Manga Shakespeare: Hamlet (courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries)
Special commendation (two places): A pair of tickets to Creation Theatre’s Hamlet in Oxford University Parks (runs 13 July - 13 August) and a pair of tickets to the Oxford Playhouse’s The Complete Deaths (runs 6-8 June)
Looking for inspiration? The Reduced Shakespeare Company has tweeted all of Shakespeare’s plays. Or visit the Bodleian’s Shakespeare’s Dead exhibition for a face to face encounter with the playwright’s works, themes and characters.
Please click here for the full terms and conditions. Supported by: the Bodleian Libraries, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH), the Faculty of English, Oxford University Press, Creation Theatre and the Oxford Playhouse.
Play Hashtags
COMEDIES
All's Well That Ends Well - #AWTEW
As You Like It - #AYLI
Comedy of Errors - #COE
Love's Labour's Lost - #LLL
Measure for Measure - #MFM
Merchant of Venice - #MOV
Merry Wives of Windsor - #MWOW
Midsummer Night's Dream – #MND
Much Ado about Nothing - #MAAN
Taming of the Shrew – #TOTS
Tempest - #TMPST
Twelfth Night - #TN
Two Gentlemen of Verona - #TGOV
Winter's Tale - #WT
HISTORIES
Henry IV, Part I - #H4
Henry IV, Part II - #H4pt2
Henry V - #H5
Henry VI, Part I - #H6pt1
Henry VI, Part II - #H6pt2
Henry VI, Part III - #H6pt3
Henry VIII - #H8
King John – #KJ
Pericles - #PRCLS
Richard II - #R2
Richard III - #R3
TRAGEDIES
Antony and Cleopatra - #AC
Coriolanus - #CRLNS
Cymbeline - #CYMB
Hamlet - #HMLT
Julius Caesar - #JC
King Lear - #KL
Macbeth - #MCBTH
Othello - #OTHLO
Romeo and Juliet - #RJ
Timon of Athens - #TOA
Titus Andronicus - #TITUS
Troilus and Cressida - #TC
