Performing Restoration Shakespeare is an international research project bringing together scholars and artists over 36 months to explore how Restoration versions of Shakespeare were first performed (1660-1714) and how they can be performed today. Given that Restoration productions of Shakespeare integrated drama and music, the project will be jointly led by a theatre scholar specializing in the history of Shakespeare on the stage and a musicologist specializing in theatre music from the 17th and 18th centuries. Research and public engagement will be run in partnership with The Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, DC), Shakespeare's Globe (London) and The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (Stratford), the world's leading institutions dedicated to academic and public understanding of Shakespeare. Context. When London theatres reopened in 1660 upon the restoration of the monarchy, few new plays were available. Logically, the patent companies staged works by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. But they did not perform Shakespeare's plays the way that the dramatist's company had done. Women played women's roles in the Restoration. The new indoor theatres were equipped with moveable scenery. Song, music and dance featured more prominently. With few exceptions, the plays were rewritten: King Lear survived; the witches in Macbeth sang and danced; Miranda in The Tempest had a sister. Most scholarship in this area focuses narrowly on textual adaptation, ignoring the fact that Restoration Shakespeare was a complex theatrical experience that integrated song, music, dance and acting. We will correct this imbalance in knowledge by focusing on the performance dimensions of Restoration Shakespeare. We will sustain that focus by creating a community of scholars and artists, who together will undertake archival study, run studio-based workshops and create public performances of Restoration Shakespeare. In so doing, we will build upon the results of the Folger pilot project we recently led. Objectives and Public Benefit. Our project seeks to enhance academic, artistic and public understanding of Restoration Shakespeare. Academics and artists will collaborate in research-led creative practice that results in scholarly publication and public performances. Academics will create new methods for investigating historical performances. Artists and arts organizations will expand their repertoires by performing Restoration Shakespeare. The general public will gain a better understanding of how Shakespeare's plays have been staged in different ways at different times. We will achieve these wide-ranging objectives through our research and public engagement events: 2017: Workshop on 'The Tempest' at the Globe, involving scholars, artists and the public. 2018: Scholar-artist workshop on 'Macbeth' at the Folger, culminating in a professional production. The production will be recorded and the creative process will be documented in videos, all accessible to the public. The Folger will strongly invest in the project, making a direct contribution of £258,000 and an indirect contribution of £26,000. 2019: Restoration Shakespeare summer school at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, with participants from UK theatre and music organizations. Parallel outreach will be conducted in the USA with the Folger and Early Music America. Performing Restoration Shakespeare offers a compelling opportunity to build upon distinctive research in theatre history and musicology to generate new insights into Shakespeare's theatrical afterlife. The project promises to set a new agenda in performing arts research by creative innovative practice-based methods for studying historical performances. More widely, we will engage audiences and build capacity in arts organizations internationally by creating public events and documentary resources. Performing Restoration Shakespeare will make transformative and lasting contributions to knowledge within and beyond academia.