Distinguished British playwright, stage director and scholar Roy Kendall will discuss how he helped create the BBC television series of 1991-93, which animated 12 of Shakespeare's plays, in a lecture today at 4 p.m. in the Konover auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. The talk will be illustrated with video excerpts. Two of the animated plays won Emmy Awards.

Kendall is a guest professor in the English department through mid-May. For the past three decades, Kendall has been a familiar name to British playgoers, listeners to BBC radio drama, and watchers of television and film.

Nine of his plays have been performed in London, at regional theaters and abroad. He has written seven plays for BBC radio and seven of his filmscripts have been produced on British television. His play Body and Soul was performed in 1992 at the Albery Theatre in the West End of London and taken on a national tour. All of his television dramas have been sold and broadcast worldwide, and his radio dramas are known around the world.

"In just a few days since arriving here, Roy has stirred up by his presence and visits to classes, a new interest in current British drama," says Richard Peterson, professor of English. "Audiences will find him a spellbinder."

During his stay at the University, Kendall says he hopes to present some of his research on Christopher Marlowe to faculty. He also plans to adapt a radio play he has written on Marlowe into a stage play. The play, which aired on BBC radio in 1993, won an award for best radio play of the year..

Sherry Fisher