Jaq Bessell is the Director of Postgraduate Studies and Programme Leader for MA/MFA Acting at the Guildford School of Acting, University of Surrey, UK. After gaining her PhD, she spent the six years working in the professional theatre, first at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and later as Head of Research at Shakespeare's Globe in London. Later, she taught acting at the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City before joining the faculty in the M.Litt/M.F.A. programme in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance at Mary Baldwin College in partnership with the American Shakespeare Center. She then became a lecturer and fellow at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. Her work with actors is the source, form, and outlet for her ongoing research in Early Modern drama, particularly the plays of Shakespeare.