Serendipity perhaps. Yesterday I found myself looking at an article by James Davies (2006), ‘Dialogue, Monologue and Soliloquy in the Large Lecture Class’, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 19 (2) 178-182) which wonderfully articulates the difference between large class teaching delivered for, and to, an audience and the ruminations of a speaker in their own world on stage. Last night on the BBC Magazine website there was then a wonderful 4 minute clip of actor/director Samuel West describing the different manner in which Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy from Hamlet “To Be or Not to Be….” might be performed. The two sit beautifully together as a little staff development package for academics, and I for one intend to use them that way!