Shakespeare's Theatrical Documents (symposium)
Shakespeare’s Theatrical Documents
- A Spring 2016 Folger Institute Symposium
Description: As well as being called “play-makers” and “poets,” playwrights in early modern England were sometimes known as “play-patchers.” This is because plays themselves could be viewed as a collection of odds and ends rather than a whole entity. This symposium, sponsored by the Institute’s Center for Shakespeare Studies as part of its triennial anniversary programming, will bring together panels of major scholars to explore the “patches” that made up Shakespeare’s texts before, during, and after performance. Participants will consider the documents from which a play was constructed (including plot-scenarios and snatches of co-authored text); the documents from which a play was performed (including actors’ parts, stage scrolls, prologues and epilogues, backstage plots, and arguments); and the documents into which a play resolved after performance (including ballads, chapbooks, and passages in miscellanies and commonplace books). Investigating the way documents inform and complicate our ideas about play-construction, performance, revision, and reception, the symposium will ask participants to consider whether plays themselves were ever whole entities: what is a play?
Organizers: Tiffany Stern is Professor of Early Modern Drama at Oxford University and a General Editor of Arden 4 Shakespeare. Her books include Shakespeare in Parts (co-written with Simon Palfrey, 2007) and Documents of Performance in Early Modern England (2009). She is currently writing a book about theaters and fairs, and another about documents after performance. She is organizing this symposium with Owen Williams, the Institute’s Assistant Director for Scholarly Programs.
Provisional Schedule (subject to change))
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Folger Shakespeare Library Exhibition Hall and Theatre
6:00-7:00
Opening Reception/Registration (Paster Reading Room)
7:00-8:00
Plenary Lecture: “From Script to Stage to Script”
Tiffany Stern, Oxford University
- Welcome and Chair: Kathleen Lynch, Folger Institute
Friday, March 18, 2016
- Foulke Conference Room, 301 East Capitol Street, SE
9:00-10:30
Documents before Performance
- Welcome: Owen Williams, Folger Institute
- Lucy Munro, King’s College London
- Holger Syme, University of Toronto
10:30-10:45: Break
10:45-12:15
Documents of Rehearsal
- James Marino, Cleveland State University
- Richard Preiss, University of Utah
12:15-1:30: Lunch (on your own)
1:30-3:00
Documents during Performance
- Sonia Massai, King’s College London
- Paul Menzer, Mary Baldwin College
3:00-3:30: Tea Break
3:30-5:00
Staged Documents
- Matt Steggle, Sheffield Hallam University
- Sarah Wall-Randell, Wellesley College
Saturday, March 19, 2016
- Foulke Conference Room, 301 East Capitol Street, SE
9:00-10:30
Documents after Performance
- Laura Estill, Texas A&M University
- Andras Kisery, City College of New York, CUNY
10:45-12:15
Playtexts as Documents
- Claire M. L. Bourne, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Zachary Lesser, University of Pennsylvania
12:15-1:45: Lunch (on your own)
1:45-3:15
Lost Documents; Absent Documents; Forged Documents
- Roslyn Knutson, University of Arkansas, Little Rock
- David McInnis, University of Melbourne
3:15-4:00: Tea Break
4:00-5:15:
Wrap-up Session: Rethinking Shakespeare’s Theatrical Documents
Comments:
- Peter Holland, University of Notre Dame
- Paul Werstine, University of Western Ontario
5:15-7:00
Closing Reception
(Founders Room)