EARLY THEATRE: SPECIAL ISSUE ON WOMEN AND PERFORMANCE: PUBLICATION DATE: SUMMER 2012

From REED and the growing body of work by comparatists and theater historians, we now know that early modern women, including Englishwomen and foreign players, performed at all social levels and in all performance spaces except the all-male stage. More work needs to be done: first in collecting evidence of female performance in England and second in assessing how new research changes our reading of early modern theater and drama. We therefore solicit essays on early modern women and performance for a special topics issue of Early Theatre, to be published in Summer 2012.  

The rubric of female performance includes all forms of performance and entertainment, not just scripted drama. Work exploring other theatrical traditions and innovations is also welcome, as are essays addressing methodological questions. For example, what do we mean when we speak of a "performance record," and how do we make sure to interpret all the levels of evidence within such records? How do the categories we use to discuss performance shape our reading of the evidence and our understanding of women’s roles?

Contributors should take account of relevant work by Sophie Tomlinson, 2005, Clare McManus, 2002 (and her overviews in LitCompass), Brown and Parolin 2005, and REED, especially essays by Jim Stokes.

Editors for this issue are Peter Parolin (University of Wyoming) and James Stokes (University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point); submissions will be peer reviewed.

Here are the basic guidelines for contributors:

Papers should be submitted to the website of Early Theatre. The link is: http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/earlytheatre/submissions.html. It is important to follow the submission procedures and the house style outlined on this page.

On the webpage, contributors are asked to type author and abstract information. In the drop-down bar, please identify your submission as “Special Issue.”

Finally, contributors should submit file names that start with 15.1 and continue with a short title for the paper.

Consideration of manuscripts will begin on August 1; manuscripts will continue to be accepted after that date until the volume is filled. Questions are welcome to Peter Parolin at [log in to unmask].