3rd British Shakespeare Association Conference

Warwick UK, 31 August to 2 September 2007

Writing about Performance of Shakespeare

As Pascale Aebischer recently reminded us, writing about performance can be likened to tap-dancing about architecture: it is hard to see how one way of making meaning can relate to the other. In a recent exchange in the British Shakespeare Association's journal, W.B. Worthen and R.A. Foakes, coming from very different approaches, debated how discursive writing can describe, engage with, and critique performance, and this seminar will take the debate further. The seminar invites papers that consider all matters of how writing relates to performance, which might include:

* what theatre reviews ought to comment upon

* how far can performance can be theorized?

* does the script 'contain' all the possible performances, or conversely does performance necessarily exceed the meanings in the script?

* should insights about theatre practice in Shakespeare's time inform writing about his meanings?

* what is theatre history for?

* do we still think Shakespeare was essentially a man of the theatre and not a literary author?

Abstracts to seminar leader Gabriel Egan
mail@gabrielegan.com or g.egan@lboro.ac.uk

Seminar website http://www.gabrielegan.com/BSA