Dear colleagues,
I am delighted to announce that an open peer review for Shakespeare Quarterly’s special issue on Shakespeare and Performance is now online at http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/shakespearequarterlyperformance/ and will remain open for commenting until 31 March.
I hope that you will come read and comment on the essays we are considering for publication in the Shakespeare and Performance issue. The essays cover a range of interesting subjects: a film about a Northern Ireland prison adaptation of Macbeth; Othello in 1903 Japan; Merchant of Venice in post-war West Germany; prophecy as a trope for performance; political theatre as staged by the RSC’s most recent stagings of the Histories; and a review of Ninagawa Yukio’s recent Doctor Faustus.
We are also excited to include a review by Michael Dobson. The review focuses on the Bridge Project’s 2010 As You Like It, but also raises provocative questions about what shows scholars choose to review and how we engage in the act of writing about and remembering performance. I hope that you will participate in that conversation, whether you had a chance to see this As You Like It or not. It’s an opportunity to engage in a debate about writing, publishing, and reading reviews that I hope will be relevant to all of us.
This online peer review is open to all scholars with an interest in Shakespeare and performance. You may read and comment on all the essays, or only on one or two. Information on the review process and on procedures for commenting are online at our site; should you have any questions, you can leave questions on the site or contact Shakespeare Quarterly at SQ@folger.edu.
I hope that you will all visit the site and comment on the works posted there; your participation will help ensure that the submissions get rigorous feedback and that the journal will be able to publish exciting new work. Please do spread the word to any potentially interested colleagues, and I look forward to seeing your comments at http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/shakespearequarterlyperformance/.
Sarah Werner
Associate Editor, Shakespeare Quarterly
Shakespeare Quarterly Forum 