From the New General Editor

Abstract

From the New General Editor Peter Kirwan Since March 2020, early modern performance studies has faced a number of existential challenges to its purpose and practices. During a period when the majority of theater buildings around the world have been closed; when the COVID-19 pandemic has made the experience of co-presence in a shared room with strangers a fraught, if not impossible, one; when the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the murder of George Floyd has led to large-scale rethinking of the canons and bodies of knowledge on which scholarly fields are built; and when the funding models for both academia and the arts have shown significant vulnerabilities resulting in mass unemployment within those fields, it has been necessary for many of us working within early modern performance studies to seriously rethink our roles in a changing climate. The outgoing and incoming editors of Shakespeare Bulletin, Kathryn Prince and I, began working through some of these questions while preparing our co-edited collection, The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Contemporary Performance, which came out a year after the pandemic had first hit. In that volume, we surveyed much of the work in early modern performance studies over the last two decades, interrogating the field’s methods, research questions, resources, and implications. The book called for more shared understanding between scholars and practitioners, and for more attention to the processes that underpin the work of both artists and researchers, in the hope that—as the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries returns to physical theaters—we can continue to collaborate on interpreting the affect, knowledge, joy, and pain that emerge when these plays are adapted, performed, and reinterpreted. As the editorial torch is passed on again, we reaffirm our commitment that Shakespeare Bulletin will continue to be at the forefront of this collaboration. [End Page 187] Part of looking forward is acknowledging pain and loss. The unthinkable loss of life during the COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by different kinds of loss, including the shuttering of theater companies unable to weather the financial impact of long closures, such as Washington, DC’s Brave Spirits, whose work has featured regularly in these pages. But the pandemic has also seen outpourings of creativity and new attempts to make early modern performance more accessible, from the emergence of online theater pioneers such as Creation and The Show Must Go Online, to the Royal Shakespeare Company developing programs of open rehearsals and the Red Bull Theater programming staged readings. In the last six months alone, I have been privileged to see online productions of Volpone, The Devil is an Ass, Edward II, Volpone, and A King and No King, plays for which a live paying audience is by no means assured, but which have enjoyed engaged international audiences when shown for free (or near free) online, and which have often featured much more diverse casts and creative teams than are regularly seen on mainstream stages. And while theaters will be keen to welcome audiences back into physical spaces, the expectation that more shows will have continuing and extended lives online has in turn enabled the international community of scholars to come together to attend the same productions, opening up shows to audiences beyond those privileged to be able to access physical theaters, and allowing for more complex, open conversations about the productions being viewed. Under Kathryn Prince’s leadership, Shakespeare Bulletin has continued to support scholarship spanning the full range of early modern performance studies, from historical studies to new media, from deep dives into specific films and shows to new theoretical approaches, from fresh writing inspired by Shakespeare to special issues advancing the discipline. As the journal moves into a new phase of life, everyone at Shakespeare Bulletin thanks Kathryn for her stewardship, diligence, and care over recent years, and the new editorial team will strive to uphold her legacy and that of her predecessors. ________ As Shakespeare Bulletin seeks to be a constructive and supportive home for the changing landscape of early modern performance studies, we have made a number of significant changes to the journal’s processes and policies. Much...