Now that over half a century has passed since Lionel Abel coined the term ‘metatheatre’ with particular reference to the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries and even identified a new genre, the ‘metaplay’, it is time for a conference that will bring together academics and theatre practitioners to re-assess the place of metatheatre in early modern drama studies.
Held at the University of Kent on the 13th and 14th June 2015, this interdisciplinary conference will invite literary scholars and theatre historians as well as actors and directors to consider metatheatre’s hugely influential role in critical theories, methodologies and lexicons, exploring its conceptual significance both in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and our own historical period.
Paper proposals of up to 300 words, accompanied by a short biographical statement, should be submitted to Harry Newman (h.r.newman@kent.ac.uk) and Sarah Dustagheer (s.dustagheer-463@kent.ac.uk) by Monday 4 May. There are three postgraduate bursaries available. Please specify in your proposal if you would like one of these. Early submissions will be preferred.