Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference

Twelfth Annual Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference
Saturday, April 20, 1013  - 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Rehm Library, Smith Hall
College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, Massachusetts

Conference Schedule

9:00-9:45      Sign In & Continental Breakfast
9:45-10:00    Welcome
10:00-12:50   Panel Sessions One & Two
1:00-2:30      Luncheon & Plenary Speaker: Virginia Mason Vaughan, Clark University – “Women Making Shakespeare"
2:40-3:55      Panel Session Three
4:00-5:00      Staged readings of selected scenes from War for February by Tess Jonas, Wesleyan University
                   Conference Awards

This year's theme invited a variety of topics and critical approaches, including, but not limited to:

• Women as critics, directors, designers and performers of Shakespeare's work
• Gender and genre: boy actors and female roles; women at the playhouse
• The roles of wife, widow, daughter, mother, sister and heroine, etc.
• The impact of queer theory: the Master-Mistress phenomenon, bromances, romances and BFFs in Shakespeare's plays or poetry

The 12th Annual Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference was sponsored by the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, Bedford Press and The College of the Holy Cross.

For more information, contact:  Professor Helen Whall at hwhall [at] holycross [dot] edu.

The Eleventh Annual Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference took place on Saturday, April 21, 2012 at Assumption College.  The plenary speaker was Brian Walsh, assistant professor of English in the Renaissance Studies Program at Yale University.  Sponsored by the Consortium, Assumption and the Hanover Theatre, the conference theme was "Shakespeare Recycled.  Papers addressed explorations of Shakespeare’s work—such as his language and characterization—on stage and film; analysis of Shakespeare’s works in adaptation, or as adaptation; analysis of the ways Shakespeare’s works recycle or reuse sources, early modern textual materials, or early modern cultural ideas; and discussions of Shakespeare’s work in modern life, culture and politics.  The conference also included an Access Hanover Lyceum Series performance at the Hanover, entitled “Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits ,” which included monologues directed and performed by Assumption alum John Plough, MFA candidate in performance at the University of Georgia, and scenes directed by Brian Tivnan and performed by Assumption College theatre arts students.

The Tenth Annual Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference took place on Saturday, April 16, 2011 at Clark University.  The plenary speaker was Barbara Mowat, director of research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC and co-editor of the Folger Shakespeare Editions, who spoke on "Representing Shakespeare on the Page."  The 2011 theme, “Shakespearean Representations,” was approached from many directions, including explorations of the ways Shakespeare’s plays represent the culture and concerns of early modern England; analysis of the plays’ performance history on stage and in film and other media; discussions of novelist's and poets’ appropriations of Shakespeare and his dramas in their own work; and analysis of Shakespeare’s choices, including language, characterization and scenic design.  The 2011 conference was sponsored by Clark University and the Colleges of Worcester Consortium.