Dr. Michael Leslie: "Oh, brave new world!"

Thursday at 11 am in the Norton Theater, Dr. Michael Leslie (a member of the English faculty at Rhodes College and Dean of the British Studies at Oxford Program) will discuss the creation of a web-based edition of the works of the dramatist Richard Brome. A brief description of the talk, provided by Dr. John Tatter, follows:

"Oh, brave new world!” Digital Publication and the Drama of the Age of Shakespeare

There has always been a problem with editing and publishing drama in the age of print: so much that excites us and is crucial about theatre can’t be reproduced on the page. And the costs of print publishing mean that even not-for-profit publishers are only willing to print and promote a few star writers whose works they think are bankable (to all intents and purposes, Shakespeare). The result is that what is available for students and others interested in drama is radically limited in a variety of ways. New publishing technologies may offer exciting ways around some of the limitations. Digital publishing removes the costs of print and paper and substantially diminishes the costs of distribution; and the digital medium allows us to rethink what it is that an edition of a play text might be. For the past three years an international group of scholars has been creating a digital, web-based edition of the works of one of the most popular but now virtually unknown dramatists of the generation that follows Shakespeare: Richard Brome. With two minor exceptions, Brome’s plays haven’t been published or performed for centuries, and presenting them on the web is intended to re-introduce Brome to those interested in early modern drama. The edition is striking, however, for its incorporation of video of workshop experiments with actors and discussions between actors, editors, and specialists in such disciplines as costume, scenery, lighting, verse speaking, and dialect. The edition will “go live” this fall, and Professor Leslie's talk will present it and discuss some of the issues it raises.