SIP Regional Editors Responsibilities and Guidelines
Job Description
Regional Editors enter data on productions in their areas and write or delegate reviews for the ISE Chronicle in discussion with the ISE Chronicle Editor.
Responsibilities and Guidelines
Your responsibilities fall into two areas:
- building the Shakespeare in Performance (SIP) database; and
- contributing to the ISE Chronicle, a dedicated online space in which theater practitioners, scholars, critics, and members of the public can analyze and interactively discuss contemporary Shakespearean performance.
All productions you review for the Chronicle will be added to the SIP database; however, not all productions you enter into the SIP database have to be reviewed.
To fulfill your responsibilities as Regional Editor, you will undertake the following tasks.
- Identify productions that should be entered in the SIP DB.
- We aim to provide complete coverage of professional productions. Very good or particularly interesting amateur productions should also be entered into the database, especially if the production is directed and/or designed by a professional theater practitioner or if it is produced by a university or college theater department.
- A few theater companies contribute their own data regularly to the SIP DB (e.g., the American Shakespeare Center).
- Include an adaptation if it uses Shakespeare始s text. For example, we include the 2008 Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome and Ben Power始s A Tender Thing but not the numerous stage productions of West Side Story.
- Do not include film, which will be covered by our film editors.
- We welcome data on non-English-language productions.
- Non-Shakespearean plays belong more properly to the performance database of the Digital Renaissance Editions project. (The ISE database has some non-Shakespearean productions from the time before DRE was conceived.) We can put you in touch with Brett Hirsch if you始d like to expand your remit to DRE plays. See DRE guidelines.
2. Use your access to the SIP database to enter data about a production. See the file SIP_guide2014.doc (sent to you by email attachment). If you are able to enter data about a production BEFORE the opening date, the details will be used to populate the ISE Performance Calendar; upcoming productions are advertised in the information pane on the left side of all our pages.
3. Identify productions that should be reviewed for the ISE Chronicle. Normally, we like to see reviews of all Shakespeare productions by resident companies with a Shakespeare season or regular Shakespeare offerings, and a selection of other productions.
4. Book a reviewer始s (media) ticket. Our letter of appointment may be helpful to you in obtaining free tickets.
- Note that you do not have to attend an opening night performance. Media tickets are usually available throughout the run of a show. Indeed, productions often “settle down” during a run, so a later viewing may give a better sense of the entire run. (See Miriam Gilbert, “Re-viewing the Play,” Shakespeare Quarterly 36.5 [1985], 609-17.)
5. Write review. We assume that you have some experience of writing reviews but the ISE Chronicle Editor will offer advice and commentary if you wish.
6. If you are not able to review an important production in your region, please delegate a colleague or graduate student to do so. Graduate students may need mentoring from you if they have not reviewed plays before. A useful starting point: Alan C. Dessen, “Reviewing Shakespeare For the Record,” Shakespeare Quarterly 36 (1985), 602-08. Lois Potter offers a useful checklist of questions in “Teaching Shakespeare: The Participatory Approach,” Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance, ed. Milla Cozart Riggio (New York: MLA, 1999), 235-43. The ISE Chronicle Editor will be adding further resources to the ISE Chronicle, including his own guide to watching productions and writing reviews.
7. Register as a site user and create an ISE Chronicle profile for yourself. Please update your profile regularly as your career progresses.
8. Upload review to the ISE Chronicle.
- We始d like to have your review before the production closes. Unlike most academic reviewing journals and websites, we aim to give a theater company something to quote from and link to during the production run.
- If the production you are reviewing has not yet been entered into our database, you will be prompted to enter production details.
- It始s possible that someone else may contribute a review of the same production. The ISE Chronicle is currently open to any contributor who register as a user, and we welcome multiple reviews; in fact, you始ll see a “Write your review of this production” link at the bottom of every review. Note, however, that you are an Invited Reviewer and your reviews will carry more academic authority.
9. If a theater in your area keeps an archive, we始d be pleased if you would inquire about the availability of artifacts from past productions.
10. Appointments are for a term of 5 years (renewable). If you are not able to finish the five-year term, we始d be grateful if you would recommend a successor and facilitate introductions to the theater companies with which you始ve established diplomatic relationships.
If you need advice, please contact the appropriate member of the ISE team.
| Issue | Contact | Person | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technical matters | Assistant Coordinating Editor | Janelle Jenstad | jenstad@uvic.ca or iseadmin@uvic.ca |
| Obtaining tickets and writing reviews | ISE Chronicle Editor | Kevin Quarmby | |
| Changes to your geographical remit or the length of your appointment | General Performance Editor | Alexa Alice Joubin | acyhuang@gwu.edu |