Additional Guidelines for Scene

Reviews for Scene follow the Style Guidelines for the ISE critical texts and paratexts, with the following additional guidelines.

Verb tenses

As according to MLA standards, verb tense should be in past tense for the most part. When it comes to writing for the ISE, reviews should be in past tense when referring to the specific performance that is under review, present tense when referring to events in the production if the production is still open at the time of publishing the review on Scene (but past tense if the production is closed, as will be the case in the first two issues of Scene), and present tense when referring to events in the text. The difficult part is distinguishing events in the performance from events in the play itself. However, use the following examples as a guideline for distinguishing events in the past from events in the present if the production is still open:

• Claudio is (a reference to the open production) similarly characterized in his portrayal by Anthony Peeples, whose recurrent displays of emotion prompted (a response during the actual performance) hearty laughter from the audience and later served (a response during the actual performance) to heighten my frustration when Claudio, having been deceived, declares (a reference to the open production) Hero “more intemperate in [her] blood / Than Venus or those pampered animals / That rage in savage sensuality.” 

• Posthumus, after all, actively tries (a reference to the open production) to kill Imogen once he suspects (a reference to the open production) her infidelity, while Cloten (more sensibly) wants (a reference to the open production) to kill Posthumus. The night I saw (an event in the past, during the performance) the play, the comic and tragic became (an event in the past; a response during the closed performance) inextricably mixed, since the audience laughed (an event in the past; a response during the performance) throughout Posthumusʼs supremely distasteful, misogynist “womanʼs part” speech. 

Use the following example as a guidelines for distinguishing between past and present tense if the production is closed: 

• The main characters fell (an event in the closed production) in love haplessly and absurdly. Rosalindʼs big eyes and frank gaze showed (an event in the closed production) us that something very basic was (an event in the closed production) happening. The initially self-possessed Orlando (Jason Sanford) had (this would have been "has" if the production was still open; however, the production is closed) “weights upon [his] tongue” indeed, letting his chin drop forward as if his brain had (an event in the closed production) been eaten.