About Scene

Welcome to Scene, the ISEʼs Shakespeare performance review journal. Scene publishes reviews on a rolling basis, offering immediate scholarly responses to productions often before they close. Scene invites reviews of mainstream professional productions of Shakespeare, as well as university, drama school, and non-professional theatrical performances. All submissions are peer reviewed by Sceneʼs Editor, Kevin Quarmby, assisted by a team of Regional Editors. Twice a year, Scene bundles reviews into a single issue with a commentary on the preceding season. Reviews are open-access, stable digital resources. Each review has a permanent URL at the University of Victoria. Scene is fully interoperable with ISE play editions and ISEʼs Shakespeare in Performance (SIP) database, offering multiple access points to Scene content. All reviews from Scene's predecessor, the ISE Chronicle, have been archived in a special issue of Scene.

The purpose of Scene is to record the immediacy and ephemerality of Shakespeare in performance wherever and whenever this occurs. Too often, scholarly theatrical review journals or commercial review media outlets limit their submissions to scholars or critics who, from the sheer variety of performances observed over the course of their careers, can focus too heavily on historical comparison with the distant past. In contrast, Scene seeks to record the immediate responses of informed individuals — Shakespeare scholars, teachers, independents, graduate or undergraduate students, actors, theater practitioners — while maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity throughout. Scene responds to twenty-first century Shakespeare endeavor by inviting varied academic, professional, and non-professional responses. The result: a repository of theatrical observation, criticism, description, expression, and knowledge.

As a site for quality peer-reviewed digital publication, Scene is an invaluable tool — for research, for teaching, and for innovative pedagogy. The editorial team welcomes submissions from undergraduate and graduate students, sponsored by their institutional advisers, whose informed analyses offer fresh insights into Shakespeare performance today. Please consider the possibilities Scene brings as a promotional tool for theater companies and theater professionals who appreciate the speed with which all Scene reviews are made available for public search and dissemination.

— Kevin Quarmby (Editor, Scene) and Janelle Jenstad (Coordinating Editor, ISE)