Editorial

Welcome to Scene, the new online Shakespeare theater review journal published by the Internet Shakespeare Editions. Under the editorship of Kevin Quarmby (also the editor of the forthcoming ISE critical edition of 1 Henry VI), this new journal will provide a scholarly record of performance history as it is being made in theaters and playing spaces around the world. By documenting and analyzing productions that are usually not reviewed, Scene aims to expand the possibilities for performance history in research, teaching, and for innovative pedagogy. Reviews are open-access, stable, digital resources, available to anyone with an internet connection. Each review has a permanent URL at the University of Victoria. 

Scene is fully interoperable with ISE play editions and ISE's Shakespeare in Performance (SIP) database, offering multiple access points to Scene content and showcasing Scene reviewers' contributions throughout the ISE project. All the reviews that were posted to Scene's predecessor, the ISE Chronicle (ISEC) have been gathered together into a single preliminary issue entitled "Reviews from the ISE Chronicle"; they too are fully integrated into the ISE platform, and form part of the permanent performance record provided by the ISE.

Our intention is to publish reviews in Scene shortly after submission, while a production is still on the boards. Twice a year, we will bundle reviews into an issue. The spring issue will cover the winter theater season. The autumn issue will cover the summer festival season. Given the labor involved in building the new platform and migrating all the content from ISEC into this new environment, this issue includes all the reviews that have been submitted during the interregnum between ISEC's slow burning out and Scene's birth from the ashes. 

2017 Issue 1 features reviews from 2015, 2016, and 2017. Regional Editors Melissa Walter (Vancouver and Fraser Valley, BC, Canada), Roderick McKeown (Ontario), and Gavin Hollis (New York City) have contributed and commissioned reviews of productions in their regions. Longtime ISEC contributor Jim Volz (founder of the Shakespeare Theater Association's Quarto magazine) has provided additional coverage of the Stratford Festival of Canada, and given us permission to re-publish a review that also appears in Quarto.

Scene also publishes review articles that compare productions, reflect on an entire season, focus on a particular performance problem, or analyze past productions in depth. We are delighted to launch this first issue with Gavin Hollis's analysis of the Wooster Group's contentious Cry Trojans!

The editorial team of Scene invites submissions from scholars and theater practioners, as well as graduate and senior undergraduate students (sponsored by their institutional advisers), whose informed analyses offer fresh insights into Shakespeare performance today. Please welcome this new venture and consider the possibilities it 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)