Audience Reactions to Shakespeare Then and Now
Concordia University, Tiohtià:ke (Montreal)
4 – 7 June 2026
DEADLINE: 21 November 2025
Title: Audience Reactions to Shakespeare Then and Now
Chairs: Alexandra Lukawski (Western University; alukawsk@uwo.ca); Alice Hinchliffe (University of Guelph; ahinchli@uoguelph.ca)
Call for Papers (CFP)
We invite submissions of abstracts on “Audience Reactions to Shakespeare Then and Now” for general consideration. Following up on our panel at last year’s ACCUTE conference that looked at Shakespeare Adaptations, we encourage scholars to turn towards the audience: how does an audience react to Shakespeare? As Wilmar Sauter's 2002 paper asks, "Who Reacts When, How and upon What"? We encourage a variety of papers on Shakespearean audiences, including ones that may engage with the following:
· Audience Research (both historical and contemporary)
· Non-conventional performances and their audiences
· Historical reactions to Shakespeare and his contemporaries
· Audience expectations, performance intentions (and what happens when those do or do not line up)
· Audience receptions of film Shakespeare
· Professional spectators versus non-professional spectators
· Personal experience and reception essays
This panel is crosslisted with the Canadian Society of Renaissance Studies (CSRS) conference.
Please submit abstracts to the online Proposal Submission Form on the ACCUTE website.