CALL FOR PAPERS

Speculative Embodiment: Dramaturgical Approaches to Subtext in Shakespeare
Special Session | PAMLA 123rd Annual Conference

Conference Dates: November 12–15, 2026
Location: Hyatt Regency Seattle, 808 Howell St., Seattle, WA 98101
Abstract Deadline: May 25, 2026
Format: In-person only
Session Area: Drama, Theater, and Performance / British and Anglophone
Presiding Officers: Kristen Tregar (Independent Scholar) and Sam Kolodezh (University of California – San Diego)

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So much of the study of Shakespeare relies on analysis of the text. But what happens when actors and directors focus on what happens between the lines? This panel considers what new interpretations of the original text become possible when production teams make discoveries through embodied action that — sometimes dramatically — change how the rest of the play is interpreted. We consider cases in which a new revelation brings added depth to previously superficial characters as well as examples in which production teams attempt a new interpretation through embodied choices that sadly goes awry.

Who does Mercutio look at when he curses both houses? When Cesario reveals himself to be Viola, does Orsino act surprised or excited to give up the charade? Do Caliban and Miranda collaborate silently in an attempt to gain freedom from Prospero? What kind of look does Portia give Shylock when the judgement is handed down? These questions are typically addressed as acting or directing choices. However, the choices made on stage in response can often change the entirety of how a play is interpreted. The ways in which actors embody these moments have the power to rewrite conventional readings of a text.

We invite papers that consider key actions and silences across Shakespeare's canon that create tectonic shifts in interpretation that ripple across characters and scenes in a play. In this panel, we consider how embodied choices that otherwise maintain the textual integrity of a scene can open up readings of original Shakespearean text. More specifically, we explore work that productively engages with and/or pushes back against traditional textual analysis. This process of "speculative dramaturgy" not only functions as a practice of adaptation but also as a methodology and mode of analysis that readily integrates ways of reading a script through spatial, temporal, and affective processes. These corporeal methodologies are often overlooked in more conventional ways of doing script-analysis. We argue that speculative dramaturgy not only facilitates new ways of understanding Shakespeare's plays, but also engages more intimate nodes of affective connection between an audience and the text. By bringing the audience in on the actors' subversion and speculation, the audience is invited to engage actively and to participate openly in a new interpretation of classic and canonical text, rather than striving to "understand Shakespeare" in more traditional ways.

Please submit abstracts of 250–300 words via the PAMLA portal by May 25, 2026:
https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/?s=20139

Note: The PAMLA 2026 Conference is held entirely in-person. No virtual or hybrid presentations are available. Presenters must be able to attend in Seattle, November 12–15, 2026.