The Winter's Tale: From Page to Stage

 IASEMS Tempera Seminar 2027

 University of Padova, Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari

 7-9 June 2027

The University of Padova is pleased to announce it will be hosting the next IASEMS Tempera Seminar in early June 2027, with a focus on Shakespeare’s The Winter's Tale. This is one of Shakespeare's best-known romances, or late plays, which straddles tragedy and comedy along with a conflictual court and serene, reconciliatory pastoral setting. Such division is emphasised by the remarkable location and time changes between the first and second part of the play: changes which also help the concept of human transformation emerge. The play prompts many questions about the human mind, gender, sin, nature, storytelling and lying, and about death and art. It includes one of the most wondrous and confusing scenes in Shakespeare’s whole canon, that of Hermione’s revival from statue form, in which faith and art come together to bring back to life what seemed forever lost, and where the play’s syncretic potential between Christian and pagan elements reaches its peak.

Of significant interest is also Shakespeare’s reshaping of the sources, from Elizabethan prose romance to classical myth and tragedy, and even Italianate novella. The complex stage history of the play, as well as its largely uncharted cultural history, are also important areas of scholarly enquiry.

20-minute papers are invited on any aspect of the play, including the relationship between text and performance, editing issues, and translation history.

Selected papers will be published in a new instalment of the series From Text to Stage inaugurated by Mariangela Tempera.

Deadline for proposals: 28 February 2027

Notification of acceptance: 15 March 2027

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

• Prof. Peter Kirwan (Mary Baldwin University, USA) – editor of The Winter’s Tale for The Arden Shakespeare, Fourth Series
• Sir Gregory Doran – RSC Artistic Director 2012-2022

Please send a 200-word proposal with a short bio to Alice Equestri (alice.equestri@unipd.it), Alessandra Petrina (alessandra.petrina@unipd.it) and Rocco Coronato (rocco.coronato@unipd.it) before the specified deadline.