My proposal “How Much Is the Milk of Human Kindness Worth?”to speak at the Second Shakespearean Theatre Conference at the University of Waterloo got shot down. Too bad, it’s sort of a neat conference that runs alongside the famous Stratford Festival. The reason for the rejection turns out to be the flood of submissions the organizers received: 50% more than in 2015 (it’s a biannual conference). It turns out that a quarter of the submissions were rejected. Doing a quick run on the numbers, there were 85 papers this year. That compares to 60 or so papers delivered at the 2015 conference. A Shakespeare resurgence is on our hands, all aboard!

One of the organizers offered some constructive feedback, which I’m thankful for:

1. keep trying. A lot of times it’s a hit and miss with how your title fits into the sessions.
2. sketch a critical context. In other words, tie in what you’ve done with what has been done.

I already have a date marked down in my calendar to submit another proposal at the end of 2018 for the 2019 Shakespearean conference. Time flies, that’s just a year and a couple of months away! The feedback on the critical context is especially helpful. I should read up on modern theories of drama and see how I can tie “risk theatre” with what other folks are doing. Research time! That is actually great, because I’ve been spending so much time going through Carla DeSantis’ (the editor) comments and rewriting sections of Tragedy Is Risk Theatre: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected that I haven’t had much of a chance to read as much as I’d like to. The rewrite is substantively complete now, so a chunk of time has freed up.

Onwards and upwards!

Until next time, I’m Edwin Wong, and, since I didn’t meet my Waterloo, I will continue to do Melpomene’s work.