Plan for July

I returned from the Houghton last week, full of ideas and inspiration for both my book project and my teaching (it's an amazing collection).

On the book front, I'm nearly ready to send out my revised proposal packet. The only thing left to do are some final revisions on the Introduction. It's been tricky to find the balance between too much and too little information, but I've settled on articulating the largest questions the study addresses. Now that the book proceeds chronologically rather than thematically, it's far easier to sketch out needed historical context in each chapter. Despite this, it's taking some time to fully shed the initial approach. I'm aiming to send everything on Wednesday; on Thursday, I have an outpatient knee surgery, so it's a good deadline.

I've also started revisions on another chapter. This one is the earliest in the study (1689-1720), covering the actresses Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen and Anne Oldfield. Both women used pregnancy to aid with shifts in repertory that enhanced their careers--Susanna to develop a new line in comedy, Oldfield to develop a specialty in tragedy. I found some exciting material on Oldfield that I haven't seen cited elsewhere and was able to work that in this week. I'll be double-checking some repertory information for Susanna and smoothing out some prose, but this one is pretty solid.

Next up:

1) finishing the Verbruggen/Oldfield chapter;

2) reshaping material on the Restoration I've cut from the book for a piece on Theatrical Anecdotes;

3) wrapping up a review for Theatre Journal, and

4) completing the last two chapters of the manuscript.

In short: SO MUCH WRITING. May Athena and her tiny owl be with me.

In non-book news, it's also July, which means PlayPenn's National New Play Conference is happening in Philly--one of the most exciting times of the year.

I've also gotten word on some conferences for the coming year, and I'm delighted to be returning to the Blackfriars Conference this fall to give a plenary paper. It's biannual and years when this community comes together in one of my favorite places (Staunton, VA) is the absolute best. I'll also be teaching a Shakespeare class for the Villanova grad students this year, which is a nice bit of synergy.

Happy writing to you all!