Taking the M.A. in English exam? Here is some information that explains the exam's format and guidelines.

Featured Student Essay: MAE Alix Claps presented her essay, "'There’s more in’t than fair visage:' Nontraditional and Colorblind Casting in Contemporary Productions of Shakespeare," at M/MLA conference this past October.

Through non-traditional and/or colorblind casting, contemporary productions of Shakespeare’s plays have added new dimensions to many of their characters. By contemporary production, I refer to stage productions or movies where Shakespeare’s text is used, his plot is maintained, and the characters retain their names and any physical characteristics (such as race) given to them by Shakespeare. Nothing specifically contradicts the text. The observations set forth in this paper would not hold for an Othello where the choice is to make Othello white and Desdemona black, for example. By non-traditional or colorblind casting, I do not mean all-male, all-female, all-black, all-anything productions. The original productions were all-male, so the relationships between the characters are not altered if they are performed by a parallel cast. When I write of non-traditional or colorblind casting, I refer to casts that are compiled of actors of many different races and both genders, and situations where characters are played by the opposite gender or a different race than as they are written (or, in the instance of race, if a non-European actor plays a role where race is not specifically indicated). For the purposes of this paper, I shall limit the characters studied to secondary or minor characters, such as Trebonius from Julius Caesar, Mercutio, Tybalt, and Capulet from Romeo and Juliet, and Don Pedro from Much Ado About Nothing. These characters are less textually developed than the lead characters in their respective plays, and therefore the audience relies more heavily on their eyes for appearance and ears for non-textual clues (such as accents) to these characters. In a contemporary setting, the opportunities for women and minority actors to play these characters expand the observable characteristics. Also, we as audience members cannot help but bring our outside beliefs and prejudices into the theatre with us, so we make corollary judgments about characters based on that information. All of these choices and changes add dimension and weight to the character’s relationship with the audience. The better we feel we know a character, the more attached to the character we will be. The more we can understand a character’s motivations, the more we are able to empathize with the character. It is through the character choices that I am about to explore that Shakespeare remains accessible to contemporary audiences and can be done again and again. The base material for these characters, the text, never fails us. Everything else is specificity.

I would like to begin by examining an example of gender reversal in a contemporary production of Julius Caesar. In December of 2001, under the direction of Philip Kerr, the Musical Theatre department of the University of Michigan presented a production of Julius Caesar in which all of the conspirators were played by women. Caesar himself, Mark Antony, Octavius, the Soothsayer, Cicero, and Cinna the Poet were played by men. When played by women, the conspirators took on the characteristics of “the bitch” as described by Courtney Lehmann.

The bitch is unique to postmodern culture in that she has migrated into the mainstream as the pop-cultural representation of the contemporary feminist. Through a maculinist lens, the bitch is a single, professional, power-hungry female..., relaying the culturally conservative message that women’s professional success must entail chronic dissatisfaction with their personal lives (Lehmann, “Crouching...” 266).

What struck me most in this production was not Brutus or Cassius as portrayed by a woman, but the conspirator Trebonius and her relationship with Mark Antony. Trebonius is a minor conspirator who has very few lines and could easily blend into the pack. However, in this production, the development of a love affair between Antony and Trebonius was evident, which made Trebonius’s choices more compelling. read more

Are You Interested in Performing Shakespeare? Join the Shakespeare Reading Series. The series takes place on the fourth Thursday of every month.

Bring a copy of the script and create a little theatre.
This month: Much Ado About Nothing
Thursday, Jan. 27th at 7:00
Study Room 306, Richardson Library
Students, Staff, and Faculty are all welcome
Contact Andie Authur at swirlingpoetry@aol.com or Francesca Royster at froyster@depaul.edu for more details.

Get proactive in your MA Program!
Voice your concerns! Discuss ways to improve the MA program here at DePaul! Get active in the new English Graduate Student Association (EGSA)! Info

Conference Opportunities!

The Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies Graduate Student Conference. This conference is interdisciplinary in scope, and papers are invited in any area of medieval or Renaissance studies.

Conference date: 10-11 June 2005
C.V. and two page abstract due: 1 March 2005. more info

Call for submissions and members! The Ninth Annual Conference of the Illinois Philological Association will be held April 1-2, 2005 at Richmond Community College in Decatur, IL. For more information, check out their website

The Nicholson Center for British Studies is pleased to announce:
The Irish World: Internationalism and Irish Studies
Conference date: March 5, 2005
Deadline for proposals: January 15, 2005
Papers due: Friday, February 18, 2005. more info

Also From the Nicholson Center...
Principles of Association in British History
This conference will be held Friday, April 8, 2005 at the University of Chicago Campus.
Deadline for abstracts: January 31, 2005
Please indicate tentative interest by January 17, 2005. more info

The 11th Annual Southwest Graduate English Symposium: "Isms, Irritants and Ideologies: (In)Visible Violations of Power" will be held March 25-27 at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. more info

Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association Conference APRIL 9TH 2005
Frederick Community College
Space, Place, Vision: Celebrating Writing Center Journeys
PROPOSALS DUE FEBRUARY 7TH more info

Research Network Forum at CCCC
March 16, 2005
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
San Francisco, California
Check out their Homepage or click here for more info

Western States Rhetoric and Literacy Conference 2005
October 20-22, 2005
San Francisco, CA
University of San Francisco
First Call for Proposals. info

What is the New Rhetoric?
University of Sydney, Australia: September 2, 2005 to September 4, 2005.
Contact: Susan Thomas at susan.thomas@arts.usyd.edu.au . more info

Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: A Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Writing
September 23-25, 2005 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. info

Job Opening: ITT Technical Institute is currently looking for English Composition Teachers for Online Programs. more info

Reading Tutors Needed! CS&C-Julex Learning is seeking experienced candidates for their Reading Tutor Position. more info

News and Events!

American Poets Reading: Joel Craig, Kristy Odelius, Srikanth Reddy
Wednesday, February 9, 2005, 6:30 p.m.
Free Admission
Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 112 South Michigan Avenue
For more information on these poets, check out the website

Places to Explore and Things to do! Come on! Don't be shy, I know that there are many of you out there who are connoisseurs of Chicago dining and entertainment, if not at least aspiring amateurs. Your experiences are the stuff of valuable and fun advice for others, so fill us in! If you have recently been to a great restaurant, museum, club, etc., let us know and share the wealth with your peers!

Fun environment, good food, GREAT service. That is how my sister and I would describe Adobo Grill. From the moment we walked in to the Wicker Park restaurant, we were greeted with a friendly smile and immediately seated. (It was a Monday night, so we had little competition.) Our waitress introduced herself and after asking if we had ever been to Adobo before (we had not), insisted we try the fresh guacamole. Moments later, a woman came around pushing a cart holding spices, vegetables, and a molcajete prep bowl (used top make the dip). She continued to gut two fresh avocados into the bowl, mashed them up with a pestle, and added tomatoes and spices to our liking. It was, simply, some of the best guacamole I had ever tasted. Did I mention that while our appetizer was being prepared, another server shook up my sister’s margarita right at the table. Even for a Monday, this was great service.

Our fabulous appetizer was followed by not as fabulous, but good, entrees. I ordered the Lomito en Mole Megro Oaxaqueno or grilled pork tenderloin with Oaxacan black mole, poblano rice, and sauteed spinach enchorizada ($16.95) and my sister tried the Filete Yucateco, a marinated grilled beef tenderloin with refried beans, avocado, cebollitas and roasted tomato-chile habanero salsa ($21.95). Don’t worry if you don’t know what some of these things are, the staff is more than happy to help, or translate as the case may be. I’ll admit, I had order envy, my sister's beef was much more tender and flavorful than the pork, but the mole sauce marinating my dish had a rich, almost sweet flavor that made my choice well worth it. Though we did't try any, Adobo does offer an assortment of authentic Mexican desserts and over 50 varieties of tequila. I wouldn’t put this in the cheap eats category, entrees average around $18, but the service and atmosphere certainly make the trip worth it. Not to mention that guacamole!
Adobo Grill has two locations: Pipers Alley @ 1410 N. Wells, (312) 266-7999 and Wicker Park @ 2005 W. Division, (773) 252-9990. Adobogrill.com

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. " - J.R.R. Tolkien

Looking for a PhD program in Rhetoric and Writing? The Bowling Green State University Rhetoric & Writing PhD Program seeks to prepare women and men to be scholar-teachers who understand the professional synergy of mastering knowledge, advancing it through their own inquiry, and sharing knowledge and habits of inquiry with students in the writing courses they teach and administer.

In pursuing this broad goal, students and faculty in the program utilize a range of the
intellectual approaches (rhetorical, cultural, empirical, political) that characterize the field of rhetoric and composition. For more information, check out the program's website

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