Magnyfycence Onscreen: Documentary Film as Translation
METh 35 (2013) 3–22.

Discusses the the theoretical considerations and practical decisions involved in making the documentary film Magnyfycence: Staging Medieval Drama. Focused around Elisabeth Dutton’s 2010 production of John Skelton's Magnyfycence in Hampton Court Palace, the film brings together traditional documentary methods with cinematic techniques from other genres (narrative film, reality television, mockumentary) in order to pose the question of what might constitute an "authentic" experience of early English drama today.

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Richard Carew, The Ordinary, The Ordinalia, and the Ordinary Actor on the Medieval Cornish Stage
METh 35 (2013) 23-94.

The reliability of Richard Carew's description of the Cornish 'Ordinary' has long been a matter of considerable dispute. Did the Ordinary direct actors who had not memorized their lines by following them at their back and whispering their lines in their ears to be repeated aloud? This essay attempts to account for Carew's methods of research, and his interest in and knowledge of the Cornish language. Was his an eyewitness account, and did he have a sufficient command of the language to understand what he saw if he did? The essay also investigates the curious name of the Cornish play director, which seems genuine simply because it is unique. The essay also considers whether play direction in the manner Carew describes is possible in the context of the canon of Cornish drama, and offers evidence that these dramas were memorized in parts before performance. Finally, it considers whether Carew might have misunderstood a description of a well-established rehearsal methodology rather than a curious ‘medieval staging convention’.

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Music and Performance in Three French Hagiographic Mystery Plays
METh 35 (2013) 95-139.

While it has rarely been the object of scholarly research, music was an integral part of French mystery plays of the late medieval era. This study focuses on three similarly-constructed French hagiographic plays to compare and contrast their instrumental, vocal and diabolic musical components. In both the Mystery of Saint Martin by André de La Vigne and the Jeu de saint Estienne pape et martire by Nicolas Loupvent, music not only accompanied but contributed to the narrative and to the pacing of the performance. The Mystery of Saint Lawrence, however, focuses only minimal attention to its music.

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Reports on Performances: Lindsay°s Ane Satire of the Thrie Estaitis and the Interlude, Linlithgow Palace, June 2013
METh 35 (2013) 140-147, 147-152.

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