This spring Caitlin McHugh won the Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, which allows her to take a break from teaching in 2013-14 to focus on finishing her dissertation. "I have two more chapters left to write," she explains. "I also need to travel to the Folger Shakespeare Library [in Washington D.C.] to look at a seventeenth-century prompt book, and the fellowship gives the time and the funds that I need to do so." A "prompt book" is a copy of a play production script that includes cues for speech, sound, and light; stage directions; and drawings of the set, among other essential information. McHugh's dissertation focuses on adaptations of Shakespeare in the Restoration era, which she feels have been unfairly maligned. This July, she'll be presenting her paper "The Linguistic Adaptation of Nahum Tate's King Lear," in Ann Arbor, Michigan, thanks to a travel grant she was awarded through the Association for Documentary Editing. More . . . .1. What drew you to Minnesota?
I was looking for a PhD program that would offer me a lot of early modern faculty to work with, and I was looking for faculty members who would support my project on late seventeenth-century adaptations of Shakespeare. In particular, I really wanted to work with Katherine Scheil and John Watkins. It was a delight to visit Minnesota and discover firsthand what lovely people the faculty members are. Reading their work and meeting them in person made choosing a PhD program easy.
2. How did you become interested in your dissertation topic, entitled "The Afterlife of Shakespeare's Tragedies 1600-1700"?
My interest in late seventeenth-century adaptations of Shakespeare began in my MA program at Kent State University. I took a class on Restoration Shakespeare with Don-John Dugas, and I immediately felt that there was just a huge amount of research potential in that field. I was intrigued because late seventeenth-century adaptations of Shakespeare have such poor reputations: they have the "double whammy," so to speak, of not only being produced and written in a period that is sometimes described as crass and/or immoral, but also being adaptations, especially of an author so canonical as Shakespeare. As such, they are often treated as inferior versions of their originals. I strongly felt that many contemporary scholars neglected to recognize the merit of these works in their own right and to treat them individually. I wanted to see what I could add to the field. As of right now, my project is examining both adapted and unadapted Shakespearean tragedies in the context of the theory of tragedy in the late seventeenth century. I am exploring how aesthetic theories combine with economic realities as a justification for the stage in a period when it is by no means secure.
My passion for this topic was only enhanced when I took a class on Shakespeare in Performance with Dr. Scheil. That class helped me see that the adaptations I wanted to study had many performance issues as well, which prompted me to think how a performance could impact an adaptation and vice versa.
3. Two years ago you taught a summer session Shakespeare course, and this summer you're teaching Shakespeare through an online distance learning course. How receptive to the Bard do you find Minnesota undergraduates?
No matter what the method of delivery is, I always find that students are split in their opinions: they either love the Bard, or they are extremely skeptical about the value of reading work that is over 400 years old. I find that the best approach, and this goes for any type of literature, is to show my passion about the subject. I have always loved Shakespeare and found reading his works to be a very natural experience. I grew up in a family of readers, and one of my aunts teaches literature at a university. I think bringing my point of view to the students and being very open and accepting of their reading experiences is one of the best ways to make them, in turn, more willing and open in their educational experience. I win many of them over, and the ones that I don't at least have a better understanding of their perspective and still want to have a conversation about their experiences reading and viewing Shakespeare.
4. You're a member of the student-led Medieval and Early Modern Research Group (MEMRG). What role has that subfield played in your studies here?
MEMRG is another reason why I wanted to come to Minnesota. It is rare to be able to enter into a cohort of people in your area who are so welcoming and supportive. As a scholar, you know that you have a group of people to talk to who share your experiences. Each year, we typically invite one professor from outside the University to come give a lecture on his or her current work, we organize a roundtable presentation for one of our medieval or early modern faculty, and we host a spring colloquium to give our members a chance to share their work. MEMRG hits just the right balance between community and professional development.
5. It's been a typical day of grading papers, researching, and writing. How do you unwind?
I love to attend a variety of performances: plays, rock concerts, musical theater, comedy shows, opera, anything. Obviously, I enjoy seeing early modern plays performed, and there are a shocking number of opportunities to experience early modern drama here in Minnesota. But I'm open-minded, and I like to see a good variety of theater and music, and this city makes that experience really affordable to me as a graduate student. There are public rush lines at the Guthrie Theater and at the Minnesota Opera: anyone can buy unsold seats for a discount right before the show starts. There are many small theaters that have "Pay What You Can" performances. And there are free park performances. What more could you want?
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