Essay Prizes

Early Theatre awards essay prizes every two years. These prizes celebrate the work of all of our contributors, as a way of drawing attention to the outstanding scholarship published in the journal as a whole. More specifically, our prizes honour exceptional contributions in the following categories:

  • Best article on a theatre history topic
  • Best article on the interpretation of a topic in early drama
  • Best note or Issues in Review essay 

Board members who serve on prize subcommittees, like the journal's peer reviewers, read with an eye to originality, thesis development, argumentation, notes and references, and readability. We also ask committee members to take each essay on its own terms, asking what it sets out to do and how well it accomplishes this goal, and to prioritize work that intervenes to move the field, or a particular subfield, forward in significant ways, via content but also methodology. Because the journal’s prizes are designed to help enhance the professional profiles of winners and persons who receive honourable mention, and given that this kind of impact can be especially useful for early career researchers and scholars from historically marginalized groups, we prioritize these groups of contributors in cases where there is a tie for either first prize or honourable mention.

To view the lists of winners, please click the links below:

Early Theatre Essay Prizes 2023

Early Theatre offers congratulations to the winners of the 2023 Best Essay Prizes, given for research appearing in volumes 24 and 25. We are grateful to advisory board members who adjudicated submissions in each of the three prize categories: Matthieu Chapman and Theresa Coletti, with support from Callan Davies (articles on theatre history topics relying on REED-style records); Andrew Bozio and Laurie Johnson, with support from Jennifer Panek (interpretive articles on topics in early drama, medieval and early modern), and Ari Friedlander and Sandy Johnston, with support from Sarah Johnson (notes and Issues in Review essays).

  • Best article in theatre history:

    • Winner: Harry R. McCarthy, ‘M[aster] Monkesters schollars’: Richard Mulcaster, Physical Education, and the Early Modern Boy Companies’, Early Theatre 24.2 (2021), 31–54, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.24.2.4390 
      • Read the commendation here.
    • Honourable mention: Oliver W. Gerland III, ‘The Introduction of Admission Fees in London: Fencing Prizes, Bearbaiting Arenas, and Speculative Origins’ Early Theatre 24.2 (2021), 9–30, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.24.2.4177
      • Read the commendation here.

  • Best article on the interpretation of a topic in early drama:

    • Winner: Mayra Cortes, ‘Acousmatic Noise: Racialization and Resistance in The Tempest’s ‘New World’ Soundscape’, Early Theatre 25.1 (2022), 79–106, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.25.1.4484
      • Read the commendation here. 
    • Honourable mention: Jamie Paris, ‘Bad Blood, Black Desires: On the Fragility of Whiteness in Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling’, Early Theatre 24.1 (2021), 113–27, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.24.1.3803
      • Read the commendation here.

  • Best note or Issues in Review essay:

    • Winner: Emily MacLeod, ‘“You shall see me do the Moor”: The Blackfriars Children and the Performance of Race in Poetaster’, Early Theatre 25.2 (2022), 131–44, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.25.2.4734 
      • Read the commendation here.
    • Honourable Mention: Neil Younger, ‘New Light on Henry Lanman, Owner of the Curtain’, Early Theatre 25.1 (2022), 117–26, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.25.1.4532
      • Read the commendation here.

Early Theatre Essay Prizes 2021

Early Theatre offers congratulations to the winners of the 2021 Best Essay Prizes, given for research appearing in volumes 22 and 23. We also thank the advisory board members who adjudicated submissions in each of the three prize categories:  Theresa Coletti and Alexandra F. Johnston (theatre history essays); Pamela Allen Brown and Paul Budra (interpretive essays); Sheila Christie and David Dean (notes and Issues in Review essays).

  • Best article in theatre history:

  • Best article on the interpretation of a topic in early drama, medieval or early modern:

    • Winner: Mark James Richard Scott, ‘“That’s hard”: Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and the Trauma of Reprobation,’ Early Theatre 23.2 (2020), 9–30, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.23.2.3894
      • Read the commendation here.
    • Honourable mention: Liz Fox, ‘Cosmopolitan Desire and Profitable Performance in The Dutch Courtesan’, Early Theatre 23.1 (2020), 145–62, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.23.1.4167
      • Read the commendation here.

  • Best note or Issues in Review essay:

    • Winner: Justin Shaw, ‘“Rub Him About the Temples”: Othello, Disability, and the Failures of Care’, Early Theatre 22.2 (2019), 171–84, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.22.2.3997
      • Read the commendation here.
    • Honourable Mention: Matthew Woodcock, ‘Perambulation and Performance in Early Modern Festive Culture’, Early Theatre 23.2 (2020), 139–53, https://doi.org/10.12745/et.23.2.4384
      • Read the commendation here.

Early Theatre Essay Prizes 2019

Early Theatre offers congratulations to the winners of the 2019 Best Essay Prizes, given for articles appearing in volumes 20 and 21.

  • Best article in theatre history:

    • Winner: Stephen K. Wright, ‘The Salting Down of Gertrude: Transgression and Preservation in Three Early German Carnival Plays’, Early Theatre 20.2 (2017), 11–30, http://dx.doi.org/10.12745/et.20.2.3013

  • Best article on the interpretation of a topic in early drama, medieval or early modern:

  • Best note (including Issues in Review essays):

    • Winner: Tracey Hill, ‘"The Grocers Honour”: or, Taking the City Seriously in The Knight of the Burning Pestle’, Early Theatre 20.2 (2017), 159–178, http://dx.doi.org/10.12745/et.20.2.3256
    • Honourable Mention: Simon Smith, ‘Reading Performance, Reading Gender: Early Encounters with Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful Lady in Print’, Early Theatre 20.2 (2017), 179–200, http://dx.doi.org/10.12745/et.20.2.3255  

Early Theatre Essay Prizes 2017

Early Theatre offers congratulations to the winners of the 2017 Best Essay Prizes, given for articles appearing in volumes 18 and 19.

  • Best article in theatre history:

  • Best article on the interpretation of a topic in early drama, medieval or early modern:

  • Best note (including Issues in Review essays):

Early Theatre Essay Prizes 2015

Early Theatre offers congratulations to the winners of the 2015 Best Essay Prizes, given for articles appearing in volumes 16 and 17.

  • Best article in theatre history:

    • Winner: Stephen K. Wright, 'The Twelfth-Century Story of Daniel for Performance by Hilarius: An Introduction, Translation, and Commentary', Early Theatre 17.1 (2014)
    • Honourable Mention: Louise Rayment, 'A New Context for the Manuscript of Wit and Science', Early Theatre 17.1 (2014)

  • Best article on the interpretation of a topic in early drama, medieval or early modern:

    • Winner: Andrew Albin, 'Aural Space, Sonorous Presence, and the Performance of Christian Community in the Chester Shepherds Play', Early Theatre 16.2 (2013)
    • Honourable Mention: Eleanor Lowe, 'Bound up and clasped together’: Bookbinding as Metaphor for Marriage in Richard Brome’s The Love-Sick Court', Early Theatre 16.1 (2013)

  • Best note:

    • Winner: Maura Giles-Watson, 'John Rastell's London Stage: Reconstructing Repertory and Collaborative Practice', Early Theatre 16.2 (2013)
    • Honourable Mention: Brett D. Hirsch, 'Hornpipes and Disordered Dancing in The Late Lancashire Witches: A Reel Crux?', Early Theatre 16.1 (2013) 

Early Theatre Essay Prizes 2013

Early Theatre offers congratulations to the winners of the 2013 Best Essay Prizes, given for articles appearing in volumes 14 and 15.

  • Best article in theatre history:

    • Winner: C. Edward McGee, 'The English Entertainment for the French Ambassadors in 1564', 14.1 (2011), 79-100
    • Honourable mention: William Ingram, 'John Cholmley on the Bankside', 15.2 (2012), 43-66

  • Best article on the interpretation of a topic in early drama, medieval or early modern:

    • Winner: Amy L. Tigner, 'The Spanish Actress's Art: Improvisation, Transvestism, and Disruption in Tirso's El vergonzoso en palacio', 15.1 (2012), 167-90
    • Honourable mention: Lisa J. Kiser, 'The Animals in Chester's Noah's Flood, 14.1 (2011), 15-44

  • Best note:

    • Winner: Jennifer Roberts-Smith, '"What makes thou upon a stage?": Child Actors, Royalist Publicity, and the Space of the Nation in the Queen's Men's True Tragedy of Richard the Third’, 15.2 (2012), 192-205
    • Honourable mention: Andrew Brown, 'Theatre of Judgment: Space, Spectators, and the Epistemologies of Law in Bartholomew Fair', 15.2 (2012), 154-67

Early Theatre Essay Prizes 2011

Early Theatre offers congratulations to the winners of the 2011 Best Essay Prizes, given for articles appearing in volumes 12 and 13.

  • Best article in theatre history:

    • Winner: Matthew Steggle, ‘A lost Jacobean tragedy: Henry the Una (c.1619)’, 13.1 (2010), 65-82
    • Honourable mention: Jennifer Nevile, ‘These bookes, as I heare, are all crawled in’: Dance and Choreographic Records from the Stuart Masques', 12.1 (2009), 51-68

  • Best article on the interpretation of a topic in early drama, medieval or early modern:

    • Winner: Ray Bossert, ‘Slavery and Anti-Republicanism in Sir Ralph Freeman's imperiale, a tragedy (1639)’, 13.1 (2010), 83-108
    • Honourable mention: Mary Polito and Jean-Sebastien Windle, "'You see the times are dangerous": The Political and Theatrical Situation of The Humorous Magistrate (1637)', 12.1 (2009), 93-118

  • Best note on any topic:

    • Winner: Tom Rutter, ‘Marlowe, the 'Mad Priest of the Sun', and Heliogabalus', 13.1 (2010), 109-20
    • Honourable mention: Eleanor Collins, ‘Repertory and riot: The relocation of plays from the Red Bull to the Cockpit Stage’, 13.2 (2010), 132-49

Early Theatre Essay Prizes 2009

Early Theatre offers congratulations to the winners of the 2009 Best Essay Prizes, given for articles appearing in volumes 10 and 11.

  • Best article in theatre history:

    • Winner: Robert Hornback, ‘The Reasons of Misrule Revisited: Evangelical Appropriations of Carnival in Tudor Revels’, 10.1 (2007), 35-65
    • Honourable mention: Christopher Matusiak, ‘Christopher Beeston and the Caroline Office of Theatrical “Governor”’, 11.2 (2008), 39-56

  • Best article on the interpretation of a topic in early drama, medieval or early modern:

    • Winner: Meg F. Pearson, ‘A Dog, a Witch, a Play: The Witch of Edmonton’, 11.2 (2008), 89-111
    • Honourable mention: Leanne Groeneveld, ‘A Theatrical Miracle: The Boxley Rood of Grace as Puppet’, 10.2 (2007), 11-50

  • Best note on any topic:

    • Winner: Eleanor Collins, ‘Richard Brome’s Contract and the Relationship of Dramatist to Company in the Early Modern Period’, 10.2 (2007), 116-28
    • Honourable mention: Farah Karim-Cooper, ‘“This alters not thy beauty”: Face-paint, Gender, and Race in The English Moor’, 10.2 (2007), 140-9