Modern Drama: A Backward Glance

Modern Drama: A Backward Glance • WITH THIS ISSUE Modern Drama moves its headquarters to the University of Toronto, where it becomes the official publication of the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama. The change is dramatized by the new cover, the creation of the prize-winning Canadian book designer Allan Fleming. Behind the new cover and beneath the new address, however, the aims and principles of the journal's founder, Professor A. C. Edwards, remain strong. At such a juncture a backward glance on the part of the new editor seems inevitable. In this case, the glance takes on all the characteristics of a tribute. Over fifteen years ago Carroll Edwards launched the first issue of the first scholarly journal in English devoted specifically to critical studies in modern drama. The idea was his own, and credit for the remarkable growth of Modern Drama through the years belongs to him. With informal charm and indefatigable determination Carroll Edwards, ably seconded by his lovely wife Virgie, have kept the issues coming, and have kept his subscribers coming back for more. The Edwardses' achievement must constitute some sort of track record in scholarly publishing. It is a pleasant duty for those of us who are new to Modern Drama to acknowledge our debt. Continuing to glance backward, the first fifteen years of the journal's existence have been quickened by exciting developments in the field itself. A generation of new playwrights, armed with new ideas and new techniques, has emerged (and partly submerged again, it appears), and a second wave seems well on the way. At the same time, certain "older" dramatists have enjoyed a revival of critical interest (O'Neill, for example, heads the tabulation ot playwrights most frequently discussed in these pages, with Shaw a close second). Looking to the future, Modem Drama will continue to encourage the widest spectrum of critical approaches to modern drama and theatre, ranging from the nineteenth-century foundations of modernism to contemporary trends and experiments. Modern Drama has become particularly known in recent years for special issues devoted to a specific modern playwright or topic. The present number 221 222 A BACKWARD GLANCE is just such an issue, devoted to articles treating Shakespeare's impact on modern drama and the impact of the modern theatre on Shakespeare's plays. Ever since Craig piously pronounced him "unactable" and Shaw felt called upon to rescue him from being such "a divinity and a bore," Shakespeare and Modern Drama has proved a contentious subject. In this instance it has resulted in an intriguing variety of studies by notable scholars - explorations of affinities with Beckett, Shaw, O'Neill, O'Casey, and Brecht, analyses of contemporary Shakespeare-inspired plays by lonesco and by Stoppard, and two concluding essays which, in a sense almost harking back to the concerns of men like Craig or PoeI, re-examine the venerable problem of "modernizing " Shakespeare on the stage. I and my associate editors are extremely fortunate that Professors William A. Armstrong, Ruby Cohn, and Walter J. Meserve have agreed to remain as members of the Editorial Board, and that they will be joined by Professors A. C. Edwards (as Honorary Editor), Clifford Leech, Michael Booth, Robertson Davies, Northrop Frye, R. B. Parker, and Ann Saddlemyer. Their collective presence and the range of their scholarly interests will maintain and enrich the international, comparative perspective so central to Modern Drama and the field which it studies.* FREDERICK J. MARKER Editor * Information regarding new addresses for subscriptions and submissions of articles is provided inside the front cover. ...