What does this research mean for the field?

Engaging with the textual cruces of Love's Labor's Lost through active performance choices demonstrates that these interpretive challenges are fundamentally theatrical and essential to the play's overall meaning. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine how preparing and staging a full theatrical production of Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost enables students to illuminate and resolve difficult textual and interpretive cruces.

September 2, 2026HumanitiesOpen Access

“A Little Academe”: How Teaching through Performance Illuminated Love’s Labor’s Lost

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Authors

CLCynthia Lewis

Discussion

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Implication

Qualitative pedagogical case study demonstrates how staging drama resolves textual cruces in Shakespeare students, suggesting that theatrical practice clarifies complex literary ambiguities.

Key Points

To examine how preparing and staging a full theatrical production of Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost enables students to illuminate and resolve difficult textual and interpretive cruces.
Mounted a full undergraduate student production of Love's Labor's Lost in a 2002 Performing Shakespeare seminar at Davidson College.
Conducted rehearsal workshops in collaboration with visiting actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company to address intricate rhetorical and comedic passages.
Analyzed student reflective journals alongside historical directorial choices from professional productions to contextualize specific textual cruces.
Staging illuminated dense wordplay, status shifts, and extended rhetorical speeches across Acts 3, 4, and 5 that often alienate modern readers.
Demonstrated that seemingly insoluble textual cruces function as active, open theatrical opportunities rather than purely textual defects.

Cite This Study

Cynthia Lewis (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a97e2c5c562ede874ec70ea https://doi.org/10.3390/h15090121

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Implication

Qualitative pedagogical case study demonstrates how staging drama resolves textual cruces in Shakespeare students, suggesting that theatrical practice clarifies complex literary ambiguities.