Marie TROTTER

Shakespeare; renaissance drama; medieval drama; metatheatre; performance phenomenology; audience reception; creative practice; production history
Marie Trotter is a PhD Candidate and course lecturer in the Department of English at McGill University, researching metatheatre and audience reception in the performance of Shakespeare’s plays. Through the lens of performance phenomenology, her dissertation explores the role of metatheatrical characters and scene types in shaping audience judgment, participation, and delight. Her work is published in the journals Theatre Research in Canada and Early Theatre, with creative writing and criticism appearing in the magazines Ekstasis, Broadview, Plough, and Intermission. She teaches theatre history at the National Theatre School of Canada.
Ph.D., McGill University (exp. 2026)
M.A., Queen's University, 2019
B.A. (Honours, high distinction), University of Toronto, 2017
Articles
“Piercing the Veil: Metatheatrical Speech Acts in the Stratford Festival’s 2022 Hamlet.” Theatre Research in Canada, vol. 44 no. 2, August 2023.
Reviews
Review: “Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Reformation: Literary Negotiation of Religious Difference” by Dennis Taylor. Literature and Theology, upcoming 2025.
Review: “Shakespeare, Technicity, and Theatre” by W.B. Worthen. Early Theatre, vol. 26 no. 1, 6 June 2023.
Public Scholarship
“How Shakespeare can help us overcome loneliness in the digital age.” The Conversation, with Prof. Paul Yachnin, 13 August 2025.
- Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council SSHRC Doctoral Award, 2023-2026
- Faculty of Arts Internship Award, 2024
- Lang Family Text and Performance Fellowship, 2022
- Archie Malloch Fellowship, 2022