From Whether to Why: Preparing for the 2025 York Plays

The real work of performance-as-research in early drama, intellectually and emotionally, begins in the earliest planning stages -- especially when the event is so large that drama historians continue to wonder whether it could ever really have been done and, if so, "why they would do such a thing." In this paper, the head organizer for the upcoming York 2025 all-day production in Toronto (June 7, 2025) positions and defends his work in relation to ongoing debates about feasibility, to a thorough assessment of extant records, and to comparably impossible modern performances at which the emotions and enjoyment of participants seem to have been thoroughly engaged.