Theatre Conferences

and

Calls for Papers

Table of Contents  (Updated May 13, 2012.  Corrections, additions welcome)

KURT WEILL FOUNDATION GRANT PROGRAM  -  1 November yearly

ASTR Awards, Grants, Fellowships and Prizes - Deadlines March 1 - July 1

I.  Calls for Papers

II.  Conferences

III.  Publications

I.  CALLS FOR PAPERS  

II.  CONFERENCES

III.  Publications

Call for Session Organizers for the 2012 Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR/ACRT) conference in Waterloo, Ontario.

The conference dates are Saturday, May 26, to Tuesday, May 29, 2012.

Given the success of both the 2010 and 2011 conferences with their wide range of session types, the Conference Planning Committee is offering a similar variety for participants of the 2012 conference. We are now seeking proposals for curated panels, seminars, and roundtables. There will be a subsequent call for praxis workshops (distinguished from other types of praxis sessions by attendees' participation).

The deadline for session organizer proposals is Friday, September 16, 2010.

Seminar and Roundtable Guidelines are attached to help organizers determine the type of session best suited to their proposal.

Topics selected for curated panels, seminars, and roundtables will be announced in early October, and will be followed by a call for proposals for participation in seminars, roundtables, curated and open panels.

For more information, please consult the attached Call for Session Organizers and accompanying Seminar and Roundtable Guidelines.

If you have any questions, please contact Peter Kuling, Chair of the Conference Planning Committee: pkuling@wlu.ca

Peter Kuling
Sessional Lecturer, Communications Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
75 University Avenue West
Waterloo, ON
N2L 3C5

Tel: (519) 884-0710 ext. 2627
Fax: (647) 344-6198

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American Theatre and Drama Society Sessions for ATHE 2012, Washington, DC

Deadlines:
Individual papers and papers for the following panels (see individual CFPs): October 15 (submit to Susan Kattwinkel – kattwinkels@cofc.edu or panel chairs as listed on CFPs)
Complete sessions: November 1 - submit online to ATHE at www.athe.org

 
ATDS @ 25: Looking Forward, Looking Back
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the American Theatre and Drama Society plans to present a set of coordinated panels, designed to chart the chronological, topical, and historiographic progression of our discipline.  
 
Four panels have been created by ATDS and feature a chair/respondent who will issue a call for papers.  Keep an eye out for CFPs on the following topics:
 
1. The Long Nineteenth Century
 
2. American Popular Entertainments
 
3. Twentieth Century American Theatre and Drama
 
4. American Theatre in the Twenty-First Century
 
 
ATDS plans to put forward three multi-disciplinary calls for papers on the following topics:
 
5.  The American Musical
 
6.  African American Theatre and Drama
 
7. Latino/Latina American Theatre and Performance
 
ATDS will also program one additional panel on the state of the profession, to be offered at the end of the conference as a response to all previous sessions.
 
ATDS welcomes additional panels or individual papers that address key loci in American Theatre and Drama from all ATHE members. (Panels might address theatrical movements, specialties, historical moments, key individuals, etc.)
 
Multi-disciplinary panels addressing key movements, genres, or moments in American Theatre history are also encouraged.

ATDS looks forward to celebrating our 25th Anniversary with you all in our nation's capital, August 2-5, 2012.
 
 
Preference will be given to ATDS members. If you are interested in enjoying all of the membership benefits of ATDS – including your own subscription to the Journal of American Drama and Theatre – please visit the website (www.atds.org <http://www.atds.org> ) for an application or contact ATDS Membership Secretary Stuart Hecht (hecht@bc.edu <mailto:hecht@bc.edu> ).
 
About the American Theatre and Drama Society: The American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) is an incorporated organization dedicated to the study of United States theatre and drama, its varied histories, traditions, literatures, and performances within its cultural contexts. ATDS also encourages the evolving debate exploring national identities and experiences through research, pedagogy, and practice. ATDS recognizes that notions of America and the US encompass migrations of peoples and cultures that overlap and influence one another. To this end, ATDS welcomes scholars, teachers, and practitioners world-wide.  

Additional information can be found in the attached CFP.


--
Susan Kattwinkel
ATHE Conference Planner 2012, American Theatre and Drama Society

--
Susan Kattwinkel, Ph.D.
Director of the First-Year Experience
Associate Professor, Theatre
183 Lightsey Center Annex
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
(843) 953-8218
(843) 953-5800 (fax)
Web: www.cofc.edu/fye
--
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"THE AMERICAN MUSICAL SINCE 1987"

AMERICAN THEATRE AND DRAMA SOCIETY

ATHE Conference 2012
August 2-5, Washington, D.C. 

As a part of a special set of coordinated panels at the ATHE conference titled "ATDS @ 25: Looking Forward, Looking Back," on behalf of the American Theatre and Drama Society, I am curating a session to be submitted as a multidisciplinary panel sponsored by ATDS, Music Theatre/Dance, and another Focus Group to be determined.

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, ATDS plans to present a series of sessions designed to chart the chronological, topical, and historiographic progression of our discipline.  The Board of ATDS has identified the musical as an important part of this discipline.

I invite submission of proposals for papers for possible inclusion in this session on the American musical in the past twenty-five years. "American musical" can be broadly construed and defined, and musicals explored need not have been original productions during this period but might be revivals of earlier shows. Possible topics may include:
• Defining the contemporary American musical
• Locating the musical in America today (e.g. Broadway and off-Broadway, regional theatre, Las Vegas, educational and community theatre)
• Depictions of "America" in musicals during the past twenty-five years
• Musicals (and their creators) as reflections of America's diversity
• The American musical abroad
• Innovations in the contemporary American musical (genre, style, structure, staging, technology, training, etc.)
• The future of the American musical

Proposals should be no more than 250 words and should be submitted to me at judy.sebesta@lamar.edu BY OCTOBER 15. Abstracts must include paper title and contact information and must specify any AV needs. ATHE does not accept individual paper submissions -- DO NOT submit your individual proposal on the ATHE website.  Proposers will be notified of inclusion in the session proposed to ATHE by Oct. 23 but please note that preliminary acceptance of inclusion does not guarantee acceptance by the ATHE Conference Committee. ATHE will notify ATDS concerning accepted or rejected panels by late February.

ATDS looks forward to celebrating our 25th Anniversary with all of you in our nation's capital during the ATHE Conference, August 2-5, 2012.

About the American Theatre and Drama Society: The American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) is an incorporated organization dedicated to the study of United States theatre and drama, its varied histories, traditions, literatures, and performances within its cultural contexts. ATDS also encourages the evolving debate exploring national identities and experiences through research, pedagogy, and practice. ATDS recognizes that notions of America and the US encompass migrations of peoples and cultures that overlap and influence one another. To this end, ATDS welcomes scholars, teachers, and practitioners world-wide.  For more information, please visit the ATDS website at www.atds.org.


Judith A. Sebesta, Ph.D.
Chair and Professor
Department of Theatre & Dance
Lamar University
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AMERICAN POPULAR ENTERTAINMENTS

ATHE Conference 2012

August 25,

Washington, D.C.

ATDS @ 25: Looking Forward, Looking Back

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the American Theatre and Drama Society plans to present a set of coordinated panels, designed to chart the chronological, topical, and historiographic progression of our discipline. 

I am inviting proposals for a panel on American Popular Entertainments. Specifically, I am looking for papers that address change in American popular entertainment forms over time.  Concepts in keeping with this theme might include mutation, adaptation, influence, fusion, and censorship, among others. 

      Any form of American popular entertainment throughout history is welcome.  Proposals fulfilling the call might address:

     the mutation of a form over a period of time due to cultural, economic, or theatrical changes

     the influence of one form on another in the accommodation of changes in the leisure habits of Americans

     the ways one entertainer or company adapted to changing conditions

     how changing social mores and laws affected an entertainment form

     how understanding of popular forms have developed based on changing scholarship and attention

The subtitle of the panel will be created once a set of compelling, complementary proposals are chosen.

Proposals should be no more than 250 words and should be submitted to me at kattwinkels@cofc.edu BY OCTOBER 15. Abstracts must include paper title and contact information and must specify any AV needs. ATHE does not accept individual paper submissions --DO NOT submit your individual proposal on the ATHE website. Proposers will be notified of inclusion in the session proposed to ATHE by Oct. 23 but please note that preliminary acceptance of inclusion does not guarantee acceptance by the ATHE Conference Committee. ATHE will notify ATDS concerning accepted or rejected panels by late February.

About the American Theatre and Drama Society: The American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) is an incorporated organization dedicated to the study of United States theatre and drama, its varied histories, traditions, literatures, and performances within its cultural contexts. ATDS also encourages the evolving debate exploring national identities and experiences through research, pedagogy, and practice. ATDS recognizes that notions of America and the US encompass migrations of peoples and cultures that overlap and influence one another. To this end, ATDS welcomes scholars, teachers, and practitioners world-wide. For more information, please visit the ATDS website at www.atds.org.

Susan Kattwinkel, PhD

ATDS Conference Planner - 2012

Director of the First-Year Experience

Associate Professor, Department of Theatre

College of Charleston

Charleston, SC 29424

843-953-8218

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ATDS @ 25: Looking Forward, Looking Back

American Theatre and Drama Society Sessions for ATHE 2012, Washington, DC

Deadlines:

Individual papers and papers for the following panels (see individual CFPs): October 15 (submit to Susan Kattwinkel – kattwinkels@cofc.edu or panel chairs as listed on CFPs)

Complete sessions: November 1 - submit online to ATHE at www.athe.org

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the American Theatre and Drama Society plans to present a set of coordinated panels, designed to chart the chronological, topical, and historiographic progression of our discipline. 

Four panels have been created by ATDS and feature a chair/respondent who will issue a call for papers.  Keep an eye out for CFPs on the following topics:

1. The Long Nineteenth Century

2. American Popular Entertainments

3. Twentieth Century American Theatre and Drama

4. American Theatre in the Twenty-First Century

ATDS plans to put forward three multi-disciplinary calls for papers on the following topics:

5.  The American Musical

6.  African American Theatre and Drama

7.  Latino/Latina American Theatre and Performance

ATDS will also program one additional panel on the state of the profession, to be offered at the end of the conference as a response to all previous sessions.

ATDS welcomes additional panels or individual papers that address key loci in American Theatre and Drama from all ATHE members. (Panels might address theatrical movements, specialties, historical moments, key individuals, etc.)

Multi-disciplinary panels addressing key movements, genres, or moments in American Theatre history are also encouraged.

ATDS looks forward to celebrating our 25^th Anniversary with you all in our nation's capital, August 2-5, 2012.

Preference will be given to ATDS members. If you are interested in enjoying all of the membership benefits of ATDS – including your own subscription to the Journal of American Drama and Theatre – please visit the website (www.atds.org) for an application or contact ATDS Membership Secretary Stuart Hecht (hecht@bc.edu).

About the American Theatre and Drama Society: The American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) is an incorporated organization dedicated to the study of United States theatre and drama, its varied histories, traditions, literatures, and performances within its cultural contexts. ATDS also encourages the evolving debate exploring national identities and experiences through research, pedagogy, and practice. ATDS recognizes that notions of America and the US encompass migrations of peoples and cultures that overlap and influence one another. To this end, ATDS welcomes scholars, teachers, and practitioners world-wide.  

INFORMATION ON SUBMITTING PROPOSALS:

1. Completed proposals (with all panel members assembled) may be submitted directly to ATHE at www.athe.org by November 1, 2011. Please forward a copy of your completed proposal to Susan Kattwinkel (kattwinkels@cofc.edu).  PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL TECHNOLOGY REQUESTS, CONFERENCE GRANT REQUESTS AND GUEST PASS REQUESTS MUST BE INCLUDED IN YOUR COMPLETED PROPOSAL. (ATHE cannot accommodate AV needs submitted after November 1 without substantial cost to the individual presenter.)

2. While complete sessions are strongly encouraged, individual paper proposals may be submitted to ATDS Conference Planner, Dr. Susan Kattwinkel, at kattwinkels@cofc.edu. I will attempt to group submissions into cohesive panels, but cannot guarantee inclusion.  In order to be considered, individual proposals must be submitted by OCTOBER 15, 2011. Abstracts (250 words) must include paper title and contact information, and must specify any AV needs. ATHE does not accept individual paper submissions -- DO NOT submit your individual proposal on the ATHE website.  Individuals wishing to identify colleagues to create panels prior to the November 1^st deadline may use the ATDS listserv: ATDS@LISTSERV.COFC.EDU to circulate questions or possible panel topics.  If you're not an ATDS member, you may send your email to Susan Kattwinkel and she will post it to the listserv for you.
3. Individual paper proposals for the ATDS-planned panels will also be due October 15, 2011 to the chairs listed above.  CFPs for those panels will appear soon.

4. ATHE will provide one piece of AV equipment as indicated on the Session Proposal Form. Session Participants must pre-pay for the following equipment by May 1, 2012.

• 2nd piece of AV: 35 mm projector($60), audio cassette player ($40), CD player ($40), flip chart ($40);

• LCD Package ($200); DVD/VCR Player/Monitor ($100); Internet Hook-up ($300)

• After May 1, 2012, add $50 per piece of equipment.

• Session Participants may apply for a Conference Grant (see Conference Grant Requests) to pay for audio visual equipment. However, it is the Session Participant's responsibility to confirm the receipt of the grant prior to the conference. Grants will be announced no later than March 1, 2012 to the FGCPlanners and Committee Chairs.

5. Presenters wishing to create multidisciplinary panels must contact the Focus Group Conference Planners for each of the THREE groups they propose as.  MD panels that do not complete this step are likely to be rejected.

6. Presenters proposing programs outside of the traditional panel format are asked to be specific in their proposals concerning the structure and number of participants so that ATHE can be notified about space/time needs.

7. ATHE will notify ATDS concerning accepted or rejected panels by late February. Panelists should expect to hear from the Conference Planner or their Panel Chair by early March.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT THE ATDS WEBSITE AT WWW.ATDS.ORG

Questions? Please contact Dr. Susan Kattwinkel at kattwinkels@cofc.edu or review the information on the ATHE website at www.athe.org for additional conference information and for submission forms.

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"African American Theater and Drama Since 1987"

ATHE Conference 2012

August 2-5,

Washington, D.C.

As a part of a special set of coordinated panels at the ATHE conference titled "ATDS @ 25: Looking Forward, Looking Back," on behalf of the American Theatre and Drama Society, I (Soyica Colbert) am curating a session to be submitted as a multidisciplinary panel sponsored by the American Theater and Drama Society (ATDS) the Black Theater Association (BTA) and another Focus Group to be determined.

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, ATDS plans to present a series of sessions designed to chart the chronological, topical, and historiographic progression of our discipline.

I invite submission of proposals for papers for possible inclusion in this session on the late-Twentieth Century and Early Twenty-First Century Black Theater and Performance.

Possible topics may include:

• Developments in Black Theater after the Black Arts Movement Period

• Black Theater in the Americas

• Black Playwrights on Broadway

• Black Theater and Performance, Where Have We Been

• The Future of Black Theater

Proposals should be no more than 250 words and should be submitted to me at

soyica.colbert@dartmouth.edu BY OCTOBER 15. Abstracts must include paper title and contact information and must specify any AV needs.

Proposers will be notified of inclusion in the session proposed to ATHE by Oct. 23 but please note that preliminary acceptance of inclusion does not guarantee acceptance by the ATHE Conference Committee.

ATHE will notify ATDS concerning accepted or rejected panels by late February.

ATDS looks forward to celebrating our 25th Anniversary with all of you in our nation's capital during the ATHE Conference, August 2‐5, 2012.

About the American Theatre and Drama Society: The American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) is an incorporated organization dedicated to the study of United States theatre and drama, its varied histories, traditions, literatures, and performances within its cultural contexts. ATDS also encourages the evolving debate exploring national identities and experiences through research, pedagogy, and practice. ATDS recognizes that notions of America and the US encompass migrations of peoples and cultures that overlap and influence one another. To this end, ATDS

welcomes scholars, teachers, and practitioners world‐wide. For more information, please visit the ATDS website at www.atds.org.

New research and development in any aspect of American drama

ATDS at the Comparative Drama Conference (March 29 - 31, 2012 - Baltimore, MD)

Submission Deadline: 18 November 2011

Papers reporting on new research and development in any aspect of American drama are invited for the 36th Comparative Drama Conference hosted by Stevenson University in Baltimore, MD, March 29-31, 2012. Papers may be comparative across nationalities, periods and disciplines; and may deal with any issue in dramatic literature, criticism, theory, and performance, or any method of historiography, translation, or production of the Americas.  Papers should be 15 minutes in length and should be accessible to a multi-disciplinary audience. Scholars and artists in all languages and literatures are invited to email a 250 word abstract to Dr. Chrystyna Dail (cdail@ithaca.edu) by 18 November 2011.

Please include paper title, author’s name, status (faculty, graduate student, other/scholar-at-large), institutional affiliation, and postal address at top left. Also include any technical requirements for your presentation such as powerpoint or slide projectors, DVD/VHS, etc. (Please note: AV that is not requested with the abstract cannot be guaranteed). Those whose abstracts are accepted for presentation are expected to attend the conference.  Abstracts will be printed in the conference program.

Pre-organized panels will also be considered. A pre-organized panel should include three papers. Panel proposals should include (1) a copy of each panelist’s 250 word abstract with paper title, author’s name, institutional affiliation, status, postal address and email address at top left, and (2) a succinct, 50-word rationale for the grouping of the papers. The panel organizer should email the abstracts and rationale to cdail@ithaca.edu by 18 November 2011.

Conference registration includes a complimentary ticket to Sondheim's INTO THE WOODS performed at CenterStage Theater on March 29.

The Conference - The Comparative Drama Conference is an international, interdisciplinary conference founded by Dr. Karelisa Hartigan at the University of Florida in 1977. Every year, approximately 150 scholars are invited to present and discuss their work in the field of drama. The conference draws participants from both the Humanities and the Arts. The papers delivered range over the entire field of theatre research and production. Over the past 35 years, participants have come from 32 nations and all 50 states. Each year a distinguished theatre scholar or artist is invited to address the participants in a plenary session.

Submitters of abstracts will be notified by email on or before 30 January 2012 as to the board’s decision regarding their abstracts. Those submitters whose proposed papers are accepted for presentation will be asked to prepare full papers, suitable for 15-minute readings, for delivery at the conference. Those whose papers are accepted are expected to attend the conference. Presenters are required to pre-register.

ATDS - The American Theatre and Drama Society is an incorporated organization dedicated to the study of United States theatre and drama, its varied histories, traditions, literatures, and performances within its cultural contexts. ATDS also encourages the evolving debate exploring national identities and experiences through research, pedagogy, and practice. ATDS recognizes that notions of America and the US encompass migrations of peoples and cultures that overlap and influence one another. To this end, ATDS welcomes scholars, teachers, and practitioners world-wide.  http://www.atds.org/ 
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“Performance as/is Civic Engagement: Advocate, Collaborate, Educate”

The Religion and Theatre Focus Group invites panels that address any issues arising from the conference theme.  In addition to the traditional format of paper panels, we also welcome proposals in the form of roundtables, collaborations, staged readings, talkbacks, and more.
 
The relationship between religion and civic engagement has always been complicated and compelling.  In Washington D.C. late summer 2012, the dialogue between the two will be enhanced and focused during the presidential election. This site-specific conference suggests a number of avenues for fruitful discussion:  What role does religion play in political performance? How might religious performance disrupt or enhance civic engagement?  What are important or difficult collaborations between religious and civic performance?  What have been important sites of advocacy for religion and theatre in the past/the present/the future?     
 
Remember that panels are not just an opportunity to showcase the work of people already active in the field, but also to bring in fresh ideas and new faces.  We encourage you to distribute your CFPs widely and to think creatively about how to engage in new conversations in your sessions.
 
Submission Deadlines:  
Complete Sessions (recommended):
       Submit online directly to ATHE (www.athe.org) by 1 November.
Individual paper proposals or session ideas:
       Submit to Megan Sanborn Jones (msjones@byu.edu) by 15 October and she will work with you create a complete                  session.
Multidisciplinary Sessions:
       Multidisciplinary (MD) panels must be sponsored by at least three different focus groups. All MD session organizers         must contact the conference planners of all three sponsoring groups before submitting their session directly to ATHE        by 1 November.
Starting the conversation:
       Use the RT listserv (ReligionTheatreList@athe.org) to find colleagues with shared interests.

Get Started!
Now is the time to begin your own conversations, brainstorming, and calls for participants through the R&T listserv and other venues. If you have any questions or confusion, feel free to email conference planner Megan (msjones@byu.edu).  We are looking forward to an exciting and thought-provoking conference in Chicago and hope to see you there.
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KURT WEILL FOUNDATION GRANT PROGRAM

Each year the Kurt Weill Foundation Grant Program awards financial support
to not-for-profit organizations for performances of Kurt Weill’s musical
works, to individuals and not-for-profit organizations for scholarly
research projects, and to not-for-profit organizations for educational
initiatives directly related to Weill and/or Lotte Lenya.

FUNDING CATEGORIES:
Research and Travel
Kurt Weill Dissertation Fellowship
Publication Assistance
Educational Outreach
College/University Performance
Professional Performance
Broadcasts

DEADLINES: 
The annual application deadline is 1 November for the following calendar
year, academic year, or cultural season, and applicants will be informed of
awards no later than 1 February of the funding year. An additional
application deadline of 1 June is limited exclusively to College/University
Performance grants for productions taking place in the upcoming fall
semester. Applications for support of major professional
productions/festivals/exhibitions, etc., will be evaluated on a case-by-case
basis without application or performance deadlines.

APPLICATION: 
For more information and guidelines, see:
http://www.kwf.org/kwf/grants-a-prizes/grant-program.
Inquires may be directed to:

The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music
7 E. 20th St., New York, NY 10003
(212) 505-5240
kwfinfo@kwf.org
www.kwf.org

“THE MOST FABULOUS PRODUCERS”

ATHE CONFERENCE 2012 ROUNDTABLE PROPOSAL

DEADLINE: OCTOBER 10, 2011

This proposed roundtable invites proposals re-evaluating both the business and creative achievements and innovations of major theatre producers.  The role of the producer has often been undervalued, and while biographies document the careers of great impresarios, scholarship has not consistently assessed the work of the producer alongside that of a creative team.  This roundtable aims to chart the evolving role of the producer from the nineteenth century to the present day, to generally acknowledge the commercial nature of American theatre, and more specifically to recognize the producer's role in sustaining the industry.  By examining innovation originating outside the rehearsal hall and off-stage, this roundtable seeks to offer a new appreciation of the producer's influence on American theatre. 

Please submit a 250 word abstract, which must move beyond a biographical sketch to focus on a particular achievement and/or offer a new perspective on a specific producer.  The deadline is OCTOBER 10 and abstracts should be sent to both William Everett, University of Missouri-Kansas City (everettw@umkc.edu) and Laura MacDonald, University of Groningen (l.e.macdonald@gmail.com).  Successful proposers will be confirmed by OCTOBER 17, at which point a full proposal will be prepared and submitted to the ATHE Conference Committee.  The variety of proposals will determine whether the roundtable is submitted as a multi-disciplinary or single focus group proposal.

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“The National Mall as a Sacred/Social/Political Performance Site”

The Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s 2012 Conference

August 2-5, 2012; Washington D.C.

The National Mall in Washington, D.C. has always been a public performance site. This space not only hosts countless demonstrations and gatherings throughout the year, but the negotiations concerning museum and memorial locations on the Mall often become public performances. What is at stake in these performances? How can performance and theatrical theory help us understand the power of this site? How does the mall’s nationalistic/patriotic atmosphere give credibility and visibility to groups with specific social, political, and/or religious agenda? Alternatively, how does performance imbue the Mall with ongoing power and value? What performative strategies have groups used to appropriate the Mall’s symbolic power? How might we understand the layout of the Mall as a visual performance? This session invites work that explores the National Mall as a sacred, social, and/or political performance site from various historical, critical, and theoretical perspectives.

Please send a one-page abstract and brief bio to Jill Stevenson (jillstevenson@gmail.com) by October 20^th. Feel free to email Jill with questions. This panel is co-sponsored by ATHE’s Religion and Theatre Focus Group and Performance Studies Focus Group. For further information on ATHE’s conference, please visit: http://www.athe.org/

“ELECTIVE PERFORMANCES: AMERICAN THEATRE IN THE 21^ST CENTURY”

Panel Coordinator:  Iris Smith Fischer

As part of a special set of coordinated panels titled “ATDS @ 25: Looking Forward, Looking Back,” on behalf of the American Theatre and Drama Society I invite submissions for a panel that engages both the Society’s celebration and ATHE’s conference theme, “Performance as/is Civic Engagement: Advocate, Collaborate, Educate.”

The 2012 Presidential and national elections will take place shortly after ATHE meets in Washington, D.C. As preparations for the elections begin to gather momentum, ATDS invites consideration of the relations between theatre and elections in the 21^st century. Papers may address any of the aspects of elections:

·         the formal choosing of a person for an office, usually by the votes of a constituent body;

·         the exercise of deliberate choice or preference; choice between alternatives, esp. in matters of conduct;

·         having the power of elective officers or representatives by vote;

or the characteristic of being elective:

·         of physical forces and agencies; having a tendency to operate on or combine with certain objects in preference to others;

·         an optional subject or course of study.

To what extent does theatre participate in elections? Does theatre encourage debate? More broadly, does theatre invite deliberation and choice in the 21^st century? Does theatre address certain audiences in preference to others? What power does theatre have in the lives of the voters? What are the elective characteristics of theatre considered as twice-behaved behavior, i.e. performance? Is theatre elective in the 21^st century—i.e., is it dispensable?

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15

Proposals should be no more than 250 words and should be submitted to me at ifischer@ku.edu. Abstracts must include paper title and contact information and must specify any audio-visual needs.

Proposers will be notified of inclusion in the session by October 23, but please note that preliminary acceptance does not guarantee acceptance of the panel by the ATHE Conference Committee. ATHE will notify ATDS of panels accepted/rejected by late February.

The members of ATDS look forward to celebrating our 25^th anniversary with all of you in our nation’s capital during the ATHE conference, August 2-5, 2012.

The American Theatre and Drama Society is an incorporated organization dedicated to the study of United States theatre and drama, its varied histories, traditions, literatures, and performances within its cultural contexts. ATDS also encourages the evolving debate exploring national identities and experiences through research, pedagogy, and practice. ATDS recognizes that notions of America and the US encompass migrations of peoples and cultures that overlap and influence one another. To this end, ATDS welcomes scholars, teachers, and practitioners world-wide. For more information, please visit the ATDS website at www.atds.org.

The 33rd Annual Mid-America Theatre Conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago from March 1-4, 2012.
The conference hosts two debut Emerging Scholars Panels designed for both undergraduate and graduate students who have not yet presented at a conference.

Paper submissions for each panel are welcome on any topic in theatre history, theory, or dramatic literature. Papers that complement the conference theme of "Work" are encouraged but not required.

Up to three participants will be selected for each panel, and each panelist will have fifteen minutes to deliver his or her paper. Students whose papers are accepted will received free conference registration, free admission to the conference luncheon, a one-year membership in MATC, and a cash prize of $50. Undergraduate panelists will also be paired with a conference mentor.

Papers should be 7-10 pages in length (1750-2500 words), and will be evaluated on their originality, the quality of writing and research, and critical/theoretical sophistication.

For consideration, please e-mail all submission as Microsoft Word attachments to the symposium co-chairs:
Kate Roark (roarkk@uhd.edu)
Jeff Grace (jgrace@knox.edu)

Submissions should include the following:
(1) Your name and the name of your academic institution
(2) Contact information (including mailing address, e-mail, and telephone number
(3) A brief bio
(4) Indication of whether you are submitting to the Undergraduate or Graduate Debut Panel
(5) Completed paper (no abstracts, please)

Deadlines for submission are:
Graduate Panel = October 15, 2011
Undergraduate Panel = November 1, 2011

Attached is a .pdf of the CFP. Please feel free to distribute to your interested students.

Thank you,

Jeff Grace, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Theatre
Knox College
2 E. South St. K-131
Galesburg, IL 61401
jgrace@knox.edu
(309) 341-7329

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Creative Critical Pedagogy Seminar

Seminar Chair: James McKinnon (Victoria University of Wellington)

CATR/ACRT Conference 2012, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario (Canadian Association for Theatre Research/Association canadienne de la recherche théâtrale).

26 – 29 May 2012, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Critical and creative thinking are valued skills, and developing them is part of the explicit mandate of many of our universities, and particularly of their liberal and creative arts programs. Drama and theatre programs, in theory, are ideally positioned to provide this training, and yet academic staff in those programs face a number of serious obstacles, including cultural attitudes (some people dismiss “intellectual” content as irrelevant to their artistic aspirations, others believe that creative talent is born, not trained), curricula which reinforce those attitudes (by privileging the creative output of individual geniuses, e.g.), university hierarchies which set teaching “load” against research “opportunities,” and structural/infrastructural issues (large classes, etc.).

This project invites proposals for teaching and learning experiments that address these problems by seeking productive intersections between teaching and research, creativity and criticality. During the period of this project (November 2011 – May 2012), participants will develop, share, and evaluate teaching and learning strategies for post-secondary drama and theatre contexts. We will focus in particular on strategies that exploit the potential of theatre to stimulate creative and critical thinking – a goal shared by all drama and theatre academics and educators, from scenographers, to theatre historians, to acting instructors.

Each participant will design and conduct a teaching experiment that addresses this problem in their specific teaching/research context, assess its effectiveness, and report on the results. During the process, we will connect regularly through a blog, to exchange ideas, methods, resources, and results. In the weeks leading up to our meeting in Waterloo, we will invite auditors to read part of our discussion in order to enrich the seminar.

We invite proposals from scholar/educators in all areas of post-secondary drama and theatre. Prospective participants should send a bio along with a 250-word proposal, which presents an idea for a drama/theatre-based teaching experiment which addresses the challenges of developing critical and creative thinking in their particular teaching/learning context to james.mckinnon@vuw.ac.nz by 15 November.
2011. Participants will be expected to collaborate through and contribute to our blog, and to attend the seminar at the CATR/ACRT Conference in Waterloo, Ontario, 26-29 May 2012.

“Performance as/is Civic Engagement: Advocate, Collaborate, Educate”

The Religion and Theatre Focus Group invites panels that address any issues arising from the conference theme.  In addition to the traditional format of paper panels, we also welcome proposals in the form of roundtables, collaborations, staged readings, talkbacks, and more.
 
The relationship between religion and civic engagement has always been complicated and compelling.  In Washington D.C. late summer 2012, the dialogue between the two will be enhanced and focused during the presidential election. This site-specific conference suggests a number of avenues for fruitful discussion:  What role does religion play in political performance? How might religious performance disrupt or enhance civic engagement?  What are important or difficult collaborations between religious and civic performance?  What have been important sites of advocacy for religion and theatre in the past/the present/the future?     
 
Remember that panels are not just an opportunity to showcase the work of people already active in the field, but also to bring in fresh ideas and new faces.  We encourage you to distribute your CFPs widely and to think creatively about how to engage in new conversations in your sessions.
 
Submission Deadlines:  
Complete Sessions (recommended):
      Submit online directly to ATHE (www.athe.org) by 1 November.
Individual paper proposals or session ideas:
      Submit to Megan Sanborn Jones (wlmailhtml:msjones@byu.edu) by 15 October and she will work with you create a complete session.
Multidisciplinary Sessions:
      Multidisciplinary (MD) panels must be sponsored by at least three different focus groups. All MD session organizers must contact the conference planners of all three sponsoring groups before submitting their session directly to ATHE by 1 November.
Starting the conversation:
      Use the RT listserv (wlmailhtml:ReligionTheatreList@athe.org) to find colleagues with shared interests.

Get Started!
Now is the time to begin your own conversations, brainstorming, and calls for participants through the R&T listserv and other venues. If you have any questions or confusion, feel free to email conference planner Megan (wlmailhtml:msjones@byu.edu).  We are looking forward to an exciting and thought-provoking conference in Chicago and hope to see you there.
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Theory and Criticism Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), 2012 conference

Washington, DC, August 2-5, 2012

I.                   Theory & Criticism 6^th Annual Roundtable Series (individual paper abstracts)

II.                Session Proposals (Theory & Criticism or Multidisciplinary focus)

I. "Criticism as Activism” – An Interactive Roundtable Event

In response to the 2012 ATHE conference theme of “Performance As/Is Civic Engagement: Advocate, Collaborate, Educate,” the Theory and Criticism Focus Group desires to create a series of roundtables that takes up the notion of Criticism as Activism. Tertullian, the French Academy, Zola, Brecht, Boal, Butler, Dolan, and . . . you!

Theatre is a cultural product, revealing who we think we are in a historic moment, and who we might want to be in the future. Theatre, like all art, engages with the political. It responds to, comments on, and shapes how we see the world and how we imagine the future. In propaganda performance, for example, the politics are overt. But often the politics of a piece of performance or work of criticism lies in unquestioned assumptions about how the world works. In the past, some critics scorned actors for their lowly social status, or resented their spectacular performances that pulled people away from more sober, and often religious, pursuits. Some monarchs embraced performance as a political tool, one that could be employed to bolster support or crush dissent. Critics have culled from Shakespeare evidence of Romantic sensibility, of racial bigotry, of queer subversion. As artists and pedagogues, we engage with the political each time we create a performance, or teach a script. As scholars and critics, we take up politics when we take up our pen. Our art, our voices, our writing, matters because it expresses who we are right now, and who we wish to be in the future.

Inspired by the ATHE 2012 conference theme, the Theory and Criticism Focus Group (T&C) responds to the challenge of considering performance as civic engagement with a roundtable series that encourages participants and audiences to explore the notion of Criticism as Activism.

We aim to create a series of panels where scholars, teachers, and practitioners can investigate, challenge, re-imagine, and explode how historical or contemporary theorists and critics have used dramatic and/or performance criticism to intervene in social and political debates. How does performance criticism empower voices, on stage and off? What can we learn from critical attempts to engage with publics and counterpublics? How do we theorize and apply historical criticism that supports diverging ideological viewpoints? What can theatre and performance criticism offer to contemporary debates in the field about new media or academic publishing? How are critics activists? What is activist criticism? What does criticism mean today?

 T&C seeks submissions from theatre artists, pedagogues, scholars, activists, and critics interested in exploring these questions specifically or the notion of Criticism as Activism in general. Building on the tradition of our previous panel series, we strive to include a diverse range of participants from graduate students and emerging scholars, to professional critics, established artists, and senior scholars. For the 2012 ATHE conference, we will host a series of roundtable discussions, with each participant presenting a position statement or paper of up to 8 pages, which take up questions of Criticism as Activism from a wide range of starting points, including but not limited to:

T&C will be accepting individual, 250 word abstracts for position statements or papers for this roundtable series until: Monday, October 24^th, 2011.  At that point T & C will group these papers into a panel series and seek out respondents.  Participants will be informed of their acceptance by Thursday, October 27^th, and T&C will oversee the submission of the series panels through ATHE’s online proposal process. Send your paper abstracts to cab0023@auburn.edu.

II. Complete session proposals

We also seek complete session proposals as well for the 2012 conference that include a broad range of theoretical interrogations and applications. We encourage multidisciplinary dialogues across the fields of performance scholarship and seek participants from a variety of focus group affiliations. Note that all multidisciplinary proposals must be authorized by three sponsoring ATHE focus groups; please contact the appropriate focus group conference planners and or committee chair for authorization. For a list of the ATHE focus group conference planners visit http://www.athe.org/getinvolved/focusgroups/index and click on the desired focus group.  

The Theory and Criticism Focus Group supports broad definitions of criticism and performance, and therefore encourages a wide range of examples and topics. Feel free to explore both historical and contemporary critics and theorists, in popular culture and academic scholarship. Panel proposals that engage scholarly conversation in creative ways are highly encouraged.

Complete session proposals (separate from the roundtable series) should be submitted directly to ATHE: www.athe.org  All participants must be included in these proposals.  The website includes submission information and forms.  The session proposal deadline is November 1^st, 2011.

A Final Summary of Submission Guidelines for Both Options:

For the “Criticism as Activism” Roundtable Series:

Individual submissions for the series should be submitted to the T&C focus group representative, Chase Bringardner: cab0023@auburn.edu. Submissions should include an abstract (250 words or less), title, contact information (name, institutional affiliation, email address, and phone number), a brief bio (50 words or less), and any specific A/V requirements. Deadline for these submissions is:  Monday, October 24^th, 2011.

For complete session proposals (separate from the roundtable series):

Session proposals should be submitted directly to ATHE: www.athe.org  All participants must be included in these proposals.  The website includes submission information and forms.  The session proposal deadline is November 1^st, 2011.

For single paper submissions (outside of our annual panel series) looking for a session home

contact either cab0023@auburn.edu or sshawyer@gmail.com.

Individuals do not need to be a member or T&C or ATHE to submit abstracts or session proposals. However, if chosen and scheduled, participants must become members of ATHE by the time of the conference.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Theory and Criticism Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher
Education (ATHE)
2012 Conference, Washington, DC, August 2-5, 2012

I. Theory & Criticism 6th Annual Roundtable Series (individual paper abstracts)
II.Session Proposals (Theory & Criticism or Multidisciplinary focus)


I. "Criticism as Activism” – An Interactive Roundtable Event

In response to the 2012 ATHE conference theme of “Performance As/Is Civic
Engagement: Advocate, Collaborate, Educate,” the Theory and Criticism Focus
Group desires to create a series of roundtables that takes up the notion of
Criticism as Activism. Tertullian, the French Academy, Zola, Brecht, Boal,
Butler, Dolan, and . . . you!

Theatre is a cultural product, revealing who we think we are in a historic
moment, and who we might want to be in the future. Theatre, like all art,
engages with the political. It responds to, comments on, and shapes how we
see the world and how we imagine the future. In propaganda performance, for
example, the politics are overt. But often the politics of a piece of
performance or work of criticism lies in unquestioned assumptions about how
the world works. In the past, some critics scorned actors for their lowly
social status, or resented their spectacular performances that pulled people
away from more sober, and often religious, pursuits. Some monarchs embraced
performance as a political tool, one that could be employed to bolster
support or crush dissent. Critics have culled from Shakespeare evidence of
Romantic sensibility, of racial bigotry, of queer subversion. As artists and
pedagogues, we engage with the political each time we create a performance,
or teach a script. As scholars and critics, we take up politics when we take
up our pen. Our art, our voices, our writing, matters because it expresses
who we are right now, and who we wish to be in the future.

Inspired by the ATHE 2012 conference theme, the Theory and Criticism Focus
Group (T&C) responds to the challenge of considering performance as civic
engagement with a roundtable series that encourages participants and
audiences to explore the notion of Criticism as Activism.

We aim to create a series of panels where scholars, teachers, and
practitioners can investigate, challenge, re-imagine, and explode how
historical or contemporary theorists and critics have used dramatic and/or
performance criticism to intervene in social and political debates. How does
performance criticism empower voices, on stage and off? What can we learn
from critical attempts to engage with publics and counterpublics? How do we
theorize and apply historical criticism that supports diverging ideological
viewpoints? What can theatre and performance criticism offer to contemporary
debates in the field about new media or academic publishing? How are critics
activists? What is activist criticism? What does criticism mean today?

T&C seeks submissions from theatre artists, pedagogues, scholars, activists,
and critics interested in exploring these questions specifically or the
notion of Criticism as Activism in general. Building on the tradition of our
previous panel series, we strive to include a diverse range of participants
from graduate students and emerging scholars, to professional critics,
established artists, and senior scholars. For the 2012 ATHE conference, we
will host a series of roundtable discussions, with each participant
presenting a position statement or paper of up to 8 pages, which take up
questions of Criticism as Activism from a wide range of starting points,
including but not limited to:

1. How has theatre or performance criticism engaged with individual artists
or performing companies, or empowered specific social groups?  How does
performance criticism empower voices, on stage and off? What ethical
questions surround the critical relationship? How can theatre and
performance scholarship be sensitive to critical ethics?

2. How has theatre or performance criticism engaged with notions of
nationalism and the nation state? In what ways have activist critics
challenged or reified national ideologies, transnational identities, or
diasporic imaginaries?

3. How has the changing media landscape supported or resisted the creation
of the celebrity critic, that star author who wields great power? What
historiographical strategies encourage or transcend the narrative of the
celebrity critic?

4. How have fields or schools of criticism shaped theatre and performance
historiography? How do specific schools of criticism consider and frame the
notion of activism? How do we theorize and apply historical criticism that
supports diverging ideological viewpoints?

5. How does theatre or performance criticism engage with its relationship to
the media in an activist way? How has the changing academic landscape
supported or resisted activist criticism?

6. What can we learn from critical attempts to engage with publics and
counterpublics? How are critics activists? What is activist criticism? What
does criticism mean today?

T&C will be accepting individual, 250 word abstracts for position statements
or papers for this roundtable series until: Monday, October 24th, 2011.  At
that point T & C will group these papers into a panel series and seek out
respondents.  Participants will be informed of their acceptance by Thursday,
October 27th, and T&C will oversee the submission of the series panels
through ATHE’s online proposal process. Send your paper abstracts to
cab0023@auburn.edu.

 
II. Complete session proposals

We also seek complete session proposals as well for the 2012 conference that
include a broad range of theoretical interrogations and applications. We
encourage multidisciplinary dialogues across the fields of performance
scholarship and seek participants from a variety of focus group
affiliations. Note that all multidisciplinary proposals must be authorized
by three sponsoring ATHE focus groups; please contact the appropriate focus
group conference planners and or committee chair for authorization. For a
list of the ATHE focus group conference planners visit
http://www.athe.org/getinvolved/focusgroups/index and click on the desired
focus group. 

The Theory and Criticism Focus Group supports broad definitions of criticism
and performance, and therefore encourages a wide range of examples and
topics. Feel free to explore both historical and contemporary critics and
theorists, in popular culture and academic scholarship. Panel proposals that
engage scholarly conversation in creative ways are highly encouraged.

Complete session proposals (separate from the roundtable series) should be
submitted directly to ATHE: www.athe.org  All participants must be included
in these proposals.  The website includes submission information and forms.
 The session proposal deadline is November 1st, 2011.
 

A Final Summary of Submission Guidelines for Both Options:


For the “Criticism as Activism” Roundtable Series:

Individual submissions for the series should be submitted to the T&C focus
group representative, Chase Bringardner: cab0023@auburn.edu. Submissions
should include an abstract (250 words or less), title, contact information
(name, institutional affiliation, email address, and phone number), a brief
bio (50 words or less), and any specific A/V requirements. Deadline for
these submissions is:  Monday, October 24th, 2011.

For complete session proposals (separate from the roundtable series):

Session proposals should be submitted directly to ATHE: www.athe.org  All
participants must be included in these proposals.  The website includes
submission information and forms.  The session proposal deadline is November
1st, 2011.

For single paper submissions (outside of our annual panel series) looking
for a session home

contact either cab0023@auburn.edu or sshawyer@gmail.com.

Individuals do not need to be a member or T&C or ATHE to submit abstracts or
session proposals. However, if chosen and scheduled, participants must
become members of ATHE by the time of the conference.

We look forward to hearing from you!
 

The Performance Studies Focus Group (PSFG) of the Association for
>Theatre in
> Higher Education (ATHE) invites session proposals for the 2012
>Conference at
> the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., 2-5 August on
>the
> conference theme of "Performance as/is Civic Engagement: Advocate,
> Collaborate, Educate."  We welcome proposals for panels,
>performances,
> roundtables, working groups, and alternative formats.
>
>
>
> In the midst of the political circus surrounding the United States
>2012
> presidential election, we will reconcile the state of contemporary
>political
> performance with intellectual gestures toward an idealistic notion
>of the
> performative.  In the current climate, can performance still create
>hope?
> As mediatized performance dominates Washington power plays, PSFG
>invites
> submissions that consider the possibility of advocacy and civic
>engagement.
> Might performance disrupt/reinforce hegemonic structures?  Does
>performance
> as civic engagement necessarily have to participate in the process
>of nation
> building?  What opportunities exist for transnational civic
>engagement?  How
> might we trace the genealogy of performative politics in the United
>States
> and beyond?  In the wake of social mediatization and political
>posturing,
> what indeed is the new capitalist aesthetic?  We encourage
>historical work
> as well as political performance of all kinds, from all periods, in
>all places.
>
>
>
> All session proposals are filed electronically directly to ATHE.  A
>link to
> the session proposal form, along with full explanations, can be
>found at
> http://athe.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=156.  All
>session
> proposals have a deadline of 1 November.
>
>
>
> ATHE also accepts proposals for Multidisciplinary (MD) sessions.
> Multidisciplinary panels must be sponsored by at least three
>different focus
> groups.  All MD session organizers must contact the Conference
>Planners of
> all sponsoring groups before submitting their session directly to
>ATHE. If
> you would like to learn more about ATHE Focus Groups, go to:
> http://athe.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=14.  All session proposals are
>due by 1
> November.
>
>
>
> While individual papers will receive consideration, submissions that
>pull
> together a strong panel of participants are preferred.  With
>individual
> papers, the Focus Group Conference Planner will curate panels,
>attempting to
> match up related papers.  In order to facilitate this process, these
>papers
> must be received directly by the Conference Planner Megan Shea at
> megan.shea@nyu.edu, by October 10th.  Individual paper proposals
>should
> include title, contact information, and an abstract of 250 words.
>
>
>
> If you are looking for co-panelists, please feel free to post your
>inquiries
> to our listserv: PerformanceStudiesList@athe.org.  If you are not
>yet a
> member of the listserv, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to
> imailsrv@athe.org. In the body of the e-mail, type the following:
>subscribe
> PerformanceStudiesList Firstname Lastname (where Firstname and
>Lastname
> equal your first name and your last name).
>
>
>
> If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact:
>
> Megan Shea
>
> PSFG Conference Planner
>
> Expository Writing Program
>
> New York University
>
> 411 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor
>
> New York, NY 10003
>
> megan.shea@nyu.edu

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American Theatre and Drama Society Sessions for ATHE 2012, Washington, DC

Deadlines:
Individual papers and papers for the following panels (see individual CFPs): October 15 (submit to Susan Kattwinkel – kattwinkels@cofc.edu or panel chairs as listed on CFPs)
Complete sessions: November 1 - submit online to ATHE at www.athe.org

 
ATDS @ 25: Looking Forward, Looking Back
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the American Theatre and Drama Society plans to present a set of coordinated panels, designed to chart the chronological, topical, and historiographic progression of our discipline. 
 
 
ATDS welcomes panels or individual papers that address key loci in American Theatre and Drama from all ATHE members. (Panels might address theatrical movements, specialties, historical moments, key individuals, etc.)
 
Multi-disciplinary panels addressing key movements, genres, or moments in American Theatre history are also encouraged.

ATDS looks forward to celebrating our 25th Anniversary with you all in our nation's capital, August 2-5, 2012.
 
 
Preference will be given to ATDS members. If you are interested in enjoying all of the membership benefits of ATDS – including your own subscription to the Journal of American Drama and Theatre – please visit the website (www.atds.org <http://www.atds.org> ) for an application or contact ATDS Membership Secretary Stuart Hecht (hecht@bc.edu <mailto:hecht@bc.edu> ).
 
About the American Theatre and Drama Society: The American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) is an incorporated organization dedicated to the study of United States theatre and drama, its varied histories, traditions, literatures, and performances within its cultural contexts. ATDS also encourages the evolving debate exploring national identities and experiences through research, pedagogy, and practice. ATDS recognizes that notions of America and the US encompass migrations of peoples and cultures that overlap and influence one another. To this end, ATDS welcomes scholars, teachers, and practitioners world-wide. 
--
Susan Kattwinkel
ATHE Conference Planner 2012, American Theatre and Drama Society
--
Susan Kattwinkel, Ph.D.
Director of the First-Year Experience
Associate Professor, Theatre
183 Lightsey Center Annex
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
(843) 953-8218
(843) 953-5800 (fax)
Web: www.cofc.edu/fye
 

The Thornton Wilder Society calls for papers for a proposed panel at the ATHE (Association for Theatre in Higher Education) conference: “Performance as/is Civic Engagement: Advocate, Collaborate, Educate.”  The conference focus is: “How is theatre a mode of advocacy for the arts in general and for higher education more specifically?  How can we use performance to help our students and audiences find their voices as local, national and global advocates?  In what ways is every theatrical event a mode of civic engagement?”  Papers may address any aspect of Wilder’s dramatic works as they have been or could be used as modes of social advocacy and/or civic engagement.

The conference will be in Washington, D.C. at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill on August 2 - 5, 2012. Deadline for proposals: October 29.  Please send proposals (approximately 500 words and a title, with name, title, and institutional affiliation, if applicable) to Dr. Park Bucker, University of South Carolina Sumter (email: psbucke@uscsumter.edu).

Possible topics include:

Performance studies (including high schools) on how any of Wilder’s plays have been used as forms of civic engagement.

Analysis of the documentary O.T. Our Town (2002) or other significant high school productions of the play.

The Skin of Our Teeth or other plays as political theatre or agitprop.

Production histories of The Skin of Our Teeth as presented to wartime or similarly traumatized audiences.

George Antrobus, Dolly Levi (The Matchmaker/Hello, Dolly!), or other Wilder characters as models for social advocacy.

Wilder’s stagecraft as a form of civic engagement, particularly in Our Town.

 

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ATHE Theatre History Focus Group Call for Proposals

The Theatre History Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education invites proposals for next year’s conference, to be held at the Hyatt Regency on Capital Hill in Washington, DC, August 2-5, 2012.  The overall conference theme, “Performance as/is Civic Engagement: Advocate, Collaborate, Educate” calls for rich contextualization and interrogation of performance as a contributor to civic debate. Thinking broadly about how we define “civic engagement,” we invite proposals for panels and roundtables about histories of theatre that might engage the following questions and themes:  

• How has advocacy historically been incorporated within theatre practice, and how has theatre practice spurred changes in advocacy?  

• How has the actor’s body as medium been perceived as a site of performed civic discourse in different historical periods?

• What are the implications of advocacy for research in theatre history and historiography, especially as pertaining to archive sustenance?

• How might we teach the history of theatre and civic engagement?  How has theatre “survived” power shifts in earlier periods?

• How does advocacy influence theatre history pedagogies?

Please note that papers and panels with a scope beyond the conference theme are also welcome.

Tips for submitting proposals:

1.  Complete proposals for sessions (with all presenters assembled) should be submitted directly to ATHE through the website at www.athe.org.  The deadline for all proposals is November 1, 2011.  Please forward a copy of your proposal to THFG Chair and Conference Planner, Virginia Anderson at ginny.anderson@gmail.com.  

If you would like assistance in panel coordination, please use the THFG listserv (theatrehistorylist@athe.org) or Facebook group (ATHE Theatre History Focus Group), or email individual paper proposals to the conference planner no later than Friday, October 28 (note that the latter option does not guarantee submission/acceptance).

2.  Submissions may be either discipline specific or multidisciplinary.  In general, we are interested in panel topics that address the history of theatrical practice, historiography, or the relation of theatre to history in a larger sense.  We encourage proposals that include both senior and junior scholars, as well as graduate students. A senior scholar could well serve as a respondent.  We also encourage collaborations with other Focus Groups and Committees of ATHE to develop dynamic multidisciplinary sessions.  Please see below for specific rules and guidelines for multidisciplinary proposals. 

3.  For Theatre History-Specific Proposals:  If your session addresses primarily theatre history, then choose “Single Focus Group” in the first selection box of the online proposal form.  For Session Sponsor, select number 18, “(TH) Theatre History.”  When the selection process begins, all THFG-targeted proposals will be sent to the THFG conference planner.  The THFG Executive Committee will rank the proposals, and the conference committee will use those rankings to make final programming decisions. It is not necessary to contact the conference planner before submitting a THFG proposal, but please do forward a copy of your proposal to the conference planner once you have submitted it (see above, ginny.anderson@gmail.com).  Also feel free to contact the conference planner if you have any problems or concerns or if you are curious as to whether or not your proposal is appropriate for THFG. 

4.  For Multi-Disciplinary (MD) Proposals: If your session addresses theatre history but is also appropriate for another Focus Group or Committee, consider THFG as one of your target focus groups.  You must select 3 targeted Focus Groups or Committees for an MD panel to be considered.  To make an MD proposal you must contact the conference planners for each of the targeted Focus 

Groups/Committees by email before submitting online in order to receive feedback and to make sure the proposals are appropriate for each FG /Committee.  If one of your targeted focus groups is not enthusiastic, better to know before submission and perhaps find another FG or committee.  See www.athe.org for contact information for Focus Group conference planners and Committee chairs.  As with the THFG-specific proposals, we receive a list from ATHE of all MD sessions, and we rank those that target TH and return that ranking for consideration by the program committee. 

5.  Special notes for the 2012 Conference:

A.  Double-sessions will not be included as part of the 2012 conference program. Please make sure your proposal fits well within the traditional 90 minute session format.

B.     You must request an LCD projector at the time of proposal.  While there is a $300 fee, please note that ATHE grant requests for technology are strongly encouraged and frequently awarded.

C.     It will not be possible to request specific days for presentations.  If selected, your session could be scheduled on any day of the conference.  Session Coordinators should ensure that all participants know that they should be available for all days of the conference.

D.      Participants will be limited to a maximum of two presentations.  “Presentation” refers to the act of delivering a paper, serving on a roundtable, or serving in an equivalent role in a different type of session. There is no limit to the number of sessions that a person can Chair or serve as Session Organizer.

7.  Individual papers and assistance in forming panels:  We encourage you to use our listserv to network proposals, paper topics, and do other brainstorming.  If you are not already signed up for the THFG ATHE listserv, you can sign up at http://www.athe.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=75 and following the directions found on that page.  Contact everyone on the listserv by e-mailing to theatrehistorylist@athe.org. We have a Facebook group called “ATHE Theatre History Focus Group,” which might also facilitate this kind of networking.  While we prefer to receive full session proposals, you may request assistance from the conference planner in developing a session from your idea for an individual paper. 

8.  You should expect to hear whether or not your proposal has been accepted or rejected by mid-March, 2010.

9.  Questions?  Contact THFG Chair/Conference Planner Virginia Anderson at ginny.anderson@gmail.com.

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• protests and rallies
   
• inaugural parades/balls
• daily ceremonies, such as the Changing of the Guard in Arlington National Cemetary, or saying the Pledge of Allegiance
• citizenship tests
   
• civic pilgrimage/tourism
• commemorative ceremonies
• historical reenactments
• "patriotic" performances
   

2012 Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference

“Performing Racial and Ethnic US Histories”

With the deadline just around the corner, I would like to create a panel for ATHE’s 2012 conference in Washington D.C. this August. This panel proposal will be submitted to the American Theatre and Drama Society, and would explore the performance of racial and ethnic histories in the United States—both past and present. Papers might discuss how performances produce histories/memories to create or divide peoples, and could include theatrical productions, re-enactments, pageants, memorials, parades, community festivals, or tourism, amongst others.

The work done by these performances might touch upon the following:

• Challenging or celebrating established canonical histories
• Interrogating or reifying juridical status
• Educating audiences on a particular historical site, moment, or political message (including TYA) important to race/ethnic relations in the US
• Destabilizing or buttressing constructs and concepts of race and ethnicity
• Troubling or normalizing “whiteness”
• Processes of embodying, decoding, and performing race or ethnicity

Please send proposals (no more than 250 words) to me (bethanyholmstrom@gmail.com) by October 30th with paper title, contact info, and A/V needs. Varied formats and theoretical approaches welcome. Send any questions my way as well. The ATHE deadline is fast-approaching, so interested parties should contact me ASAP.

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The Harry Ransom Center, an internationally renowned humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, annually awards over 50 fellowships to support research projects that require substantial on-site use of its collections. The fellowships support research in all areas of the humanities, including literature, photography, film, art, the performing arts, music, and cultural history.

The fellowships range from one to three months, with stipends of $3,000 per month. Also available are $1,200 to $1,700 travel stipends and dissertation fellowships with a $1,500 stipend. Complete applications for the 2012-2013 Research Fellowships in the Humanities must be received by February 1, 2012.

More information about the fellowships and the Ransom Center’s collections is available online at http://budurl.com/jbcb. Questions about the fellowships should be directed to Bridget Gayle at brigayle@mail.utexas.edu or 512-232-3214.

2012 BIENNIAL EAAS CONFERENCE 30 March - 2 April,

İzmir, Turkey http://www.eaas.eu/conferences

The Health of the Nation

Workshop: American (Anti-)Theatricality and

Contagion: Staging the Health of the Nation

Chairs

Theresa Saxon, University of Central Lancashire,

Preston, UK.

E-mail: TSaxon@uclan.ac.uk

Lisa Merrill., Hofstra University, Long Island, New

York, U.S.A.

E-mail: Lisa.Merrill@Hofstra.edu

In America, theatre has long been regarded as a dangerous form of contagion, with the potential to spread throughout the populace. William Dunlap spoke of the “worm in the bark” that threatened the “root” of American theatre. Yet, despite protestation and outright ban, theatre has spread across the nation. This panel calls for papers assessing theatrical contagion in/of America. Papers could explore how America’s theatres have engaged with conceptualisations of “contagion,” such as discourses on miscegenation in plays like Boucicault’s “The Octoroon” and Green’s “In Abraham’s Bosom.” Other fields of enquiry could be the “spread” of technologies, as in Sophie Treadwell’s “Machinal,” or the “dangers’” of theatres as a site of mixing in the audience as well as onstage as in Marc Blitzstein’s “Cradle Will Rock,” or Orson Welles’ “Voodoo Macbeth.” We welcome papers on a range of topics that explore theatre’s capacity for contagion:

•         as a contributor to and a marker of a diseased national body;

•         as a stage for investigations into the nation’s cultural health;

•         as a participant in renewing and reshaping the diseased body politic, to restore the “health of the nation”;

•         as a leveller, commingling different audience populations;

•         as a site of radical organizing.

•        

Proposals should be sent to both workshop chairs.

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ATHE’s Music Theatre/Dance Focus Group:

Bruce Kirle Memorial Emerging Scholarship Panel

The Music Theatre/Dance (MT/D) Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) announces its call for papers for the “Bruce Kirle Memorial Emerging Scholarship Panel in Music Theatre/Dance” for the 2012 ATHE conference in Washington D.C. (August 2 - 5, 2012). This annual panel is held in memory of Dr. Bruce Kirle, a longtime member of the Music Theatre/Dance focus group. Dr. Elizabeth Wollman will serve as the respondent. Dr. Wollman is Assistant Professor of Music at Baruch College of the City University of New York. She is author of the book The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, From Hair to Hedwig.
 

Papers may address any area in the purview of the Music Theatre/Dance Focus group, which includes opera, operettas, musicals, dance theatre, performance art with music or dance elements, and pedagogy in music theatre and dance. Submissions are open to graduate students and scholars who have not presented at a national conference, as well as established scholars who have not presented or published in the areas of music theatre or dance. Scholars must not be scheduled to present on Music Theatre/Dance topics at another national conference prior to the submission date. Papers may not be cross-submitted to other ATHE panels; however scholars may propose different papers or serve on other ATHE panels.

To be considered for this panel, please email your 10-12 page paper and contact information as an MS Word attachment to Tracey Elaine Chessum (traceychessum@gmail.com) by January 30, 2012. Please include a cover page with your name, paper title, affiliation and contact information, and remove your name from the body of the essay.

Submissions will be vetted by a committee of select MT/D officers as well as senior faculty in the field. Three of the essays will be chosen for inclusion on this competitive panel. The selected authors are expected to attend the conference in August to present their papers. They will receive a year-long subscription to the journal Studies in Musical Theatre (Intellect), and their essays will be published in the journal. Selected authors will also receive a complimentary copy of Bruce Kirle’s Unfinished Show Business, generously donated by his family.

If you have any questions, please e-mail Tracey Chessum (traceychessum@gmail.com) or Chris McCoy (cmccoy@ucdavis.edu). For more information on the ATHE conference visit http://www.athe.org.

Dublin Shaw Conference at UCD, May 20-June 1, 2012.   Deadline January
27, 2012.

³G. B. Shaw: Back in Town,² a Shaw Conference at University College Dublin
in Dublin, Ireland is  co-sponsored by University College Dublin & the
International Shaw Society.  Deadline for abstracts & Travel Grant
applications: January 27, 2012.

This conference is focused on Shaw¹s return to Dublin, so to speak, to
revisit his Irish identity, and papers discussing his Irish qualities,
interrelationships with other Irish, and contributions to Ireland would be
welcomed, along with testimony to his stature in and influence on world
drama, and other topics as well.  If you choose to write on Irish themes,
the following summary may be useful.

Dubliner Bernard Shaw was a personal friend of a long list of Irish writers,
the most important of whom were Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory,
George Russell ("AE"), and Sean O'Casey. With his Irish wife, Charlotte
Payne-Townshend, they sought to encourage younger Irish writers,
particularly playwrights, including Norreys Connell ("Conal O'Riordan"),
James Hannay ("George Birmingham"), Lennox Robinson, St. John Ervine, and
Dennis Johnston. Shaw was closely involved with the Abbey Theatre through
Yeats and Gregory right from 1904 through the late 1920s; he was president
of the Irish Academy of Letters during the 1930s. Through his friendship
with Horace Plunkett, the founder of the Irish Co-Operative movement, Shaw
worked hard behind the scenes during the 1917 Irish Convention to produce a
constitutional basis for an independent Ireland. Also through Plunkett and
A.E. he was a major supporter (both in terms of writing and finance) of the
major cultural journal in the new Irish Free State during the 1920s, the
Irish Statesman. He supported James Connolly and the Dublin workers during
the 1913 Dublin Lock-Out; he worked for the defense of Roger Caement in
1916; he met Michael Collins; he corresponded with Eamon de Valera (about
establishing an Irish film industry in the 1940s among other matters). And
he left one third of his fortune to the National Gallery of Ireland.

Papers (maximum of twenty minutes per talk) may be written from any critical
perspective. Abstracts of approximately 300 words should be submitted to
bernardshawindublin@gmail.com <mailto:bernardshawindublin@gmail.com>  for
consideration, along with a c.v and brief letter of introduction.

For a form and instructions about travel grant applications, see
www.shawsociety.org/ISS-Travel-Grants.htm
<http://www.shawsociety.org/ISS-Travel-Grants.htm> .

For details on registration, accommodations, schedules, etc. (as they become
available), see bernardshawindublin.yolasite.com
<http://bernardshawindublin.yolasite.com/>  or the conference link from
www.shawsociety.org <http://www.shawsociety.org> .


--
Michael M. O'Hara, Ph.D.
Associate Dean, College of Fine Arts
The Sursa Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts
2000 W. University Avenue
College of Fine Arts, AC 200
Ball State University
Muncie, IN  47306
--
765-285-5495 (office)
http://mohara.iweb.bsu.edu

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THE FUTURE OF CAGE: CREDO John 1912 – 1992 – 2012 Cage   Graduate Centre for Study of Drama University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada 25–28 October 2012   First Keynote Address by Allen S. Weiss Performance Studies and Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts/NYU author of Breathless: Sound Recording, Disembodiment, and the Transformation of Lyrical Nostalgia  (Wesleyan University Press, 2002)     The present methods of writing music […] will be inadequate for the composer, who will be faced with the entire field of sound. —John Cage, “The Future of Music: Credo,” 1937               In a 1965 interview with Michael Kirby and Richard Schechner, John Cage defined theatre as “something which engages both the eye and the ear.” Cage’s multifaceted interdisciplinary output—which includes, in addition to his music composition, prolific writing, visual art, and his perhaps lesser known theatre pieces—similarly engages both the eye and the ear, yielding a broader consideration of both theatre and music even as it necessitates a reconsideration of such disciplinary categorization for artists and audiences alike. Like his infamous ‘silent piece,’ 4’33”, which redefined the seemingly rational concepts of ‘silence’ and ‘music,’ Cage’s work as an artist and philosopher provides the brackets inside of which so much artistic practice has been and can be placed.               This interdisciplinary conference is both a celebration of John Cage, 100 years after his birth, and an opportunity to explore Cage’s influence on music, writing, performance, and critical scholarship. Fundamental to the development of innovations in performance art, contemporary music, graphic notation, audience reception, and theories of social practice, Cage remains one of the most, if not the most, influential figures in twentieth- and twenty-first-century art and performance. Such a legacy necessarily resonates beyond any single artistic or historical trajectory, and “The Future of Cage: Credo” will explore not only Cage’s output, both artistic and philosophical, but its after-effects through a variety of fields, genres, and modes of presentation.               Just as the composer for whom, in 1937, present modes of writing music might have been inadequate, current modes of critical analysis and presentation may not be entirely adequate in a post-Cagean world. We offer here a chance to face the expansive ‘field of Cage’ and to explore the significance of his work and thought beyond discipline, beyond history, and beyond Cage himself.               We welcome scholarly papers and performative presentations across periods and genres on topics both about Cage and those that explore ideas, theories, sounds, and images that are associated with Cage's legacy, but are not necessarily about the man, his work, or influence directly. These might include, but are not limited to: the work of chance in an age of digital reproduction the relationship between interdisciplinarity, multimediality, and intermediality the influence of extra-musical practices, such as Zen or gastronomy, on composition and performance the fluidity between text and score, and score and performance anecdotal methodologies, or stories as critical theory identity politics and artistic expression silence and the politics of having nothing to say and saying it through-composition and writing-through graphic notation and graphic imagination citationality, sampling, and re-enactment the relationship of music and dance, legacies of the Cage/Cunningham collaboration performative lectures, compositional technique, and pedagogy the canonization of indeterminate performance practice post/modern and post-Cagean performance   We invite scholars, intellectuals, and creative writers and artists to submit proposals of no more than 350 words for a 20-minute talk or performance, as well as a brief biographical statement of no more than 75 words, by 15 January 2012 to cage.credo100@gmail.com.   *Join our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/groups/cage.credo100/*

T. Nikki Cesare
Assistant Professor

Graduate Centre for Study of Drama

University College Drama Program

Associate Member, Graduate Faculty, Faculty of Music

University of Toronto

 

Critical Acts Editor, TDR: The Drama Review
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/dram

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ATDS FACULTY

RESEARCH/TRAVEL AWARDS

 

Deadline:  15 March 2012

 

Purpose: To provide an award in support of faculty research in the field of United States theatre and drama (recognizing that notions of America and the US encompass migrations of peoples and cultures that overlap and influence one another). Funds may be requested to support travel related to archival research, ethnographic research, or travel to conferences to present research at an ATDS-sponsored panel (this could include MLA, ALA, CDC, ATHE, and various international conferences where ATDS hosts panel sessions).

 Eligibility: Faculty members at any rank who are members of ATDS are eligible to apply for this award.

 

Award Amount: $400.00

 

 1.      A 500-word proposal detailing either your Archival/Ethnographic Research project or your Conference Presentation.

 

• For archival research or ethnographic research, provide an explanation of the nature and significance of the project, the intended use of archive or scope of the ethnographic study, and expected outcome (monograph, conference presentation, article submission, edited volume, etc.).
• For conference presentation, include an abstract of the paper and invitation/notice of acceptance from panel organizers. 

 2.      An up-to-date Curriculum Vitae.

Submit applications via email to Dr. Adrienne Macki Braconi at Adrienne.Macki@uconn.edu by March 15, 2012. 

 

Please include the subject-line heading: ATDS FACULTY Research/Travel Awards on ALL email correspondence.

 Awardee will be notified by May 15, 2011. 

If you have questions, please contact adrienne.macki@uconn.edu. Thank you!

 

                 *****

 

Adrienne Macki Braconi, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Dramatic Arts Department

University of Connecticut

802 Bolton Road, Unit 1127, Office 254

Storrs, CT 06269-1127

office: 860.486.0285 / fax:  860.486.3110

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Disability and Performance

FIRT/IFTR 2012 in Santiago de Chile

 

The Performance and Disability Working Group of the International Federation of Theatre Research will be meeting for the first time at the annual conference in Santiago, Chile (22- 28 July 2012).  We are soliciting interest in our working group from any area of performance or theatre studies that intersects with disability studies.

 
 

We welcome perspectives from practice, history or theory in any field or discipline.  The goal of this group is to have an international dialogue regarding disability and performance and to share scholarly work and best practices from around the world – traditions, conventions and demonstrations of how diverse physical, sensorial, developmental and psychological abilities manifest in all areas of performance.  We are open to any definition of disability or performance. 

Some of the questions we would like to consider in Santiago include:

 How is disability mediated in performance (on stage or in daily life)

- The integration and (re)consideration of abilities in performance

- Enabling audiences and practitioners

- Disabling practice and theory

- The intersections of disability and performance studies

- The mediation of disability culture (disability and interculturalism)

- Physical, sensorial, developmental or psychologically normality in performance practice, theory and history

 
 

 If you would like to join us in Santiago, please contact the Working Group Conveners:

 
 

Yvonne Schmidt (English, French and German):  yvonne.schmidt@zhdk.ch

Mark Swetz (English and Spanish):  mark@yeca.org

 

If you would like to submit a paper, please submit your abstract through the FIRT/IFTR website and make a note that you are interested in the Performance and Disability Working Group: http://www.firt2012stgochile.com/index.php/conference/papers

 

More information about the conference and themes can be found on http://www.firt2012stgochile.com/

 

The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2012.

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CATR/ACRT has extended the closing date for 2012 Open Paper Proposals
until Dec. 15, 2011.

Please remember that applying to present an open research paper does
not limit your application to and participation in other seminars
and/or roundtables. You are encouraged to apply to as many sessions as
you'd like to participate in.

Please see our attached and revised call for participants for the 2012
Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR/ACRT) conference in
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

The conference dates are Saturday, May 26, to Tuesday, May 29, 2012.

The conference planning committee is seeking proposals for open paper
panels, curated panels (including our new CATR curated awards panels),
workshops/demonstrations, as well as participants for seminars and
roundtables. For more information on all of these sessions please see
the attached call for participants. Details about individual curated
panels, seminars, and roundtables, including contact information for
organizers and session descriptions, can be found on the Conference
page of the CATR website at: www.catr-acrt.ca

The deadline for proposals for open paper panels has been extended to
December 15, 2011.

The deadline for participation in seminars is January 15, 2012 and the
deadline for roundtables is March 1, 2012. Individual seminar and
roundtable CFPs are on the CATR website (www.catr-acrt.ca) on the
Conferences page.

Applications to participate in any of these sessions does not limit
your participation in other sessions at the conference. The conference
planning committee encourages everyone to apply to as many sessions as
they would like to participate in during the conference.

Applicants are also encouraged to apply and present their work in the
Canadian language of their choice (English or French) for any of these
sessions at CATR. CATR will do its best to facilitate the translation
of slides, handouts, etc for bilingual participation during our
conference sessions.

If you have any questions, please contact Peter Kuling, Chair of the
Conference Planning Committee: pkuling@wlu.ca

Peter Kuling
Department of Communication Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
75 University Avenue West
Waterloo, ON  CANADA
N2L 3C5

pkuling@wlu.ca
Tel: (519) 884-0710 x 2627
Fax: (647) 344-6198
 

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PANEL ON AMERICAN INDIAN THEATER
to be presented as part of the
American Literature Association 23rd Annual Conference
Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, CA
May 24-27, 2012

Submission Deadlines: January 24, 2012 (Individual papers only; send to Courtney Elkin Mohler at carmel.elkin@gmail.com)


American Indian Drama and Theater:

The American Literature Association (ALA) and the Association for the Study of American Indian Literature (ASAIL) invites papers that explore historical and/or contemporary American Indian drama, theater and performance. This panel is broad in scope; its intention is to generate much needed discourse in the growing, but often overlooked area of American Indian drama and performance culture.  Additionally, this panel seeks to cultivate productive dialogue between scholars of American Indian Literature and scholars of American Indian Drama, Theater and Performance.

Papers may investigate some of the following questions:
What are the limits/boundaries of the genre, “American Indian Theater” in terms of themes, forms, and authorship?
How do Native theater practitioners stage native identity, spirituality, and culture?
How can performance stage and explore American Indian community concerns?
How does American Indian performance stage the urban Indian experience in relationship to traditional culture?

Some of the themes that papers may explore include, but are not limited to:
Contemporary dramas &/or productions
Historical dramas &/or productions
US Imperialism & continued occupation
Traditional vs./and urban experience
Issues of (self) representation
Patriarchal colonization
(Staged) ceremony and ritual (and possible problematics)
Community empowerment and cultural survival

Please send 250 word abstract along with a brief biography to Courtney Elkin Mohler at carmel.elkin@gmail by January 24, 2012.  Please include the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and postal address in the top left corner of the abstract. Please also include any technical/AV requirements for your presentation.)

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Call for articles

Popular Entertainment Studies
An interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the investigation of all aspects of popular entertainment.

We invite contributions from scholars and practitioners with interests in the history of popular theatre forms, performance studies, the moving image, fine arts, music, health, psychology, economics and cultural studies. We would also welcome an input from performing arts curators and archivists.

Forthcoming issue: Volume 3, number 1 (March 2012)
Expressions of interest:  to be sent as soon as possible
Submission deadline: January 23 2012.


Volume 3, number 2 (September 20012)
Special Focus issue:  “Pantomime and the continuities of performance: a global perspective”

We invite contributions from scholars and practitioners interested in this enduring form of popular entertainment.  We are particularly interested in providing a global perspective and therefore would encourage contributions from those working in South Africa, North America,  South-East Asia and indeed anywhere where pantomime either found or continues to find a home.  Contributions might address historical and cultural contexts, contemporary performance, traditions or innovations , the appropriation of pantomime within other genres or modes of transmission including television.

Expressions of interest: to be sent as soon as possible
Submission deadline: July 16 2012

Contact the General Editor Victor Emeljanow
Victor.Emeljanow@newcastle.edu.au

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Subsidy, Patronage & Sponsorship : Theatre and Performance Culture in
 Uncertain Times
 A Three Day International Conference 19-21 July 2012, Sackler Centre
 Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

 The global economic down-turn has prompted a number of different
 responses around the world. Whilst the UK government has reacted by
 introducing swingeing cuts, forcing the Arts Council England to announce
 a 29% cut in its budget in 2010, in the same year France’s response to
 the recession has been to increase government spending on the arts by
 2%. Alongside cuts to the arts, the UK government is now giving serious
 consideration to implementing American models of arts funding: these
 include corporate sponsorship, private philanthropy and endowments (such
 as the proposed £55 million Endowment Fund) as alternatives to the model
 of state subsidy (managed through the Arts Council) that has been in
 existence since 1945. Examples of private patronage sustaining a theatre
 company have been comparatively rare since the time of Shakespeare, yet
 the success of the arts venue at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London,
 and the oft-quoted example of opera at Glyndebourne, neither of which
 receives Arts Council support, have been heralded by those who wish to
 radically alter established patterns of arts funding as an example of
 good practice and a way forward. Already there are signs of a new
 climate emerging. For instance, The Times newspaper has recently taken
 to naming the main sponsors of shows in its arts reviews. There are also
 inevitably a number of voices to be heard opposing the very idea of
 state subsidy of the arts: voices such as that of the playwright Gregory
 Motton who, in his polemical book "Helping Themselves: The Left-Wing
 Middle Classes in Theatre & the Arts," castigates the most important
 channel of cultural support, the Arts Council, as a moribund and
 self-serving organization that stifles creativity, and panders to a
 small cultural elite.

 In the second year of Arts Council cuts, and on the eve of the Cultural
 Olympiad, this conference provides a timely opportunity to assess arts
 policy around the world. Concentrating specifically on the situation in
 theatre and performance culture,  the conference will bring together
 academics, practitioners and those working in arts funding to debate not
 only  past  relationships between subsidy and arts policy on the
 organisation, practice and development of theatre from the mid twentieth
 century to the present, but also to discuss the impact of the current
 recession and state funding of the arts at a time when alternative forms
 of funding are being seriously considered

 Proposals are sought for papers that address one or more of the
 following areas:

 • The past / present relationship/distinction between patronage,
 subsidy and sponsorship
 • The discursive relationship between policy and practice in subsidised
 performance
 • National models of subsidy and the effect of instrumental funding
 • The relationship between policy makers and practitioners.
 • Past and present models of private patronage
 • The past / present role of the Arts Council of Great Britain / Arts
 Council England
 • Subsidy, patronage and  policy in the regions
 • The role of the private patron in theatre and performance culture
 • The role and impact of subscription theatre in America
 • Past / present ‘moments of crisis’ in theatre and performance
 • National lotteries and theatre / performance funding
 • Embracing the economic crisis – opportunities for innovation in
 theatre and performance

 The organisers of the conference are also open to suggestions for
 papers on other and related topics. Abstracts for papers should be 250
 words in length and sent to m.pye@vam.ac.uk. Suggestions for panels
 (consisting of three papers) on a specific theme or topic will also be
 welcome. The closing date for submissions is January 22nd 2012.

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Emerging Scholars Panel 2012 - Religion and Theatre Focus Group

The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) 2012 Conference

Washington, DC, August 2-5, 2012

Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill 

“Performance as/is Civic Engagement: Advocate, Collaborate, Educate"

 

The Religion and Theatre Focus Group is invested in assisting scholars who work with the intersection of theatre/performance practice with religion/spirituality. How have theatre and performance coincided with religiously motivated innovation?  What are the religious or spiritual components of theatrical, artistic, cultural, political, linguistic, or economical innovation, and what are their performative counterparts?

 

We invite scholars who have not presented at a major national conference to submit papers in line with the 2012 ATHE conference theme, “Performance as/is Civic Engagement: Advocate, Collaborate, Educate." We seek papers investigating the intersection of religion and issues of political and civic engagement.Historically, religion has been at the forefront of political revolution, not to mention cultural change.  Possible questions to consider include: how do religious issues inform performances within the political realm? Can religious performance in the political arena reconcile transnational forces at play in the public sphere? What impact has religious performance had on the understanding of advocacy and collaboration in the civic realm?What collaborations have religion/spirituality developed with civic organizations, and what issues have those performances brought to the public attention?

 

To be considered for the Emerging Scholars Panel, submit a full length, 10-page paper. Papers will go through a double-blind review process, so please do not include your name or affiliation in the paper itself. As well, please submit a 200-page abstract along with the paper.

Please send your paper and abstract as a Word document (with the abstract on the first page by itself) by JANUARY 16, 2012 to:

 

Alicia Corts

University of Georgia

abcorts@uga.edu

 

Save the document file name in the following format:  R&T ES [Title of your paper].  In the body of your email, include your name, affiliation, paper title, mailing address, phone number, email address, and short bio. You can find out more about ATHE at www.athe.org. We look forward to your submission!

 

Thank you,

Alicia Corts
PhD Student
Department of Theatre and Film Studies
University of Georgia
 

Graduate Student Representative

Religion and Theatre Focus Group, ATHE

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American Literature Association
2012 Conference

Location and Dates: San Francisco, CA.  May 24-27, 2012

The Arthur Miller Society will be hosting two panels at the 2012 ALA Conference. Participants will be selected with the primary goal of providing innovating and illuminating 15-minute papers on Arthur Miller – the playwright, his plays and productions.

Panel Theme: "Uncharted Territories"

The Five Drama Societies – the American Theatre and Drama Society, the Susan Glaspell Society, the Arthur Miller Society, the Eugene O’Neill Society, and the Thornton Wilder Society – will present a series of panels and roundtable discussions on the theme of “Uncharted Territories,” conceived in the broadest sense. For this collaborative series, The Arthur Miller Society seeks 15-minute papers that examine Miller’s more understudied works, as well as new approaches to his better-known plays and productions.

Please direct all proposals and queries to:

Joshua Polster
Emerson College
Joshua_Polster@emerson.edu

Please submit proposals by email in Word format. Proposals should include the following items:

- Name and Title (student, faculty, independent scholar)
- Academic Affiliation
- Contact Information
- Title of Paper
- Requested Panel
- Abstract (please limit abstracts to 250 words)
- Audiovisual Requests

All proposals must be received by January 15th 2012.

Please see the ALA website for the complete call:

www.americanliterature.org

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Performing Alternative Globalization

Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference, Waterloo, May 26-29, 2012
Conveners: Barry Freeman & Catherine Graham
Deadline: January 15, 2012

Globalization—the acceleration of economic and cultural flows and an attendant rise in global consciousness—is hardly new, but most historians and economists agree that it has  entered an aggressive new phase. Some of globalization’s many critics have imagined alternatives to it; the alterglobalization movement, so-named by Belgian activist Arnaud Zacharie, envisions both other and alternative globalizations.

Our seminar will examine some of the ways that Canadian theatre and performance artists are creating alternative visions of/in creative networks. The theatrical sites and practices discussed may establish horizontal networks of international collaboration, may work to make the flows of globalization visible, or may confront audiences with the far reaching ethical implications of their lifestyles, choices, or spectatorship. Taking alter to point to alternative methods of practice, we are particularly interested in how Canadian artists are influencing or are being influenced by performances from other regions of the
world as they work to evade and defy restrictive traditional or market-based circuits of cultural production and consumption.

Possible topics include:

- Activist parody or ‘culture jamming’
- Indigenous conceptions of globality, community, territory or resources
- The ‘glocal’ interface between community contexts and global forces
- Performative reclamations of public/ancestral territory and space
- Theatre for development or NGOs deploying applied theatre
- Anti-consumerist/capitalist/corporate performance
- International theatrical collaborations
- Women’s rights and human rights in global context

Participants in the seminar will circulate their papers to one another in advance of the conference and participate in a discussion online. The discussion at the conference will zero in on issues arising and will program time for auditors to ask questions. Interested participants are asked to submit a 250-word abstract of their paper to Barry Freeman (barry.freeman@utoronto.ca) and Catherine Graham (grahamca@mcmaster.ca) by January 15, 2012. Participants will be notified of their acceptance by January 30, 2012, and will be expected to circulate their 2500-3000 word papers to the group by May 11, 2012.

--
Barry Freeman, PhD
Assistant Professor ~ Theatre and Performance Studies
University of Toronto Scarborough & Graduate Centre for Study of Drama
Executive Editor, Theatre Research in Canada
Associate Editor, Canadian Theatre Review
Email: barry.freeman@utoronto.ca
 

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Performance and Consciousness Working Group
IFTR Conference in Santiago, Chile
22-28 July, 2012

The IFTR Performance and Consciousness Working Group will be meeting at the next IFTR conference in?Santiago, Chile, 22-28 July 2012. The WG sessions will be scheduled on 22nd and 23rd July. To contribute a paper on any aspect of the relationship between performance and consciousness, please submit abstract and other details through the conference website at http://www.firt2012chile.uc.cl/ <http://www.firt2012chile.uc.cl/> , section Call for Papers, and please send a copy of what you submit to Professor Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, the WG convenor for the conference, at dmeyerdinkgrafe@lincoln.ac.uk <mailto:dmeyerdinkgrafe@lincoln.ac.uk> . Deadline is 31 January 2012.
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Performance and Brand Politics

Seminar Organizers: Laura Levin and Marlis Schweitzer

 

Canadian Association for Theatre Research/ l’Association canadienne de la recherche théâtrale 

Conference 2012, 26-29 May 2012, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada

This seminar will explore the growing importance of “branding” to the study of theatre and performance. As scholars become more attentive to the consequences of neoliberalism and late-capitalism on art-making, it is imperative that they closely examine branding strategies and other corporate practices. Most recently, issues of branding have arisen in response to various government initiatives to stimulate local and national economies by drawing upon the “creativity” and “innovation” of the cultural sector. Meanwhile, just as certain models of artistic activity are viewed as motors for economic and urban development, we also see the appropriation of performance strategies and theatrical works by corporate entities looking to brand their products (e.g. Body & Soul commissioned by Dove). This extends to university contexts, where there is increasing pressure for artistic programs and individual scholars to build partnerships with big business. While some of the buzzwords, forms of collaboration, and policy arrangements connected with branding are relatively new, we want to situate these developments within a larger history of the arts and its relationship to commerce. At a very basic level, it has always been essential for emerging and established theatre companies to project clear brand identities in order to be financially viable in a particular market, but the imperative to develop and maintain a recognizable brand identity now extends beyond the local to a national and international audience (e.g. Robert Lepage’s Ex Machina as a prime example). Looking at the politics of branding thus offers a unique opportunity to take up the Congress theme, “Scholarship in an Uncertain World,” as it explores the challenges of projecting a stable artistic identity in an unstable market as well as the ambivalent role of art-as-business in historical and contemporary economies.

By taking up the twinned ideas of branding performance (e.g. by sponsors) and performance as brand (e.g. theatre gives a shiny new look to a city), our seminar will initiate a discussion about the thorny relationship between art and capital:

- How does a particular city or company brand itself through performance? Conversely, how do performance companies establish themselves or pursue their financial goals through branding? How do those brands manifest themselves and how do they circulate? What methodologies might we use to analyze brands and branding strategies?

- How have theatre companies historically responded to corporate branding strategies?

- What are the material and political consequences of aligning performance work with corporate brand identities (e.g. beauty industry, banks, etc.)? What does this alignment mean for so-called experimental performance?

- What conflicts arise when anti-capitalist performances are staged under the umbrella of events that are sponsored by high capital? To what extent can artists subvert branding practices without becoming complicit in the reproduction and recirculation of brand identity?

- How do these brands circulate and how are they refashioned by consumers— i.e. how do spectators labour on behalf of brands? How are brands shored up through various forms of affective or immaterial labour on the part of both consumers and artists?

- How do gendered, sexualized, classed, and racialized identities get appropriated for certain branding schemes? How does branding both open and foreclose interactions with culturally marked bodies?

- Are there other ways of thinking about the “big bad corporation”? Can a corporation tolerate or even enable an analysis of class struggle within the work that they are sponsoring? Are fruitful partnerships between artists and corporate entities possible?

In asking these kinds of questions, we want to suggest that branding is an important force that not only influences the practices of individual artists and theatre companies, but also has the power to shape a larger cultural environment. 

Seminar participants will circulate their 12-15 page papers in late April, at which point they will be asked to read and prepare comments for two of the other participants’ papers. At the conference, the six presenters will have an opportunity to briefly introduce their work. They will then receive critical commentary from other seminar participants and engage in a discussion of issues raised by the papers. Please note that although an audience is welcome to attend the seminar, participants will not be delivering papers as in a formal panel and conversation will primarily take place between seminar participants. 

Please send 250-300 word abstracts and a brief bio to organizers Laura Levin (Levin@yorku.ca) and Marlis Schweitzer (schweit@yorku.ca) by 15 January 2012.

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SEMINAR: “Upsurges of the Real”

Seminar organizer: Jenn Stephenson

 

Canadian Association for Theatre Research/ l’Association canadienne de la recherche théâtrale 

Conference 2012, 26-29 May 2012, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada

 

At a very basic level, the negotiation between the two synchronous worlds of the actual and the fictional forms the foundation of what makes theatre theatre, distinguishing performance from life. In print forms of literature, little black squiggles on paper stand in for the real world. A still life bowl of fruit is made of paint and canvas. In the theatre, of course, the actual object at work and its fictional image are unusually close—a chair is another chair; a bright light is another bright light. The likeness of these two elements approach the limit horizon as in calculus, almost (but never quite) reaching identity. More recently, these basic questions of the real on stage have come again to the fore with increased production of (and academic interest in) such genres as documentary theatre, verbatim theatre, autobiographical performance, and site-specific theatre – all of which place a premium on the actual nature of certain theatrical elements. In general, the conventions of the theatre work hard to subdue the real and bend it to its fictional will.

 

This seminar will look at those moments when, like contents under pressure, the real breaks through those bounds and surges upward. Questions to be considered may include:

·         audience attraction to “truth” and the “authentic”

·         instability of the real inside the fictionalizing frame of theatre

·         the use of the “real” in performance to effect political/social change

·         ethical obligations of performance to its real world antecedents

·         perceptual fluidity of what is real and how this fluidity is applied in support of the work’s themes or goals

·         strategies for managing the interplay between real and fictional worlds (e.g. metatheatre, framing)

Working Plan:

To make the best use of face-time at the conference, papers will be completed one month in advance of the conference and circulated by email or FTP DropBox. Each paper will be read (at least cursorily) by everyone in the seminar. Each paper will be assigned two respondents. In the seminar session, each pair of respondents will be asked 1) to identify briefly the main argument of the paper and outline its key points, 2) to highlight the innovations of the paper and to suggest its significance for the field, 3) to pose questions which would extend the thinking of the paper beyond its initial parameters. The authors of the papers will have an opportunity to respond to these suggestions/questions. Discussion will then be open to the group, including both participants and auditors. Ideally, the papers presented in this manner will serve as a jumping off point for a more general discussion of the key issues around this topic in the mode of a graduate seminar. Auditors will be welcome.

Please send 250-300 word abstracts and a brief bio to organizer Jenn Stephenson (jenn.stephenson@queensu.ca)  by 15 January 2012.

Jenn Stephenson

Associate Professor, Drama

Queen's University

Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6

Phone. (613)533-6000 x78597

Email. jenn.stephenson@queensu.ca

Web. www.queensu.ca/drama/jstephenson

 

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http://tcjournal.org/drupal/cfp-2013

CFP: The Retro Issue, Vol 3 (2013)

We seek creative works that use new media and/or are on the subject of technology, and essays from a broad a range of academic disciplines that  focus on cultural studies of technology. Essays we publish examine the topic “technology and  society,” or, perhaps,“technologies and societies.” For Volume 3 (2013), The Retro Issue, we are particularly seeking essays and creative works that focus on lost, ancient, old or dead technologies, technologies that no one uses, or very few people still employ.Topics could include depictions of technologies that treat a wide range of subjects related to the social sciences and humanities. These subjects might include:
 

• film and television as technologies (especially in the early days of television and film)
• celebrities' use of technology
• politics and technology, especially historical approaches
• technology as an agent of change--or its use as a repressive means of control
• use of technology by given populations or subcultures (with the exception of the classoom-no pedagogical papers, please!)
• music production and dissemination, especially historical approaches
• visual artists and their use of (or flight from) given technologies, especially historical approaches
• literary depictions of technologies (especially in works from other decades than our own)
• the economics of technology in the humanities
• computer/video gaming
• the dissemination of the arts via technology to broad or to specialized audiences
• the disappearance of a given technology or technologies and what that disappearance/disappearances means/mean for the archival issues that surround the humanities.
• sports and sports figures

In particular, we are interested in a conception of “technology” and the “humanist impulse” that pushes beyond contemporary American culture and its fascination with computers; we seek papers that deal with any technology or technologies in any number of historical periods from any relevant theoretical perspective with a particular focus on old, dead and lost technologies for this issue.

We are not interested in “how to” pedagogical papers that deal with the use of technology in the classroom.

We will publish scholarly/critical papers in the latest MLA citation style, but also creative works including poetry and creative non-fiction are of interest to us. We will publish art work and especially media designed for display/dissemination on a computer monitor including still images, video or audio.

Inquiries are welcome.

Technoculture is published continuously; we accept submissions for Volume 3 (2013) between 1 September 2012 and 31 August 2013. Authors of all materials are welcome to submit abstracts and inquiries for critical works, creative works and reviews

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Panel Theme: "Uncharted Territories"

The American Theatre and Drama Society would like to invite proposals for 15-20 minute papers that examine the "Uncharted Territories" in American Theatre for the 23rd Annual Conference of the American Literature Association.  We welcome proposals that explore either new materials for the first time or familiar texts in new ways.  The panel "Uncharted Territories" is presented as part of a series of panels and roundtable discussions on the topic sponsored by the Five Drama Societies – the American Theatre and Drama Society, the Susan Glaspell Society, the Arthur Miller Society, the Eugene O’Neill Society, and the Thornton Wilder Society.  The ALA conference will be held on May 24-27, 2012, at the Hyatt Regency, Embarcadero in San Francisco.  ATDS encourages graduate students as well as established scholars to submit 250-word proposals by January 15, 2012 to Dr. Valerie Joyce (valerie.joyce@villanova.edu).

 

Proposals should include the following items:

-       Name, Title (student, faculty, independent scholar) and Academic Affiliation

-       Contact Information (email address)

-       Title of Paper

-       Abstract (please limit abstracts to 250 words)

-       A brief CV

Please submit proposals by email in Word format.  All proposals must be received by January 15th 2012. 

 

Please see the ALA website for the complete call: www.americanliterature.org

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ASTR 2012: Theatrical Histories
Deadline: 31 January 2012

Conference Chairs:

Patrick Anderson, University of California, San Diego
Patricia Ybarra, Brown University

Theatre is historical; history is theatrical. 

These twin claims gesture to the intimate imbrication of practices that constitute theatrical production and the lived realities of social life. As a set of staged practices rich with social context, theatre seeks to document, engage, and affect the communities by and for whom it is produced. As a lineage of presence, history stages itself as monument and memorial, as genealogy of both survival and loss, as the always-shifting (always live and present) remembrance of things past. Theatre implicates history in its economy of representation; history implicates theatre in its economy of remembering. Theatricality and historiography are likewise linked as methodologies of negotiating the tensions between past and present; real and representational; aesthetic and scholarly practices. Meant to engage debate outside of polarizing generalizations about the field, this conference asks scholars and practitioners to re-examine "theatrical histories" in the widest possible sense at a moment of crisis in humanities scholarship within global economies of value.

Consciously broad, the 2012 conference theme is intended to encourage plenary and working group proposals from theater historians and practitioners, performance scholars and theorists, and everyone between and beyond those designations. The Program Committee invites proposals from scholars and practitioners working in any field, and on any era or form of performance history, broadly construed, whose work engages critical questions including but not limited to: 

• How might we think critically about contemporary and past historiographical methodologies used to write theatrical and performance histories?
• How might debates among performance scholars about mediation and liveness contribute to critical historiographical practices?
• How might we think about circulations of affect and modes of spectatorship in theatrical histories?
• How might we resituate theorizations of the archive and the repertoire, of periodization and the past, within our research on theatrical histories?
• How might the ethical implications of writing theatrical histories complicate the historiographical imperative in our current sociopolitical context?

Plenary Presentations: We invite proposals for individual plenary papers and/or presentations. These presentations are “plenary” in the sense that they address the entire conference and nothing runs concurrently with them. Proposals should take the form of an abstract (max. 250 words) that includes name, affiliation, mailing and email addresses. Full-length papers will not be accepted. Individual presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. Those whose proposals are not selected for plenary presentations will have the opportunity to apply to a second call for participants in accepted working sessions.

Working Sessions: We invite proposals for working sessions. This category includes roundtables, seminars, research groups, reading groups, forums, workshops, as well as formats that have yet to be imagined. “Working sessions” is a general category that allows the session leader(s) to convene small groups around a proposed area of inquiry or practice, and to structure a method and format that best suits the goals of the group. No formats will be privileged over others; all proposals will be given equal consideration according to their merit. Proposals should include a rationale for the subject of the session and for its format, and must be accompanied by the “ASTR/TLA Working Sessions Proposal Form.” Proposals related to the conference theme are particularly welcome, but not necessary. Once the program committee has made its selection of working sessions, each session convener will be invited to issue a specialized call for participants for that session; this second round of calls for participants in working sessions will be posted on the ASTR and TLA websites, with a late May deadline for submission.

Visit this page for more information about ASTR working sessions.

All submissions must be received by January 31, 2012 and should be sent as email attachments, in MS Word, to ASTR2012@gmail.com
Inquiries are welcome. Please contact Patrick Anderson and Patricia Ybarra at the gmail.com address above with program questions or Nancy Erickson with questions about conference logistics.

Conference Directors:
Patrick Anderson (UC San Diego)
Patricia Ybarra (Brown U)

 

Conference Committee:
Sandra Richards (Northwestern U)
San San Kwan (UC Berkeley)
Jayna Brown (UC Riverside)
Laura Edmondson (Dartmouth)
Jonathan Chambers (Bowling Green State U)
Christin Essin (Vanderbilt U)
Mechele Leon (U of Kansas)
Margaret Werry (U of Minnesota)
Jon Rossini (UC Davis)
Lois Weaver (U London, Queen Mary)
Beth Kattelman (OSU) [TLA rep]
GSC rep TBD

-- 
Marla Carlson, Assistant Professor
Area Coordinator for History/Theory and
  PhD Program in Theatre & Performance Studies
Secretary, American Society for Theatre Research

Department of Theatre & Film Studies  
366 Fine Arts Bldg
University of Georgia
Athens GA 30602-3154

http://us.macmillan.com/performingbodiesinpain#

For ASTR information:  http://www.astr.org 

 

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Theatrical Crossroads: Canadian Performance Genealogies

Canadian Association for Theatre Research/ l’Association canadienne de la recherche théâtrale 

Conference 2012, 26-29 May 2012, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada

 

(Seminar Organizer: Roberta Barker, Dalhousie University/University of King’s College)

 The history of performance in the landmass we now know as Canada has been shaped by the transmission not only of texts, but also of less easily fixable elements such as gestures, costumes, uses of space, and tones of voice across generations and cultures. This seminar considers such acts of transmission, which have taken place in exchanges between Indigenous elders and youth and in encounters between First Nations and colonial settlers; during the tours of European and American companies to the Canadian “New World” and the visits of Canadian performers to the “Old”; in conservatory training sessions and in moments of intercultural dialogue between immigrant traditions. Proposals are invited for papers focusing upon specific moments, past or present, when figures, gestures, and images have moved across boundaries of culture, time and/or space in Canadian performance. Among the areas participants may explore are:

-  Exchanges in which particular gestures, role types, visual elements, vocal practices, etc, emerge as recognizable tropes

- Exchanges in which physical or visual performance elements are passed between cultural traditions

 

- Key moments of performance training (formal or informal)

 

- Legacies of specific past performance traditions for present ones

Our goal will be to speak across boundaries of methodology and period to consider how performance genealogies founded in the past shape our present and how the exchanges of the present may reshape our understanding of the past.

Participants at all stages of their scholarly work are welcome, as is work in either English or French.  Short papers of 12-15 typed, double-spaced pages will be due by April 1, 2012. Online exchange of feedback on the papers will prepare the group for our seminar meeting in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Interested participants are asked to submit a 250-word proposal and a short bio to Roberta Barker at barkerr@dal.ca by January 15, 2012. 

 

Thank you!

 

 

Dr. Roberta Barker
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Theatre
Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS
Canada
B3L 1S5
Phone: (902) 494-1495
E-mail: barkerr@dal.ca

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“Affect/Theatre/Canada: Once more with feeling” workshop

To what might we attribute theatre studies’ renewed focus on one of the art’s most basic functions -- that is, to make people feel something, to offer them vicarious experience? A preliminary list of relevant factors might include aesthetic shifts in Western performance since about the 1980s (post-dramatic theatre; theatre of images; interartistic work) and the influence of intercultural work and global forms -- especially non-western and indigenous forms -- on contemporary performance practice. Additional provocations to “thinking feeling” could be found in the concerns with the place of theatre and its “utility” in a neoliberal world system; and the emergence of “nonrepresentational theory” in the Humanities. What might a critical focus on affect tell us about theatre practice and theatre studies in Canada, both present and past?  Does “Canadian Theatre” have a particular set of affects or a certain level of affective force associated with it, for instance? And how do we d!
 iscern the more generative approaches to this study among the already circulating research methods drawn from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, literary theory, and anthropology, among others?

In this working group, we will explore how and where is the affective turn affecting theatre studies in Canada. We will engage this question both theoretically, via a common set of readings, and concretely through participants’ written analyses of specific performance events, modes, repertoires, epochs, etc. Each participant will produce a short (10 page) paper, which will be exchanged with and critiqued by fellow working group members.

Participants might consider the following questions:
-      Does affect studies provide us with a set of critical tools that help us better engage with emergent theatre and performance forms in Canada?

-      By what various means does Canadian theatre and performance produce, manage, and transmit feeling, emotion, and affect?

-      Would taking feeling seriously alter what/who is studied in Canadian theatre studies? Would TYA, amateur, or commercial theatre play a greater role, for instance?

-      Might we consider Canada’s geopolitical borders (with the US, etc) or identity frontiers (First Nations, Atlantic Canadian, Montrealer, Winnipeg Jew, transgender, etc.) as affectively invested domains? What performances congregate around such affective investments?

-      What character types, theatrical forms, or performance venues carry the burden of affective labour -- that is, of being more or differently emotional than what is considered the norm?

-      What is (or was) the role of theatre and performance in the affective economy of Canada / Quebec / First Nations ?

-      How might a production’s affective draw inform what becomes a Canadian “classic”? what remains in the repertoire?

Please e-mail 500-word proposals by January 15, 2012 and a short bio to the session convener:
Erin Hurley, McGill University, erin.hurley@mcgill.ca <mailto:erin.hurley@mcgill.ca>

Appel aux participants – Atelier « Affect / Théâtre / Canada - encore une fois avec de l’émotion »
Comment s’explique le regain d’intérêt en études théâtrales pour l’affect, autrement dit pour la  capacité qu’a le théâtre d’émouvoir le spectateur, qui est la fonction première du théâtre ? Cette nouvelle orientation pourrait s’expliquer par des déplacements esthétiques apparus dans les arts de la scène occidentaux depuis les années 80 (voir le théâtre post-dramatique, le théâtre des images, l’inter-artistique), et par l’apport des styles et des genres mondiaux – notamment ceux de l’Orient et des indigènes, à la performance contemporaine. Ce retour de l’affect dans le discours critique semble aussi propulsé par l’inquiétude croissante que suscitent d’un côté le rôle et l’utilité du théâtre (et plus largement le rôle de l’art) dans un système monde néolibéral, et d’un autre côté par l’émergence des théories de la non-représentation (nonrepresentational theory) dans les sciences humaines. Que nous révèlerait un examen critique de l’affect sur l’art du théâtre et les études th!
 éâtrales au Canada d’hier et d’aujourd’hui? Un groupe d’affects, ou un certain niveau de force affective sont-ils liés au « théâtre canadien » ? Comment cerner une approche (des approches) qui soient le plus aptes à déboucher sur une réponse instructive ? Et enfin, quelle méthodologie adopter parmi celles, nombreuses, qui circulent dans les études sur l’affect (affect studies), et qui empruntent à la philosophie, la psychologie, les neurosciences, la théorie littéraire ou l’anthropologie ?

Dans ce groupe de travail, nous explorerons ces questions en nous demandant si ce retour de l’affect est susceptible de transformer les études théâtrales au Canada, et, le cas échéant, nous tenterons de découvrir où et comment ce retour pourrait se manifester. Dans un premier temps nous ferons une lecture commune de quelques articles en « études affectives » puis nous examinerons les analyses écrites par les participants et qui font écho à des spectacles, modes, répertoires, époques, etc. Chaque participant écrira un texte de 10 pages qui sera par la suite échangé avec les autres participants conformément aux séminaires.

Les participants pourraient envisager les questions suivantes:
-       Des études portant sur l’affect nous fournissent-elles un ensemble d’outils critiques qui nous aideraient à mieux aborder les formes du théâtre émergent et celles de la performance ?

-       Par quels moyens le théâtre et la performance au Canada peuvent-ils produire, gérer et transmettre le sentiment, l’émotion et l’affect?

-       Si l’on prenait au sérieux l’émotion et le sentiment, est-ce que l’on privilégierait des formes théâtrales peu étudiées jusqu’ici, comme par exemple le théâtre amateur, le théâtre jeune public, le théâtre de boulevard ?

-       Est-il envisageable que les frontières géopolitiques du Canada (avec les É.-U., etc.) ou identitaires (Premières Nations, Canada atlantique, Montréalais, Juif de Winnipeg, transsexuel, etc.) soient des domaines investis affectivement? Quels types de performance retrouve-t-on dans de tels investissements affectifs?

-       Quels types de personnages, de formes théâtrales ou de salles de spectacles portent le poids du travail affectif ? En d’autres termes, en quoi le fait d’être plus émotionnels ou de l’être différemment que ce que l’on considère comme la norme peut-il constituer une zone plus investie affectivement ?

-       Quel rôle jouent (ou ont joué) le théâtre et la performance dans l’économie affective du Canada / du Québec/ des Premières Nations ?

-       En quoi la charge affective d’une production permet-elle de prédire ce qui deviendra un “classique” canadien ? Ce qui restera au répertoire ?

Veuillez envoyer vos propositions d’un maximum de 500 mots, accompagnées d’une courte biographie à Erin Hurley, McGill University, le 15 janvier 2012:
par courriel: erin.hurley@mcgill.ca <mailto:erin.hurley@mcgill.ca>

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THEATRE ARCHITECTURE WORKING GROUP
CALL FOR PAPERS
(Deadline: 30 January 2012)

 

 

FIRT/IFTR Annual Conference

(22-28 July, 2012)

 

PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE CHILE (UC), SANTIAGO

 

 

 

IFTR Working Groups do not restrict their papers to the themes of the FIRT/IFTR conference. We will give full consideration to papers that address the themes and topics set out below or any other theme suggested by our mission statement (scroll to the end of this document).

 

 

MEDIATING PERFORMANCE: Scène, Média et Médiation

 

 

 

From the visual to the virtual by way of inter-disciplinarity and the interstitial how might understandings of ‘scene,’ ‘media’ and ‘mediation’ be theorized within studies of theatre architecture and performance space? And, how might the theories and practices of theatre be used to explore and question those of architecture (and vice versa)? Papers offered in response to the 2012 themes may be driven by historical / historiographic concerns, by practice / practice-as-research, or by theory. Papers and presentations that re-examine received wisdom, debunking a-critical assertions about theatre architecture, performance and space to produce new modes of knowledge about our field would be particularly welcome. Research questions might include (but should not be limited to):

 

 

SCENE

 

• The urban scene: theatre, architecture and public space (eg. performative occupations of buildings; taking theatre back out onto the street; the spectatorial city)
  <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
  <!--[endif]-->
• The architectural aesthetics of the avant-garde

 

• New readings of the influence of architecture on scenography and performance
  (and back again!)

 

• Theatre architecture and sub-cultural scenes

 

• jeux d’optiques, architectural masques, ballets méchaniques and other architectural dramaturgies

MEDIA

 

• The development of theatre architecture and/or methods of design and documentation (from the scribal era in the Middle Ages to our contemporary digital era)
  <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
  <!--[endif]-->
• The impact of new technologies on the work of architects, engineers, designers and makers (and/or on theatre-makers)

 

• Immaterial architectures: pyrotechnics, light projections, installations, and other multi-media practice between architecture and performance

 

• Theatre materials: from attempts to engage all the senses to questions of sustainability

 

MEDIATION

 

• The role of the theatre consultant or project manager in the development of a theatre building

 

• The role of theatre / performance / performativity in understanding architectural processes and practices

 

• The role of architecture in understandings theatrical / dramaturgical processes and practices

 

• The status of transition spaces and/or thresholds in the theatre (eg. entrances of various different kinds; the pro-scenium; fire curtain; foyer; café/bar; cloak-room; dressing-room)

 

• Inter-activity: the ways in which site-specific and/or found-space theatre acts on and  is acted upon by an audience

 

How to submit your abstract:
 

The maximum length for the abstract submission is 300 words

 

To present abstracts for papers to be presented in Working Groups for the 2012 Conference, you must submit your 300 word abstract through the general procedure and specify which Working Group you wish to be considered for. Please also indicate which theme/s you will be responding to (eg. scene - media - mediation – or: topic responding to the Theatre Architecture WG mission statement).

 

To submit abstracts for consideration you MUST be a member of IFTR/FIRT and you MUST also register at Cambridge Journals Online (CJO)

 

First you must log onto or register on Cambridge Journals Online (CJO) at:

http://journals.cambridge.org/iftrmembers (this service is free of charge)

 

To join or renew your membership for IFTR/FIRT 2012 you need to purchase your membership at: http://journals.cambridge.org/iftr

 

To join or renew IFTR/FIRT membership, click on the link:

International Federation for Theatre Research Membership (including a subscription to the peer-reviewed journal Theatre Research International)

 

If you are already a member, click on the link:

Conference Abstract Submission (members only)

 

 

 

Submitting an abstract is a two step process:

 

Step One:

 

<!Go to the IFTR/FIRT 2012 web site at: http://firt2012chile.uc.cl/index.php/en/conference/papers

<!Select the language you wish to view this in: i.e. Spanish, English or French and follow the instructions under ABSTRACT SUBMISSION PROCEDEMENT:

<!Be sure to follow instructions for Working Group abstracts.

 

Step Two:

 

Email a copy of your abstract, along with a 200 word statement of your qualifications, as a Microsoft Word email attachment (which you should also copy into the body of the email) to the working group convenors: Franklin J. Hildy at hildy@umd.edu and Juliet Rufford at j.e.rufford@qmul.ac.uk). Use the subject line ‘Architecture WG abstract for IFTR2012’ and note if you are submitting under Scene, Media or Mediation, or Topic Responding to Theatre Architecture WG Mission Statement. Please make sure that both email and attachment include: your name, the title of your paper, your institutional affiliation and position or the description ‘independent scholar/practitioner’ and a statement of any technical requirements you may have.

 

You will be notified of your abstract’s status by 15 March 2012.

 

For those of you who will need financial aid from IFTR in order to attend this meeting, please check the "Bursary" page at https://www.firt-iftr.org/en/bursary.

 

FIRT/IFTR

THEATRE ARCHITECTURE WORKING GROUP
MISSION STATEMENT

The purpose of the Theatre Architecture Working Group is to explore all that theatre architecture has been historically, is at present, and might be in the future. We consider built projects alongside unbuilt or speculative architectures, studying these from a wide range of practical and theoretical perspectives. We continue to investigate the ways in which space can be manipulated to bring performers and spectators into dynamic relationship inside auditoria, asking, in addition, how the design of other areas inside and outside the theatre building conditions the experience(s) of audiences and practitioners. Over the next four years, we will be focusing on the active role played by theatre environments - whether purpose-built or ‘found’ - in shaping theatre and performance across cultures. We seek to: develop theoretical paradigms appropriate to theatre and architecture and to the relationship between them; propose rigorous yet imaginative methodologies for the documentation, preservation, conservation and archiving of theatre architecture; and, provide new ways of perceiving and producing performance space.

Convenors: Franklin J. Hildy (hildy@umd.edu) and Juliet Rufford (j.e.rufford@qmul.ac.uk)

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The Arthur Miller Society

American Literature Association
2012 Conference


Location and Dates: San Francisco, CA.  May 24-27, 2012

The Arthur Miller Society will be hosting two panels at the 2012 ALA Conference. Participants will be selected with the primary goal of providing innovating and illuminating 15-minute papers on Arthur Miller – the playwright, his plays and productions.

Panel Theme: Uncharted Territories

The Five Drama Societies – the American Theatre and Drama Society, the Susan Glaspell Society, the Arthur Miller Society, the Eugene O’Neill Society, and the Thornton Wilder Society – will present a series of panels and roundtable discussions on the theme of “Uncharted Territories,” conceived in the broadest sense. For this collaborative series, The Arthur Miller Society seeks 15-minute papers that examine Miller’s more understudied works, as well as new approaches to his better-known plays and productions.

Please direct all proposals and queries to:

Joshua Polster
Emerson College
Joshua_Polster@emerson.edu

Please submit proposals by email in Word format. Proposals should include the following items:

- Name and Title (student, faculty, independent scholar)
- Academic Affiliation
- Contact Information
- Title of Paper
- Requested Panel
- Abstract (please limit abstracts to 250 words)
- Audiovisual Requests

All proposals must be received by January 15th 2012.

Please see the ALA website for the complete call:

www.americanliterature.org

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11th ANNUAL BTA DEBUT PANEL

ATHE 2012—Washington, D.C.

CALL FOR PAPERS

 

Curtain Up: Conversations Among Emerging Scholars

The Black Theatre Association (BTA), a focus group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), seeks essay submissions for its 11th Annual Debut Panel.

This year, BTA will hold a joint session with the *American Theatre and Drama Society* (ATDS) and the *Latino/a Focus Group* (LFG) in order to foster communication across our interrelated disciplines.  Each focus group—BTA, ATDS, and LFG—will select papers to represent them on this interdisciplinary panel.  

BTA encourages all graduate students and assistant professors working on black theatre and performance studies who have never presented at ATHE or a national conference to apply. Papers may consider any aspect of black dramatic criticism, theatre history, plays, playwrights, performers, directors, designers, etc. The highest quality papers will be selected by our distinguished panel of judges: Harvey Young, Daniel Banks, and Anthea Kraut. Accepted panelists will present their papers at the ATHE conference, August 2-5, 2012, in Washington, D.C.

All essay submissions should be ten to twelve pages in length, typed, double-spaced (including block quotes), and use either Chicago or MLA style citations. 

Please *e-mail* your contact information and complete essay submission as a MSWord attachment to Sara Armstrong, BTA Session Coordinator, at s-armstrong@northwestern.edu. Please type “BTA Debut Panel” in the subject heading.

***Deadline for submissions is Saturday, March 31, 2012.***

 

--
Kati Sweaney
Ph.D. Candidate
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre & Drama
Northwestern University

  

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"Bernard Shaw and Debt Sealings"

A Proposed Session on Bernard Shaw at the 2012 Midwest Modern Language Association Convention
November 8-11, 2012. Cincinnati, Ohio.

The proposed session seeks papers on Shaw's writings that dovetail with the conference theme of "Debt." Possible topics could include:

*representations of borrowers and lenders, borrowing and lending, in Shaw's plays

*debts Shaw and/or his plays owe to other thinkers, writers, and/or political figures

*Shavian debts accrued by contemporary plays, playwrights, and/or theorists

Please send 300-500 word abstracts via electronic attachment to Christopher Wixson at cmwixson@eiu.edu by March 1st, 2012.

Selected presenters will be informed by May 1st, 2012 and must register for the conference by July 1, 2012.

More information on the proposed session can be found at: http://www.shawsociety.org/Shaw-at-MMLA-2012.htm

More information on the MMLA and the 2012 conference can be found at: www.luc.edu/mmla


--
Michael M. O'Hara, Ph.D.
Associate Dean, College of Fine Arts
The Sursa Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts
2000 W. University Avenue
College of Fine Arts, AC 200
Ball State University
Muncie, IN  47306
--
765-285-5495 (office)
http://mohara.iweb.bsu.edu

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2012 Annual Conference of American Society for Theatre Research-Theatre Library Association
Nashville, Tennessee, November 1-4, 2012

TLA AT 75:  COLLECTING THE FUTURE BY MEDIATING THE PAST

Theatre Library Association will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2012.  To honor this milestone, we seek archivists, librarians, practitioners, and scholars to investigate and contextualize the role that performance documentation has played within the larger frame of performing arts history over the past 75 years.

Cultural repositories have long contributed to the significance of performance history.  As dynamic mediators between resources and researchers, these collections occupy a complex position which is constantly in flux. Technologies and best practices change, and what might have seemed unimportant yesterday could be most vital today.  

Professional choices made by archivists, curators, librarians, and researchers constantly shape and reshape how we document performance history – and how it is transferred to the next generation of audiences, educators, practitioners, students, and scholars.

We invite Proposals to consider the following questions:
*How should cultural repositories participate in documenting the history of performance?
*How have new technologies – from microfilm to digitization – transformed the work of performing arts archivists, librarians, and historians?
*How does the act of documenting performance contribute to creation of meta-performance?
*How have libraries and archives helped shape changes in theatre and performance studies?
*What particular challenges do various documentation strategies and media – oral history or born-digital materials – pose for theatre historians? 
*How have the challenges of researching and writing about theatre history transitioned over the past 75 years?

Please submit one-page Proposal by February 15, 2012 to:

Beth Kattelman, Plenary Chair
Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute
Ohio State University
119D Thompson Library 
1858 Neil Avenue
Columbus, Ohio  43210
kattelman.1@osu.edu

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Debut Panel 2012

Theatre History Focus Group: ATHE

 

               

The Theatre History Focus Group (THFG) of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) invites submissions for its debut panel from scholars who have neither published articles nor previously presented at ATHE.  The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2012.

 

Papers must address the history of theatre practice, but the parameters are broad.  Active engagement with historiographical methodologies, theory, and/or dramatic literature is encouraged.  Papers engaging explicitly with the conference theme “Performance As/Is Civil Engagement” and incorporating transnational or non-Western perspectives are especially desired.  THFG remains committed to giving voice to a diversity of methodological approaches and geographical emphases.     

 

Submissions will be evaluated by a jury of three theatre scholars and the top three papers will be presented at the national conference in Washington, D.C.  Papers should be standard conference length for a twenty-minute presentation (8-10 pages).  Those selected should plan to attend the conference in Washington, D.C. this August.  More information may be found at http://www.athe.org.

 

Please send your paper as a .pdf email attachment to THFG Vice-Chair Charlotte McIvor at cmcivor@scu.edu with “THFG Debut Panel” in the subject line.  Please do NOT put your name on the paper.  However, in the body of your email message please indicate the title of your paper, your name, institution, address, telephone, and e-mail address.  Winners will be notified by May 30.

 

Panelists will receive a

$150 honorarium

to help defray the cost of conference attendance.

 

All Best,
Charlotte McIvor, Ph.D.
Adjunct Lecturer
Department of Theatre and Dance
Santa Clara University

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ATDS Grants

The American Society for Theatre Research sponsors or coordinates several awards, grants, fellowships, and prizes to support and recognize outstanding scholarship in theatre and performance studies. Follow the links below to read more about each award, including purpose, history, application or nomination procedures, and deadline.

PUBLICATION PRIZES

• Sally Banes Publication Prize (Biennial, Even-numbered years) - March 15, 2012
• Barnard Hewitt Award - April 16, 2012
• Errol Hill Award - May 14, 2012
• Gerald Kahan Scholar's Prize - March 16, 2012
• Oscar G. Brockett Essay Prize - May 15, 2012
• Distinguished Scholar Award - March 15, 2012

 RESEARCH GRANTS

• Helen Krich Chinoy Dissertation Research Fellowships - May 7, 2012
• The ASTR Collaborative Research Award - May 1, 2012
• Co-Sponsored Events Awards - March 1 and October 1, 2012
• Brooks McNamara Publishing Subvention - March 15, 2012
• Research Fellowships - March 15, 2012
• Targeted Research Areas Grants - March 15, 2011
• Grants for Researchers with Heavy Teaching Loads - March 16, 2012

 TRAVEL AWARDS

• Selma Jeanne Cohen Conference Presentation Award - June 15, 2012
• David Keller Travel  -  July 1, 2012
• Thomas Marshall Graduate Student Awards - July 1, 2012

Questions regarding individual awards should be directed to the appropriate committee chair. Send more general queries about ASTR awards to Iris Smith Fischer, Director of Fellowships and Awards, at ifischer@ku.edu.

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‘Theatre Plays on British Television’ conference,
University of Westminster, Friday 19 October 2012
 
The first conference arising from the AHRC-funded research project Screen
Plays: Theatre Plays on British Television will be held at the University of
Westminster on Friday 19 October 2012.
 
Screen Plays is concerned with all plays written for the theatre that have
been produced for British television since 1930. The project documents and
develops new critical approaches to the television presentation of these
plays, seeking to understand the institutional, production, technological
and aesthetic contexts for these adaptations within both broadcasting and
British theatre. More can be read about the project’s aims and activities on
the blog at http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com. The permanent page for the
conference is http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com/2012-conference.
 
Proposals are invited for papers and panels tackling issues and topics
within the broad area of theatre plays on British television from 1930 to
the present. In order to encourage a truly interdisciplinary discussion we
warmly welcome proposals from scholars and postgraduate students working on
the histories of broadcasting, media, drama, theatre and culture.
 
Possible topics for examination and exploration include, but are not limited
to, the following:
•    The forms and screen languages of British television presentations of
theatre plays.
•    Studies of particular genres, plays or playwrights across time.
•    The changing social and cultural meanings of theatre on television and
the ways in which these were regarded and exploited by broadcasters in
particular historical circumstances.
•    The extensive commercial and cultural relationships between the
theatre, individual companies and television.
•    The movement of practitioners between the spheres of theatre and
television.
•    The institutional, production, technological and aesthetic contexts of
these adaptations within both broadcasting and British theatre.
•    Audience and reception studies into how viewers engaged with these
productions.
•    The evolution of what may be regarded as the ‘normative’ style of
studio drama, and the development of new forms within and beyond the studio.
•    The post-1980s decline of theatre on British television and the recent
revival of interest in its possibilities in the multi-platform age.
 
Proposals in the form of a 250-word abstract and brief biography (or
200-word panel outline, with accompanying individual abstracts and brief
biographies), should be submitted to both John Wyver
(john@illuminationsmedia.co.uk) and Dr Amanda Wrigley
(a.wrigley@westminster.ac.uk) by 29 February 2012. It is intended that the
conference will give rise to an edited collection of essays on theatre plays
on British television.
 
Apologies for cross-posting.

John Wyver
Dr Amanda Wrigley
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Amanda Wrigley, Research Associate
Screen Plays: Theatre Plays on British Television
University of Westminster
http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com
http://amandawrigley.wordpress.com

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Song, Stage and Screen VII: The Musical’s Global Conquest

GRONINGEN RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF CULTURE (ICOG)

UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN (NETHERLANDS)

2-5 JULY 2012

 

The New York Times has frequently reported on the increasingly global musical theatre community. Broadway flops are finding success in Europe and China's economic power is stimulating a musical theatre industry aspiring to enter the global market. This conference invites papers investigating the range of global contexts within which stage and film musicals are created, circulated and consumed. While much growth has occurred in recent decades, musicals have been circulated transnationally for more than a century, and forms such as the American musical developed out of a range of cultural influences. Stage and screen musicals also make the global local, with, for example, Rodgers and Hammerstein choosing foreign settings for their stage musicals, culturally-specific narratives becoming global commodities (Les Misérables, Billy Elliot), and Bollywood films bringing exotic locations to domestic film audiences. Globalization is also a story musicals tell, as demonstrated by one of Broadway's newest musicals, Once, about an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant. With the explosion of media technologies offering ever more platforms and dimensions, musical theatre and film find new expression and distribution, shrinking the global stage onto our cellphones, laptops and Ipads.

  

Paper topics might include, but are not limited to:

-The American stage and screen musical abroad

-Studies of developing or established domestic musical theatre and film industries

-Intercultural engagement within musical narratives

-International collaborations by musical creators and producers

-American appropriation of foreign styles and narratives

-The global training and circulation of performers 

-Domestic reception of foreign musical theatre and films

-The colonial and post-colonial musical

-The musical and national identity

-The global musical marketplace

-Technology's role in the globalization of the musical

 

Proposals for twenty-minute papers or other presentation formats should be submitted electronically for blind peer review by Monday 12 March 2012 to songstageandscreen7@gmail.com. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words and sent as a Word attachment. For queries, please contact conference organizer, Laura MacDonald, at l.e.macdonald@rug.nl

 

Song, Stage and Screen is the annual conference of the academic journal, Studies in Musical Theatre, which is published by Intellect Press. Previous Song, Stage and Screen conferences have been held at the University of Portsmouth, UK (2006), University of Leeds, UK (2007), the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (2008), University of Maryland, College Park (2009), University of Winchester, UK (2010) and University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance (2011). It is expected that a selection of papers from this conference will be invited for submission to the journal.

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PERFORMING THE WORLD 2012
Can Performance Save the World?

October 4-7, 2012
The seventh Performing the World (PTW) conference will be held in New York =
City, Thursday, October 4 through Sunday October 7, 2012. International, cr=
oss-disciplinary, conversational, experiential, and practical-critical, PTW=
 has come over the decade to play an increasingly important role in support=
ing and expanding =E2=80=9Cthe performance turn=E2=80=9D around the world. =
If you practice and/or study performance as a means of individual, communit=
y and world transformation (or want to), PTW is for you.=20
The theme of the last PTW, held in 2010 and attended by over 500 people fro=
m dozens of countries, was, =E2=80=9CCan Performance Change the World?=E2=
=80=9D The depth of the challenges facing humanity two short years later ha=
ve led the conveners of Performing the World to recast the question for the=
 2012 conference as, =E2=80=9CCan Performance Save the World?=E2=80=9D=20
Deadlocked governments, protracted wars, dysfunctional education systems, a=
nd a deepening global economic crisis with no apparent solution have become=
 the norm. At the same time, the activity of performance (and playing and p=
retending and creating=E2=80=A6), as an alternative to the cognitive- and/o=
r faith-based =E2=80=9Csolutions=E2=80=9D of traditional ideology, continue=
s to spread both at the grassroots and in the university, with the non-ideo=
logical, improvisatory movements struggling to embody this trend. PTW is lo=
oking for proposals, be they for panels, workshops, performances, demonstra=
tions, installations, etc., that address this question, =E2=80=9CCan perfor=
mance save the world?=E2=80=9D from a multitude of perspectives, including =
but not limited to:



       Does performance contribute to people seeing/being in the world in n=
ew ways?
       Can we perform our way to ending poverty?
       Performance and community building and sustainability
       The interface of theatre performance and performance in daily life
       Performance and learning
       Performance and youth development, in school and out
       Performance and the Elderly
       Performance, play and therapeutics
       The relationship of performance to physical and emotional healing
       Health and the performance of medicine (East and West)
       New model of community health and human rights
       What is creative conversation and how can it take place in polarized=
 (and violent) environments?
       The role of theatre and performance in war and conflict zones
       What is play and its role in human creativity and development?
       The social context of creativity
       When =E2=80=9Creasoning=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Cargument=E2=80=9D fail=
, what then?
      Performance and the creation of history
       Does knowing get in the way of performing?
       The role of cognition/reflection in performance
       The performance of language and the language of performance
       Performance and organizational culture
       The role of performance in politics and revolution
      Does it take pretending to make change real?

We envision Performing the World 2012 as a marathon =E2=80=9Cperformance of=
 conversation=E2=80=9D with people from all over the world =E2=80=94 schola=
rs and researchers; educators, therapists, social workers, youth workers; d=
octors and other health workers; theatre, applied theatre and other perform=
ance artists; social activists and community organizers; business leaders a=
nd philanthropists; film, video and media creatives; and others.
The sponsors of Performing the World 2012 are the All Stars Project, Inc. a=
nd the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy. PTW will=
 be held at the All Stars Project=E2=80=99s performance and development cen=
ter on 42nd Street in New York City.
Proposal submission forms are available at www.performingtheworld.org Propo=
sals are due March 1, 2010.
=20

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 ASTR Co-sponsored Events

Deadline: March 1, 2012 and October 1, 2012 

Purpose: ASTR Co-sponsored Events exist to:

* fulfill ASTR's purpose through collaboration with other organizations and institutions;
* foster closer relationships with cognate organizations and/or projects; and
* increase the visibility of the work of both ASTR and the award recipient within a wider professional context

Eligibility: Applications may come from individuals, organizations, institutions (or a combination). Applications will be considered from any nation. ASTR co-sponsored events receive the endorsement of ASTR; however, ASTR is not able to offer organizational or administrative assistance to awardees. Events of regional, national, or international significance in the format of conferences, colloquia, symposia, summits, etc. will be considered provided that they align with ASTR's purpose, namely, to foster scholarship on theatre and performance, either historical or contemporary, with respect to the US or abroad. Although applicants may apply for funds, the co-sponsorships will normally take the form of an endorsement without funding. In exceptional cases where monetary support is awarded, such support will be capped at $1500, and applicants should emphasize forms of in-kind support.

For more information, including application instructions, visit the Co-Sponsored Events Award page on the ASTR website.

--
_________________________
Shaun Franklin-Sewell
ASTR Webmaster

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Reperformance

An interdisciplinary symposium hosted by the Performing Arts Department o=
f
Washington University in St. Louis

September 14-15, 2012
Deadline for proposals: March 15, 2012

Featured speakers:

Judith Chazin-Bennahum, Professor Emerita, University of New Mexico, awar=
dee
of the CORPS de Ballet International Lifetime Achievement Award, and auth=
or
of Ren=E9 Blum & The Ballet Russes

Paul Menzer, Program Director of the Shakespeare and Performance Program,=

Mary Baldwin College, and author of The Hamlets: Cues, Qs, and Remembered=
 Texts

Rebecca Schneider, Chair of Theatre and Performance Studies, Brown
University, and author of Performance Remains, and The Explicit Body in
Performance

Performances created and curated by:

James Jordan, Ballet Master with the Kansas City Ballet, and R=E9p=E9tite=
ur of
the Tudor Trust, with dancers from the Kansas City Ballet

Mark Tribe, New York City based artist, and author of New Media Art, and
Chelsea Knight, New York City based artist, and 2007 Fulbright Fellow

***

Reperformance=97the recreation of past performance phenomena=97has lately=
 taken
on new importance in several arenas. In 2010 Marina Abramovi&#263; de=
clared,
=93Reperformance is the new concept, the new idea!=94 apropos of a major
retrospective of her performance works at the Museum of Modern Art in New=

York. Posing questions about embodied memory, disappearance, and
representation, Rebecca Schneider has recently situated recreations of wo=
rks
by Abramovi&#263;, Allan Kaprow, Yoko Ono, and others in relation to =
historical
reenactments, such as those undertaken by Civil War enthusiasts. Meanwhil=
e,
experimental theatre companies including The Wooster Group, Les Freres
Corbusier, and the Rude Mechs ensemble have applied reperformance techniq=
ues
to the recreation of celebrated avant-garde performances of the 1960s, 70=
s,
and 80s.

These endeavors have prompted questions of authenticity, intellectual
property, and historical legacy. But reperformance presents challenges to=

artists working in many contexts, genres and media. Trusts established to=

safeguard ballet masterworks in the late twentieth century=97especially w=
orks
by choreographers who did not work with one particular company=97have gra=
ppled
with similar concerns: what constitutes a =93recreation,=94 or a =93resta=
ging?=94 In
what does the work of the dance r=E9p=E9titeur consist?  Theatre artists =
and
historians have long worked to preserve both living formal traditions=97s=
uch
as Kutiyattam and Suzuki technique=97and performance styles rooted in byg=
one
eras=97such as Noh, Elizabethan-era, and Restoration acting styles.  The
convergence of such creative challenges and possibilities prompts us to a=
sk,
have we arrived at a critical moment for reperformance that spans the bro=
ad
spectrum of performance behavior?=20=20

The Performing Arts Department at Washington University in St. Louis
welcomes proposals for papers that examine reperformance for a symposium =
to
be hosted September 14-15, 2012.  We encourage proposals that engage with=
:

=95=09Reperformance theory and practice in dance, drama, performance art,=
 and
other fields
=95=09The preservation and reproduction of discrete performance technique=
s such
as Suzuki, Commedia dell=92arte, etc.=20
=95=09Choreography and trusts
=95=09Historical re-enactment and living history
=95=09Performance ontology in theory: performance=92s disappearance, rema=
ins, and
recirculations. Performance, memory and history

Please send abstracts for 20 minute presentations, including a 250-300 wo=
rd
abstract and a short bio text to: ckoneal@wustl.edu and pcamp@wustl.edu.

 

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Other Islands: Shaw, Beckett, and World Literature? (MLA 2013)
Jan 3 - 6, 2013 / Boston, MA
Sponsored by the International Shaw Society

THE ELDERLY GENTLEMAN. I wish to see the world.
ZOO. It is too big. You can see a bit of it anywhere.
Bernard Shaw, ?The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman? (1921)

?I wouldn?t suggest that G.B.S. is not a great playwright, whatever
that means when it?s at home.? ­ Samuel Beckett (1956)

Despite their considerable differences, Bernard Shaw and Samuel 
Beckett were born into an Anglo-Irish axis but envisioned worlds 
beyond it that incorporated and transfigured their national heritage. 
This panel seeks papers that address how Shaw and Beckett might be 
read together, particularly through new definitions of world 
literature. How do Shaw and Beckett envision modern drama as a series 
of parables or demonstrations of world creation and destruction; as a 
negotiation between the local and the global; or as the erasure of 
historical geographies in favor of flexible places (landscapes, 
theatres) and spaces (the past, the future, the state)? Papers might 
also address Shaw and Beckett?s shared Protestantism and 
Neo-Protestantism, their universalism or rejection of universals, 
their insistence on science fiction and fantasy as ramifications of 
realism, and their dramatization of engagements with and retreats from 
inner and outer worlds, among other related topics.

Please send a 300 word-abstract and CV to Lawrence Switzky at 
lawrence.switzky@utoronto.ca by March 1, 2012. Proposals and queries 
are welcome before the deadline.

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American Theatre and Drama Society / Modern Language Association

 

Deadline:  March 15, 2012

The American Theatre and Drama Society invites proposals for papers for two panels at the 2013 Modern Language Association conference, which will be held January 3-6, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. The deadline for submitting your proposal to the ATDS (email preed@olemiss.edu) is March 15, 2012.  Rather than fixing topics beforehand, I invite work that broadly aligns with the presidential theme set by Michael Bérubé, "Avenues of Access."

Proposals might approach theatre, performance, or drama studies by way of (but not limited to) the following topics:
 

• Disability studies
• Archival methodologies and historical access
• Practices of empowerment and access
• Genealogies of access or lack of access
• Politics of access in academic performance/theatre/drama studies
   

Submission:  Please submit 300-word proposals electronically as Word attachments to Peter Reed, Assistant Professor of English, University of Mississippi (preed@olemiss.edu).  Proposals should also include a 1-page CV and proposer’s name, email address, telephone number(s), academic affiliation.  The deadline is March 15, 2012.

Membership:  As an affiliated organization, the ATDS is guaranteed one panel and the opportunity to compete for an additional panel.  In order to participate in either of these panels, you must be a member of both MLA and ATDS by April 7, 2012.

Best,
Peter Reed
--
 

Dr. Peter P. Reed

 

 

Assistant Professor, Early American Literature

Department of English

University of Mississippi

University, MS 38677-1848

 

http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/pages/reed_p.html

http://us.macmillan.com/rogueperformances

 

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O’Neill Review
Posted on September 30, 2011
The Eugene O’Neill Review has been publishing scholarship about Eugene
O’Neill and his milieu for thirty-two years, for most of that time as
an annual. It has just reorganized, with a new publisher (Penn State
University Press), a new editor (William Davies King), a new home base
(UC Santa Barbara), and a new publication schedule (biannual).  The
Review, which continues to be sponsored by the Eugene O’Neill Society,
will now be fully indexed and archived on JSTOR and Project Muse.

We invite scholars and critics to contribute to the journal in this
new phase of its existence. Fully peer-reviewed, the journal is open
to critical, historical, or theoretical articles that in some way
intersect with the life and career of Eugene O’Neill, including
collaborators (e.g. the Provincetown Players, Susan Glaspell, etc.),
influences (e.g. Strindberg in America), inheritors (e.g. the
Neo-Futurists’s production of the stage directions from O’Neill’s
early plays), global reverberations (e.g. Nietzsche in China in Marco
Millions), and other tangents, co-tangents, and secants. Most articles
will be in the 3-8000 word range, but exceptions can be made for
especially important longer pieces, also shorter “notes” on highly
focused topics, such as newly discovered documents.  We will also
consider publishing edited documents of unusual interest. Queries to
the editor are welcome. Submissions should be made electronically and
follow the Chicago Manual of Style (with endnotes).

We also publish book reviews, including more general treatments of
American drama, and performance reviews. Typical length would be
800-1500 words, but longer review essays may be proposed.

Submit articles and queries to:  William Davies King, University of
California Santa Barbara, Editor  king@theaterdance.ucsb.edu

Book reviews and queries to: Kurt Eisen, Tennessee Tech University,
Book Review Editor  KEisen@tntech.edu

Performance reviews and queries to: J. Chris Westgate, California
State University Fullerton, Performance Review Editor
jcwestgate@Exchange.FULLERTON.EDU

Editorial Board

Steven F. Bloom—Lasell University
Stephen A. Black—Simon Fraser University, emeritus
Judith E. Barlow—SUNY Albany
Patrick Chura—University of Akron
Robert M. Dowling—Central Connecticut State University
Zander Brietzke—Columbia University
Eileen J. Herrman—Dominican University
Bette Mandl—Suffolk University, emerita
Brenda Murphy—University of Connecticut
Laurin Porter—University of Texas, Arlington, emeritus
Erika Rundle—Mt. Holyoke College

Posted in Call for Papers, Publications | Leave a comment
 
William Davies King, Professor
Department of Theater and Dance
University of California Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
 

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Call for Participants in NEH Summer Institute on Roman Comedy

An NEH Summer Institute for College and University Faculty, "Roman Comedy in Performance," will be held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina from June 24th through July 20th, 2012.  Co-directed by Professors Sharon L. James (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Timothy J. Moore (University of Texas at Austin), the NEH Summer Institute will give NEH Summer Scholars (twenty-two university or college faculty members and three graduate students) the opportunity to discuss the performance practice and social significance of Roman Comedy with leading experts in the field and to practice scholarship through performance, producing their own performances of scenes from the plays of Plautus and Terence.  The NEH Summer Scholars for this Institute will include non-classicists as well as classicists, and no knowledge of Latin is required.  Participants will receive a stipend of $3,300.  Applications are due by March 1, 2012.  For more information, consult http://nehsummer2012romancomedy.web.unc.edu/ or write to either co-director: sljames@email.unc.edu or timmoore@mail.utexas.edu.

--

Timothy J. Moore
Department of Classics
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station, C3400
Austin, TX 78712-0308
512-232-4161
NEH Summer Institute: Roman Comedy in Performance: http://nehsummer2012romancomedy.web.unc.edu/


--
___
Sarah Bay-Cheng, PhD              
Associate Professor of Theatre         Performance Review Editor       Palgrave Book Series Editor
Director of Graduate Studies             THEATRE JOURNAL                AVANT-GARDES IN PERFORMANCE

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Theatre History Focus Group - ATHE

Debut Panel 2012

               

The Theatre History Focus Group (THFG) of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) invites submissions for its debut panel from scholars who have neither published articles nor previously presented at ATHE.  The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2012.

 

Papers must address the history of theatre practice, but the parameters are broad.  Active engagement with historiographical methodologies, theory, and/or dramatic literature is encouraged.  Papers engaging explicitly with the conference theme “Performance As/Is Civil Engagement” and incorporating transnational or non-Western perspectives are especially desired.  THFG remains committed to giving voice to a diversity of methodological approaches and geographical emphases.     

 

Submissions will be evaluated by a jury of three theatre scholars and the top three papers will be presented at the national conference in Washington, D.C.  Papers should be standard conference length for a twenty-minute presentation (8-10 pages).  Those selected should plan to attend the conference in Washington, D.C. this August.  More information may be found at http://www.athe.org.

 

Please send your paper as a .pdf email attachment to THFG Vice-Chair Charlotte McIvor at cmcivor@scu.edu with “THFG Debut Panel” in the subject line.  Please do NOT put your name on the paper.  However, in the body of your email message please indicate the title of your paper, your name, institution, address, telephone, and e-mail address.  Winners will be notified by May 30.

 

Panelists will receive a

$150 honorarium

to help defray the cost of conference attendance.

 

All Best,
Charlotte McIvor, Ph.D.
Adjunct Lecturer
Department of Theatre and Dance
Santa Clara University