Pre-organized Panels – 46th Comparative Drama Conference, April 4-6, 2024 Orlando, Florida

45th Annual Comparative Drama Conference

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Pre-organized Panels – Call for Papers

Pre-organized Panels and Roundtables will also be considered. A pre-organized panel should include three papers. Each paper should be 15 minutes in length. 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 compdrama@rollins.edu by 15 October 2023. A pre-organized roundtable should include at least four participants. Roundtable proposals should include (1) a succinct, 50 word explanation of and rationale for the roundtable topic, (2) a timeline of the program, including time for audience interaction and Q & A, and (3) clear evidence of each participant’s expertise in the topic area. Do not send entire vitae. Include only evidence applicable to the roundtable topic. The panel or roundtable organizer should email the abstracts and rationale to compdrama@rollins.edu by 15 October 2023.

If you would like to advertise a pre-organized panel on the CDC website, please send the panel title, organizer contact information, deadline, and description to compdrama@rollins.edu immediately.

Calls for Pre-Organized Panel Participants

Mary Zimmerman as Total Theatre Artist

Mary Zimmerman, director and playwright, deviser and adaptor, professor of performance studies, is the keynote speaker for the 2024 Comparative Drama Conference. This panel is intended as a midcareer retrospective on the many facets of her work. Papers are invited on either (or both) text and production practice. They might, for instance, address her composition and/or directing processes, her adaptations of classical literature, her collaborations with performers and designers, or her teaching.

Proposals are welcome from presenters at any stage of their careers. Authors from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

If you are interested in presenting a paper on the Mary Zimmerman panel, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words [including name, paper title, institutional affiliation and rank (if applicable)] by October 12, 2023 to Amy Muse at ammuse@stthomas.edu. Three papers of 15-minutes apiece will eventually be included in this pre-organized panel. Applicants will receive an update on the status of their submissions by the end of October.

George Bernard Shaw

Sponsored by the International Shaw Society

These sessions welcome papers on any aspect of Shaw studies, including but not limited to : individual plays/characters, comparative treatment of plays by Shaw, Shaw and his contemporary playwrights, cultural aspects of Shaw’s works, and international Shaw play productions. Email 250-word abstracts to: Ellen Dolgin at: ellen.dolgin@dc.edu by 10 October 2023.

M. Butterfly at 35

Sponsored Panel by the David Henry Hwang Society

2023 marks the 35th anniversary of David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly. We welcome papers that engage with Hwang’s Tony-winning play, David Cronenberg’s 1993 film as well as the 2017 rewritten Broadway revival. We also encourage discussion of various productions of either play.

The David Henry Hwang Society was founded in 2016 at the Comparative Drama Conference with the goal of promoting scholarly examination of Hwang’s theatrical works. Since his first breakout play, FOB, in 1980, David Henry Hwang has proven the most significant and prolific Asian American playwright to date. From the global phenomenon of M. Butterfly and more recent successes with Yellow Face, Chinglish and Soft Power, Hwang has staged stories of the Asian American experience and explored questions of race, culture, and identity.

Papers should be 15 minutes in length, written for oral presentation, and accessible to a multi-disciplinary audience. Scholars and artists in all languages and literatures are invited to email a 250 word abstract in English to William Boles at compdrama@rollins.edu by 10 October 2023. Please include paper title, author’s name, status (faculty, graduate student, other/scholar-at-large), institutional affiliation, and postal address at top left. Abstracts must present a clear argument and have an appropriate scope (usually two or fewer works). Please send your abstract in .docx, .txt, or .rtf format. If possible, please avoid sending a .pdf.

Transgenerational Trauma in Dramatic Literature

In Dark Matter (2013), Andrew Sofer observes that “[s]taging trauma poses a representational conundrum because trauma confounds chronology and eludes comprehension” (118). Yet the theatre has long been a site for exploring the effects of collective trauma from genocide, slavery, war, environmental disaster, and forced displacement. Building on existing trauma studies scholarship and the work of psychologists such as Cathy Caruth and Judith Herman, whose research highlights trauma’s resistance to coherent, chronological narrative and simple representation, we are seeking papers for a special panel focusing on transgenerational trauma as it is expressed in dramatic literature and performance. We invite contributions from scholars and artists considering the phenomenologies and epistemologies of transgenerational trauma in theatre from any time period. While scientists have made clear the impact of traumatic events on the epigenetic markers of traumatized people and their descendants, this panel is interested in how “acts of transfer” carried out in dramatic literature and performance enact, challenge, or reproduce transgenerationally traumatic choreographies.

Papers should be 15 minutes in length and accessible to a multi-disciplinary audience. Interested participants should send a 250 word abstract to Dr. Les Gray (ljgray@missouri.edu) and Dr. Victoria Scrimer (vscrimer@umw.edu). Abstracts should include a title and brief (<250 word) author biography.

Disability Studies in Dramatic Texts and Performance

Papers are sought for a special panel series on the subject of disability studies in dramatic texts and performance. We invite research on representation, imagery, symbolism, societal regulation, social impact, or the construction of disability as it pertains to casting and depictions of those with disabilities in playtexts and dramatic performance.

Papers should be 15 minutes in length, written for oral presentation, and accessible to a multi-disciplinary audience. Scholars and artists in all languages and literatures are invited to email a 250 word abstract in English to Dr. Mary Lutze at Mary.Lutze@uafs.edu by 1 October 2023 for full consideration. With abstract submissions, please include paper title, author’s name, status (faculty, graduate student, other/scholar-at-large), institutional affiliation, and postal address at top left. Abstracts must present a clear argument and have an appropriate scope (usually two or fewer works) as well as an apparent engagement with Disability Studies and drama. Please send your abstract in .docx, .txt, or .rtf format.

Inquiries should be directed to Dr. Mary Lutze at Mary.Lutze@uafs.edu.

Comparative Dylan @ Comparative Drama

Deadline: October 12, 2023

Bob Dylan has been performing on stage for six decades. However, his relationship to other performance arts remains underexplored and underappreciated. This panel will put Dylan’s work as a singer-songwriter and performance artist in conversation with relevant dramatic works, performances, and stage traditions.

Broadly speaking, I am looking for paper proposals in the following areas:

Comparative study of Dylan’s work in relation to specific playwrights, plays or musicals
Comparative study of Dylan’s work in relation to stage traditions or performance modes (e.g., stand-up comedy, burlesque, minstrelsy, drag)
Application of dramatic theory or criticism to shed light on Dylan as a performer or his concerts as performance art

For more specific prompts, topics might include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:

Dylan’s longstanding interest in and influence from Shakespeare’s plays
Dylan’s influence from the Greenwich Village theater scene of the early sixties
Dylan’s aborted collaboration with Archibald MacLeish on the play Scratch
The Rolling Thunder Revue or the Never Ending Tour’s debts to theatrical traditions (e.g., touring troupes, medicine shows, carnivals)
Function of Dylan’s songs within Conor McPherson’s Girl from the North Country
Dylan’s relationship with specific theatrical institutions and audiences (e.g., New York’s Beacon Theatre)

Prospective participants should keep in mind that this panel will convene in person in Orlando. Although a remote option may be available for portions of CDC 2024, only speakers who attend in person will be considered for this panel.

Once accepted, authors should keep the audience in mind when writing their papers. The Comparative Drama Conference is attended by drama scholars, teachers, and practitioners in various fields, not by Dylan experts. Please pitch your presentations accordingly.

Proposals are welcome from presenters at any stage of their careers. Authors from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

If you are interested in presenting a paper in the “Comparative Dylan” panel, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words [including name, paper title, institutional affiliation and rank (if applicable)] by October 12, 2023 to Graley Herren at herren@xavier.edu. Three papers of 15-minutes apiece will eventually be included in this pre-organized panel. If a sufficient number of strong proposals are submitted, it may be possible to add a second panel on this topic. Applicants will receive an update on the status of their submissions by mid-October.

Hadestown Panel

Deadline: October 12, 2023

This panel will examine Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown in any of its incarnations, from 2006 community theater project to 2010 concept album to 2019 Tony-winning Broadway musical. Topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

Analysis of specific songs, performances, or themes in Hadestown
Adaptation of source myths about Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes, Hades, Persephone, the Fates, and the Underworld
Collaborative relationship between Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin
Evolution of lyrics, music, and/or dramaturgy between various versions of Hadestown
Impact of significant cast changes in different productions of Hadestown
Relation of the “folk opera” to Mitchell’s other work as a singer-songwriter
Comparative analysis of Hadestown in relation to work by other musicians, playwrights, or composers
Socialist critique in Hadestown
Climate crisis in Hadestown
Gender dynamics in Hadestown
Inclusive casting and racial dynamics in Hadestown

Proposals are welcome from presenters at any stage of their careers. Authors from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

If you are interested in presenting a paper in the Hadestown panel, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words [including name, paper title, institutional affiliation and rank (if applicable)] by October 12, 2023 to Graley Herren at herren@xavier.edu. Three papers of 15-minutes apiece will eventually be included in this pre-organized panel. If a sufficient number of strong proposals are submitted, it may be possible to add a second panel on this topic. Applicants will receive an update on the status of their submissions by mid-October.

Panels Sponsored by the American Theatre and Drama Society

The following panels are seeking papers for presentation at the Comparative Drama Conference (April 4-6, 2024 in Orlando Florida).

Papers for either panel should be 15 minutes in length, written for oral presentation, and accessible to a multi-disciplinary audience. Scholars and artists in all languages and literatures are invited to email a 250 word abstract in English to Rick Gilbert (rgilbert1@luc.edu) by October 6, 2023. Please include paper title, author’s name, status (faculty, graduate student, other/scholar-at-large), institutional affiliation (if any), and postal address at top left. Anyone who presents on one of these panels should be (or become) a member of the ATDS (https://www.atds.org/).

American Theatre outside the United States

This panel seeks papers about American Drama that reflects all of the Americas. That could include discussions of non-US American playwrights, plays or productions. Papers could look at the differences between the way the same play is produced in different parts of the Americas, or at theatres or plays that have moved from one place to another and how they have adapted to their new venues or at American plays produced on other continents or plays about Americans or the Americas.

The State of the Theatre in the United States

“The Theatre is in Crisis.” We have seen this over and over in the last year in headlines from the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post. And indeed, large, well-known theatres around the country are closing, laying off staff, or pausing programming. But at the same time, Gen-Z theatre artists are making revolutionary new works and theatres are changing the way they work to provide an environment that is more open to artists who had no representation in the big theatres of the late 20^th century. The pandemic closed the whole industry, and where concerts are back bigger than ever, theatre ticket sales tell a different story.

So…are things better, worse, or just different? And where might they go from here? How are performances, classrooms, rehearsal rooms, and business offices different after COVID, #MeToo, Not In Our House, Black Lives Matter, and #WeSeeYouWhiteAmericanTheatre?

Call for Proposals from The Thornton Wilder Society

For the 46th Comparative Drama Conference, April 4-6, 2024, in

Orlando, Florida

The Thornton Wilder Society invites papers on any topic related to Thornton Wilder. We are especially interested in topics related to Wilder and race as suggested by the recent Lincoln Center production of The Skin of Our Teeth (2022) and the multi-racial casting documented in OT: Our Town (2002), or in such plays as “Pullman Car Hiawatha” and “Bernice.” Please send 200-word abstracts by October 10 to Park Bucker (psbucke@uscsumter.edu).

French and Francophone Theater Panel

Contact email: imacdona@bowdoin.edu

Deadline: Oct. 12, 2023

This panel welcomes submissions on the broad theme of “French and Francophone Theater.” The intention of this panel is to create a space at the Comparative Drama Conference for the presentation of current research on French and Francophone theater by both rising and established scholars. All time periods of French and Francophone dramatic literature and performance are welcome.

Topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

Analysis and commentary pertaining to French and Francophone dramatic texts.
Performances from the French and Francophone world.
The use of theater in the context of language teaching.
French and Francophone plays in translation.
French and Francophone theater in relationship to other languages and cultures around the world.

Proposals are welcome from presenters at any stage of their careers. Authors from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

Presentations may include citations in French , but should be prepared for an English-speaking audience.

If you are interested in presenting a paper in the “French and Francophone Theater” panel, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words [including name, paper title, institutional affiliation and rank (if applicable)] by October 12, 2023 to Ian Andrew MacDonald at imacdona@bowdoin.edu. Three papers of 15-minutes apiece will eventually be included in this pre-organized panel. If a sufficient number of strong proposals are submitted, it may be possible to add a second panel on this topic. Applicants will receive an update on the status of their submissions by mid-October.

“Theater and Memory” Panel

Deadline: October 12, 2023

This panel welcomes papers about “Theater and Memory” broadly construed. Actors struggle to remember their lines. Playwrights write against forgetting. Audience members selectively recall their favorite moments from performances. Memory is imperfect and flawed yet is also an essential part of the theater and the practices that surround it.

Topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

The role of memorization in theatrical rehearsal and performance.
The faltering of memory with age and challenges facing aging actors.
The themes of memory and forgetting in dramatic texts and staged performances.
The performance of memory and memorializing through public or private events of remembrance.
Theatrical venues and other locations as sites of memory.
Memory and nostalgia in texts and performances.
Misrememberings, dubious testimonies, and the risk of false memories in text and performance.
Remembering as resistance against forgetting, censorship, and the passage of time.
The spectator’s memory and the recollection of what was seen on stage.
Collective memory and its relationship to individual memory.
The live event, recorded media, and memory.

Proposals are welcome from presenters at any stage of their careers. Authors from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

If you are interested in presenting a paper in the “Theater and Memory” panel, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words [including name, paper title, institutional affiliation and rank (if applicable)] by October 12, 2023 to Ian Andrew MacDonald at imacdona@bowdoin.edu. Three papers of 15-minutes apiece will eventually be included in this pre-organized panel. If a sufficient number of strong proposals are submitted, it may be possible to add a second panel on this topic. Applicants will receive an update on the status of their submissions by mid-October.

Acts of Attention: Narrative Medicine Onstage

One of the most successful initiatives in the early 21^st-century reparative turn has been narrative medicine—the practice of teaching healthcare professionals to closely read literature to develop their skills of attention and empathy. When physician Rita Charon established this field, she was inspired by her studies of novelist Henry James, whose exquisite attention to every detail also demanded that his readers do the same. Although the field uses the name “narrative” medicine, dramatic literature deserves a more prominent role in its study and practice. This panel seeks to highlight works that bring new insight to narrative medicine: plays that don’t simply feature scenes of illness and/or caregiving as part of the plot or story but seem designed to bring the audience into a disposition of care and to build their capacity for attention and empathy.

Proposals are welcome from presenters at any stage of their careers. Authors from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

If you are interested in presenting a paper on the Narrative Medicine panel, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words [including name, paper title, institutional affiliation and rank (if applicable)] by October 12, 2023 to Amy Muse at ammuse@stthomas.edu. Three papers of 15-minutes apiece will eventually be included in this pre-organized panel. If a sufficient number of strong proposals are submitted, it may be possible to add a second panel on this topic. Applicants will receive an update on the status of their submissions by the end of October.

Arthur Miller Society

Call for Papers

The Arthur Miller Society plans to host a three-paper panel at the upcoming Comparative Drama Conference on the relevance of Miller’s works, ideas, and life to social and political issues today. Presentations should be 12-18 minutes so that three presentations can fit easily into a 75-minute session and allow ample time for discussion. Themes may address any of Miller’s plays, essays, or interviews, or comparisons of Miller’s ideas to those of other dramatists and writers.

Typical topics, among others, include racism, social tribalism and groupthink, the social consequences of capitalism, the sources of ethical challenges and the ways people meet them, politics as performance, social and economic issues confronting American theatre and the role of theatre in American culture, the changing role of the American Dream as an ideal, the effect of American culture on individuals’ construction of a sense of self, and the use and abuse of autobiography.

The Comparative Drama Conference has proven to be an excellent starting point for more fully developed and publishable articles for the Arthur Miller Journal, the Miller Society’s semi-annual academic publication. We encourage people who have ongoing work relevant to Miller to present at this conference, and we will make space on Miller Society panels for these presentations. If you have ongoing work you would like to present, it need not be limited to the topic outlined above.

The Miller Society can provide small stipends to defray travel costs and other conference expenses for graduate students and other scholars presenting on Miller who may lack access to funding from institutions.

Please send proposals for presentations to David Palmer (dpalmer@maritime.edu) by October 10 so that panels can be configured and submitted for consideration to the conference organizers by their deadline of October 15.

Acts of Attention: Narrative Medicine Onstage

Proposals are welcome from presenters at any stage of their careers. Authors from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to submit proposals.