Pre-organized Panels

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 2022. 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 2022.

 

Disability Studies in Dramatic Texts and Performance 

Papers are sought for a special panel series on the subject of disability in dramatic texts and performance. We invite research on representation, image, symbolism, societal regulation or 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 2022. 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.  

 

GIRLHOOD Plays of the 21st Century

Any abstract proposal on any play, musical, or performance written in or about the 21st Century that centers “girlhood” in any definition.

Topics might include femininity, intersections of race and gender, memory, ageism and the theatre industry, Black girlhood, education and gender, the body on stage, coming of age stories, sexuality and intimacy, physical culture, trauma studies, etc.

Areas for research might include methods of practice, production ethics and histories, patterns in casting, critical theory, history and historigoraphy, literary analysis, queer theory, dramaturgy, or popular cultural studies.

Recent plays to consider:

• The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe
• Dance Nation by Clare Barron
• By Jihae Park
• The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood by Kira Rockwell
• The Mad Ones by Kerrigan and Lowdermilk
• School Girls, or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh
• John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower
• Usual Girls by Ming Pfeiffer
• Beastgirl by C. Quintana and Music by Janelle Lawrence
• The list goes on…

Papers should be 15 minutes in length, written for oral presentation, and accessible to a multi-disciplinary audience. 8-10 minute works of performance or other creative mediums are also welcome. Scholars and artists in all languages and literatures are invited to email a 250 word abstract in English to Melissa Sturges at sturgesm@umd.edu by October 7th, 2022.

The American Theatre and Drama Society is seeking papers for two pre-constructed panels to be presented at the 45^th Comparative Drama Conference.  

 

Panel 1: Reimagined American Theaters 

The pandemic had a crushing effect on American Theater, and plays are only haltingly coming back to the stage.  Early in the pandemic, many practitioners hoped that the enforced break would lead to changes in the way we tell stories and in what stories are being told.  Movements like “We See You White American Theatre” and Not In Our House have agitated for a change in the way theaters are run, from the back office to the rehearsal room, as well as in the kinds of plays programmed for “post-pandemic” seasons.  In the last year, theater has begun to come back.  This panel seeks papers that examine the ways in which that hope has been (or has not been) fulfilled.   

 

Panel 2: American Oppressions 

The theatre is one venue through which we can come to terms with the systems under which we struggle.  Some playwrights dig more deeply or more often into our nation’s structures of oppression; from Redlining to the Prison-industrial complex, from historical plays about slavery to contemporary ones about immigration or racial profiling.  Productions can also choose to use plays that might have been written about other issues to thematize these systems, often bringing new life to old works.  Papers may address any aspect of particularly American oppressions, as thematized by American plays or productions.  Equally welcome would be papers about plays written or produced in other countries but which explore particularly American issues. 

 

Submission Instructions: 

Papers should be 15 minutes in length, written for oral presentation, and accessible to a multi-disciplinary audience.  Please send a 250-word abstract to Dr. Richard Gilbert at rgilbert1@luc.edu by October 3, 2022.  Please include your paper’s title, your name, your status (faculty, graduate student, independent scholar, theater artist, other), your institutional affiliation if any, and your email and postal addresses.    

 

“Dramatic Fictions / Fictional Dramas”

Deadline: October 12, 2022

Graley Herren is organizing a comparative panel that crosses and combines genres: works of fiction that contain plays, playwrights, actors, or dramatic performances; or plays that contain writers, fictional texts, or acts of literary composition. Alternately, presenters may set up intertextual conversations between the work of a playwright and an artist or character from another genre. For instance, Herren will be presenting a paper on Samuel Beckett and Bartleby the Scrivener. He is seeking two other papers to complete the panel. Only in-person presentations will be considered for this panel.

If you are interested in presenting a paper in the “Dramatic Fictions / Fictional Dramas” panel, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words [including name, paper title, institutional affiliation and rank (if applicable)] by October 12, 2022 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.

All papers presented at CDC 2023 are eligible for publication consideration in the annual book series Text & Presentation after being expanded into full-length research papers. For more information see the conference website: https://blogs.rollins.edu/drama/.