CFP Asian Canadian Theatre

[Ric Knowles]

Dear Candrama subscribers,

I am organizing, with Nina Lee Aquino (artistic director of fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company), the first ever conference/festival on Asian Canadian theatre, to be hosted by fu-GEN in Toronto 4-9 May 2010, coinciding with the launch of Nina's two-volume anthology of Asian Canadian plays from Playwrights Canada Press. The conference papers will form the basis of the first volume in a new book series from the press, "New Essays on Canadian Theatre."

We will be applying for a SSHRC conference grant, and hope to be able to cover the costs of travel and accommodation for presenters.

We are inviting folks to indicate an interest in presenting and contributing to the volume at their earliest convenience, and to submit titles and brief abstracts (250 words) by October 1st 2009.

We are conscious that, while Asian Canadian theatre is taking off, this conference and the book associated with it constitute the virtual invention of a new scholarly field. We therefore welcome any approach, from any background (theatre studies, performance studies, dramatic literature, and so on), and from any and all region(s) of the country. We have deliberately avoided placing parameters around the topic, in hopes that these will be organically generated through the proposals we receive and the papers that are presented and published.

In addition to the conference, the event will include a festival of new Asian Canadian Plays in development, and we hope that even those not presenting will want to attend.

Please feel free to contact me with ideas or questions--and especially with proposals--at any time. Everthing will be welcome, as we try to invent a new field within Canadian theatre studies.

I look forward to a deluge of replies!

Best,

Ric 

Professor of Theatre Studies
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
N1G 2W1

ph: 519-824-4120, x52931 (w)
FAX: 519-824-0560
email: rknowles at uoguelph.ca