CFP: Methodologies of Amateur Theatre Studies

[Robin Whittaker]

Hello all,

It was wonderful to see so many of you at our CATR meeting in  
Fredericton this year. I note that several of our discussions  
concerned the relationships between professional and nonprofessional  
practices across diverse times and geographies. Below and attached is  
the CFP for a seminar addressing amateur/nonprofessionalizing theatre  
and performance scholarship that I am co-chairing with Mary Isbell  
(UConn) at NeMLA next March. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 30  
2011.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and please spread the  
word to interested parties.

Cheers,

Robin C. Whittaker
Assistant Professor (as of July 1)
Dept. of English Language and Literature
St. Thomas University

-------->
(Please circulate widely. Apologies for cross-posting.)

CFP: Methodologies of Amateur Theatre Studies

Seminar co-chairs: Mary Isbell (University of Connecticut) and Robin  
C. Whittaker (St. Thomas University)

43nd Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Host Institution: St. John Fisher College
Rochester, New York -  Hyatt Rochester
March 15-18, 2012

To encourage rigorous scholarship on amateur theatre, past and  
present, we invite papers that highlight methodological approaches to  
diverse amateur theatre practices. Submissions might consider, for  
example, relevant forms of Classical theatre, Medieval liturgical  
drama, Stuart court masques, garrison performances,  theatrical  
societies, shipboard theatricals, home theatricals, patrician and  
plebian theatricals at the center of empires and within colonial  
communities, contemporary nonprofessionalized theatre practices  
(including community theatre and theatre in education), and even  
amateur performances in the internet age.

The benefit of soliciting work from a variety of perspectives is  
two-fold. By discussing various periods we can develop a comparativist  
approach to threads that run through diverse amateur practices. By  
focusing on methodology, we hope to uncover innovative approaches that  
might cross time- or place-specific boundaries. We also hope to  
consider various definitions of "amateur" practices and to theorize  
the wonderfully tricky artifacts available to amateur theatre  
researchers. Methodological approaches could take into account  
histories of acting, directing, and the book; and theories of  
reception, culture, the archive, narrative, genre, internet  
production/consumption, and gender. Proposals should detail the  
amateur theatre practice under investigation and the methodological  
approach implemented. Essays need not be meta-critical (though they  
may be), as our discussion will be geared in this direction.

This session will be run as a seminar (papers circulated in advance  
with emphasis on discussion during the session). Proposals of 250-500  
words should detail the practice to be investigated and methodological  
approach. Submit electronically (.doc) by September 30, 2011 to  
mary.isbell at gmail.com.

Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee for A/V will be assessed
with registration)
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