CFP: Performing Public Lives, CATR 2014 conference

[Susanne Shawyer]

This may be of interest to those who participated in the recent
conversation about biographical dramas.

Please distribute widely.



Call for proposals:

*Performing Public Lives:*

*Exploring the Borders of History and Identity in New Canadian Work*



In response to the 2014 conference theme of “Borders Without Boundaries,”
this roundtable explores the innovative ways contemporary Canadian
playwrights and performers blur the lines between public and private
identities, history and imagination, fact and fiction. As theatre
practitioners explore the private lives of public figures onstage, they
rely on the theatrical imagination to fill in the gaps in historiographical
narratives. Theatre practitioners and audience members participating in the
digital media landscape perform different identities for specific
audiences, becoming public personae themselves as they leave traces of
their presence in public spaces both onstage and off. Where does the
personal become public and how do we reverse this journey?  How do
playwrights and storytellers make the public once again personal? What is
gained or lost in the voyage? This roundtable considers how theatre
scholars and practitioners negotiate these shifting identities, and how
performance can provocatively and usefully explore the boundaries between
public and private lives.

            Theatre practitioners and scholars are invited to submit a new
or recent script along with a 500-word statement that addresses how the
script engages with the notion of the boundaries between the public and
private self. Scripts and statements will be circulated in advance, and the
statements will serve as the catalyst for roundtable discussion at the
conference. The roundtable will discuss and engage with new Canadian works
that provocatively explore the concept of performing public/private lives,
including:

·         -investigations of borders between public and private identities,
both online and off

·         -examinations of identity formation in relation to celebrity
culture

·         -theatrical representations of online or digital media
identities, memories, and oral histories

·         -explorations of different historiographical approaches to
devising work based on public figures

·         -new approaches to older works

Please send proposals to Amanda Barker (amandajb at yahoo.com), Daniel Krolik (
danielkrolik at gmail.com), and Susanne Shawyer (Susanne at susanneshawyer.com)
by January 13, 2014. Participants will be notified of acceptance by
February 1. Participants will share scripts or script excerpts online one
month before the roundtable, and will share 500-word statements online two
weeks before meeting at the conference. All accepted participants are
required to join CATR. For more information please visit
http://catracrt.ca/
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