<div dir="ltr">Dear colleagues,<br><br>The CATR Program
and Cultural Planning Committees have been busy working on the
conference events for Congress 2014 and we wanted to update you on some
important points of information and some very exciting developments:<br>
<br><b>1. Banquet</b><br><br>We will be holding our banquet
at the local, family-run Ravine winery in St. Davids Bench, Niagara. A
pre-banquet mixer, sponsored by TRIC, will be held in the winery's fully
restored 200-year-old Loyalist Georgian Wm. Woodruff House. For more
about the winery visit:<br>
<a href="https://www.ravinevineyard.com/winery" target="_blank">https://www.ravinevineyard.com/winery</a><br><br><font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><b>2. Performance Programming</b><br><br></span></font>
<font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">We've
attached a save-the-date flyer for a very exciting Congress Cabaret
curated by TL Cowan and current Brock student Alex Tigchelaar (aka Sasha
Van Bon Bon).
<i><span>Dirty Plötz </span></i><span>is an exploration of the
variety show genre—so central to the prohibition-era Niagara region
nightlife—with a feminist and queer politics and aesthetics, featuring dance, storytelling, body art, video art, hip-hop, and
theatre.</span>
The cabaret is a cross-association collaboration by CATR, Women's and
Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes (WGSRF), and the Association of
Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE). The
cabaret will be held on the final night of the conference -- May 27th,
2014 -- so please arrange
</span></font><font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span>your
travel plans accordingly to ensure you do not miss what promises to be a
provocative and memorable capstone event of our 2014 gathering. <br>
<br></span></span></font><font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span>Congress delegates will also have the opportunity to see neXt Company Theatre's <i>Khalida</i>, written and directed by David Fancy. </span><i><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)">Khalida</span></i><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)"> is a dynamic, poetic, and politically relevant production featuring the
confessions and testimony of Said, a man in flight from a conflict zone in the
Middle East who has found himself in an oil producing country in the economic
North. A one-night-only performance of <i>Khalida</i> will take place on Saturday, May 24th in Brock University's Sean O' Sullivan Theatre. <br><br>Tickets
for both of these events will be available for purchase in advance
through our Association website. More details about a Shaw Festival
outing and other performance events are forthcoming soon.<br>
<br><b>3. Keynote Speakers</b><br><br>The Program Committee is very
pleased to announce that we have confirmed two keynote speakers for the
2014 conference each of whom will speak to our Congress theme "Borders
Without Boundaries" in challenging and invigorating ways: playwright,
actor, and 2012 Canada Reads winner, Carmen Aguirre, and Professor of
Contemporary Theatre and Performance at Queen Mary, University of London
and author of (most recently) <i>Fair Play: Art, Performance and Neoliberalism</i> (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Jen Harvie. Plans are currently in the works for a third keynote, to be announced soon.<br>
<br><b>4. Accommodations</b><br><br>Brock University is located on the
beautiful Niagara escarpment, about a seven- to ten-minute drive from
the nearest cluster of hotel accommodations. The Four-Points Sheraton is
the only hotel located directly across the street from the university,
but the majority of those rooms were booked well in advance by Congress
organizers. While on-campus accommodation will be the most convenient,
booking information has not yet been released. We do know that on-campus
residences can accommodate only 1,300 delegates -- so, if you plan to
stay on campus, we encourage you to book as soon as that information
becomes available. We will forward the booking information the minute we
receive it. <br>
<br>Congress has blocked room reservation at special Congress rates at a
number of nearby hotels. Please visit the Congress website for a
complete list of those hotels: <a href="http://congress2014.ca/plan-your-trip/accommodations" target="_blank">http://congress2014.ca/plan-your-trip/accommodations</a> If you plan on attending the 2014 conference, we encourage you to book as soon as possible.<br>
<br>If
you have any questions about the 2014 conference, please do not
hesitate to contact us. Remember to visit our Association website for
the CFP and information about our curated sessions: <a href="http://catracrt.ca/" target="_blank">http://catracrt.ca/</a> Information about our praxis sessions will be posted shortly.<br>
<br>Best wishes,<br><br>Natalie Alvarez and Peter Kuling,<br>CATR 2014 Conference Program Planning Co-Chairs</span></span></font></div>