LMDA Conference begins with PERFORMANCE AND THE CITY

[Brian Quirt]

** Please forward this notice to your students and colleagues! **

A Symposium of special interest to scholars and artists in the
Toronto/Ontario region:


PERFORMANCE AND THE CITY
Symposium and Architecture Tour - Toronto, June 21, 2007

Part of the LMDA International Dramaturgy Conference

How is the 21st century city transforming? And what will be the role of the
individual citizen in the city of the future? Scholars and artists will
explore these and other questions in an innovative symposium that takes to
the streets of Toronto during the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the
Americas (LMDA) annual conference.

Urban space has become one of the most active areas of investigation in
Performance and Theatre Studies. Performance and the City invites scholars
and artists to join symposium contributors as they direct the lens of
current urban thinking on Toronto itself: historic monuments, distinct
communities, and the city¹s current building boom. This symposium will
address these spaces with a key question: what is the role of performance in
understanding and negotiating the city?

Rather than speaking of the city only in abstract terms, this event will
include a bus tour that will take the discussion to specific locations in
Toronto. Symposium attendees will become motorized flâneurs, looking at the
city from new perspectives. The highlight of the tour will be a box lunch at
the Royal Ontario Museum, which has recently opened a new addition designed
by Daniel Libeskind. The bus tour is co-curated by Shawn Micallef, one of
the founders of Toronto¹s site-specific [murmur] project.

Performance and the City is sponsored by the Literary Managers and
Dramaturgs of the Americas. The symposium and tour take place on the opening
day of the LMDA annual conference, and can be attended separately from the
rest of the conference at the one-day rate of $60US / $75CDN. Download the
conference brochure at: http://www.lmda.org/blog/Conference/Conference2007

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

11:00             Registration at Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People,
165 Front St. E.
Guests may register for the entire LMDA conference, including the symposium
and tour, or register for a One-Day Pass which will include the Symposium
and Tour as well as all the following events.

11:30 ­ 12:00        Welcome and Keynote
Greeting to attendees, followed by a presentation by Kim Solga and Laura
Levin, Toronto-area scholars of performance and theatre, space and
architecture. Their lively talk is entitled, "Building Utopia: Performance
and the Fantasy of Urban Renewal in Contemporary Toronto."

12 Noon ­ 2:00        Bus Tour
A tour of central Toronto, with discussion of architecture and its
connection to the civic life of Toronto. Approximately half a dozen sites
will be visited; about half will be "drive bys," with stops and discussion
at the other locations. Box lunch at the ROM (additional charge), new
addition by Daniel Libeskind.

2:30 ­ 3:30          Round Table and Discussion
Returning to the conference site, members of an interdisciplinary panel will
each say a few words about their perspectives on Toronto¹s urban spaces,
then open the discussion to the audience.

3:30 ­ 4:00         Break / Meet-and-Greet

4 ­ 5:30             University Caucus Session
LMDA¹s academic members address Hot Topics, a discussion of issues
generating heat in the theatre community.

7:30pm             Performance: 365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks
Eight of Toronto¹s leading companies interpret texts from Parks¹ play cycle.


REGISTRATION:
You can register for the conference and join LMDA (if you wish) ONLINE. The
Conference Registration page on the LMDA website has all the details:

http://www.lmda.org/blog/_WebPages/ConferenceRegistration2007.html

More conference information is available on the LMDA website:
http://www.lmda.org

** We encourage you to forward this notice to your friends, students, and
colleagues!