Canadian Theatre Review: Theatre, the Law, and the Courts

[Reid Gilbert]

Canadian Theatre Review

                                                            CALL FOR
PAPERS

                                        Issue 142: Theatre, the Law and
the Courts

                                                           Edited by
Reid Gilbert

 
While many plays and films deal with courtroom drama, the relationships
among theatre, performance, the law, and the courts are multiple. 

•	Courtrooms are performative venues; 
•	productions encounter a wide range of legal issues;
•	plays have always been subject to censorship (an increasingly
threatening reaction in Canada); changes to Canadian 
        legislation will affect future film and stage work;
•	alternate theatre of various kinds attracts particular
censorship;
•	community theatre often demonstrates collective response to laws
or proposed changes to the law;
•	theatre is being used to build civic law through community
theatrical process;
•	production runs the risk of accident resulting in liability, an
especial problem for small companies with limited       
        budgets; stage fighting, acrobatics and stunts are particularly
exposed;
•	lawyers’ shows are popular entertainments in at least five
Canadian cities;
•	lawyers are enrolling in acting seminars, recognizing the value
to courtroom performance;
•	moot courts are theatrical simulations meant both to teach and
to inculcate a coterie style of performance;
•	the theoretical links between performance on stage and the
performance of the law are complex and provocative; 
•	issues of equality and casting raise legal questions;
•	new media pose fraught questions of intellectual property rights
and the repurposing of stage images; 
•	new media prompt questions of royalty payment and payment for
repeat performance;
•	the iconography of the courtroom, while changing, remains
essentially theatrical;
•	the present trend in courtroom style is a “story-telling”
methodology;
•	Canadian drama has often taken legal issues or famous trials as
subject.

There are many other aspects of this theme that might be discussed.


We invite essays that fit this theme. 

Submissions should be sent by email, in Word, to the editor at

>rgilbert at capilanou.ca<


Full articles should normally be 2,500-3,500 words, typed double-spaced,
following the internal documentation style of Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Style
Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (2nd. Ed. New York: MLA, 1998).
Please employ an absolute minimum of document formatting in all
electronic submissions (beyond the indentation of quotations and the use
of endnotes). Endnotes are permitted (do not use footnotes), but should
be kept to a minimum. 

Contributors are responsible for providing illustrations for their
articles, also in electronic format (at least 300 dpi), and each
illustration must include photo credits and names of those who appear.

The issue is expected to appear in spring 2010.

DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF SUBMISSIONS:  Mar. 1, 2009. 

Please feel free to contact the editor with any questions, suggestions,
or proposals.  If you are considering submitting a paper, please inform
the editor in advance, and as soon as possible.
 
 



Reid Gilbert
Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Theatre and Film, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver
Co-editor, Canadian Theatre Review
Editorial Board, Theatre Research in Canada
Executive committee, Canadian Association for Theatre Research
Dept. of English, Capilano University (retired)
rgilbert at capilanou.ca