Fwd: CFP for RAPPT 2014, "Paying the Piper: Economies of Amateur Performance"

[Mary Isbell]

Please circulate widely. Apologies for any cross-posting.

RAPPT is an international interdisciplinary network of researchers working
on amateur performance and private theatricals
(rappt.org)
. We seek proposals for presentations to be given at our inaugural
conference, which will take place in London from June 28-29, 2014. Our
conference is inspired by the Pic Nic Society, arguably the first amateur
dramatic society in England. This group, which performed in the Tottenham
Street Theatre, London, only survived for a few years at the turn of the
nineteenth century; it was motivated by a desire for cooperative endeavour,
mutual pleasure, and a fair amount of elitism. Although in British English
a picnic is now usually an informal meal eaten out of doors, it used to
mean something like a potluck supper in American English, that is, a meal
to which everyone brings a dish.  The Pic Nic journal explained in 1803,
'The title of Pic Nic, given to this Paper, is used in the sense applied to
it by a neighbouring Nation, signifying a Repast supplied by Contribution;
and to this Miscellany all persons of genius and talent are invited to
contribute.' It was ridiculed for a variety of reasons, as depicted in James
Gillray's famous etching, "Blowing up the Pic Nics
.
"<https://www.dropbox.com/s/qwp126ov6vgclpm/Gillray%20Blowing%20up%20the%20Pic%20Nics.jpg>

This conference will showcase the results of two RAPPT projects currently
underway: 1) a collaboratively curated digital archive of the Pic Nic
Society, which will serve as a digital dramaturgy site for 2) an amateur
production of one of the plays that members of the society performed
at
 the Tottenham Street Theatre. Our goal is to situate this research into
conversations about the economies of non-professional performance across
periods and locations. In drafty church halls and lavish ballrooms, on
board ships, in parlours and in purpose built spaces, lovers of the
performing arts have long collaborated creatively without the sanction of
academic or professional recognition. Yet not-for-profit performance still
has a cost. The extravagance of the Earl of Barrymore's theatricals at
Wargrave practically bankrupted him and, as the Pic Nic controversy
demonstrates, the fashion for private performance was, at the very least,
perceived as a financial threat to London's patent theaters.

We invite papers on any aspect of non-professional performance, but
particularly those that investigate:

   - The cost and funding of amateur performance;
   - The role of commercial publishers and theatrical suppliers in feeding
   the craze for amateur theatricals;
   - The involvement of professional performers in amateur productions;
   - Rivalries and tensions between professionals and amateurs;
   - amateur performance in the context of a funding crisis in the
   humanities

Please submit proposals of 250-500 words electronically (doc or pdf) by
March 7, 2014 to rappt2014 at gmail.com. Queries and statements of interest
welcome to the conference address or individually to conference organizers
Judith Hawley (j.hawley at rhul.ac.uk) and Mary Isbell (mary.isbell at yale.edu)
.
Please include with your proposal:

   - Name and Affiliation
   - Email Address
   - Postal Address
   - Telephone Number
   - A/V Requirements
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