CFP: University Wits to Rude Mechanicals: The Value of Campus Productions

[Patrick Finn]

CFP: From University Wits to Rude Mechanicals: The Value of Campus Productions

CATR/ACRT: Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities
Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
May 30 - June 2, 2015

One of the greatest single contributions in performance history was that made by the so-called University Wits. The precursors to England’s theatrical Renaissance led performance out of a world dominated by bear-baiting and public executions and into a form of complex drama that continues to hold the stage. The contributions of this group of theatre-makers eventually made its way to the professional stage, but it was on university campuses that their work was initiated and grown. They used academic freedom to pursue artistic innovation.
Do our institutions support the conditions for this type of work today? Is our research feeding the professional stage and serving our students, colleagues and the general public? For the majority of us, on-campus productions are a fact of life, yet their claim on cultural capital is low. How might we change this state of affairs?

This seminar invites participants to reflect on the value of on-campus performance. 

Questions under consideration might be:

Is on-campus performance research?
Might we better evaluate campus productions?
Is peer review of on campus production possible?
Currently many of our programs accept reviews in print newspapers as equivalent to peer review for performance evaluations and tenure review. Given the current state of critical writing in this country, is this an acceptable form of evaluation?
Could a system of peer review of performance work be put in place in order to support performance research?
Is it ethical to expect performance researchers to participate in the professional season in order to qualify as researchers, when that season runs parallel to the academic year?
How sustainable are the practices of committing labour and materials to productions that are valued so lightly?
Applicants are asked to submit a 250-word proposal and a short bio to pfinn at ucalgary.ca  
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