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Please excuse the length and any cross-postings! Four MRDS-sponsored sessions International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan May 7-10, 2009 The Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society invites abstracts for the following four sessions to be held at International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 7-10, 2009. One-page abstracts may be sent directly to the individual organizers of each session, as identified below. Submission deadline is September 15, 2008, but potential presenters are encouraged to submit abstracts earlier. 1. Renaissance Medievalisms in Performance As Chris Brooks suggests, the Renaissance inherited the Middle Ages both as a material presence and as a complex of ideas and feelings-both real and imaginary. This panel seeks papers that examine how Renaissance communities constructed, evaluated, mythologized, or re-imagined the Middle Ages through performance. Although dramatic texts offer us evidence of such cultural work, this panel also invites papers that identify and analyze "medievalisms" in staging practices, patronage, acting styles, design choices, and other theatrical elements. Papers that address non-English contexts are welcome. Organizer: Jill Stevenson, Marymount Manhattan College, Theatre Dept, [log in to unmask] 2. Messengers & Advisors in Medieval Drama: Medieval dramatic depictions of messengers and advisors invite scholarly inquiry into many areas, including power and gender dynamics between a speaker and his/her audience; the epistemological implications of the spoken and written word; notions of space and movement in performance; and physical and verbal interactions among the players, and between players and audience. Proposals examining English and continental drama are welcome. Organizer: Frank Napolitano, Dept of English, University of Connecticut, [log in to unmask] 3. "Strictly Academic?": School and Learned Drama, Late-Medieval through Renaissance Many surviving early dramatic texts were produced in learned monastic settings, by household chapel/choir school or grammar school masters, by university students, or by post-graduate scholars such as those of the Christian Terence movement (both on the Continent and in England). Thereafter, the famed "University Wits" pioneered the commercial drama of the Elizabethan era and performance in the law schools (Inns of Court) continued through the Renaissance. Accordingly, early school and learned drama had an enormous influence not just on the development of early theatre but on its very survival and existence. For that reason, recent discoveries and approaches warrant reexamination of the many traditions of academic drama. Organizer: Bob Hornback, Dept of English, Oglethorpe U, [log in to unmask] 4. The Material Culture of French Medieval Drama: In Memory of Graham Runnalls As Alan Knight wrote in a review of one of Runnalls' books, "Since the work of Petit de Julleville in the 1880s, no-one has contributed more to the study of medieval French theatre history than Graham Runnalls." His work over more than thirty years ranged from editions of play texts to studies of manuscript typology and printing, and to his editorial work on archival materials about production and staging. His death in January 2008 at the age of 70 has been deeply felt by the Medieval Drama community, and it is fitting to honor him with this session. Organizer: Mario Longtin, Dept. of French, University of Western Ontario. [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society Secretary/Treasurer [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]