Dear REED-ers,
Below, please find the CFPs for sessions sponsored by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society for the International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, 2012. Some of the sessions have been previously announced. The names and emails of the individual organizers follow the session descriptions. You are encouraged to send proposals directly to those organizers, although you may also send them to me, and I will forward them.
Thanks!
Proselytism and Performance
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, live performances served to promote religious ideologies and practices among believers, as well as to proselytize to those outside a faith. At times such proselytism was overtly aimed at conversion, while in other circumstances it was concerned with negotiating the spaces between two or more religious communities. These functions were not restricted to a performance’s text or language, but were also achieved through staging practices, locale, rhythmic and musical elements, visual devices, and other performance tactics. Sometimes subtle, these performative strategies could prove especially useful when contact between faiths generated conflict or anxiety. This panel invites work that considers the relationship between proselytism and performance across the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The panel conceives of both terms—“proselytism” and “performance”—broadly, and invites topics from across all geographic regions and religions in the Middle Ages and/or Renaissance. Please send abstracts to Jill Stevenson ([log in to unmask]).
Medieval Drama and the Apocrypha
In spite of the intense interest in recent years in the apocryphal writings related to the New Testament and the use of these materials in medieval drama, there has been a lack of attention given to the subject in the drama sessions at Kalamazoo. The proposed session will look at such topics as the apocryphal writings in relation to the early life of Mary; the harrowing of hell; the Passion; the death of Mary, the Assumption, and Coronation; and Antichrist. Papers on both British and Continental drama are invited. Please send abstracts to Clifford Davidson ([log in to unmask]).
Lighting the Flame: Teaching Early Drama in the Undergraduate Classroom – A Roundtable
Most students’ introduction to early drama, either medieval or early modern, occurs in the undergraduate classroom, often in a survey course. This session seeks to illuminate varied approaches and pedagogies by which we can excite in the next generation an interest in these texts and performances. Topics may treat issues of text and context, performance, use of technology and the web, adaptation and translation, the treatment of early drama in literature anthologies, and the challenge of keeping early non-Shakespearean drama in the curriculum. Discussions of medieval and early modern (non-Shakespearean), British and Continental drama are invited. Please send proposals to Gloria Betcher ([log in to unmask])
Follow up to Chester 2010: What did we learn? – A Round-table
In May of 2010, the University of Toronto hosted the Chester 2010 Performance Experiment and Symposium, in which, over three days, a cast of over 300 from over twenty institutions performed all twenty-three plays on pageant wagons at three viewing stations around Victoria College. The text was an adaptation/reconstruction of the 1572 version of the cycle, which Protestant preacher Christopher Goodman demanded be banned, because of the plays’ Catholic nature. The symposium also featured academic papers related to the Chester cycle. This round-table panel is an opportunity for us to discuss more fully how this performance experiment affected our understanding of the cycle, the 1572 context, and the nature of performing these plays in our time. Proposals for short presentations from those present are invited, as we would like to encourage varied viewpoints and discussion. Please send proposals to Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby ([log in to unmask]).
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Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby
MRDS Secretary/Treasurer
Assistant Professor of Theatre and Humanities
Shenandoah Conservatory
Shenandoah University
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