Can we enrich our understanding of theatre through more extensive consideration of the closely related art of film? Are theatre scholars and practitioners overly defensive in asserting the unique aspects of live theatrical performance due to the greater popularity of film? Given the exact reproducibility of film, along with transferability to video, dvd, internet, etc., movies are widely available. Beyond ease of access, do theatre and film really make different demands on audiences? Or, is the job of spectating much the same way for both art forms?

Are the cinematic and the theatrical different artistic methods? Consider how early film using a single camera was still very much like theatre. What types of ‘cinematic’ techniques can be seen in contemporary theatrical productions? How do film and theatre borrow from each other? The 2010 SETC Theatre Symposium will examine the mutual influence of theatre and film through consideration of shared history, present practices, and ongoing connections.

Keynote Speaker:
Bruce McConachie, University of Pittsburgh, author of Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre

Call for papers:
Individual papers might explore:
--Broadway musicals based on films
--filmed plays
--vaudeville and film
--directors, or other artists, who work in both theatre and film
--film embedded in theatre (and vice versa)/ multimedia performance
--economic considerations in both theatre and film production
--acting techniques for film versus theatre
--audiences, how similar/different is the process of consuming, responding, interpreting each form?
--ephemerality, liveness, limited seats/limited run
--artistic control and relative power of playwright, stage director, screenwriter, and film director


Please send one page paper abstracts by January 11, 2010 to:

Dr. J.K. Curry
Editor, Theatre Symposium
Department of Theatre and Dance
Wake Forest University
P.O. Box 7264, Reynolda Station
Winston-Salem, NC 27109
curryjk@wfu.edu
(336) 758-3941

Submissions by email attachment are encouraged. (Word document preferred.) Selected papers from the symposium will be published in Theatre Symposium, the annual journal of the Southeastern Theatre Conference published by the University of Alabama Press.

Individual members of SETC receive a copy of Theatre Symposium as a benefit of membership.