cfp

Staging American Fiction in France: Adapting Non Dramatic Texts from the US (1960-2025) 

5-6 February 2026, University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès, France

This two-day symposium is part of the ACTiF research program on “American Contemporary Theater in France” (ANR-23-CE54-011/2023/CE54, ACTiF – American Contemporary Theater in France), coordinated by the Centre for Anglophone Studies (CAS -EA801).

The symposium proposes to focus on the reception of non-dramatic US fictions in France through their adaptation to the stage (1960-2025).

A special issue of a peer-reviewed journal will later be dedicated to the theme of the symposium so that expanded versions of the conference papers may be submitted for publication.

Please send paper proposals (25 minutes, in French or in English) and a short bio-bibliography to emeline.jouve@univ-tlse2.fr and aurelie.guillain@univ-tlse2.fr by June 30, 2025.

Call for Papers :

At the dawn of the twentieth century in France, the adaptation of non dramatic texts took on a particular significance as stage directors established themselves as authors in their own right, as opposed to mere servants of a pre-existing text. Some adaptations would be conceived as transpositions and would fit into a traditional naturalistic aesthetic but some artists, like Jean-Louis Barrault, saw it as an opportunity to summon unconscious psychic forces in the service of the creative gesture for both the actor and the director: adaptation was then seen as a source of regeneration for theatrical practice (Barrault 32-34).

In the 1960, 1970s and 1980s, the connection between adaptation and creativity remained relevant as the post-1968 French theatre sought to open up new avenues of politicisation and critical reflection for its audiences. Referring to his adaptation of Aragon’s Cloches de Bâle (1975), Antoine Vitez spoke of théâtre-récit and théâtre indirect that fostered the spectator’s awareness of being exposed to a “counterfeit” (Vitez 494-95): as actors alternate between reading and embodying the novelistic text, the show creates a distanced mode of listening for the audience. Through this sort of adaptation, identification or distancing effects are placed at the heart of the theatrical performance, in the wake of Brecht or in reaction to his views. Moreover, especially from the 1990s onwards, adaptation has fuelled the emergence of intermedial “montage” (the adapted text being often only one of the many materials that make up the performance) or “postdramatic” forms (Lehmann): then it is the process of adapting a novel, rather than the novelistic fable, that is presented to the audience.

Between 1960 and 2026, the volume and proportion of adaptations have increased on the French stage, and the share of American fiction has risen steadily, whereas at the beginning of the period, adaptations of Russian or German texts tended to dominate the theatrical landscape. 

Adaptations of American texts in France have drawn little critical attention despite some pioneering studies such as those by Judith Graves Miller. Yet these adaptations can help us enlighten both aesthetic developments and cultural transfers that took place during this period; they constitute a significant aspect of the reception of US fiction in France.

What kind of vision of the United States is presented in these adaptations? In its creation or reception, is the show associated with a form of “American-ness” (a notion that calls for problematization) or is the American-ness of the text erased? Is the source text credited with any particular strength because of its supposed American-ness, and if so, for what reasons? We can also examine the way popular US culture is used, inasmuch as it is the portion of that culture to which French audiences are most exposed. The role of the musical and the connotations it carries can be of particular interest in this regard. Theatre performances can also be explored as serious, parodic or satirical commentaries on some aspects of American arts, culture or politics.

The symposium will not only examine the reception of US texts through their French adaptations : it will also be an attempt at identifying what the adaptation may have contributed to the artistic process itself. Some adaptations have a clearly identified naturalistic, melodramatic or grand-guignol aesthetic; others, on the other hand, elicit a strongly experimental drive and a taste for generic hybridity (theatre, puppets, reading, dance-opera-video). What kind of poetic force is the American text credited with? What significance and source of inspiration is found in the mythologies of the United States, their culture or their history for those who create the adaptation?

The period studied is between 1960 and the present day. We invite proposals for papers on the following topics (indicative list only):

• Study of adaptations of American fiction by a specific director (e.g., to name only a few: Stuart Seide-Herman Melville; Rodolphe Dana-John Cheever; Jacques Lassalle-Henry James and William Faulkner; Céline Pauthe-Henry James; Séverine Chavrier-William Faulkner; Tiphaine Raffier-Philip Roth; Julien Gosselin-Don DeLillo; Eva Doumbia-Toni Morrison, etc.).
• Study of the adaptation process as an inter-semiotic phenomenon: close examination of shows adapted from American fiction; aesthetic issues, modes of reception.
• Study of the adaptation process as a collective creation; the different players involved in the adaptation process
• The passeurs of American literature: initiators, intermediaries, translators, adapters, interpreters, agents
• Historical and/or sociological approaches to the adaptation of US fiction: negotiations around adaptation/translation/performance rights; symbolic capital, reputation of the adapted text; artistic and commercial strategies; the role of cultural institutions.
• Comparative study of adaptations of US fiction in France and other European countries.

Select Bibliography

ANSERMOZ-DUBOIS, Félix. « L’interprétation française de la littérature américaine d’entre-deux-guerres (1919-1939). Essai de bibliographie ». Thèse de doctorat en lettres présentée à la Faculté des lettres de l’Université de Lausanne. Lausanne : Imprimerie La Concorde, 1944.

BAK, Hans, Céline MANSANTI, dir. Transatlantic Intellectual Networks, 1914-1964. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.

BARRAULT, Jean-Louis. « Le Roman adapté au theâtre » Cahiers Renaud-Barrault (Octobre 1976), pp. 27-58.

BENHAMOU Anne-Françoise, Jernite KENZA, Floriane TOUSSAINT. « Le texte au théâtre, mutations et résilience ». Manuel des études théâtrales, M. Poirson, dir., Armand Colin, 2024.

BESSON, Jean-Louis, M. MÉGEVAND, J. RYNGAERT, D. SCHRÖPFER Schröpfer, A. TALBOT, A. « ‘Faire théâtre de tout’. De Vitez, Mnouchkine, Bezace à Danis, Minyana, Renaude… » Études théâtrales, N° 38-39 (1), 2007, pp. 94-104. https://doi.org/10.3917/etth.038.0094.

CARRIÈRE, Jean-Claude, Jack GAJOSK, Dominique LEDUR, Jean-Paul RAPPENEAU (et al.). L’adaptation. Du théâtre au cinéma, du roman au théâtre ; Théâtre et adolescence, Études Théâtrales n. 2, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1992.

CORVIN, Michel. « L’adaptation théâtrale : une typologie de l’indécidable ». Pratiques : linguistique, littérature, didactique, n°119-120 (2003), pp. 149-172. https://doi.org/10.3406/prati.2003.2020

COTTENET, Cécile et Sophie Vallas, « Introduction. Passeurs de la littérature des États-Unis en France, 1917-1967 (2) », Transatlantica [En ligne], 1 | 2023, mis en ligne le 01 juin 2023, consulté le 25 mars 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/20685 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/transatlantica.20685

DARNTON, Robert. « What is the History of Books? ». The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural History. London: Faber & Faber, 1990, pp.107-35. 

HESSE-WEBER, Armelle. « Adaptation théâtrale de textes étrangers : histoire et enjeux »,Horizons/Théâtre, 3 | 2013. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ht/3024 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ht.3024

HUTCHEON, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. Routledge, 2006.

LEHMANN, Hans Thies. Le théâtre postdramatique. L’Arche, 2002.

MILLER, Judith Graves. Theater and Revolution in France since 1968. Lexington: French Forum, 1977.

MILLER, Judith Graves. “Novels into Theatre: Adaptation as a New Mode of Reading.” Theatre Journal, Ohio State University (December 1981), pp. 431-452. 

PORTES, Jacques, dir. L’Amérique comme modèle, l’Amérique sans modèle. Presses Universitaire de Lille, 1993.

PLANA, Muriel, Roman, théâtre, cinéma au XXème siècle. Adaptations, hybridations et dialogues des arts.Bréal, 2004.

REYNES-DELOBEL, Anne Reynès-Delobel, Benoît TADIE. “Introduction. Passeurs de la littérature des États-Unis en France, 1917-1967, première partie”. Transatlantica [Online], 2 | 2022, Online since 01 December 2022, connection on 18 January 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/20326; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/transatlantica.20326

SAPIRO, Gisèle. Qu’est-ce qu’un auteur mondial? Le champ littéraire transnational. Paris: Seuil, 2024.

SARRAZAC, Jean-Pierre. « Le partage des voix », Nouveaux territoires du dialogue, Jean-Pierre Ryngaert, Actes Sud-Papiers, 2005, pp. 11-21.

TOUSSAINT, Floriane. « De la table au plateau. La génétique théâtrale au défi d’une mutation majeure de la pratique de l’adaptation de romans à la scène ». Genesis, avril 2024. https://www.thalim.cnrs.fr/auteur/floriane-toussaint

VITEZ, Antoine. Le Théâtre des idées. Gallimard, 1991.

Call for Papers: the Black Theatre Review. Vol. 4 No. 1

“Our stories and achievements had been carried by the wind and buried in the soil. It had been whispered as bedtime stories, spoken from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, and woven throughout our songs and poems of resistance and survival. America did not have to tell us who we were to this country; we told them.” – Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead, ASALH President

tBTR is pleased to accept submissions for its fifth publication, Vol. 4 No. 1, to be published online in September 2025. We invite authors to reflect on the Labor of Black Theatre Pedagogies in historically white colleges and universities. 

On the eve of Black History Month, the submission window for the tBTR special issue on “The Role of Theatre at Historically Black Colleges and Universities” closed, and two conflicting conversations on the national political stage began. First, the U.S. Department of Defense decreed that ‘Identity months [are officially] dead…’, then the White House called on public officials to recognize Black History Month as appropriate. In February 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, President of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, established Negro History Week because he understood the importance of teaching about the life, history and contributions of African descended peoples in America. Nearly a century later, the continued future of the national recognition of Black History Month is at stake, and the lives, history, and contributions of the underrepresented, underserved, and historically minoritized peoples are under siege… again. 

Just as the wind, soil, bedtime stories, pulpits, songs, and poems carry “our stories and achievements” throughout the U.S., Africa, and Diaspora as Dr. Whitehead proclaims in the epigraph above, Black Theatre Pedagogies have played a vital role in articulating experiences, challenges, acts of resistance, and aspirations of African descendants within HBCUs and historically white colleges and universities. Beyond preparing students to be culture bearers and executors of the tradition in graduate programs, the profession, and beyond, the critical study and production of Black Theatre in educational settings increases dramaturgical multilingualism, which leads to more culturally competent theatre criticism and production work. Additionally, the operationalization of Black Theatre Pedagogies can be a medium for the introduction, reproduction, and revitalization of Africanist cultural practices that can offer support mechanisms for navigating hostility within and beyond educational institutions. Furthermore, and specific to historically white colleges and universities, Black Theatre Pedagogies empower underrepresented participants to remake worlds where they are historically underserved and minoritized, with their voice and in their image.  

In the tradition of Black expressivity, the theme for Vol. 4 No.1 responds not only to the 2025 ASALH theme of Black History Month, ‘African Americans and Labor,’ but also to the tBTR special issue on “The Role of Theatre at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” We invite the submission of historical accounts, case studies, scholarly notes, interviews, photographs, and other digitized forms of creative scholarship that make the labor of Black Theatre Pedagogies more visible within historically white colleges and universities. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following:

• Black Theatre curricular development,
• Black Theatre and placemaking (departmentally, on the broader campus, and/or within the community surrounding the institution), 
• Historical accounts of Black Theatre pedagogy and performance in historically white colleges and universities,
• Profiles of faculty laboring in the educational vineyards to preserve the Black theatrical traditions of the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora, or profiles of successful alumni,
• Strategies for successfully navigating the lack of resources—real or imagined—in advancing Black Theatre pedagogy and performance, 
• Sustainable interventions for the institutionalization of Black Theatre Pedagogies in the face of declining college enrollment, threats to the arts and humanities, and DEIA reform efforts by the current U.S. administration, 
• Explorations of the impact of the loss of identity/aesthetic studies such as Black Theatre on educational theatre programs,
• Reflections on the challenges and invisible taxes of undertaking Black Theatre Pedagogies on faculty leaders, and 
• Testimonials on the power of Black Theatre Pedagogies, its contributions to healing, building resilience, identity making, and the development of a lifelong commitment to arts and letters.

Photograph Submissions
tBTR is accepting photographic submissions of past and present productions at historically white colleges and universities. All submissions must include the production title, director, location, names of those photographed, the photographer (if known), and 2-3 sentence performance summary.

Book Review, Performance Review, Notes, and Works of Multimedia
We also seek to publish book and performance reviews, illustrative casebooks, and notes from the field that document institution building, teaching, practice, and production-based experiences, technical and design notes, and works of multimedia related to this issue. For Performance Reviews, please reach out to our performance review editor, k.b. saine. For Book Reviews, please reach out to our book review editor, Jordan Ealey.

Submission Guidelines
The last date for submissions is March 7th, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Please refer to the tBTR website for specific article section guidelines. Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word, standard format (1-inch margins, double-spaced, and single column), and in Times New Roman 12-point font. Submissions should use footnotes and comply with The Chicago Manual of Style (18th ed.), using notes and bibliography system. Please upload your full manuscript on our website. Early submissions will receive preference in the review and publication process.

Omiyẹmi (Artisia) Green, MFA, Editor-in-Chief

Michelle Cowin Gibbs, PhD, Managing Editor

Philadelphia Theatre Research Symposium 2025 

Adaptation and Inspiration: Looking Back, Moving Forward 

Friday, May 2, 2025 

The Philadelphia Theatre Research Symposium (PTRS) is seeking abstracts for the 2025 gathering of theatre scholars and practitioners. We invite proposals for panels and roundtables for our in-person conference at Villanova University this May. This year’s theme is “Adaptation: Looking Back, Moving Forward,” which asks us to think about the opportunities and tensions that arise from the adaptive impulsein storytelling.  

Just within the past few months, the musical-movie adaptation of Wicked, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winne Holzman, has defied box office gravity worldwide.  Within the last decade,movie-musical adaptation has been an overwhelmingly successful genre in film, as seen with works such as The Color Purple, West Side Story and In the Heights. Also, we see great success every year with many Greek and Roman play adaptions and inspired works being performed, some recent Broadway successes like Fam Ham by James Ijames, Romeo and Juliet directed by Sam Gold, and Hadestown, with music, lyricsand book by Anais Mitchell. 

Throughout history, theatre has relied on spoken word and oral traditions that were often improvised and adapted over time. The timeless process of adaptation has created room for casting and design opportunities and has made theatre more accessible for a variety of audiences.  Through the many retellings of stories, many theatrical works have evolved and remained relevant.  Adaptation also lends itself to the flexibility for interpretation of original works, which causes natural tensions to arise within/between theatre makers and their audiences. The resulting conversations reveal how the process of adaptation prompts us to address the written story and the world of its performance as two separate entities.  These topics will be explored in a keynote question & answer session with celebrated playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. 

 
We invite proposals for individual papers or roundtables on topics that could include, but are not limited to: 

 
● Oral Traditions  
● Improvisation 
● Film Adaptations of Theatrical Works 

● Inspiration as Opposed to adaptation 
● Adaptation as a Hindrance to, or Advantage of, Creativity  
● Adaptation for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility  
● Recontextualization 
● Technical Adaptations (Set, Lighting, Sound, Projection, Costume, etc.) 
● Narrative Adaptation Adjustments (Plot, Character Development, etc.) 
● Teaching methods for Adaptation 
● Adaptations of Greek and Roman Plays 
 

How to Submit: 
Please submit a 250-word abstract for a 15-minute presentation to Bess Rowen at bess.rowen@villanova.edu along with a 100-word biography, including your current affiliation, by midnight on Friday, April 11, 2025, at 11:59pm. Please also include: the paper’s title, the presenter’s name, affiliation, and e-mail address. 
 
About Branden Jacob-Jenkins: 
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a Professor in the Practice of Theater and Performance Studies at YaleUniversity. Jacobs-Jenkins is a playwright whose plays include Girls (Yale Rep), Everybody (Signature Theatre; Pulitzer Prize finalist), War (world premiere, Yale Rep; LCT3), Gloria (Vineyard Theatre; Pulitzer Prize finalist), Appropriate (Signature Theatre; OBIE Award), An Octoroon (Soho Rep.; OBIE Award), and Neighbors (The Public Theater). 

A Residency Five playwright at Signature Theatre, his most recent honors include the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright from the London Evening Standard, a London Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwriting, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Steinberg Playwriting Award, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award. Jacobs-Jenkins has taught at NYU, Juilliard, Hunter College, and the University of Texas-Austin. 

 
About PTRS: 
The goal of PTRS is to provide a forum for theatre scholars and practitioners to share their research and work in order to enter into a dialogue about current trends in theatrical practice and scholarship. Additionally, PTRS seeks to provide a platform for the works of emerging theatre scholars. Panels will consist of paper presentations of 15-20 minutes and will be moderated by a scholar and/or practitioner. 
 
About VUTD: 
The Villanova University Theatre Department aims to inform and inspire theatre artists, administrators, and scholars who will impact the future of this dynamic art form. Our culture of creativity engages in rigorous study and the practical application of theatrical theories and techniques. We believe art has the power to transform hearts and minds by challenging both individuals and communities. 

Call for Papers: the Black Theatre Review. Vol. 4 No. 1

“Our stories and achievements had been carried by the wind and buried in the soil. It had been whispered as bedtime stories, spoken from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, and woven throughout our songs and poems of resistance and survival. America did not have to tell us who we were to this country; we told them.” – Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead, ASALH President

tBTR is pleased to accept submissions for its fifth publication, Vol. 4 No. 1, to be published online in September 2025. We invite authors to reflect on the Labor of Black Theatre Pedagogies in historically white colleges and universities. 

On the eve of Black History Month, the submission window for the tBTR special issue on “The Role of Theatre at Historically Black Colleges and Universities” closed, and two conflicting conversations on the national political stage began. First, the U.S. Department of Defense decreed that ‘Identity months [are officially] dead…’, then the White House called on public officials to recognize Black History Month as appropriate. In February 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, President of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, established Negro History Week because he understood the importance of teaching about the life, history and contributions of African descended peoples in America. Nearly a century later, the continued future of the national recognition of Black History Month is at stake, and the lives, history, and contributions of the underrepresented, underserved, and historically minoritized peoples are under siege… again. 

Just as the wind, soil, bedtime stories, pulpits, songs, and poems carry “our stories and achievements” throughout the U.S., Africa, and Diaspora as Dr. Whitehead proclaims in the epigraph above, Black Theatre Pedagogies have played a vital role in articulating experiences, challenges, acts of resistance, and aspirations of African descendants within HBCUs and historically white colleges and universities. Beyond preparing students to be culture bearers and executors of the tradition in graduate programs, the profession, and beyond, the critical study and production of Black Theatre in educational settings increases dramaturgical multilingualism, which leads to more culturally competent theatre criticism and production work. Additionally, the operationalization of Black Theatre Pedagogies can be a medium for the introduction, reproduction, and revitalization of Africanist cultural practices that can offer support mechanisms for navigating hostility within and beyond educational institutions. Furthermore, and specific to historically white colleges and universities, Black Theatre Pedagogies empower underrepresented participants to remake worlds where they are historically underserved and minoritized, with their voice and in their image.  

In the tradition of Black expressivity, the theme for Vol. 4 No.1 responds not only to the 2025 ASALH theme of Black History Month, ‘African Americans and Labor,’ but also to the tBTR special issue on “The Role of Theatre at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” We invite the submission of historical accounts, case studies, scholarly notes, interviews, photographs, and other digitized forms of creative scholarship that make the labor of Black Theatre Pedagogies more visible within historically white colleges and universities. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following:

• Black Theatre curricular development,
• Black Theatre and placemaking (departmentally, on the broader campus, and/or within the community surrounding the institution), 
• Historical accounts of Black Theatre pedagogy and performance in historically white colleges and universities,
• Profiles of faculty laboring in the educational vineyards to preserve the Black theatrical traditions of the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora, or profiles of successful alumni,
• Strategies for successfully navigating the lack of resources—real or imagined—in advancing Black Theatre pedagogy and performance, 
• Sustainable interventions for the institutionalization of Black Theatre Pedagogies in the face of declining college enrollment, threats to the arts and humanities, and DEIA reform efforts by the current U.S. administration, 
• Explorations of the impact of the loss of identity/aesthetic studies such as Black Theatre on educational theatre programs,
• Reflections on the challenges and invisible taxes of undertaking Black Theatre Pedagogies on faculty leaders, and 
• Testimonials on the power of Black Theatre Pedagogies, its contributions to healing, building resilience, identity making, and the development of a lifelong commitment to arts and letters.

Photograph Submissions
tBTR is accepting photographic submissions of past and present productions at historically white colleges and universities. All submissions must include the production title, director, location, names of those photographed, the photographer (if known), and 2-3 sentence performance summary.

Book Review, Performance Review, Notes, and Works of Multimedia
We also seek to publish book and performance reviews, illustrative casebooks, and notes from the field that document institution building, teaching, practice, and production-based experiences, technical and design notes, and works of multimedia related to this issue. For Performance Reviews, please reach out to our performance review editor, k.b. saine. For Book Reviews, please reach out to our book review editor, Jordan Ealey.

Submission Guidelines
The last date for submissions is March 7th, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Please refer to the tBTR website for specific article section guidelines. Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word, standard format (1-inch margins, double-spaced, and single column), and in Times New Roman 12-point font. Submissions should use footnotes and comply with The Chicago Manual of Style (18th ed.), using notes and bibliography system. Please upload your full manuscript on our website. Early submissions will receive preference in the review and publication process.

Omiyẹmi (Artisia) Green, MFA, Editor-in-Chief

Michelle Cowin Gibbs, PhD, Managing Editor

Published by Penn State University Press, Theatre and Performance Notes and Counternotes (TPNC) is a theatre studies generalist journal of short-to-medium length research articles,response articles, and discussion articles (https://www.psupress.org/journals/jnls_TPNC.html).

[NOTE: Issues 1.1 (2024) and 1.2 (2024) are already published. We are currently looking for submissions for issues 2.2 (2025) and beyond.]
 
TPNC operates via rolling submissions, so there is no specific deadline to submit your article.

To submit a manuscript to Theatre and Performance Notes and Counternotes (TPNC), please visit Editorial Manager (https://www.editorialmanager.com/tpnc/default.aspx). The online system will guide you through the steps to upload your article to the editorial office. Except in response or discussion articles in which the identity of the author is appropriate and/or required, in order to undergo the journal’s double-blind peer-review process, all articles should (1) be anonymized, (2) be between 1,500-4,000 words, and (3) conform to the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.

Research articles
Original research articles can range from focused notes to medium-length articles. Articles can be on any subject(s) in the broadly-defined field of theatre studies, but the scope, ambition, and thesis should be appropriate to the length of the submitted article.

Discussions
Discussion articles can offer proposed solutions and/or problematize specific ideas related to, or emerging from, conversations or debates within the field. Discussions can also serve as a place to crystalize conversations or debates in the field, or to bring seemingly-disparate ideas into a more coherent conversation.

Responses
Response articles are, most often, directed at either the theses of a specific scholar(s) and/or a specific conversation or debate within the field. Often, responses engage directly with the strengths and weaknesses of particular theses or broader ideas in the field in order to either strengthen, modify, or challenge these theses/ideas. The aim of these responses is not to create debates or arguments (and, certainly, never arguments or attacks of a personal nature) but to move the field to a clearer and more accurate understanding of the subject at hand. These response articles can also provide a space to revisit and/or modify one’s own previously-published ideas.

Finally, if you would like to discuss the possibility of proposing and/or curating a “Symposium” consisting of 3-5 related discussion and/or response articles, please send an email to the Editor of Theatre and Performance Notes and Counternotes, Prof. Michael Y. Bennett bennettm@uww.edu.

Deadline: February 15, 2025 
THEATRE ANNUAL
A Journal of Theatre and Performance of the Americas 
Call for Articles 
2025 Issue 

Theatre Annual is the oldest theatre periodical continuously published in the United States. It is dedicated to examining theatre and performance of the Americas. We construe “America” broadly to include North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean Islands. Articles may treat work in these geographic areas or work from these areas that is presented elsewhere in the world. We welcome articles on the history and ethnography of performance, drawing from such areas as theatre studies, performance studies, popular culture, music, anthropology, dance, communication, philosophy, folklore, history, and areas of interest that cross disciplinary lines. 

Submissions should follow the guidelines in The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (endnotes, no Works Cited list). Authors should submit articles as Word attachments to the editor, Peter Reed (University of Mississippi, preed@olemiss.edu). In order to assist in the anonymous peer review process, the author’s identity should not be revealed in the manuscript except on a separate title page that should also include full contact information (academic affiliation, mailing address, home, cell, and work telephone numbers, and email address). Articles should be 5,000 to 6,500 words long including notes. Illustrations are highly desirable; authors are responsible for securing rights. Our submission deadline is February 15, 2025. Please allow at least eight weeks after the deadline for a response. 

Scholars wishing to write book reviews for Theatre Annual are invited to send an inquiry to the book review editor, Michael Lueger (Emerson College / Boston College, mlueger@gmail.com). If accepted, reviewers are asked to prepare their manuscripts in conformity with the guidelines in The Chicago Manual of Style without footnotes and submit them as a Word attachment.  Reviews should be 750 to 800 words for a review of a single book, 1,000 to 1,200 words for a two-book review, and 2,500 words for a five- or six-book review essay. Submission deadline is April 1, 2025. If publishers would like to send review copies, they should contact the book review editor via email to make arrangements.  

Theatre Annual, founded in 1942 by the Theatre Library Association, is now published in the fall of each year by The College of William and Mary in Virginia, in association with the American Theatre and Drama Society. For more information on TA, see http://theatreannual.atds.org/

Routledge Companion to LGBTQ+ Theatre and Performance in North America

Editors: Bess Rowen & Benjamin Gillespie

We invite proposals for this edited volume exploring the intersections of LGBTQ+ performance across North America including the United States, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean Islands. Although there have been several key works written about queer, trans, and LGBTQ+ theatres, there has yet to be a contemporary volume that provides an extensive overview of the key methodologies, histories, identities, and pedagogies surrounding this field focused specifically on the geographic region of North America.

This companion will provide a comprehensive resource for those teaching in this area by creating a singular volume that combines history and theory through a wide array of methodological approaches. The sections of this volume are organized around every facet of LGBTQ+ performance: Who does it? What is it? When and where does it happen? How does it happen? What are the affective and critical responses to it? Considering the broad range of intersections for/around this topic, this companion also aims to capture a breadth of approaches to making, training for, analyzing, and documenting LGBTQ+ performance histories, theories, people, ideas, and places. 

We feel preserving and highlighting the important contributions that LGBTQ+ theatre and performance have made and continue to make in North America cultures is more crucial than ever at this uncertain social, political, and environmental moment in our history. This companion will cover both well-known performers and performances as well as those that might be lesser-known. Please feel free to send proposals about any and all topics you feel fit into the categories below.

The volume will be divided into six distinct but related sections:

LGBTQ+ Embodied Performance: Who are the performers and makers who have helped to both define and transcend what LGBTQ+ theatre and performance is and can be? What performance and acting aesthetics are key parts of queer and trans performance? We are especially interested in an intersectional approach to identity incorporating perspectives on race, age, class, and ability as the intersect with sexuality and gender. We also aim to represent indigenous voices and perspectives into the volume.

LGBTQ+ Dramaturgies & Dramatic Literature: What is the field of LGBTQ+ theatre and performance? Where have the ideas that created and shaped this field come from? And what is the current state of queer and trans playwriting in the Americas?

Queering Time: When in time does LGBTQ+ performance happen? How does it queer time and defy easy chronologies of linear progress? What other aspects of time might be thought about in LGBTQ+ theatre and performance histories? How can we rethink chronological models of history?

Queering Place: Where does LGBTQ+ performance happen? How do queer and trans performances work with and against legislation in the Americas that challenges its right to exist? How do urban and rural places connect and differ? How are queer and trans performances staging responses to climate change and the environment (i.e. eco approaches to LGBTQ+ performance)? 

LGBTQ+ Methods: How is LGBTQ+ performance created, studied, and taught? What particular methodologies have queer and trans people created to push back against heteronormative assumptions about theatre and performance?

LGBTQ+ Voices: Who are the people currently defining the field of LGBTQ+ theatre and performance and how do they view the past? This section will contain a series of brief interviews or roundtables with playwrights, actors, directors, performance artists, and other production team members. Each interview will have a critical introduction to help contextualize the subject.

We aim to assemble a range of diverse voices that reflect the multiplicity of approaches within the field. We especially encourage proposals from scholars, artists, and practitioners whose work expands beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. By bringing these perspectives into dialogue, this volume aims to foster a rich, interdisciplinary exchange that advances the study and practice of LGBTQ+ performance throughout North America.


PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Proposals should include a title and 300-word abstract as well as your name, institutional affiliation/position, and a brief bio (100 words) sent to bess.rowen@villanova.edu and  benjamin.gillespie@baruch.cuny.edu by March 1, 2025. Once chapters are confirmed, full drafts will be due by September 1, 2025. Scholars and artists from all career stages and backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Deadline: February 15, 2025 
THEATRE ANNUAL
A Journal of Theatre and Performance of the Americas 
Call for Articles 
2025 Issue 


Theatre Annual is the oldest theatre periodical continuously published in the United States. It is dedicated to examining theatre and performance of the Americas. We construe “America” broadly to include North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean Islands. Articles may treat work in these geographic areas or work from these areas that is presented elsewhere in the world. We welcome articles on the history and ethnography of performance, drawing from such areas as theatre studies, performance studies, popular culture, music, anthropology, dance, communication, philosophy, folklore, history, and areas of interest that cross disciplinary lines. 

Submissions should follow the guidelines in The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (endnotes, no Works Cited list). Authors should submit articles as Word attachments to the editor, Peter Reed (University of Mississippi, preed@olemiss.edu). In order to assist in the anonymous peer review process, the author’s identity should not be revealed in the manuscript except on a separate title page that should also include full contact information (academic affiliation, mailing address, home, cell, and work telephone numbers, and email address). Articles should be 5,000 to 6,500 words long including notes. Illustrations are highly desirable; authors are responsible for securing rights. Our submission deadline is February 15, 2025. Please allow at least eight weeks after the deadline for a response. 

Scholars wishing to write book reviews for Theatre Annual are invited to send an inquiry to the book review editor, Michael Lueger (Emerson College / Boston College, mlueger@gmail.com). If accepted, reviewers are asked to prepare their manuscripts in conformity with the guidelines in The Chicago Manual of Style without footnotes and submit them as a Word attachment.  Reviews should be 750 to 800 words for a review of a single book, 1,000 to 1,200 words for a two-book review, and 2,500 words for a five- or six-book review essay. Submission deadline is April 1, 2025. If publishers would like to send review copies, they should contact the book review editor via email to make arrangements.  

Theatre Annual, founded in 1942 by the Theatre Library Association, is now published in the fall of each year by The College of William and Mary in Virginia, in association with the American Theatre and Drama Society. For more information on TA, see http://theatreannual.atds.org/

9-10 October 2025 

Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy 

Funded by Next Generation EU 

Recent developments in the study of theatre festivals (Knowles 2020) highlight the importance of  investigating festivals as key events, both for the field of theatre and, more broadly, for cultural life.  These contributions demonstrate the value of examining festivals from transnational perspectives and  exploring their impact on the artistic and social communities that have designed, produced, and hosted  them. As recurring events that create a distinct time and space, festivals can be seen as a lens through which processes of negotiation between socio-political positions and artistic perspectives can be  investigated, often within a context that is simultaneously local and global. In the second half of the twentieth century, theatre festivals promoted social cohesion but often acted  as catalysts for conflict. They also served as spaces for experimenting with new approaches to theatre  and performance and fostered the creation of new individual and collective imaginaries. From this  perspective, the history of theatre festivals offers a valuable key to understanding transformations in  both theatre and society, particularly in relation to instances of crisis which prompted a rethinking of  the function of artistic and political institutions, and which sought new forms of integration between  theatre, arts and society. 

The conference “The Prism of Festivals in Theatre and Performance Studies,” organised within the  framework of the PRIN 2022 project Theatre Festivals between Local and Global: Rethinking  Theatre and Performance in Italy from the 1950s to the 1970s, aims to provide a platform for in depth discussion on theatre festivals, their histories, and the methodologies used for their analysis.  The conference will place particular focus on the Cold War period and emphasize the idea of festivals  as an “intangible cultural heritage” of the communities that produced them. Additionally, it will  address strategies for collecting, cataloguing, and connecting sources essential to the study of  festivals, as well as to the reactivation of festival memories. 

The conference will focus on the historiography and methodologies for studying festivals rather than  on the phenomenology of festival experiences themselves. It will also encourage comparative studies  between theatre festivals and dance, music and film festivals, with the aim of understanding the  specificities and differences between these fields of study. Moreover, the subject of ‘festivals’  presents an opportunity to rethink theatre and dance history in dialogue with cultural studies, global  studies, sociology, ethnography, and postcolonial and decolonial approaches. Finally, the conference will aim to facilitate the creation of new networks and collaborations between scholars, archivists,  artists, cultural workers, and institutions. 

Relevant topics may include, but are not limited to: 
• History and historiography of theatre festivals 
• Theatre festivals, both local and global 
• Theatre archives and festival studies 
• Oral history and festival studies 
• Theatre festivals and the Cold War 
• Theatre festivals and conflicts in the twentieth century 
• Theatre festivals and cultural diplomacy 
• Economics and organization of theatre festivals 
• Performance culture and theatre festivals in the twentieth century
• Festival Studies: comparative perspectives between theatre, dance, cinema, music, and  cultural studies 

Accepted languages: Italian and English. Please submit your abstract (max. 250 words), a short  biography (max. 200 words), and your contact information to: prism.festival2025@gmail.com The submission deadline is January 30, 2025. 

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:  
• Pascale Goetschel (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) 
• Heike Roms (University of Exeter) 

Organising Committee: Tancredi Gusman, Francesca Bortoletti, Arianna Morganti e Tommaso  Zaccheo. 

Scientific Committee: Francesca Bortoletti, Roberta Ferraresi, Roberta Gandolfi, Pascale  Goetschel, Gerardo Guccini, Tancredi Gusman, Donatella Orecchia, Armando Petrini, Alessandro  Pontremoli, Heike Roms. 

Partners: Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi, Santarcangelo Festival, Department of History,  Humanities and Society – Tor Vergata University of Rome, Department of Humanities, Social  Sciences and Cultural Industries – University of Parma.  
This event is part of the project “Theatre Festivals between Local and Global: Rethinking Theatre  and Performance in Italy from the 1950s to the 1970s” (PRIN 2022 – Next Generation EU; P.I.  Donatella Orecchia, Tor Vergata University of Rome; Co-P.I. Roberta Gandolfi, University of  Parma). 

Bibliography (Selected Works) 
Balme C., Szymanski-Düll, B. (ed.), Theatre, Globalization and the Cold War, Cham: Palgrave,  2017. 
Fléchet A., Goetschel P. et al., (ed.), Une histoire des festivals, XXe-XXIe siècle, Paris: Publications  de la Sorbonne, 2013. 
Guccini, G., Donatini, E., (ed.) La funzione culturale dei festival, Bologna: CuePress, 2019. 
Hauptfleisch, T. et al. (ed.), Festivalising! Theatrical Events, Politics and Culture, Amsterdam:  Rodopi, 2007.  
Fischer-Lichte, E. et al. (ed.), Theater und Fest in Europa. Perspektiven von Identität und  Gemeinschaft, Tübingen: Francke, 2012. 
Knowles R., International Theatre Festivals and 21^st-Century Interculturalism, Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2022. 
Knowles R., (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals, Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2020. 
Zaiontz K., Theatre & Festivals, London: Palgrave, 2018.