ADSA 2019: Festivals and Performance

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 to Fri, 28 Jun 2019

  • Event Details
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  • Type of event: Annual Conference
    Venue: University of Tasmania, School of Creative Arts
    Description: REGISTRATION: You must be a 2019 member of ADSA to register for the conference. 

    To become a member, or to renew your membership,  go here: https://www.adsa.edu.au/membership

    Existing members log in here https://www.adsa.edu.au/dbpage.php?pg=membersonly and go to the member's menu to access the registration link


    The Festival is, arguably, the dominant contemporary form of encounter with theatre and performance; if not aesthetic experience in general. As a form, the festival is a flexible container: for art, theatre, dance and music, but also food and wine, sustainability, and even dangerous ideas.


    The festival is particularly important, then, for theatre and performance studies, as it is the place where we experience much theatre and performance. Festivals not only include theatre but are inherently performative: reliant on the same durational scarcity of experience to create their cultural capital. Does the festival, as a medium or container for experience (like the smartphone, or the web-browser), lend certain values, ideologies, or constraints on our experience? What kinds of art-going cultures are festivals creating, and what kinds of histories, traditions, and beliefs might they draw on? As inherently social events, festivals provide a different frame of reference to think about the social (and political) nature of these experiences; as sites of resistance, or perhaps just the backdrops to our selfies. How has the festival been historically positioned, and does this history inform contemporary practices?

    In response to this theme, the 2019 ADSA conference calls for papers that consider how Theatre and Performance exist within the cultural paradigm of the festival. What do we gain for moving beyond the ‘theatre’ and into the ‘festival’, and what might we lose? We invite proposals that address festivals and performance in the following formats: individual papers (20 minutes duration), panel presentations (60 minutes duration), and performative interventions that address the following:
    • The origins and history of festivals in Australia and elsewhere.
    • The role of performance within commemorative events and sporting festivals such as the Commonwealth games and the Olympic Games.
    • Festivals and practice: what is the task of the director, writer, actor, designer?
    • Festivals, audiences and participation
    • Festivals and the canon
    • Festivals and indigeneity, race, ethnicity
    • Festivals and historiography
    • Festivals, scenography and costume
    • Festivals and social media
    • Festivals as a liminal space, a carnival
    • Festivals and culture
    • Festivals, publics and counter publics
    • Contesting ‘festinormativity’ within festivals
    • Festivals, city, nation and region
    • Festivals and cultural consumption.
    The extended date for abstracts is 7 January 2019. Acceptances notified 15 February 2019.

    Abstract Submission (20 minute paper): https://goo.gl/forms/g9hBlcCVnMIXWtyn2
    Panel Proposal (90 minutes): https://goo.gl/forms/8PBZXT2AFkKt67B92
    Performative Proposal: https://goo.gl/forms/dFu3xBoyRgjqgfmO2



    For further information please contact the conference convenors:

    Jane Woollard and Asher Warren  festivals.and.performance@gmail.com