Martin Segger just directed my attention toward the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR). Given that our 2015 annual meeting and conference was organized around the theme of “Artifice and Authenticity in Architecture! To Play or Not To Play?,” and the recent “Oregon Historic Theaters: Statewide Survey and Needs Assessment” by students from the UO Community Planning Workshop, I thought I’d pass along some information for the IFTR Architecture Working Group’s call for papers for their 2016 conference (13-17 June) in Stockholm, Sweden.
IFTR is a truly international organization, with recent meetings in Barcelona, Spain (2013); Santiago, Chile (2012); and Osaka, Japan (2011). The broad umbrella of “Theater Research” covers a fascinating range of topics related to theater and performance. These topics are addressed by around 24 working groups which include “Samuel Becket,” “Choreography and Corporeality,” and the aforementioned, “Theater Architecture.” Like the conference, the architecture group is international, with participants from Australia, Brazil, Chile, England, Greece, Holland, Turkey, the Unites States, and Wales.
About the Theatre Working Group (taken from the call for papers):
“The purpose of the Theatre Architecture Working Group is to explore all that theatre architecture has been historically, is at present, and might be in the future. We consider built projects alongside unbuilt or speculative architectures, studying these from a wide range of practical and theoretical perspectives. We continue to investigate the ways in which space can be manipulated to bring performers and spectators into dynamic relationship inside traditional theatre auditoria, while also asking how else the disciplines of theatre and architecture intersect. Over the next four years, we will be focusing on three major strands of enquiry: a) theatre projects (especially those that provide insights into performing arts venues beyond Europe and North America); b) inter–‐disciplinary practices (including performance practices that closely engage with, radically undermine, critically re-examine or nakedly depend on architecture for their meaning and value, and architectural practices which employ performance, performativity and/or theatricality to transform our experiences of the built environment); c) interdisciplinary pedagogies (especially those driven by the question of what is gained for students of one discipline in the encounter between that discipline and the other). We seek to develop theoretical paradigms appropriate to theatre and architecture and to the relationship between them–articulating the many contemporary sites of exchange between these fields and re-examining historical encounters in the light of recent developments in spatial theory, architecture theory and practice, and performance studies.”
The overall theme of the conference is: PRESENTING THE THEATRICAL PAST – INTERPLAYS OF ARTEFACTS, DISCOURSES AND PRACTICES. The Theatre Architecture Group is planning on two sessions, one addressing architecture and historiography, the other a joint session with the Scenography Working Group addressing genealogies of theatre architecture and scenography. For the former, topic suggestions include: re-readings of historical theatres in the light of developments in critical theory (e.g. spatial theory); artistic and critical practices that engage with historic theatre architectures and/or historic architectures (e.g. oral history, re-enactment, reconstruction); and theories and debates about the preservation, conservation or renovation of theatre buildings; among others. The joint session with scenography includes topic suggestions along the lines of: scenographic and architectural strategies by which performance and wider social/cultural activities have been “staged” or presented historically (theaters, concert halls, ballrooms, parks, public open space, etc.); and strategies by which historic performances are now “restaged” (museums, historical re-enactments, “authentic” performance, revivals of plays and performances, etc.).
The International Federation for Theatre Research Conference will take place from June 13-17 in Stockholm, Sweden. The deadline for financial aid/bursary applications is December 1, 2015 while the deadline for proposals is January 15, 2015.
For more on the conference in general, go to http://www.iftr.org/conference. For information on financial aid go to http://www.iftr.org/conference/bursaries.
For the full Architecture Working Group’s 2016 Call for Papers, click here.
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