Daily Archives: 12 December 2016

Theatre, Masque, and Opera in England and Italy, 1580 to 1650 (Summer Research Seminar, 2017) – Call For Applications

Theatre, Masque, and Opera in England and Italy, 1580 to 1650: Performance Practices and Cognitive Ecologies
Summer Research Seminar, 2017
McGill University, Montréal, Québec
31 July – 23 August, 2017

Seminar leaders:

Sponsored by:

Doctoral students in their final year, recent PhDs, postdocs, and junior faculty focusing on scholarly work and/or performance are invited to apply to take part in the research seminar. Research projects should have to do with spoken theatre (broadly defined) or theatrical music (broadly defined), or both, in England or Italy, c. 1580 to 1650.

English theatre and Italian opera between c. 1580 and 1650 have a great deal in common. Both regions had significant traditions of court theatre (masque; intermedii and court opera); both saw the rise of commercial theatre (the London theatres; Venetian public opera); both engaged with issues of love, history and politics, religion, disguise, and conversion. Boy actors, castrati, and cross dressing raise fascinating gender issues. Professional training combined with theatrical conventions were required for professionals (actors, writers; singers, instrumentalists, composers) to put on shows with very limited rehearsal time. Significant bodies of scholarship on both traditions exist, but the researchers rarely engage with one another, and there is little comparative scholarly work.

Our summer research seminar will bring together scholars and performers who specialize in English theatre, and others who specialize in early Italian opera, to share their work and learn from each other. While we are open to a wide array of methodologies and interests, we will focus on the performance practices and cognitive ecologies of these two theatrical worlds. How did they create works and learn their parts? How did material supports (scripts, libretti, stages, theatres) affect what they could do (on and off stage) and what they couldn’t? What makes these traditions similar, and how are they different? Can theatre, masque and opera be seen as conversion machines, operating within distinct cognitive ecologies?

Montreal allows for interaction with other researchers, including faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students associated with McGill, IPLAI, the Schulich School of Music, and Early Modern Conversions. Activities during the seminar will include workshops on period performance practices in theatre and music (including theatrical gesture, staging practices, musical improvisation, and facsimiles of original performance materials).

Travel and accommodation will be provided by the Early Modern Conversions Project. At the end of the seminar, participants will participate in the annual team meeting of the Early Modern Conversions project, at McGill, 24-26 August. Seminar participants will have rooms at the Trylon Apartments for the duration of the seminar and team meeting. McGill offers rich resources for study including excellent libraries, access to early instruments, and a vibrant theatrical and musical scene.

Doctoral students in their final year, recent PhDs, postdocs, and junior faculty focusing on scholarly work and/or performance are invited to apply to take part. Candidates should send a cover letter, CV, brief research proposal, and article-length writing sample to conversions@mcgill.ca by 15 December, 2016. Two confidential letters of recommendation should be sent by e-mail to the same address by the same deadline; referees are asked to indicate the name of the candidate in the subject line. At least one referee should confirm time to completion for applicants who have not yet graduated.

Before Shakespeare – Call For Papers

Before Shakespeare
University of Roehampton, London
24-27 August, 2017

The Before Shakespeare conference explores the first three decades of the London playhouses (c. 1565-95). We encourage papers from a rich variety of approaches, interests, and methodologies, including but not limited to:

  • Popular culture of the period
  • Literary developments of the mid to late sixteenth century social history
  • Archaeology
  • Theatre history
  • Performance criticism

We encourage proposals for different kinds of presentations: traditional papers, panels, performance workshops, shorter speculations or provocations into the state of the discipline, or roundtables. On the third day of the conference, we will be working closely with the theatre company attached to the project, The Dolphin’s Back, and welcome proposals to work with them. If you are interested in different forms of presentation or in putting together a panel, you are welcome to contact us to discuss.

Please send abstracts of up to 300 words and a short biography to beforeshakespeare@gmail.com by 30 March, 2017.

The conference features workshops and performances in collaboration with The Dolphin’s Back (director and actor James Wallace); theatremaker Emma Frankland; and Shakespeare’s Globe.

Keynotes: Nandini Das, William Ingram, Heather Knight, Cathy Shrank, Holger Syme, and Emma Whipday.

The conference ends with the final Before Shakespeare Read Not Dead at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, on Sunday 27 August. (The Read Not Dead staged reading of Sapho and Phao is a conference event, but tickets must be booked separately via the Globe website.)

Full price: £115; with accommodation (incl. breakfast): £315

PhD/ECR subsidised price: £35; with accommodation (incl. breakfast): £125

We also offer two UK travel grants (£50) and one international travel grant (£180), including fee waivers, for PhD/ECR delegates thanks to a Small Conference Grant from the Society for Renaissance Studies. Please apply by email to the above address with a short CV and 250-word statement in addition to your abstract.