Welcome to ACTR/ARTC 2006: Performing the City
The Association for Canadian Theatre Research is thrilled to invite you to its 30th Annual Conference, to be held in Toronto at York University, May 27-30, 2006. Thanks to the record number of proposals, the organizing committee has assembled an exciting and innovative program. The conference will bring together scholars from around the world, with participants from Canada, Australia, Europe, and the United States.
This year's conference will explore intersections of performance and the city: the city as the site of performance; the city as theatre's material, historical, and ideological context; and theatrical representations of the city. Papers will explore a range of fascinating topics, including urban countercultures (parades and rallies), gendered and queer geographies, urban renewal, intercultural theatre, and staging civic and national identities.
The program will also feature special panels addressing, for example, the electronic archive, fashion and urban performance, and the theatre historian as detective. Plenary sessions will include a talk by Joanne Tompkins on "Imagining the Theatrical City" in Canada and Australia, a panel on "Performing Toronto" organized by Ric Knowles, and a roundtable on the "State of the Profession in Canada," which will examine disciplinary and professional concerns in the field. We are also pleased to include a Playwrights Plenary with Ronnie Burkett and Judith Thompson, to be followed in the evening by the CanStage production of Burkett's play, 10 Days on Earth, and a post-show talkback.
Graduate student work will be highlighted as we kick of ACTR's first graduate student seminars. The purpose of the seminars, which will showcase exceptional work by graduate students in Canada and abroad, is to allow emerging scholars to share their diverse research interests and to receive feedback from distinguished senior scholars.
We have also programmed a terrific series of events on May 27. Conference participants will be picked up at York University and transported by chartered bus to Toronto's Distillery District. There, they will take part in A People's History Distilled, a walking tour led by a 19th century day labourer at the Gooderham and Worts whiskey distillery. The performance will be followed by a reception and talkback at The Enoch Turner Schoolhouse. The evening will end there with a fabulous banquet.
We hope that you'll join us for what promises to be an extraordinary conference. See you in Toronto!
Laura Levin
Conference Chair
Program Committee: Andrew Houston, Erin Hurley, Laura Levin, Natalie Papoutsis, Judith Rudakoff, Kim Solga (Co-Chair)
