ATHE 2020 Detroit: Dramaturgy Focus Group CFP

CFP: Dramaturgy Focus Group (DRFG), Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)

July 29-August 2, 2020: Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center

ATHE’s 2020 conference themes will take inspiration from the city of Detroit, the Motor City, a border city just across the water from Windsor, Ontario. Keywords for conference 2020 are drawn primarily from Detroit’s car culture and architecture: Combustion, Energy, Resilience, Drive. The overall conference CFP is available on ATHE’s website: https://www.athe.org/page/20conf_home

The Dramaturgy Focus Group invites proposals responding to these ideas, as well as reflections on the current state of dramaturgy as a field. We envision a series of panels and roundtables, and welcome proposals that would offer innovative structures. Some possibilities include:

• Dramaturgies of Detroit, examining local tourist sites such as the Motown Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Belle Isle Park, and Dearborn’s Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

• Connections with Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) and that organization’s extended reflections on “Border Crossings.”

• Dramaturgy and Accessibility; Dramaturgy for Applied Theatre; Dramaturgy for Immersive Theatre; Dramaturgy and History

•   Dramaturgy and Community: Public Dramaturgy and Criticism in a moment of press attrition; Queer pilgrimage; Urban farming; Who is staying? Who is going? Who is coming in?

• Eco-Dramaturgy, with a potential focus on the Flint Water Crisis; corporations and water rights; the legal status of Lake Erie as established by Toledo, Ohio. 

ATHE only accepts complete panel submissions. If you have an idea for a panel, you will need to assemble participants, probably by circulating a call for proposals for your own session. If you have an idea for an individual presentation, please contact DRFG Conference Planner Dan Smith, who will attempt to develop sessions from individual proposals. 

Submission Deadlines:
• Individual paper proposals must be sent by Tuesday, October 15th to Dan Smith at dansmith_251[at]yahoo.com
• Complete panels must be submitted by Friday, November 1 via the ATHE online form at http://www.athe.org. 

Tips for submitting proposals: 

1. Proposals for complete panels (with all presenters assembled) should be submitted directly to ATHE through the website at www.athe.org. The deadline for all proposals is November 1, 2019. 

2. If you would like assistance in panel coordination, please use the Dramaturgy Focus Group Facebook page (ATHE Dramaturgy Focus Group), our Focus Group page on the ATHE website, or email individual paper proposals to the conference planner (dansmith_251[at]yahoo.com) no later than Tuesday, October 15th. Please note, this option does not guarantee submission/acceptance to the conference. 

3. Submissions may be either discipline specific (Dramaturgy = DR) or multidisciplinary (MD).
a. If your session addresses primarily Dramaturgy, then choose “Single Focus Group” on the online proposal form. All DR-targeted proposals will be sent to the DR conference planner and executive committee to be ranked. It is not necessary to contact the conference planner before submitting a DR proposal (unless you have questions), but it is helpful to keep the conference planner informed as there may be strength in combining the efforts of similar panels. 

b. If your session addresses Dramaturgy but is also appropriate for another Focus Group, you may select DR as one of your Focus Groups for an MD panel. Please contact the conference planners for each of the targeted Focus Groups before submitting the panel. MD proposals are ranked by each affiliated Focus Groups. If you list a Focus Group as a sponsor for an MD session without having contacted that Focus Group’s Conference Planner, your session is likely to be rejected.

4. Notes for ATHE Conference 2020

a. Please note the conference dates this year. They are earlier than the dates of the 2019 conference. It will not be possible to request specific days for presentations. The conference begins Wednesday afternoon.

b. ATHE is committed to maintaining current conference costs and encourages you to consider going “tech-free” for your panel. Of course, if that is not possible, please be sure to request technology when submitting your proposal.

c. Participants will be limited to a maximum of two presentations, which include delivering a paper, serving on a roundtable, or serving in an equivalent role in a different type of session. There is no limit to the number of sessions that a person can Chair or Coordinate. Session coordinators should expect to hear whether or not proposals have been accepted or rejected by mid-March 2020. 

Questions? Contact Dramaturgy (DR) Conference Planner – Dan Smith at dansmith_251[at]yahoo.com