CFP: Acting with Facts: Actors Performing the Real in British Theatre and Television Since 1990 (Reading)

'ACTING WITH FACTS’: ACTORS PERFORMING THE REAL IN BRITISH THEATRE AND TELEVISION SINCE 1990
An Arts and Humanities Research Council research project.
UNIVERSITY OF READING, DEPARTMENT OF FILM, THEATRE AND TELEVISION
FRIDAY 8 MAY 2009
CALL FOR PAPERS

The ‘Acting with Facts’ project, which began in October 2007, is concerned with actors’ contributions to the burgeoning field of documentary drama. The project team have already interviewed over twenty actors directly concerned with theatre and screen docudrama, as well as a number of actor trainers, writers and directors. The project also participated in a National
Theatre ‘Platform’ event in May 2008.

At the half-way stage of our work, we will host a one-day symposium at the University of Reading further to explore research issues through debate and dialogue with interested academic colleagues, actor trainers and people with direct experience of staging and screening docudrama and drama ‘based on’ fact. The symposium therefore has several aims:

• to present some initial findings
• to gather together other researchers in the field
• to have plenary presentations from industry and actor-training personnel.

Two sessions will be available during the day for parallel panels to present papers. We invite proposals of 250-300 words on any aspect of the challenges that actors face when performing the real. Papers need not exclusively address the project’s research questions, but we present them here as a guideline to our own work so far:

• What specific demands does factual drama make on actors’ competencies?
• How do actors respond to these demands in specific theatre and television practice?
• What comparisons and correspondences exist for actors between docudrama and fictional drama in theatre and television, given their likely involvement in both media?
• How has the making of television docudrama responded to the 1990 Broadcasting Act, increased international co-production, the digital revolution and accelerated social and political change since 1990?
• How has social and political change (nationally and internationally) provoked change in documentary theatre since 1990?
• What impact do ethical, institutional and practical constraints in both media (e.g. legal restrictions, marketability, cost) have on docudrama, and with what aesthetic consequences?
• How do existing theories (of form, genre, format and audience address) and the production of docudrama in theatre and television interact?

Closing date for Proposals: Monday 16th March 2009

Address for proposals and further enquiries: h.a.sutherland@reading.ac.uk
or send to:
Dr Derek Paget, Principal Investigator: ‘Acting with Facts’, Department of Film,
Theatre & Television, University of Reading, Bulmershe Court, Reading RG6 1HY.

CFP: The Nu-Romantic: Revealing the Developing Artistic Milieu in Film, Theatre & Television (Reading)

THE NU-ROMANTIC: REVEALING THE DEVELOPING ARTISTIC MILIEU IN FILM, THEATRE AND TELEVISION

UNIVERSITY OF READING

17 APRIL 2009

CALL FOR PAPERS

Romanticism was a cultural landscape characterised by the eternal oscillation between a ‘modern’ enthusiasm that had failed and a ‘postmodern’ irony that would soon falter. Now, years later, another scene marked by oscillations is taking shape.

Under the name of Nu-Romanticism (‘naked’ Romanticism) JAM 2009 aims to initiate a mapping of this evolving landscape. It offers a chance to explore and define the new forms of thought, conception and creation that follow the established pattern of Romanticism. We look to current theory and critical practice within Film, Theatre and Television to reveal new forms of oscillation, be they between Aesthetic and Narrative, between Spectatorship and Performativity, between the Sublime and melancholy, hope and failure.

JAM 2009, the seventh annual conference for postgraduates run by postgraduates at the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, welcomes proposals that investigate, question or put pressure on the notion of a re-emerging Romanticism within film, theatre and television. We invite postgraduates to consider the concept of a new or renewed Romanticism in relation to the following areas of discussion:

• Aesthetics

• Genre

• Form vis-à-vis Content

• Narrative

• Space, Place and Landscape

• Representation

• Spectatorship and Social Relevance

• Performance and Performativity

• Medium Specificity

• Postgraduate Practice

• New Technologies

CALL FOR PAPERS deadline: Friday 30th January 2009 Please send a 250-word proposal and a 100-word biographical note to Tim Vermeulen, Harper Ray and Reina-Marie Loader at jam2009@rdg.ac.uk

Journeys Across Media (JAM) is an annual one-day interdisciplinary conference organised by and for postgraduate students. It provides a discussion forum for current and developing research in film, theatre, television and ‘new media’. Previous delegates have welcomed the opportunity to gain experience of presenting their work, at different stages of development, in the active, friendly and supportive research environment of Film, Theatre & Television at the University of Reading. Non-presenting delegates are also very welcome. Supported by the Standing Committee of University Drama Departments (SCUDD) and the Graduate School in Arts and Humanities, University of Reading.

CFP: Acting out (Reading)

'ACTING OUT'
UNIVERSITY OF READING
20 MARCH 2009
CALL FOR PAPERS

Acting Out - A symposium on Screen Performance, Inference and Interpretation

"Clearly films depend on a form of communication whereby meanings are acted out." (Naremore, Acting in the Cinema, p. 2)

"I would like to say that what I am doing in reading a film is performing it (if you wish, performing it inside myself)" (Cavell, Pursuits of Happiness, 1981, pp. 37-38.)

Keynote Speaker - Andrew Klevan, (St. Anne's College, University of Oxford) - Film Performance: From Achievement to Appreciation (Wallflower Press)

This one-day symposium seeks to provide a forum for scholars of screen acting to meet and progress the spate of recent work on performance on film. We would like to explore how we draw out performance through an interrogation of the relationship between performance, inference and interpretation, but will consider proposals on other screen performance related issues.

As viewers we frequently respond instinctively to the material and kinetic details of the performer within their fictional world. In consequence, the role of inference could be said to be indivisible from interpretation. But how important is that moment between engaging with a performance and analysing it? How do you find it and observe it?

The perceived problem of subjectivity is the ghost of film studies, haunting many analyses but rarely addressed directly. How do discourses around spectatorship effect discussion of performance? Could it be that the study of performance is uniquely disposed to alerting us to the complexity of engagement?

The broader implication of these thoughts is, how do YOU 'frame' performance? And how are different analytical frameworks (e.g. phenomenological, social role-play, practice-based approaches, close analysis) specifically equipped to conceptualise these processes?

Equally, what is the role of inference in the process and production of performance? What is left unsaid and/or assumed in performance?

Arguably, many performances communicate in non-verbal ways and leave a certain amount to the imagination but how does this vary between performance styles? More histrionic, melodramatic or ostensive performances are frequently thought of as offering more privileged access to thoughts and feelings or even a transparently clear communication of meaning. What
kinds of assumptions underpin this way of thinking about performance? And where does this leave more contained or repressive performances?

Deadline for Proposals - Monday 22 December 2008

Please contact Ceri Hovland and Lucy Fife Donaldson at actingout@reading.ac.uk with any questions or if you would like to discuss any initial proposal ideas.