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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><FONT face=Calibri>Call for
Participants<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><A href=""><FONT face=Calibri color=#0000ff>American
Society for Theatre Research</FONT></A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><FONT face=Calibri>November 11-15,
2009 <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%"><FONT face=Calibri>THEATRE,
PERFORMANCE, DESTI<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">NATION<o:p></o:p></I></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><BR><FONT face=Calibri
size=3>Working group:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>New
Approaches to Plays from the Spanish Golden Age: Destiny, Nation Formation,
& Puerto Rican Perspectives</FONT></B><BR><BR><FONT face=Calibri
size=3> Conversations across disciplinary lines are
revolutionizing the ways that theater people approach plays from the Spanish
Golden Age (c. 1580-1680). This Working Session invites you to join
the revolution first-hand, as part of a team of scholars, practitioners,
aficionados, and newcomers hammering out new approaches to a trio of classical
plays. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><BR><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'MS Gothic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'MS Gothic'"><FONT
size=3>➢</FONT></SPAN><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri> One
team will work on Lope de Vega’s intensely theatrical <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Lo fingido verdadero</I>, a rarely-printed
play with great promise for application within a wide variety of theater-studies
contexts. Translated as <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Acting Is
Believing</I>, this gripping <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">comedia</I>
(c. 1607) is part saint’s play, part self-portrait, part symposium on production
and reception, and all reflection on theater’s role in shaping individuals’
destinies.<BR><BR></FONT><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'MS Gothic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'MS Gothic'">➢</SPAN></FONT><FONT
size=3><FONT face=Calibri> Another team will work on Lope’s
justly famous <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Fuente Ovejuna</I>, a
widely-anthologized exploration of theater’s role in nation formation.
Boasting one of the rarest, richest translation-and-production histories in
Spanish dramaturgy, this romance-revolutionary extravaganza (c. 1612) presents
complex challenges for actors, audience members, critics, and students alike –
challenges that clamor for 21st-century American “takes.”<BR><BR></FONT><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'MS Gothic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'MS Gothic'">➢</SPAN><FONT
face=Calibri> Yet another team will work on Lope’s
recently-revived (and widely toured) <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Los
melindres de Belisa</I>. Closely linked to the University of Puerto Rico’s
Facultad de Humanidades, this sparkling satire (c. 1610) offers excellent
opportunities to reconsider relationships between plot and character, come to
grips with <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Comedia’s</I> strong roles for
women, and gain a Puerto Rican perspective on performing Lope in contemporary
America.<BR><BR>Each team will profit by the oversight of an experienced
artist-scholar, who will help to facilitate the Session’s unusually demanding
working process.<BR><BR>Formed to talk across disciplines, bringing together
members whose experiences spring from different areas of theater practice and
modern language study, teams will start work by energetically reading their
target play (mid-June). They’ll identify a specific challenge to pedagogy,
performance, translation, analysis, or reception that the team’s members find
compelling (early July). Team members will then pool their skills to work
out new approaches to the challenge they’ve elected to explore (early
September), discuss and refine the new approaches they’ve mapped out
(mid-September), and post a précis of their findings for other teams to read
(early October). Other teams’ responses (mid-October) will raise questions
to answer in preparing a dynamic team presentation (early November) for the
conference in San Juan (November 13).<BR><BR> To join a team,
please submit a 250-word proposal to astr_gold_2009@yahoo.com. In your
proposal, please tell us which of the Working Session’s target plays catches
your interest most urgently, and why. (More information about the plays is
available at </FONT></FONT><A href="" target=_blank><FONT face=Calibri
color=#0000ff
size=3>http://spanish-golden-age-plays.wikispaces.com</FONT></A><FONT
face=Calibri size=3> and </FONT><A href="" target=_blank><FONT face=Calibri
color=#0000ff size=3>www.comedias.org</FONT></A><FONT face=Calibri
size=3>.) We also request a brief sketch of your academic/artistic
background, detailing skills you’ll bring to your team. (Prior experience
with the Spanish Golden Age is welcome, but by no means a
pre-requisite.)<BR><BR> Please note that ASTR requires receipt
of proposals by <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="COLOR: red">Friday, May 15.</SPAN></B> Other regulations governing
the management of Working Sessions are posted at </FONT><A href=""
target=_blank><FONT face=Calibri color=#0000ff
size=3>http://www.astr..org/Conference/WorkingSessionsGuidelines/tabid/128/Default.aspx</FONT></A><FONT
face=Calibri size=3>.<BR><BR> Questions regarding this Session
may be directed to the conveners at astr_gold_2009@yahoo.com:<BR><BR>Ben Gunter,
Florida State University<BR>Susan Paun de García, Denison University<BR>Amy
Williamsen, University of Arizona<BR>Dean Zayas, University of Puerto
Rico</FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>