Call for Presenters: Playwrights Under the Radar Session.

Overview

Chicago, IL is a city of contradictions: one of the most segregated places in the U.S., yet a proud sanctuary city; a site of wealth and privilege juxtaposed with poverty and disinvestment; and a symbol of the greatest community cohesion and some of the worst systemic injustices in the nation.

Crossing Borders, Pt. 2 welcomes panels, round tables, workshops, and other dynamic conversations about what constitutes “action” for positive social change in a time of crisis; and which illumine how we build pathways to collaboration across imagined and real borders – including, but not limited to, the ones found in our host communities in Chicago. We invite presenters to explore how artists and academics instigate positive action in a time of division, asking:

How might dramaturgs...

• facilitate necessary conversations within our institutions and communities?
• promote inclusion on our stages and throughout our practice?
• shape programming to speak to the pressing issues of the moment?
• cultivate new audiences and foster new artists?
• spur political engagement and facilitate direct political actions
• understand how borders as physical and social constructs impact the way theaters solicit, produce, and commodify art and artists?
• interrogate how and when dramaturgs choose to reinforce or disrupt borders?

Venue & Accommodations

Crossing Borders, Pt. 2 will be held on Chicago’s Columbia College campus. Lodging will be available at the Grant Park Best Western (across from Columbia), as well as through Columbia College at Conference Chicago at University Center. We also encourage attendees to explore Chicago's plentiful Airbnb.com options.

Schedule

View the 2019 Conference schedule.

LMDA’s Values

LMDA promotes the belief that theatre is a vital art form that has the power to nourish, educate, and transform individuals and their communities and that dramaturgy is central to the process of theatre-making. To this end, we invite proposals for papers, presentations, panels, and other containers for discussion on the conference theme or other topics related to dramaturgical and literary management practice.

LMDA encourages and prioritize proposals from diverse voices and artists. The conference venue is a fully accessible space – please contact the committee with any questions or access needs you would like to identify.

Our member-service organization is committed to the following objectives:

• to affirm, support, and broaden the roles that literary managers and dramaturgs play in the theatre;
• to promote the exchange of information about the function, practice, and value of literary management and dramaturgy;
• to encourage cooperation among the practitioners and theoreticians of dramaturgy;
• to expand the boundaries of the field and enrich our conversation about the making of live performance by welcoming colleagues from disciplines such as dance, opera, and performance art; and
• to put emphasis on international exchange, as well as a commitment to diversity of form, culture, and content.