Join us Saturday, December 10 as the department hosts its first annual Graduate Symposium on Theatre and Performance Studies, where young scholars from all over North America will convene in Bloomington to present their research in progress. This event is open to the public, though seating is limited.
Dr. Rhonda Blair, Professor of Theatre & Acting, Southern Methodist University.
The conference has been organized by PhD candidate Neal Utterback and first-year PhD student Sara Taylor, with faculty support from assistant professor Amy Cook. The conference is titled “War Making Bodies,” and will feature academic paper presentations, demonstrations, a short play relating to the effects of war on the human body and the way those bodies are then represented in culture. The event also features a keynote address by Dr. Rhonda Blair.
Blair is president of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) and Professor of Theatre and Acting at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. Her main areas of interest include acting theory—particularly looking at applications of cognitive science to the acting process—performance studies, theatre and politics, feminism and theatre, alternative performance, and Chekhov. Her book, The Actor, Image, and Action: Acting and Cognitive Neuroscience, is being used by acting teachers in both the U.S. and England.
Blair bases her research in cognitive science to support the belief that consciousness emerges in the interplay between language, thought, and emotions/feelings, which are firmly rooted in the body and its experiences in the world. Blair holds editorial board positions on Theatre Topics, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and has also been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.
Paper Presentations on Saturday, December 10:
All events are in the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center 275 N. Jordan Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405. Those driving to the event should park across the street from the theatre on the upper level of the Jordan Avenue Garage.
8:30-8:40 am
Welcome from Department Chair, Jonathan Michaelson…..Wells-Metz Theatre
8:40-9:20 am
Q&A with Lysistrata director, Fontaine Syer ………………………Wells-Metz Theatre
9:30-10:30 am
Panel 1a: War Making Bodies…………………………………………………………Studio Theatre
• Erection as Weapon and Wound in the Plays of Edward Albee
Joe Stollenwerk, PhD Student, Department of Theatre & Drama, Indiana University
• The Battlefield as Stage: Performing Hyper Masculinity and Femininity in a Wartime Environment
Carrie Bunch, PhD Candidate, Theatre, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• The “Girl-American Hero”: A Sculptural Analysis of The Feminine Body Portrayed in The GI Joe Toy Line
David Reed, MFA Candidate, Directing, Baylor University
9:30-10:30 am
Panel 1b: The Body Politic……………………………………………………………………….A 201
• “Let Them Send Rockets, We’ll Send Them a Good Song:” Civilian Bodies in Performance at the Anti-NATO Concerts in Belgrade
Mina Sohaj, PhD Student, Theatre, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Sidney Kingsley’s The Patriots: A Dramatic Parallel between Eighteenth-Century America and WWII
Emily Davis, PhD Candidate, Theatre, The Ohio State University
• Brecht’s Mother Courage: Integrating War, Religion and Economics
Dan Ciba, MA Student, Theatre, Villanova University
10:45-11:45 am
Panel 2a: Fighting Words……………………………………………………………………………..Studio Theatre
• War of Words: Battling for the Polity in García Gutiérrez’s El Trovador
Kyle Davis, PhD Student, Theatre & Drama, Indiana University
• King Richard III, Shakespeare’s “bunch back toad” persists in the public mind
Jenna Johnson, MA Student, Theatre & Drama, Indiana University
• ‘A Singing Army Cannot Be Beaten’: Four Minute Men Speakers in Song, a Historical and Literary Perspective
Amy Rubens, PhD Student, English, Indiana University
10:45-11:45 am
Panel 2b: (Un)Making Bodies…………………………………………………………………………….A 201
• Exorcising The Audience: Shakespeare, Harsnett, and the Power of the Actor
Timothy Pyles, PhD Student, Theatre & Drama, Indiana University
• The Rule(s) of Violence on the Early Modern and Postmodern English Stage
Thomas A. Oldham, PhD Candidate, Indiana University
• “If we are what people say we are, let us take delight in the blood of men”: watching violence and/or feeling pain in theatres of war from the Classical to the Renaissance era
Jessica Tooker, PhD Student, English, Indiana University
12:00-1:00 pm
Panel 3a: Myth Making…………………………………………………………………………….Studio Theatre
• The Dis/Embodiment of Myth: De/Mythologization in the Work of Natália Correia
Eric “C” Heaps, PhD Student, Theatre & Drama, Indiana University
• Looking to the Heavens: Warriors, Gods, and a Tragic Optic
Jeremy Gordon, PhD Student, Communications & Culture, Indiana University
• Memorial Conflict: Titus Andronicus, Trojan Myths, and Collective Memory
James McClure, PhD Student, English, University of Ottawa
12:00-1:00 pm
Panel 3b: Bodies Making War…………………………………………………………………………….A 201
• Resurrecting Warriors: Suzuki’s Movement Method and the Re-Development of ‘Acting Bodies’
Justin Rincker, PhD Student, Theatre & Drama, Indiana University
• War Making Scotsmen: The National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch
Deana Nichols, PhD Student, Theatre & Drama, Indiana University
2:30-4:00 pm
• Coward Land; A New Play …………………………………………………………………………….Studio Theatre
David Marcia, PhD Student, Theatre, University of Missouri-Columbia
4:30-5:00 pm
Award presentation and introduction by Amy Cook………………………………………………………………………….A201
5:00-6:00 pm
Keynote Address by Dr. Rhonda Blair………………………………………………………………………….A201
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