The academic symposium of the Horton Foote American Playwrights Festival seeks papers on a range of topics for the November 2009 event on the campus of Baylor University. The Festival features a lively mix of theatre productions, staged readings, professional panels, guest artists, and scholarly papers.

Previous honorees were Horton Foote (2003), Romulus Linney (2005) and Tina Howe (2007). The 2009 festival will celebrate Craig Wright, the award-winning contemporary author of The Pavilion, Recent Tragic Events, The Unseen, and television projects such as Six Feet Under and Dirty Sexy Money.

The academic symposium seeks papers on a variety of topics related to American plays and playwrights. Possible panels include:

The plays of Craig Wright
The television work of Craig Wright
Playwrights as screenwriters
New play development in the U.S.
Issues of teaching playwriting in U.S. higher education
Historical considerations of the role of the playwright in the U.S.
Themes of America in plays by U.S. authors
Regionalism and the U.S. playwright
Issues of translation and adaptation in U.S. theatre
Librettists and composers of American Musical Theatre
U.S. playwrights and U.S. critics
Issues of faith in American drama
The plays of Horton Foote
The television and film work of Horton Foote

Abstracts (250 words max) for conference length papers must be submitted electronically to DeAnna_Toten_Beard@baylor.edu. Please also send brief biographical statement and university affiliation.

Graduate students are welcome.

EXTENDED abstract deadline is August 31.