theatre and performance studies

Centre for Comparative Literature, Bhasha Bhavana, Visva-Bharati,

in collaboration with

Department of Yogic Art and Science, Vinaya Bhavana, Visva-Bharati

presents

Of Clay and Dust

6 days extensive body movement workshop

Body awareness

Narrative based movements

Body conditioning

Introduction to Odissi with marshal arts like Mayurbhanj Chhau and Kalaripayattu

Introduction to basic Abhinaya

How to work with musicians and script

How to develop performance

Facilitated by Monami Nandy

February 16-21, 2026

Venue: Dhyana Kutir, Yoga Village Premises, Vinaya Bhavana, Visva-Bharati

Call for Papers 2026

Deadline: February 28th 2026

Theme: Gender and Supernatural

“You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.” Macbeth 1.3.46-47

Legacies of Performance: Inheriting Pasts & Imagining Futures

Graduate Student Symposium

Sponsored by the Department of Theater and Dance

University of California, Santa Barbara

April 18, 2026

“Every image of the past that is not recognised by the present as one of its own threatens to disappear irretrievably.” – Walter Benjamin, 1942

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” – Audre Lorde, 1978

Call for Proposals for a special issue of Studies in Musical Theatre on the films Wicked and Wicked: For Good.

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/studies-in-musical-theatre#call-for-papers

Abstract 

The “end of the world” names a methodological problem before it names an apocalypse: how do humanities scholars and artist-researchers think, make, and teach when climate disruption, extinction, extractive infrastructures, forced displacement, and slow violence reformat what counts as evidence, what counts as futurity, and what counts as responsibility? This conference convenes research and practice across film, theatre, performance, and allied arts to ask how (post)Anthropocene conditions are not only represented but produced, felt, and negotiated through aesthetic forms, production systems, embodied publics, and more-than-human milieus. 

Humour in Arts-Based Research

Conference Webpage: https://labrc.co.uk/2025/11/22/humour-2026/

Conference Date: January 28-29, 2026

Format: Online Virtual Conference

Fees: £100 for non-members (excluding Eventbrite fees)

          15% discount for LABRC Members

 Call for Papers: 

"Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing." – Mark Twain

THE BILLY JOEL SYMPOSIUM

A Two-Day Academic Conference Presented by the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame

Stony Brook, NY | June 6–7, 2026

OVERVIEW

In Traditional African Festival Drama in Performance, Austine Anigala(2006)draws on the Ukpalabor festival of the Ebedei people in Southern Nigeria to argue for the performance and dramatic potential of the indigenous African festival. This provocative work is against the backdrop of polemics initiated by scholars such as Ruth Finnegan (2012) and Michael J. C. Echeruo (1973) about the dramatic limits of indigenous African festivals. Recall that Echeruo (1973) called for a re-examination of how indigenous festivals are referred to as drama.

Call for Papers.

Theatre and Performance Notes and Counternotes seeks short articles or extended essays (1,500-3,000 words) on American (US) theatre at the United States semiquincentennial (250th anniversary). 2-3 sentence abstracts should be submitted by February 2, 2026 and essays/articles before April 6, 2026 to Harvey Young (issue editor) at cfadean[at]bu.edu. 

We are pleased to announce the CFP for a special 2026 issue of Academic Labor: Research and Artistry (ALRA) on Art & Engagement as Critical Response (300 word proposal deadline: 1/16/26).  In the spirit of recognizing the ongoing precarities of higher education–both internal (neoliberalism, systemic institutional inequities) and external (crisis of public confidence in U.S. universities/colleges, threats to academic freedom), we invite proposals for a special issue of ALRA on art and engagement as critical response  to the invisibility, illegibility, and silencing faced by much of the academic labor force.

Through their intricately textured scenes and characters, the ten plays of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle chart the epic historical contours and idiomatic genius of Black American life across the entire twentieth century. Despite his plans for continued literary production after the Cycle’s completion, Wilson died shortly after the final play (Radio Golf)’s world premiere in 2005. 

Two decades hence, and now in the second quarter of the twenty-first century, Wilson’s presence and prescience in American culture are not only enduring but expanding:

CONCEPT NOTE

Has theatre (as a form of literature or performing arts) always been ‘experimental’ to some extent? Describing the attempt to ‘situate the beginning of experimental theatre historically’ as ‘arbitrary,’ Professor Patrice Pavis has pointed out that all new forms of theatre ‘necessarily experiments as soon as it is no longer content to reproduce existing forms and techniques and no longer considers the meaning of its production as self-evident’ (133). It is important to note at this point that Pavis’s analysis does not depict the idea of Experimental theatre to be essentially ‘Eurocentric’. Rather it hints at the possible presence of Experimental theatre across cultures.

ATHE 2026

“ACTIVATING IMAGINATION IN/AND COMMUNITY”
July 22–26, 2026  |  Baltimore, Maryland

This year’s conference theme, "Activating Imagination in/and Community," asks us to think deeply and courageously about the role of theatre and performance in shaping our shared presents and collective futures. It challenges us to contemplate not just what we do, but how and with whom we do it, while recognizing that, in the face of growing political repression and institutional instability, our collaborations—across disciplines, communities, and identities—are simultaneously more vulnerable and vital than ever.