Call for Papers Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts 11.2  Theatre and the Kitchen Food and gastronomy saturate contemporary cultural spheres. From social media’s ‘food porn’, reality television and culinary pop-ups to concept-restaurants and the internationalisation of local cuisines. Arguably, menus have recently become a privileged medium for cultural transfer and appropriation, but food has long been both the signifier and transmitter of emotion, identity, ideology, belonging and wealth. As the Western metropolitan obsession with gastronomy is on the rise, the global economy and climate crisis threaten to bring entire societies to famines of unprecedented proportions in the Global South. How does theatre respond to and how is it influenced by food’s implication in politics, aesthetics, representation, theatricality and drama? What links are there between our cultural diets (what is on offer in the theatre’s repertoire?) and our dinner tables or Instagram feeds? What are the meanings, potentials and problems of the kitchen as a stage and of kitchens on stage?    The next issue of Platform is interested in the multiple links of food, gastronomy and cooking to theatre and performance. As media that traverse corporeal bodies, cultures and publics, food and performance intersect in myriad significant and surprising ways.  We welcome paper submissions from postgraduate and early career researchers that may explore or take as a point of inspiration or departure any of the following themes:  

• Histories and presents of food and drink in theatre and playwriting 
• Restaurants and theatres; partnerships / economies / conflicts
• Dinner theatre 
• Performance of food on social media
• Food and drink in immersive environments
• Food and gastronomy in new writing 
• Food in dance and choreography
• Nutrition and diet in theatre and performance 
• Devising and theatre-making as cooking 
• Taste and flavour in theatre and performance
• Sensuality and the senses in performance 
• Vegetarianism / veganism in performance and protest  
• Fusion / appropriation in performance and theatre
• Scenography, representations and practicalities of food on stage and food as prop  
• Food, drink and identity in performance and in performance of identity
• The economy of food and drink in the theatre and during the show
• Food, conviviality and affect
• Food and linguistics
• Gender perspectives of food and food-making in theatre and performance
• Menus as scripts / the theatricality of menus
• Food and ritual / food and religion / food in the classics
• Cooking as performance

Along with academic articles, we are happy to consider new writing, performance writing, photographic essays, performance responses, and other creative works that speak to our themes. We would like to encourage submissions not only from scholars of theatre, performance and dance, but also from those working in literature, politics, philosophy, music, media arts, film studies, cultural studies, geography, and other related disciplines. In addition, we are happy to consider interdisciplinary and collaborative articles and provocations. The (now extended) deadline for submissions is: 31 October 2017. Submissions should be 4000 words in length, and accompanied by a 200-word abstract. Please submit papers to platform-submissions@rhul.ac.uk. Submissions should be original, unpublished work. If required, all images should be appropriately captioned and attributed. We ask that all potential contributors familiarise themselves with our submission guidelines. With best wishes, Raz Weiner and Julia Peetz Editors of PlatformPlatform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts