Call for Abstracts on “New Directions on Improvisation”

For the 2018 Comparative Drama Conference, there will be a sub-theme of improv running through the three days. On Thursday night we will be attending an improv performance at SAK Comedy Lab. On Saturday afternoon there will be a plenary dedicated to improv. To round out the conference, we invite papers for either a panel (or if we get enough interest a round table) on new directions in improv, as we look to consider how improv pushes boundaries within performance, the process of dramatic creation, and the text.

Some possible topics to consider (but definitely not limited to):

Improv as pedagogy and its application to theatrical and/or non-theatrical sites

The function and face of modern theatrical improv in the cultural landscape

New discoveries in improv forms and structures (long/short/narrative-based)

Using improv as a tool in the traditional or non-traditional classroom

New dramaturgy that deploys improv as a strategy in the rehearsal space

New experiments and considerations of improv as a performance mode in its own right

The interactions between improv and the text in development, rehearsal, and/or performance

Please send your abstracts to Dr. David Charles: dcharles@rollins.edu.

Papers should be 15 minutes in length and written for oral presentation. Please submit a 250-word abstract in English to dcharles@rollins.edu by November 30, 2017. Please include a paper title, author’s name, status (faculty, graduate student, other/scholar-at-large), institutional affiliation, and postal address at top left. 

Those whose abstracts are accepted for presentation are expected to attend the conference.

For more information on the conference, please visit http://comparativedramaconference.org/.