edited by Janne Cleveland and Cynthia Sugars
Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne (SCL/ÉLC) invites interdisciplinary contributions to a special issue on Canadian Drama and the Performing Arts.
Deadline: March 31, 2023
This special issue invites submissions on the ways Canadian dramatists, scholars, theatre and performing arts practitioners, and audiences are engaging with the changing, and sometimes unstable, social and cultural landscapes of our time. Theatre, and the performing arts in general, respond to and reflect the socio-cultural conditions from which they emerge. How are concepts of performance and performativity adapting to reflect changing notions of identity and selfhood? How do theatrical representations respond to anxieties and traumas emerging from unstable political contexts? How do the performing arts attempt to de-colonize inherited narratives, systemic prejudices, and fraught social inequities? In this issue, we consider how theatre – and the performing arts generally – are responding to the challenges of an unstable sociopolitical landscape. These fraught conditions include, but are not limited to, the climate crisis, the pandemic, racialized oppressions, distrust of sources of information (fake news), technological changes, gender biases, and human rights inequities. In what ways has the inherently social and collective nature of theatre been used to forge new forms of community, sometimes by exploiting technological innovations? How have these developments found new ways to engage and inscribe audiences within emerging collective visions, sometimes by mobilizing a positive sense of community in the face of these pressures? What roles did online theatrical projects play in responding to the isolating effects of the pandemic?