Panels Sponsored by the American Theatre and Drama Society

The following panels are seeking papers for presentation at the Comparative Drama Conference July 9-11, 2025 at the London Academy for Music & Dramatic Art.

Papers for either panel should be 15 minutes in length, written for oral presentation, and accessible to a multi-disciplinary audience. Scholars and artists in all languages and literatures are invited to email a 250 word abstract in English to Dr. Richard Gilbert (rgilbert1@luc.edu) by January 15, 2025. Please include paper title, author’s name, status (faculty, graduate student, independent scholar), institutional affiliation (if any), and postal address at top left. Anyone who presents on one of these panels should be (or become) a member of the ATDS (https://www.atds.org/).

Panel 1: Europe v. America - Theatrical Practices

Theater has developed in some widely different directions in the beginning of the 21st Century. From artistic fashions to economic models of production, Europe and the US make theater in some surprisingly different ways. Britain shares some qualities of each. Central and South America have their own traditions.

This panel seeks papers that examine the differences between the various Western theatrical practices, from playwrighting to production and from dramaturgy to business practices.

Panel 2: American Political Theater

Companies throughout the Americas have come back from the pandemic to begin producing theater again and while many are reviving old chestnuts or offering escape from the political, some are experimenting with new kinds of political work while others are reviving classic techniques of agit-prop theater. All this despite the fact that American politics have become so farcical that in some ways political theater is more difficult to write and produce than ever.
This panel seeks papers that explore the ways in which contemporary American plays and productions seek to do political work. We are particularly interested in discussions of new plays or of new productions or interpretations of older work.