Call For Papers: closing date May 31st!

A two-day symposium on 18–19 October 2019, taking place at Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK.

Symposium Directors are Dr Sophie Duncan and Professor Mary Luckhurst

The event is jointly convened by the School of Arts, University of Bristol and Christ Church, University of Oxford, with support from The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities (TORCH).

Confirmed keynote speakers include Professor Gilli Bush-Bailey (Central School of Speech and Drama), Professor Jacky Bratton (Royal Holloway) and Dr Fiona Gregory (Monash University).

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers from scholars and practitioners in theatre and related disciplines. Suggestions for topics include, but are not limited to:

• older actresses on and off stage: as performers, managers, stage-managers, playwrights, producers, directors, and teachers, 1660–present.
• older actresses – their approaches to acting and their creative and career strategies
• older actresses and the one woman show
• older actresses – stage v. film and television
• older actresses on ageism and the politics of transgression
• writing by older actresses, e.g. memoirs
• genealogies of female performance and concepts of female ‘succession’
• retirement and its alternatives
• ‘canonical’ roles for older women; repertoire and ageing
• older actresses and non-traditional casting
• the depiction of older actresses and/or fictional older actresses in criticism, journalism, literature, the visual arts, and film
• ageism, ageing, and the body in casting, rehearsal, performance, and reception
• older actresses with additional marginalised identities, including LBT older actresses, BAME actresses, and actresses with disabilities (including age-related disabilities); the intersection of age with other kinds of marginalisation
• the older actress in theatre historiography and as theatre historian
• retrospectives, gala performances, honours lists and becoming a ’national treasure’.

Proposals, which should be 300 words long and accompanied by a brief biography, should be sent to the symposium’s directors, Dr Sophie Duncan (sophie.duncan@chch.ox.ac.uk) and Professor Mary Luckhurst (mary.luckhurst@bristol.ac.uk) by May 31 2019.