PerformanceStudies.Org

Friday, 16 June, 2006

The morning started with a breakfast meeting of the Food and Performance working group. It was suggested that a bi-monthly email list would be created. Myron announced that his CFP on Food and/as Performance has a deadline of 1 April. Richard Gough offered to host an online Food and Performance journal. A discussion was also had on performance as related to a way to deal with eating disorders, using food to meeting people/as a bridge, and the democracy and politics of food.

The first panel I attended was Memory Rites with Laurie Beth Clark, Catherine Cole, Rebecca Schneider and Sandra Richards.
Laurie Beth looked at several sites of tragedy including slave forts in Africa, concentration camps, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She plans to do further field research in Rwanda and Cambodia. Her focus is on what she calls desecrated ground. She is not trying to suggest equivalence of genocides. Catherine discussed her work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. She felt its success was that it was more ritual and oral history than trial. She also likened it to a rite of passage, a transformation. She also noted that externally the project was seen as helpful, while internally it was regarded with ambivalence. Sandra then presented her work concerning memory as identity producing, specifically citing the yearly conclave of the Gulla in South Carolina and Georgia. Rebecca presented her work on monuments and the act of witnessing or passing by.

After lunch I attended the Patriot Acts: Performing Spaces of Freedom and Practices of Dissent panel hosted by Peter Glazer, Tracy Davis and Nina Billone also presented papers at this panel. Peter traced history of left from supporting the Spanish Civil War, Vietnam and Iraq. Tracy began with the afterward from her forthcoming book _Stages of Emergency: Cold War Nuclear Civil Defense_. She posited that Cold War acts were not performances, but rehearsals and that government is constantly having us rehearse for possible performances. She used the example of disaster preparedness as an example of how we are rehearsing for the performance of a man made incident. Tracy ended her talk with a key question, “Will there be a rehearsal for peace?” Nina then presented her paper on the performance of the New Penal State.

I then attended the Journal Editors panel. After introductions from Mariellen Sandford, Richard Schechner was the first editor to speak. He explained that TDR has seven departments. Their focus is on inclusion rather than exclusion. He is tired of theory and is especially interested in empirical research and experience. Maria Delgado discussed how Contemporary Theatre Review focuses on European theatre. Other features include a back pages section and a provocations section. Martin Hargreaves of Dance Theatre Journal stressed that the journal is not an academic journal but addresses new dance and contemporary work. He asked that interested parties email the editor to begin a dialogue for new work. Marvin Carlson from Western European Stages said that they were not involved with historical or theoretical interests. This journal covers festivals for the fall edition, seasons of production for the spring issue and the winter issue usually focuses on a particular country. Jeanne Vaccaro and Joshua Chambers-Letson spoke on behalf of Women and Performance. They stressed that issues are thematic and articles are reviewed. Most of the articles involve theory as practice and are primarily critical essays, but they also include interviews. David Saltz represented Theatre Journal. He mentioned that this journal has a rotating editorship and that the book and performance review sections are looking for new editors. Articles are first looked over by editors and then peer-reviewed anonymously, reviews are not peer reviewed. The journal is deliberately broad and open to theory. Helen Nicholson then discussed Research and Drama in Education. This journal focuses on cultural engagement, specifically research and practices that engage with community in a range of locations. They use articles and reviews, points in practice and a post-graduate section. Their editorial board is very involved and aims to provide a supportive process. Ric Allsopp presented information on Performance Research, which is a non-peer-reviewed journal specializing in scholarship and practice of performance. Marcela Fuentes then discussed e-misferica, an online, bi-annual journal. They primarily print academic essays and are driven to establish online work as legitimate. Freddie Rokem talked about Theatre Research International, which is a peer reviewed journal that is published three times a year. It has a new scholars section. Other journals were then mentioned by the audience:
Performance Paradigm is an online refereed journal (performanceparadigm.net).
About Performance, edited by Gay McAuley
Total Theatre concentrates on physical theatre
Body, Space and Technology is an online refereed journal out of Brunel
Journal of Performance and Art is a philosophy based, broad journal (can be found on the MIT Press site)
Canadian Theatre Review
Theatre Survey
Theatre Topics articles in the first person, and performance as research
Theatre Forum
ALT Theatre
Theatre and Performance Reserch Association is compilling a list of journals.

The editors all agreed that they generally send articles to each other or recommend each other when appropriate and that they do not like multiple submissions.

I also attended a fabulous reception for TDR which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It was well attended and enjoyed by all.

After a very quick dinner, I attended the artist talk given by Coco Fusco and Naeem Mohieman. Coco presented thoughts on her recent work involving taking an interrogation training course. Naeem discussed his recent work, disappearedinamerica.org.