Theatrical Ecologies and Environments in the Nineteenth Century
One-Day Symposium
University of Warwick, Millburn House
School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies
1 July 2017
Ecocriticism is a hot topic in both Theatre Studies and Nineteenth-Century Studies, yet the environment is still an under-examined area within nineteenth-century theatre circles. This symposium aims to cultivate more work on this field of research pioneered by Baz Kershaw. Possible topics could include: ecological research in practical stagecraft (how nineteenth-century practitioners created sets, costumes, and effects to represent different environments), theater architecture (such as the Palais Garnier and its "lake" or the use of Thames water for hydraulic bridges and iron curtains), environmental theatre set in outdoor venues such as nineteenth-century pleasure gardens, site-specific theatre, the impact of Victorian theatre and early film on the environment, the creation of fantastical or alternative world environments (as in pantomime), the ecology of theaters (cityscapes, economic conditions, contagion), ecological themes or images within plays, plays invoking nature or the artifice of avoiding nature, theatrical connections to historical ecological movements, ecological links between theater and other arts, the ecology of performance, environmental adaptation (in terms of Linda Hutcheon's argument that adaptation from one medium to another is akin to biological adaptation), animal performers, human actors performing animals, the economic ecology of production (in terms of a Darwinian market selection), theatrical and early cinematic statements about the environment, theatre and world ecologies. There are myriad possibilities, and it is the aim of the symposium organizers to be inclusive.
They invite the submission of abstracts on any topic connected to Theatrical Ecologies and Environments in the Nineteenth Century. The symposium is curated by the editors of Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film: Professor Jim Davis, Dr Janice Norwood, Dr Pat Smyth and Professor Sharon Aronofsky Weltman. Please submit abstracts for consideration to jim.davis@warwick.ac.uk by 1 May 2017.