making and remaking americana

As America approaches 250 years, with more seats at the table and more voices in the chorus, it has never been more clear that this “American Experiment”, to paraphrase George Washington, is just that…an experiment. As a conference, our identity is firmly rooted in America; to mark this anniversary, we invite our membership to explore the fractured and polarizing concept of ‘Americana’. Those little bits and bobs that make us reflect on our history, folklore, behaviors, geography, and the essential stereotypes that become wholesale representative of American culture.

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Playwrights like August Wilson, Tennessee Williams, Sophie Treadwell, Lynn Nottage and countless others, have become the hegemonic Americana while using their works to reveal the counterculture in Americana’s remaking. Musicals like 1776, Gypsy, The Music Man, and Chicago explore what it means to be American at various critical moments in our nation’s past. Cities like Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Cleveland helped to build our nation in a material way; New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles continue to shape the tastes and trends on which our capitalist greed feeds; even places like Jamestown and Williamsburg had–from the beginning–a major role in shaping our American identity. The 250 years of making Americana are also pockmarked with horrifying incidents of remaking Americana for many groups; Native Americans, enslaved Africans, the prison-industrial complex, pointless wars, acts of terror. For some, the remaking of Americana has completely undone its making.

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Mid-America Theatre Conference invites papers that rigorously interrogate the making of Americana; highlight and document key moments, people, and movements participating in the remaking of Americana; and explore how this duality plays out on the Global stage. George C. Wolfe reminds us, “…smashing things together. Because, culturally, that’s America at its most interesting.” MATC calls on its members to come smash things together with us in Pittsburgh, PA March 5 – 7, 2026 for our 46th annual conference.