Practice / Production Symposium

44th Mid-America Theatre Conference

Practice/Production Call for Proposals

The Practice/Production Symposium of the Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC) focuses on current and emerging challenges, opportunities, successes, and failures of practicing theater artists. It is especially interested in experiential knowledge produced through theatrical processes and practice: the doing, the experience, the how, and the what.  

We are seeking solo or collective proposals for presentations or works in progress in formats including but not limited to: roundtable discussions, workshops (practical “hands-on” demonstrations), papers, installations, hybrid presentations, interactive theater, devised performances, performance for found space, etc. We especially encourage non-traditional formats that include active involvement of both presenters and auditors from the perspective and experience of directors, actors, choreographers, movement specialists, technicians, designers, playwrights, dramaturgs, stage managers, and spectators. We encourage proposals engaging thematic queries including but not limited to meaningful connections between theater, place, and community. Three initial provocations are: How does your work connect topic and practice to the community around you? What practices have nourished or challenged partnerships between theater and community? What practices in your production work combat, confront, dismantle or otherwise disrupt tacit systemic oppressions (such as white supremacy, ableism, sexism, etc.) in your communities? For further suggested provocations and questions click this link to the CFP Details on MATC website or email the Practice/Production Co-Chairs Karen M. Dabney (she/her, Independent Scholar) and Kassy Skoretz (they/them, Anoka Ramsey Community College) at practice_production@matc.us

Please submit proposals via the online form available at the MATC website. Submission form requires title of presentation, presentation format, a 150-200 word abstract, and the applicant’s name and contact information. Please include any audio/visual or other technology needs in your abstract—A/V services are limited. While rank and academic affiliation will be requested, P/P does not take that into consideration when selecting proposals. 

Deadline for submissions: November 1, 2023

CFP Details:

We encourage proposals engaging thematic queries including but not limited to: 

• What’s at the heart of the storytelling process?
• What community is making your theatre and for whom is it made? How does your work connect topics and practice to the community around you?
• What bridges have you built between theater and community? How sustainable have they been?  What practices have nourished or challenged these partnerships?
• How do the places of theater support or shape community? Rehearsal rooms, theater spaces, theater buildings, etc.? 
• What are some new or unexpected collaborations between designers and other theater makers? How have these partnerships impacted the storytelling?
• What opportunities have arisen, or might arise, from involving intimacy choreographers, or other specialists, earlier in the rehearsal and productions process? 
• How does your theater community engage, challenge, or affirm whiteness through story, community, and place? What has been the response and how have you responded?
• What practices in your production work combat, confront, dismantle or otherwise disrupt tacit systemic oppressions (such as white supremacy, ableism, sexism, etc.)?
• What kinds of standards or trauma-informed practices are you including in your theater communities? How have they worked?

All presenters will have the opportunity to submit their work to Theatre/Practice, a peer-reviewed, open-access online journal created to encourage, recognize, and disseminate rigorous and high-quality scholarship on the practice and theory of theatrical production and reception. Submissions to Theatre/Practice are limited to work presented as part of the conference’s Practice/Production, Pedagogy, and Playwriting Symposia.

Good News! You can submit up to two proposals and present in up to two symposia. This limit is put in place to avoid scheduling conflicts and to provide more individuals the opportunity to present. However, you are invited to attend any and all conference sessions, no matter the symposia affiliation. 

 Click this link for a downloadable PDF of the CFP:  MATC Practice Production 2024 CFP 

The Mid-America Theatre Conference commits to advancing intersectional equity, inclusivity, and diversity; creating a conference that is welcoming and fully accessible; and to disrupting the ongoing damage of white supremacy within MATC and the broader academic and theatrical worlds. As part of this effort, we highly encourage a broad range of submissions by presenters or about theatre of historically disenfranchised and underrepresented populations, particularly those of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. To request specific conference accommodations, please contact our Accessibility Officer at access@matc.us. MATC prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind, including during all associated meetings, the annual conference sessions, and within publications. For MATC’s full statement on anti-racism, accessibility, and inclusivity please see our website at http://matc.us.

Deadline for submissions: November 1, 2023 before 11:59pm PST.