A listing of drama festivals and conferences for the year.
- MARCH
Theatre and Performance Design Pedagogy Conference 2018
Best Practice and Strategies for the Future 15 – 16 March 2018 London (United Kingdom) www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/theatre-network/
Organised by the University of the Arts London, the inaugural international conference of The Theatre & Performance Design Education Network will follow the themes of Collaboration, Digital Technologies, Space & Architecture, Interdisciplinarity, Drawing & Performance, Costume, and Scenography Unbound.
The network aims to bring together teachers and researchers from a range of international institutions engaged with the teaching of theatre and performance design. It will support current best practice, strategise for the future and provide a forum for interrogating the efficacy of different pedagogical approaches.
Arts and Disability International Conference 2018
22 – 23 March 2018 Sands Expo & Convention Centre Enabling Village (Singapore) www.adic2018.sg
Jointly organized by Very Special Arts Singapore and the National Arts Council, the Arts & Disability International Conference aims to provide insights on innovative ways to increase arts accessibility and facilitate sharing of best practices. The first of such in the ASEA region, the conference brings together international and local guest speakers and arts groups from Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Japan, Singapore and UK, arts practitioners and organisations, social professionals and key agencies to network and exchange insights and perspectives in arts and disability.
- APRIL
AprilFestival 2018 – Theatre for Young Audiences
16 – 22 April 2018 Syddjurs (Denmark) www.info.aprilfestival.dk
Aprilfestival is the world’s largest touring festival of performing arts for young audiences in Denmark, presenting a great variety of both national and international performances. The festival visits a new municipality each year.
It is the perfect opportunity to network, share knowledge and experiences, and attend inspirational seminars and conferences. More than 100 theatre companies will present approximately 600 shows in a single week. And all tickets are free of charge!
“Play, Perform, Learn, Grow: Exploring Creative Community Practice” (PPLG)
13 – 15 April 2018 Anatolia College, Thessaloniki (Greece) www.pplg2018.gr
“Play, Perform, Learn, Grow: Exploring Creative Community Practice” (PPLG) is organized to bring together educators and researchers, psychologists and therapists, social workers and out-side-of-school youth workers, medical doctors, artists, social activists and community organizers, - refugees, migrants and locals – and all others who are seeking new—and often performatory—ways to address the pain, alienation, and violence of our times, re-create their lives, and build new kinds of communities.
PPLG invites practitioners and researchers from throughout Europe, and the world, who are, in various ways, exploring and/or researching performance, play and the arts as alternative approaches to traditional ways of educating students, practicing therapy, engaging social problems, and activating and creating communities across geographical, language, religious and ideological boundaries. The conference is an opportunity to share practices, ideas, and experiences and to learn from and network with others with similar concerns from very different intellectual, experiential and cultural backgrounds.
- MAY
2018 WeeFestival Conference and Symposium
15 – 18 May 2018 Toronto (Canada) www.weefestival.ca
WeeFestival is Toronto’s first international arts festival dedicated to early childhood. Following the heels of the WeeFestival (11-21 May 2018), the conference and symposium program welcomes artists, producers, presenters, artistic researchers, early childhood educators and researchers. In addition to performances from leading early-years focused theatre companies from around the world and across Canada, this conference offers enlightening keynotes, workshops, roundtables, and lots of great socializing and networking opportunities.
- JULY
9th International Drama in Education Conference
(IDIERI 9: Tyranny of Distance) 2 – 8 July 2018 University of Auckland (New Zealand) www.idieri2018.org
The phrase ‘tyranny of distance’ reflects the argument that this region’s geographical remoteness, from its colonisers and other sites of power in the northern hemisphere, has played an important part in shaping its history, culture and identity. Long before the ‘leaky boats’ arrived, waka, which the vessel in the conference image represents, navigated Oceania’s expansive ‘sea of islands’ and ventured thousands of miles for exploration and trade. In contemporary times, the tyranny of distance might have currency as a concept for those experiencing displacement through forced migration, but also for those experiencing forced containment. The emergence of fundamental nationalisms has seen efforts to enforce a tyranny of distance through the construction of walls and less tangible processes of excluding, or distancing, unwanted others. More than ever we are in need of kai ariki, the carved figure that sits at the back of seafaring waka. This figure typically looks up at the stars and can be used to represent reflective practice by: the poets, artists, orators, scientists, knowledge bearers, producers and experts who help to navigate and remember life’s journeys.
Delegates at IDIERI 9 might respond to the theme by addressing:
- the ways in which practices are shaped in specific geographic contexts
- notions of travelling, trade and exchange
- questions of perspective and shifting perspectives
- the aesthetics and politics of distance
- AUGUST
Applied Improvisation Network Conference 2018
23 – 26 August 2018 FIAP, Paris (France) www.appliedimprovisation.network/events/2018-paris/
The Applied Improvisation Network (AIN) is a global community of over 5000 members and arts groups that aims to promote the practice of applied improvisation, develop methods of best practice, connect members to foster collaborative working opportunities and support members and practitioners of applied improvisation. The call for proposal will open in February 2018.
- SEPTEMBER
ITAC4: The Fourth International Teaching Artist Conference
Artist as Instigator: The role, responsibility, and impact of artists in Global Communities 13 – 15 September 2018 New York City (United States) www.itac-conference.com
The International Teaching Artist conference brings together artists, organizations, funders, and researchers from all over the world to explore key issues relating to participatory arts practices.
ITAC4 will investigate:
- What is the role of teaching artists as contributors to social justice?
- What is the responsibility of 21st century artists as they engage in different communities?
- How can artists transform schools and institutions of learning in radical ways?
Delegate applications and proposal submissions are now being accepted until 16 February 2018.
Click here to apply.
- OCTOBER
2018 NTU International Theatre Conference
Truth and Imagination: The Metaphors of Cultures and Their Refashioning and Interpretations 27 – 28 October 2018 National Taiwan University, Taipei (Taiwan) www.theatre.ntu.edu.tw/en/5312/2018-ntu-international-theatre-conference-call-for-papers
NTU International Theatre Conference is a biennial event hosted by the Department of Drama and Theatre at National Taiwan University. The major aim of this conference is geared towards unpacking a wide variety of dramatic genres, popular entertainments, theatrical happenings, performances, social movements and actions that are subject to high theatricality and exhibitive nature within an ordinary civic life, in order for investigating how those traditions and events, mainstream or alternative, help to reflect local knowledge, cultural structure, aesthetic conception, and moral context.
Meanwhile, it is significant to look into the ways these customs and conventions, explicitly and implicitly, translate societal consensus, political codes, hierarchical norms, and religious beliefs, so as to serve as a panoramic microcosm of material entwinement, explain laws and orders, probe wisdom of life, represent philosophical system and ideological mechanism that are all macroscopic and “extraordinary.”
The deadline for proposal submission is 13 February 2018.