Danielle and I had an absolutely fantastic time at this conference in 2011! It is several days jam-packed with staging sessions, paper presentations, delicious food, and professional performances all in the charming setting of Staunton, VA. It even snowed when we were there — still charming.
Here is a description of the conference from the American Shakespeare Center’s website:
“This conference distinguishes itself from saner conferences in a variety of other ways. First, to model the kind of collaboration we think possible we encourage presenters to feature actors as partners in the demonstration of their theses. For instance, in 2009, Gary Taylor’s keynote presentation “Lyrical Middleton” featured ASC actors singing and dancing to the songs in Middleton’s plays. Second, we limit each paper session to six short papers (10 minutes for solo presentations, 13 minutes for presentations with actors). Third, we enforce this rule by ursine fiat – a bear chases from the stage those speakers who go over their allotted time.
Delegates also attend all of the plays in the ASC 2013 Fall Season – Romeo and Juliet, All’s Well that Ends Well, Troilus and Cressida, Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, and Bob Carlton’s Return to the Forbidden Planet, – and, for the past several conferences, bonus plays written by their colleagues and performed by actors in the Mary Baldwin College MFA in Shakespeare in Performance program. The spirit of fun that imbues the conference manifests itself in the annual Truancy Award, for the sensible conferee who – visiting the Shenandoah Valley at the height of Fall – has the good sense to miss the most sessions.”
For more information and to submit an abstract, please visit the ASC’s website by clicking here.
The conference will be held at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia on October 23-27, 2013. The deadline for submitting an abstract is May 31, 2013.
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