CfP: Cachimbonas!: Celebrating Latina/e Dramatists & Social Engagement
April 24 – 26, 2025
University of Missouri
Abstracts due: November 15, 2025
Call for Abstracts of Papers and Presentations
On Thursday, April 24, through April 26, 2025, the University of Missouri Department of Theatre and Performance in cooperation with the Cambio Center, MU Libraries, and The Bridge, will host a new theatre and drama conference, Cachimbonas!: Celebrating Latina/e Dramatists & Social Engagement, which will feature a full production of Romero, an award-winning new play by Xiomara Cornejo, Salvadoran American director/playwright. Cachimbonas is a Central American term for a “strong, fierce, courageous woman,” or “good person,” and the conference will be centered on the work of Latina/e dramatists and will celebrate the lives, music, food, and culture of the traditions of those would have come to the US from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.
The conference, which will feature a virtual component, lead by our professor, Dr. Kevin Brown, a collaborator with playwright Caridad Svich, will give special attention to Latina dramatists (for both stage and screen) who deal with issues of social justice, migration, undocumented workers, and the border with a special focus on the Mexican and Central American refugee experience. Xiomara’s play focuses on the assassination of El Salvador’s Archbishop Óscar A. Romero and his subsequent canonization, but more broadly looks at faith as resistance, liberation theology, and the impact of war and US intervention in Central America.
While the primary focus will be scholarly papers and creative workshops that address the work of Latina dramatists who focus on the above-mentioned issues in their work, some of the panels we’d like to present will be more broadly focused on Latine and Latin American theatre artists and dramatic literature, and how these works get at the realities of issues like US intervention, the US border, refugees, and migration.
Featured guest artists include renowned playwright Elaine Romero, award-winning author of Title IX and Mother of Exiles, and professor of theatre at University of Arizona at Tucson, Xiomara Cornejo, author of Romero, Theater of the Oppressed practitioner, and assistant professor of theatre at the University of Illinois at Chicago , and Lil Lamberta, a trans non-binary mother, artist, puppeteer and Founder/Director of All The Saints Theater Company, all of whom will be teaching workshops in Theatre of the Oppressed, Dramatic Writing, and Radical Puppetry as part of the conference. The conference seeks to support the work of every level of theatre, drama, and performance scholarship, however, we’ll be offering a special focus on emerging graduate and undergraduate scholars who might debut with this conference.
Scholars and Artists wishing to present at the conference should send:
An abstract of 150-250 words describing topic(s), goals, and guiding questions
A short bio (50 words) and your contact information including email and phone number
Submissions must be received by Nov. 15, 2024, and in order to attract emerging scholars and artists, we’ll be keeping registration low, and it will be free to all MU students, faculty, and staff.
For additional information about the conference contact Dr. David A. Crespy at his email: crespyd@missouri.edu.