CfP: Routledge Companion to LGBTQ+ Theatre and Performance in North America
Routledge Companion to LGBTQ+ Theatre and Performance in North America
Editors: Bess Rowen & Benjamin Gillespie
We invite proposals for this edited volume exploring the intersections of LGBTQ+ performance across North America including the United States, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean Islands. Although there have been several key works written about queer, trans, and LGBTQ+ theatres, there has yet to be a contemporary volume that provides an extensive overview of the key methodologies, histories, identities, and pedagogies surrounding this field focused specifically on the geographic region of North America.
This companion will provide a comprehensive resource for those teaching in this area by creating a singular volume that combines history and theory through a wide array of methodological approaches. The sections of this volume are organized around every facet of LGBTQ+ performance: Who does it? What is it? When and where does it happen? How does it happen? What are the affective and critical responses to it? Considering the broad range of intersections for/around this topic, this companion also aims to capture a breadth of approaches to making, training for, analyzing, and documenting LGBTQ+ performance histories, theories, people, ideas, and places.
We feel preserving and highlighting the important contributions that LGBTQ+ theatre and performance have made and continue to make in North America cultures is more crucial than ever at this uncertain social, political, and environmental moment in our history. This companion will cover both well-known performers and performances as well as those that might be lesser-known. Please feel free to send proposals about any and all topics you feel fit into the categories below.
The volume will be divided into six distinct but related sections:
LGBTQ+ Embodied Performance: Who are the performers and makers who have helped to both define and transcend what LGBTQ+ theatre and performance is and can be? What performance and acting aesthetics are key parts of queer and trans performance? We are especially interested in an intersectional approach to identity incorporating perspectives on race, age, class, and ability as the intersect with sexuality and gender. We also aim to represent indigenous voices and perspectives into the volume.
LGBTQ+ Dramaturgies & Dramatic Literature: What is the field of LGBTQ+ theatre and performance? Where have the ideas that created and shaped this field come from? And what is the current state of queer and trans playwriting in the Americas?
Queering Time: When in time does LGBTQ+ performance happen? How does it queer time and defy easy chronologies of linear progress? What other aspects of time might be thought about in LGBTQ+ theatre and performance histories? How can we rethink chronological models of history?
Queering Place: Where does LGBTQ+ performance happen? How do queer and trans performances work with and against legislation in the Americas that challenges its right to exist? How do urban and rural places connect and differ? How are queer and trans performances staging responses to climate change and the environment (i.e. eco approaches to LGBTQ+ performance)?
LGBTQ+ Methods: How is LGBTQ+ performance created, studied, and taught? What particular methodologies have queer and trans people created to push back against heteronormative assumptions about theatre and performance?
LGBTQ+ Voices: Who are the people currently defining the field of LGBTQ+ theatre and performance and how do they view the past? This section will contain a series of brief interviews or roundtables with playwrights, actors, directors, performance artists, and other production team members. Each interview will have a critical introduction to help contextualize the subject.
We aim to assemble a range of diverse voices that reflect the multiplicity of approaches within the field. We especially encourage proposals from scholars, artists, and practitioners whose work expands beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. By bringing these perspectives into dialogue, this volume aims to foster a rich, interdisciplinary exchange that advances the study and practice of LGBTQ+ performance throughout North America.
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Proposals should include a title and 300-word abstract as well as your name, institutional affiliation/position, and a brief bio (100 words) sent to bess.rowen@villanova.edu and benjamin.gillespie@baruch.cuny.edu by March 1, 2025. Once chapters are confirmed, full drafts will be due by September 1, 2025. Scholars and artists from all career stages and backgrounds are encouraged to apply.