Early Modern Theatre and Conversion

Early Modern Theatre and Conversion

A Folger Symposium

How did the crisis of conversion in the early modern world open up a space for dramatists and others to play with one of the key questions of their time? How, that is, did early modern theatre and other kinds of theatrical practice adopt, repurpose, transform, and multiply forms of religious conversion? Offered in partnership with the SSHRC-funded project, “Early Modern Conversions: Religions, Cultures, Cognitive Ecologies,” this symposium will convene members of that project with others, bringing together historians of theatre and historians of religious and political culture with theatrical practitioners, whose work will open other ways of understanding how theatre is able to “convert” conversion. Through discussion and workshop sessions, symposium participants will work across differences of discipline and archive in order to reach toward a greater understanding of the social creativity of theatre in an age of political and religious upheaval.

Schedule:

Thursday evening, Friday, and Saturday, November 17 – 19, 2016.

The symposium opens with an evening performance workshop, “Playing Conversion,” during which professional actors will stage themes that will resonate throughout the rest of the symposium. On Friday and Saturday, invited speakers will initiate discussion on a number of relevant topics.

Organizers: Professor Paul Yachnin and Dr. Stephen Wittek of McGill University represent the “Early Modern Conversions” project. They have developed this symposium in collaboration with Drs. Kathleen Lynch and Owen Williams of the Folger Institute.

Most sessions take place in the Folger Board Room

Thursday evening, 17 November 2016 (Paster Reading Room)

6:00 pm

Welcome

Kathleen Lynch, Folger Institute, and Paul Yachnin, McGill University

Performance Workshop: “Playing Conversion”

Amanda Kellock, Repercussion Theatre, Montreal

Antoine Yared, Stratford Festival

Shirine Babb

Louis Butelli

7:30-8:30

Opening Reception (Founders Room)

Friday, 18 November 2016

9:30 am

Coffee and pastries (Tea Room, which is adjacent to the Board Room)

10:10

Call to Order

Owen Williams, Folger Institute

10:15

Culture and Religion

Chair: Christopher Hodgkins, English, University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Jeffrey Shoulson, Judaic Studies, University of Connecticut

Steven Mullaney, English, University of Michigan

11:45

Lunch (provided in the Foulke Conference Room, 301 East Capitol Street, SE)

1:30

Sexuality and Gender

Chair: Kathryn Santos, English, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi

Mario DiGangi, English, The City University of New York

Ulrike Strasser, History, University of California, San Diego

3:00

Tea Break

3:30

Cultural Exchange & Cognitive Transformation

Chair: Stephanie Cavanaugh, Conversions Project, McGill University

Jean Feerick, English, John Carroll University

Coll Thrush, History, University of British Columbia

Saturday, 19 November 2016

9:30 am

Coffee and Pastries (Folger Tea Room)

10:10

Call to Order

Stephen Wittek, McGill University

10:15

Conversion & Islam

Chair: Holly Pickett, English, Washington & Lee University

Jane Hwang Degenhardt, English, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Bernadette Andrea, English, University of Texas, San Antonio

11:45 am

Lunch on your own (suggestions provided in folders)

1:30

Reformation & Conversion

Chair: Torrance Kirby, Religious Studies, McGill University

Peter Lake, History, Vanderbilt University

David Kastan, English, Yale University

3:00

Tea Break (Tea Room)

3:30

Theatre & the Conversions of Things

Chair: Bronwen Wilson, Art History, UCLA

Helen Smith, English, University of York

Julian Yates, English, University of Delaware

5:00

Roundtable

Chair: Paul Yachnin

Peter Lake

Holly Pickett

Jeffrey Shoulson

Helen Smith

6:00

Closing Reception (Paster Reading Room)

This reception is offered in conjunction with the Homecoming of the First Folios programming.