CALL FOR PAPERS
‘ACTING WITH FACTS’:
ACTORS PERFORMING THE REAL IN BRITISH THEATRE AND TELEVISION SINCE
1990
An Arts and Humanities Research Council research project.
‘ACTING WITH FACTS’ SYMPOSIUM
FRIDAY 8 MAY 2009
Location: Department of Film, Theatre and Television, University of Reading
The ‘Acting with Facts’ project, which began in October 2007, is concerned
with actors’ contributions to the burgeoning field of documentary drama. The
project team have already interviewed over twenty actors directly concerned
with theatre and screen docudrama, as well as a number of actor trainers,
writers and directors. The project also participated in a National
Theatre ‘Platform’ event in May 2008.
At the half-way stage of our work, we will host a one-day symposium at the
University of Reading further to explore research issues through debate and
dialogue with interested academic colleagues, actor trainers and people with
direct experience of staging and screening docudrama and drama ‘based on’
fact. The symposium therefore has several aims:
• to present some initial findings
• to gather together other researchers in the field
• to have plenary presentations from industry and actor-training personnel.
Two sessions will be available during the day for parallel panels to present
papers. We invite proposals of 250-300 words on any aspect of the challenges
that actors face when performing the real. Papers need not exclusively
address the project’s research questions, but we present them here as a
guideline to our own work so far:
• What specific demands does factual drama make on actors’ competencies?
• How do actors respond to these demands in specific theatre and television
practice?
• What comparisons and correspondences exist for actors between docudrama
and fictional drama in theatre and television, given their likely involvement in
both media?
• How has the making of television docudrama responded to the 1990
Broadcasting Act, increased international co-production, the digital revolution
and accelerated social and political change since 1990?
• How has social and political change (nationally and internationally) provoked
change in documentary theatre since 1990?
• What impact do ethical, institutional and practical constraints in both media
(e.g. legal restrictions, marketability, cost) have on docudrama, and with what
aesthetic consequences?
• How do existing theories (of form, genre, format and audience address) and
the production of docudrama in theatre and television interact?
Closing date for Proposals: Monday 16th March 2009
Address for proposals and further enquiries: [log in to unmask]
or send to:
Dr Derek Paget, Principal Investigator: ‘Acting with Facts’, Department of Film,
Theatre & Television, University of Reading, Bulmershe Court, Reading RG6 1HY.
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