CALL FOR PAPERS: EXTENDED DEADLINE

Due to the amount of interest aroused by the event, we have decided to extend the 
deadline to allow further potential speakers to offer proposals.

New deadline for proposals: MONDAY 30th MARCH 2009

‘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 members 
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.

UPDATE: confirmed speakers, (at the time of writing), include actors Phil Davis (The 
Curse of Steptoe, Vera Drake, Bleak House) and Ian McNeice (Conspiracy, Valkyrie). 

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 30th 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.