Performance, Religion, and Spirituality

The PRS working group examines the interconnection between the forms and impulses of religion, spirituality, and theatrical performance, attending to the ways performance and spiritual life have come into conversation, cooperation, and conflict, both historically and in the present.

PRS wishes to place its work at the intersection of the scholarly traditions of theatre studies and the study of religion. Both are committed to the critical inquiry of their material, and both are committed the joint participation of scholars from all corners of the world. This group is open to members from all national and cultural backgrounds, and it interests itself in the world’s religious, spiritual, and performative traditions.

Spirituality, religion and performance are, in our view, sets of social and cultural practices that have a profound and long-lasting importance to those involved in them. Because these practices are so important, we are committed to a nonsectarian inquiry of them. We assume no particular faith or religious affiliation for our members or our work.

PRS members, members of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), and members of the Religion and Theatre Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) edit Ecumenica, a peer-reviewed journal that twice annually publishes scholarship concerning theatre, performance, and religion. www.ecumenicajournal.org

PRS members and members of the Religion and Theatre Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) have founded the journal PRS – Performance, Religion and Spirituality. The journal’s inaugural number is to be published October 2017. prsjournalorg.wordpress.com

Articles
Resources

Performance, Religion, and Spirituality: IFTR 2020

04 December, 2019 by David Mason | 0 comments

2020 IFTR Conference in Galway—call from the Performance, Religion, and Spirituality Working Group. Read more

Performance, Religion, and Spirituality Call for Submissions for IFTR 2019

28 October, 2018 by David Mason | 0 comments

For the 2019 conference, the PRS group welcomes proposals for research papers, reports on performances, demonstrations of artistic and religious practices, and other activities. Read more

Call for IFTR 2018

30 December, 2017 | 0 comments

Invitation for papers that investigate the ways in which theatre, performance, and performativity are bound up with questions of migration, exchange, and understanding of the other. Read more

Call for Papers: Performance, Religion and Spirituality Working Group

11 December, 2016 by Joshua Edelman | 0 comments

Call for Papers for the 2017 IFTR Performance, Religion and Spirituality Working Group's meeting in São Paulo (July 2017) and its ancillary meeting in Liverpool (April 2017). Read more

P and R CFP: IFTR 2016

04 September, 2015 | 0 comments

Call for Papers: The performative present of religious, ritual and spiritual traditions Within their complex of texts, affects, values, beliefs and practices, the world’s religions contain some of the oldest and most venerated traditions of human culture. But in order to make these traditions vibrant and active in contemporary life, these traditions need to be made present, often by means of performance. For its 2016 meeting, the Performance and Religion Working Group calls for research presentations that examine the ways in which these traditions are made active, present and relevant by means of performance. Read more

Call for proposals

07 July, 2014 | 0 comments

Performance, when used as a part of religious life, frequently both serves to construct and define a religious community, and depends on the support of that community for its meaning and vitality. Performance is a key means by which religious communities are maintained and renewed, and it is also frequently used as a means through which to challenge them. When religion is affirmed performatively – as opposed to by doctrine or belief – the ways in which it is deeply bound up with the patterns and affects of community are often readily apparent. When aesthetic performance makes use of religious material or gesture, it often does so to make use of or interrogate the communitarian nature of its audience. Similarly, radical performance also often offers a potent means of critiquing the constitution or practices of religious communities; it can, for instance, challenge exclusions or taboos, or propose new models of worship and devotion for communities to take up. And finally, contemporary political theory has begun to recognize the importance of religion and religious performance in the formation of the kind of strong social bonds, which can serve as a strong basis for a democratic society. Read more