A final extension is being offered for this issue. For this special issue of Etudes, we seek scholarly essays, notes from the field reflections , and design essays (2-8 images with captions).

Theatre Persists
 
War. Famine. Oppressive Regimes. Plague.
 
Throughout history, theatre has risen to nearly every occasion, continuing to thrive under circumstances that seemed all too likely to have signaled its complete disintegration as an art form, coming out the other side with renewed vigor and purpose. For our next issue, our call asks for papers that explore those moments – however distant or recent they may be – in which theatre has been a tool for healing, in which performance art has risen from the ashes, and in which theatre has helped its society and the art itself to live to fight another day. As the theatre faces our latest challenge in the form of COVID-19, this issue seeks to celebrate the resilience of theatre and theatre artists, tracing paths through adversity, and looking with clear and hopeful eyes at what lies ahead.
 
For this special issue of Etudes, we seek scholarly essays (4000-6000 words), notes from the field reflections (1500-3000 words), and design essays (2-8 images, each with caption and 250 word abstract) – see additional guidelines below.

Critical essays might include or address:

• An historical analysis of a specific performance, artist, movement, etc. as it interrogated and overcame historical adversity.
• An historical analysis of a specific performance, artist, movement, etc. as it provided healing and inspiration for life after the adversity.
• A critical performance analysis that examines the resilience of a particular piece of art, artists, movement, etc.
• A particular playwright, designer, or director’s (historical or contemporary) approach to unique challenges to the art form.
• A discussion of the ways in which external circumstances reshape the art that can be made.
• Theatre that engages and challenges audiences’ understanding of interacting with the art form in ways that allow it to continue, transform, and thrive.

Notes from the Field submissions might include or address:

• Notes from rehearsal, devising, and/or performance as the exploration relates to the resiliency of the art form from the point of view of one or more specific practitioners within the process.
  • How did circumstances change or shape the rehearsal/performance?
  • How did technology aid or hinder exploration of the art form?
  • How did director/designer collaboration enhance, incite, or interrogate the external circumstances within the text/context/content of the piece or the process?
  • How did the collaborators’ relationships to the historical difficulties inform the process?

 
Design Essays: Unfinished 
 
This design essay section seeks to highlight designs that, because of the COVID-19 cancellations, have not been able to be brought to fruition. This is a place to celebrate the work of professional and student designers in any area of design that may never be seen as it was intended.

Submission Guidelines:

• Critical Essays should be 4000-6000 words including notes. 
• Notes from the Field submissions should be 1500-3000 words, and discuss how the process of creating a theatrical production of some kind shaped or was shaped by challenging circumstances as illuminated by one or more of the artists involved in the process.
• Design essays should include two-eight (2-8) images of the designer's own work on a show that has, due to COVID-19, been canceled or indefinitely postponed. Submissions might include renderings, ground plans, sketches, compositions, even photos from fittings or built sets that never got to see an opening night. Images should be submitted as high res jpg files and should be accompanied by a 250 word concept statement, detailing the designer’s approach to the production. Appropriate credits for photographers and collaborators should be listed in the document that contains the concept statement. Please include the intended dates of the run of the show.
  

Eligibility: Etudes is a peer reviewed online theatre and performance studies journal for emerging scholars, dedicated to the unique voice of the individual scholar. We invite the submission of scholarly manuscripts, media, performance reviews, manifestos, etc. covering any range of topics within the theatre and performance studies realm. We highly encourage works of performative writing and academic playfulness. This is a place to try things out, take some risks, and expand the definition of what is considered rigorous publishable material. Submissions of any and all theatre-based scholarship will be considered.

Note: If you plan to submit an essay that draws from a dissertation chapter or book chapter, please adapt this material into essay length and form, ie..., articulate a thesis; keep literature review to a minimum; and keep the essay to an appropriate scope for a 5000 word essay.