The Women & Theatre Program
In association with ATHE and co-sponsored in part by
Religion & Theatre
Presents:
Global Feminisms:
Transgenerational and Transnational
Dialogues; Revisiting Roots and Forging
Futures
August 10, 2011
Chicago Dramatists
1105 West Chicago Avenue
Morning Schedule
9:00-9:30 – Check-in/Registration
9:30-11:00 – Concurrent Sessions #1
Conference Room A – Graduate Student Working Session
Moderator: Heidi Schmidt, University of Colorado-Boulder

Emily A. Rollie, University of Missouri-Columbia
"In the Heart of America, In the Heart of the World: Naomi Wallace's
Feminist Transnational Critique of Contemporary War"
 Karen Fielder, University of Wyoming
"Art as Resistance: Transcoding La Malinche as Female Masculine Historical
Figure and Archetype Through the Literary Works of Cherrie Moraga and
Emma Perez"
 Jiangyue Li, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"Women Stage Directors in China: Feminism, Cultural Memory and Politics
of Embodiment"
 Christina Lambert, University of Calgary
"Subverting Authority in the Medical Archive: Feminist History Plays ReImagine the 'Hysterical Woman'"
 Lynn Deboeck, University of Kansas
"The Hand that Rocks the Cradle: Maternal Gender Subversion in The Spirit
of '76"
Conference Room B – Art as Community Making
o Dr. Nadja Masura, (convener); Virtual Performance Collective, creator of
Remembering Harmony, a community-based site-specific performance
o Tavia LaFollette, Art Up and Artists-in-Residence at Carnegie Mellon,
creator of The Firefly Tunnel Project, an autoethnographic look at the
exchange between Egypt & the US during Egypt’s fight for
democracy
o Arlene D. Callahan, University Wisconsin, Madison exploring Burkinabe
o Carmela Lanza-Weil, playwright and creator of Bury the Hatchet, a
piece about forgiveness
1
Mainstage – (Workshop)Theory, Performance, Action; An Arts
Based Civic Dialogue on Gender and Performance Past, Present
and Future
o
Conveners: Latrelle Bright, University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign & AnnMarie T. Saunders, University of MarylandCollege Park
This hands on workshop examines the usefulness of (auto)biographic
performance as a tool for understanding the varying roles women
embody/have embodies, and will create dialogue around issues of
gender in performance through examining performance of the self
through a series of exercises as well as a discussion of gender in
performance and the possibilities for performance as pedagogy.
* * *
11:00-12:30 –Reading of Student Jane Chambers Award
Winning Play: The Friendship of Her Thighs by Martyna Mojak,
Yale University. (Mainstage)
* * *
Afternoon/Evening Schedule
12:30-1:30 – LUNCH
1:30--3:00 – Concurrent Sessions #2
Conference Room A: – “50/50 in 2020: Producing Women’s Work in
Chicago; Initiatives, Obstacles, Objectives”
o
Susan Jonas, Moderator; 50/50 in 2020 and Ithaca University
Participants:
o Jennifer Adams, Associate Artistic Director, Halcyon Theatre
o Tony Adams, Artistic Director, Halcyon Theatre
o Tara Mallen, Artistic Director, Rivendell Theatre
o Lisa Schlesinger – Playwright, Head of playwriting at Columbia
College
o Ann Filmer, Artistic Director , 16th Street Theatre
2
o
Maya Roth, Georgetown University, Coordinator Jane Chambers
Playwriting Contest
Conference Room B: – (Panel) “Revisiting Roots and Forging
Futures: Feminist Approaches”
who claims to write "as a man." Each of these women worked as a
playwright in a male-dominated profession, and navigated her own ideas
about activism, feminism and conformity through her plays. The
participants in the roundtable will present on the themes, style and
production history of the playwrights, followed by a staged reading of a
brief scene from each playwright's work.
o Natka Bianchini, Loyola University, MD “Lysistrata’s Gendered
Translations: Revisiting Aristophanes in the 21st Century”
o Emily Klein, Birmingham-Southern College, “ Hysterical Refusals:
Comic Bodies in Aristophanes Lysistrata”
o William Van Watson, University of Arizona, “Don Juan from Mozart to
Maraini.”
Mainstage-(Performance/Panel): Tear it Up and Burn it Down;
“Performing Women’s/Female/Feminist/Feminine Anger—A
Reconsideration of Feminisms Remainders and How Women
Should be Mad and Not Mad”
o
Deb Margolin, Yale University
o
Kimberly Dark, Artist, Activist; www.kimberlydark.com
o
Domnica Radulescu, Washington & Lee University
Downstairs A: (Roundtable/Panel) “French Women Playwrights;
Activism, Feminism, and Conformity”
o
Teresa Stankiewicz, University of Missouri-Columbia
o
Amanda Giguere, University of Colorado, Boulder
o
Laura Nelson, University of Missouri-Columbia
This roundtable session focuses on the distinct voices of three French
women dramatists from three different centuries: Olympe de Gouges, an
18th century abolitionist and early feminist; Marguerite Emery Vallette, a
19th century writer who presented herself as Monsieur Rachilde, a man
of letters; and Yasmina Reza, the contemporary award-winning writer
3
3:00-4:30 – Concurrent Sessions #3
Conference Room A: (Panel) “Feminist Activism in Academia:
Staging and Performing Dissent”
o Norma Bowles, Fringe Benefits founding Artistic Director
o Jill Dolan, Princeton University
o Kathleen Juhl, Southwestern University
o Ellen Maycock, Washington & Lee University
o Sara Warner, Cornell University
o Domnica Radulescu (Convener) Washington & Lee University
Conference Room B-Interdisciplinary Discussion Roundtable with
Religion & Theatre and Women & Theatre
“Gender and Religion on the Page, Stage, and Between Nations,”
o
Claire Maria Chambers (Convener, R&T) University of California
Davis
o
Tavia LaFollette, Artist in Residence, Carnegie Mellon University
o
Kimberly Dark, Cal State San Marcos
o
Megan Sandborne-Jones, Brigham Young University (moderator)
4
Mainstage: (Performance) Not Just Another Pretty Face:
A Retrospective
Special Thanks to:
o Janice Perry, Teaching Artist, University of Vermont will
perform a retrospective presentation of an extensive body
of queer/feminist/activist performance integrating live
performance with documentary clips taken from 30 years
of touring in the US and Europe www.janiceperry.com
Chicago Dramatists:
Brian Loevner, Stacey High, Michael Brandt and the rest of the
staff.
Religion and Theatre and Claire Maria Chambers
Susan Jonas
ATHE: Nancy Erickson & Shaun Franklin-Sewell
4:30—5:30 – Award Presentation & Keynote Address
o
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jill Dolan, Princeton University:
“Ruminations for the Next Generation of Feminist Spectators.”
5:40-6:45—DINNER
7:00-8:15 – Keynote Performance (Mainstage)
Unveiled Written and performed by Rohina Malik
8:15-8:40 – Talkback
o Moderated by Ann Filmer, original director of Unveiled and
Artistic Director of Chicago’s 16th Street Theatre
8:40-9:30 –Artists, Activists, Scholars Networking
o
Wine & Cheese reception co-hosted by Religion & Theatre
5
Cecelia Aragon, Joan Lipkin, Maria Beach, Sara Warner and
the many others WTP members who helped bring this
conference to fruition