Community as Beneficiary: The Role of Amateur Performance
Department of Theatre Studies, University College Cork, July 9/10th 2016
SATURDAY JULY 9th
9.00-9.30: Registration
9.30-9.45: Welcome
9.45-11.15: Panel 1: Local Communities
Finian O’Gorman (NUI Galway), ‘“All Theatre is Local”: Amateur Theatre in Mid-20th-Century Ulster’.
David Coates (University of Warwick), ‘Traces of Amateur Theatricals: Mapping the Rise of Amateur Theatre in London in the Nineteenth Century’.
Viv Gardner (University of Manchester), ‘“A gleam of brightness and sunshine”: the 5th Marquis of Anglesey, Amateur Performance and Community’.
TEA: 11.15-11.45
11.45-1.15: Panel 2: Amateur and Professional
Judith Hawley (Royal Holloway, University of London), ‘Blowing up the Pic Nics: Private Theatricals in the Regency Era’.
Lauren Jansen-Parkes (University of Warwick), ‘Putting Amateurs on the Main Stage: The Case of the Birmingham REP’.
Molly Flynn (Royal Holloway, University of London), ‘Look into Life: Crossovers Between Amateur and Professional Theatre in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages Programme’.
1.15-2.30: LUNCH
2.30-3.00: In conversation with Ian Wainwright, RSC Open Stages Project.
3.00-3.15: comfort break
3.15-4.45: Panel 3: Regulation
Sheila Thomas (University of Southampton), ‘18th-Century Amateur Actresses and their Audiences: A Brief Examination’.
Patricia McCarthy (Independent Architectural Historian, Dublin), ‘“One continued scene of delight”: Amateur Theatricals in 18th-Century Houses’.
Jane Milling (University of Exeter), ‘Aesthetic Dialogues: 20th-Century Advice Books for Amateur Companies’.
4.45: Adjourn to River Room, Glucksman Gallery (Main Campus).
5.30: Keynote address by Dr. Ger FitzGibbon, Former Head, Drama and Theatre Studies Department, UCC.
Rehearsed reading: extracts from Hunger Strike by Máirín Cregan: Dóchas Drama Group, Killarney.
Short addresses by Mr. Joe McCarrick, Director, All-Ireland Amateur Drama Festival & Mr. Michael Twomey, Director, Actor and Adjudicator.
SUNDAY July 10th
9.30-10.30: Panel 4: Materials
Nadine Holdsworth (University of Warwick), ‘Evocative Objects: The Material Traces of Amateur Theatre’.
Cara Gray (Royal Holloway, University of London), ‘Spaces of Amateur Theatre-Makers’ Creativity: The Home’.
10.30-11.00: Tea
11.00- 12.30: Panel 5: Particular Communities
Sara Penny (University of Warwick), ‘Entertaining Jack at Sea: The SODS Operas at Scapa Flow’.
Peter Singer (Birkbeck, University of London), ‘Casting Dynamics: Comic and Social Roles from Shakespearean London to 20th-Century India’.
Molly Goyer Gorman(Queen’s University Belfast), ‘The Importance of Craic in the Community: A Case Study of Craic Youth Theatre, Coalisland’.
12.30-2.00: LUNCH (inc. business meeting)
2.00-3.30: Panel 6: The Work that the Amateur Does
Fiona Brennan (Independent Researcher), ‘Ambition and the Amateur in 20th-Century Cork City’.
Stacy Wolf (Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University), ‘Emotional Labor at a U.S. Community Theatre’.
Helen Nicholson (Royal Holloway, University of London), ‘Giving Time: The Labours of Amateur Theatre’.
3.30: Final Discussion and Close
