DREAMING THE AMERICAS

This year’s Conference Theme:

Re: CONNECTING --  Translocalities in Performance

Carrying forward the tradition of gathering together under the NoPassport  call  to “dream the Americas,” this year the conference moves to Arizona, where many “Americas” meet.  Here, responses to questions of social, economic and political justice have assumed new urgency, and the role of theatre and the arts in contextualizing those conversations has never been more important. 

The theme for the 2012 conference is “Re:Connecting -- Translocalities in Performance,”  where we consider how the movements of peoples and ideas, metaphorically and literaliy in border-crossings of many kinds, have worked to shape the contemporary moment for theatre makers, producers, and audiences.  While some of the panels and events have been curated, others are open to submission proposals.  Please contact the moderators for further information and/or to propose a contribution. 

This year’s conference is sponsored by NoPassport theatre alliance and press, and hosted by the Theatre and Performance of the Americas program of the Arizona State University School of Theatre and Film, in association with Performance in the Borderlands, an initiative of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University-Tempe.  Additional support comes from the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance, Tucson’s Borderlands Theater and PASOS: The Museum and Center for Peacebuilding. NoPassport is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.

Initiated and Curated by Caridad Svich (Playwright, founder, NoPassport)

Conference Co-Planners  Tamara Underiner,  Micha Espinosa, and doctoral students in Theatre and Performance of the Americas (ASU)

Conference Steering Committee: Elaine Avila, Daniel Banks, Brian Herrera, Oliver Mayer, Jeff McMahon, Anne Garcia-Romero, Jon Rossini, Roberto Gutierrez Varea

Registration: $25 two-day pass

Student rate only: $5.00

All conference pre-registration is via donation online at www.fracturedatlas.org/donate/2623 .  

NOTE:  Theatre tickets for Friday and Saturday evening performances can be purchased through the Herberger Box Office at http://theatrefilm.asu.edu/events/

Conference Location: Lyceum Theatre and Lobby, Arizona State University-Tempe

NoPassport Information: www.nopassport.org  

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Friday, APRIL 13, 2012 Pre-Conference

Pre-conference presentation of Brian Herrera’s I Was the Voice of Democracy.

Brian Herrera's I Was The Voice of Democracy is an hour-long, solo performance that recalls the true story of a 17 year old kid who is briefly thrust into a peculiar kind of fame when a patriotic speech he writes on a whim ends up winning a national contest. Through autobiographical storytelling, this one -man show offers a mix of analysis and anecdote (both hilarious and heartbreaking) as Brian puzzles through the memories, mementos and artifacts that comprise the archive of his own teenage experience. By turns comedic and contemplative (and told in style that is equal parts David Sedaris and Spalding Gray), Brian Herrera's "I Was the Voice of Democracy" asks whether we ever really stop being the person we once were.  

ASU Lyceum Theatre 7:30 p.m.  Tickets $10 general/ $5 students, available through Herberger Box Office http://theatrefilm.asu.edu/events/ .

Registration in Lobby for conference participants only.

Saturday, APRIL 14, 2012

9 AM: COFFEE AND REGISTRATION CONFIRMATION

9:30 AM: WELCOME & OPENING REMARKS:
with Caridad Svich (founder, NoPassport), Micha Espinosa, Tamara Underiner and graduate students in the Theatre and Performance of the Americas program TPOA students

10 AM: TRANSLOCALITIES/ INTERDISCIPLINARITIES
Moderator Jon Rossini (UC-Davis)
Panel: OPEN TO PROPOSALS; contact jdrossini@ucdavis.edu

Noon:  KEYNOTE: LUIS ALFARO, Introduced by Ramón H. Rivera-Servera (Northwestern University)

1 PM BREAK FOR LUNCH OFFSITE – SEE MICHA’s RESTAURANT LIST

2:30 PM   EMERGENT SCHOLARS AND DREAMING THE AMERICAS
Moderator Laurelann Porter (ASU TPOA Program)
Panel:  OPEN TO PROPOSALS; contact Laurelann.Porter@asu.edu
A special presentation of new work on theatre and performance in the Americas by graduate students of the TPOA program, in conversation with conference participants

4 PM COMMUNITY-BASED WORKSHOP: ART AND ACTIVISM
with Jeff McMahon (ASU-Tempe), Roberto Gutierrez Varea (USF), and Stacie Chaiken (What’s Your Story, Los Angeles) , Carla Melo (ASU-Tempe)

6 PM DINNER

7:30 PM Performance: The House of the Spirits by Caridad Svich, based on the novel by Isabel Allende, at ASU-Tempe’s Galvin Playhouse (directed by Rachel Bowditch. To order tickets, see http://theatrefilm.asu.edu/events/

9:45 PM Tapas and Drinks TBA

Sunday, APRIL 15, 2012

10 AM COFFEE AND REGISTRATION CONFIRMATION, and NOPE PRESS Book Table

10:30 AM: BROADER LANDS: WRIGHTING THE SOUTHWEST
moderated by Anne Garcia-Romero (Nortre Dame University) and Otis Ramsey-Zoe (editor, NoPassport Press)
a playwrights panel with Luis Alfaro, Kara Hartzler, Oliver Mayer (USC), Guillermo Reyes (ASU-Tempe), and Elaine Romero. This is a NoPassport Press event. 

12 PM BORDERLANDS THEATER in Celebration with Barclay Goldsmith
Twenty-six years of Borderlands Theater with performance excerpts from NO ROOSTERS IN THE DESERT by Kara Hartzler, based on field work by Anna O’Leary.

1 PM: LUNCH

2 PM: GLOBAL HORIZONS: W/RIGHTING THE WEST/EAST COAST and POLITICIZED BODIES
moderated by Bianca Bagatourian (President, ADAA).
panel: Ed Mast, Claudio Raygoza (Ion Theatre, San Diego), Joe Peracchio, and Marcos Najera (TBA). This is an Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance panel.

3:30 PM FOCUSED PLATICA:  CAPITAL FLOWS
Moderated by Brian Herrera (University of New Mexico).
Panel:   OPEN TO PROPOSALS.
As those working in the arts and humanities encounter intensifying reckoning points about the "value" of what we do,  this conversation endeavors both to examine the naturalized operation of capital in our daily/working lives and also to think adventurously about (and possibly beyond) current systems of "capital flow" within the arts and humanities. As funding continues to mostly flow through neo-governmental institutions (like universities, foundations, publishing houses and regional councils), all of which inevitably privilege neoliberal atomization (one entity gets the grant/production/contract, thereby proving that the system works), what alternative models might we intuit, rehearse or point to as we continue our necessary work of creativity, critique and survival? When even the most forward thinking artists and scholars often (must) rely upon existing models of resource distribution, what should those working in the arts and humanities be asking ourselves about the "flow" of capital? Platica contributors will draw upon their own creative and critical expertise as they contribute to a discussion of a specified object (text, event, figure, movement) to be determined several weeks in advance of the NoPassport Conference.

4:45 PM THE POLITICS OF PLANNING
moderated by Daniel Banks (DNAWORKS, CUNY)
panel: Elaine Avila (University of New Mexico), Roberto Bedoya (Tucson Pima Arts Council), Kathryn Ervin (Cal State-San Bernardino), Coya Paz (DePaul University), Mary Stephens and Tamara Underiner (ASU-Tempe) will discuss of the process and politics of planning productions and programming for their organizations.  What are successful strategies for keeping work current and relevant in various contexts?  What are the challenges?  How do these dynamics change regionally; or in moving from community-based, to academic, to professional institutions and in the overlap and intersections between these settings?

6 PM DINNER

7:30 PM FLOR Y CANTO: WRITERS SLAM  

9-9:15 PM Closing Remarks