Introduction: Text & Presentation

Abstract

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• Introduction:Text & Presentation
• Amy Muse and Victoria Scrimer

Often, especially of late, great changes seem to come upon us suddenly. We awake one day and the world is altered, for better or worse, demanding of us a new normal. But anyone who studies drama knows that long before any big reveal on stage, change is afoot just beneath the surface of every line and gesture. As astute observers, we look for the setup—a prophesy here, a conspicuous stage prop there—that will clue us in to what lies ahead, and we wait for the pay-off. Insofar as the history of the Comparative Drama Conference constitutes a dramatic narrative, 2023 put us squarely in the set-up, that anticipatory moment when the heretofore unnoticed mechanisms of change begin to make their work visible.

This special issue of Comparative Drama announces a partnership between Comparative Drama and the Comparative Drama Conference—a journal and conference that share a name and a commitment to international, interdisciplinary scholarship on dramatic literature, but, until now, have had no formal connection. From 1980–2021, a selection [End Page 1] of the best papers from each year's Comparative Drama Conference were published in an annual book series, Text & Presentation. Going forward, one annual issue of Comparative Drama will be devoted to essays developed from the previous year's conference. The Comparative Drama Conference, founded in 1977 by Karelisa Hartigan at the University of Florida, has been a lively intellectual gathering space for scholars, playwrights, dramaturgs, critics, directors, designers, and performers for forty-five years. Over the years it has been hosted by Ohio State University (directed by Stratos Constantinidis), Loyola Marymount University (Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr.), Stevenson University (Laura Snyder), and, for a six-year run, by Rollins College under the direction of Bill Boles. Beginning in 2025, new leaders will take the reins: Mark O'Thomas and Nicholas Holden at the London Academy of Music and Drama (LAMDA) and Baron Kelly and Ann Shanahan at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will serve as co-directors. For the following six years (2025–2030), the Comparative Drama Conference's annual meeting will alternate between London, England and Madison, Wisconsin, making in-person participation a bit easier for many in our international community of scholars and encouraging us all to invest in warmer business casual attire.

Change, as it turns out, is an appropriate thematic framework for bringing together the essays in this special issue of Comparative Drama. Change is the lifeblood of good theatre. In The Empty Space, Peter Brook famously quipped that "truth in theatre is always on the move." He suggested that theatre (a vital theatre, anyway) is a place and a practice of change—from the characters on the page, to the actors on the stage, and the audience in the house. A living theatre invites improvisation, it innovates, it strays, it changes the rules, and, at its best, it changes the way we see the world. The nine essays featured here started their lives as papers given at the 2023 Comparative Drama Conference. Not only have they undergone transformations in their journeys from conference presentations to essays, all celebrate and contribute to a theatre that boldly changes, adapts, and shapeshifts to meet the psychological, political, social, and technological present and helps its audiences to do the same.

Leading off this special CDC issue is a transcript of the conference's 2023 keynote event, Jay Malarcher's interview with playwright Lucas Hnath, whose sequel to A Doll's House refuses to enshrine Ibsen's [End Page 2] masterpiece in that great embalming fluid: reverence. A Doll's House, Part 2 (2017), as its cheeky title might imply, dares instead to pluck our darling from its pedestal and toss its foundational ideas around on stage in an affectionately irreverent game of intellectual tennis. Hnath's many other plays likewise seem to attest to the fact that when you play with them, the best ideas in the theatre don't break—they bounce, coming back at us from new and surprising angles. Among many other topics, Hnath's generous and wide-ranging discussion with Malarcher touches upon his approach to teaching playwriting at NYU...