Open Call // Theatre and Ethics 2021

Both individuals and collectives of authors can submit their contributions.
The length of contributions is set at 7–18 standard pages.
The format of the contributions is not restricted (e.g., academic essay, case study, professional interview, fictional dialogue, etc.). In addition to the peer-reviewed contributions, we are happy to publish a limited number of non-peer-reviewed contributions such as diagrams, poems, drafts, maps, etc.

The collective monograph is taking shape thanks to the initiative and support of DAMU’s Vice-Dean for Science and Research, doc. Alice Koubová, Ph.D. It will be edited by theatre scholar and DAMU pedagogue Mgr. Karolina Plicková, Ph.D. It will be offered for publication at NAMU Press.

Please send abstracts of 1–2 standard pages (1800–3600 characters) by
10 December 2021 to karolina.plickova@damu.cz.
Please direct any questions to the same address.

The basic schedule for the preparation of the publication is as follows:

• Selected authors will be notified of acceptance by 10 January 2022.
• The deadline for submission of complete essays is 31 March 2022.
• Deadline for submission of essays with editorial revisions: 30 April 2022.
• Deadline for publishing the monograph: end of the calendar year 2022.

Theatre and Ethics is the title of a peer-reviewed collective monograph aimed at presenting original contributions by teachers, PhD students, and students from all departments of the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). Its objective is to connect authors from different faculty departments and to offer the opportunity to think about current topics together, in contemporary contexts, and from many different perspectives.
In order to foster this dimension of joint discussion, the book’s editor will organize an informal working table in January/February 2022, during which authors can discuss their chapters if interested.
As part of the concern for work ethics and attention to the workload of DAMU staff, contributions that do not arise from existing grant support will be given a research award from the financial support of DAMU’s Vice-Dean for Science and Research.

The collective monograph will focus on the following research topics:

• the ethical role of theatre in the current confluence of several global crises (theatre as an institution, theatre and power, theatrical norms, theatre as a means of subversion, theatre and the destabilization of the status quo, respect and ideology, theatre and ethical taboos, isolation in theatre, theatre and communities, theatre and minorities, responsibility and care, sustainability, ethics of interpretation, ethics and the stage, the educational function of theatre, ethics and pedagogy, ethics of theatre activity, etc.);
• how ethical principles and ethical dilemmas are implemented in today's theatre (theatre as a space for negotiating and enacting ethical principles, theatre as a possibility of displaying and experiencing ethical dilemmas, theatre as a space-time simulation of ethically conflicting or problematic situations, ethical dimensions of different types of contract with the spectator, contemporary forms of theatre of appeal, acting principles and boundaries of play, theatre as an obstacle to ethics, etc.);
• what ethical challenges contemporary theatre poses for both creators and spectators (participants) (documentary theatre, ‘intimate’ theatre, participatory theatre, devising, personal style [ethos] in relation to authorial work, ethics and criticism, shifting personal boundaries, transformation of hierarchies, ethics of collective creation, ethics of teamwork, ethics of audience participation, emancipatory tendencies in contemporary theatre, shaking the spectator’s conviction, ethics of theatre education, etc.)
• and what conditions today allow theatre to be realized as a space of ethical cultivation (ethical theories in theatre, the ethical dimension of dramaturgy, ethical dilemmas of dramaturgical choice, ethical contexts of different forms of acting and performing, the chiming of theatre with life, setting and negotiating boundaries, multiplicity of voices and their mutual coexistence, dialogue in theatre, limits of provocation, theatre’s share in negotiating social rules, etc.).