Visual Dramaturgies (1500–1800) Scenography, Costumes and Movement on Early Modern Stages

Centre de musique baroque de Versailles & Sorbonne Université (Théâtre Molière Sorbonne)

Organizing committee: Petra Dotlačilová (CMBV / Stockholm University) and Mickaël Bouffard (Sorbonne Université / TMS / CELLF)

Scientific committee: Renaud Bret-Vitoz (CELLF / Sorbonne Université), Georges Forestier (CELLF / Sorbonne Université), Rebecca Harris-Warrick (Cornell University), Ulla Kallenbach (Bergen University), Bénédicte Louvat (CELLF / Sorbonne Université), Raphaël Masson (Château de Versailles), Barbara Nestola (CMBV), Martina Papiro (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis), Françoise Rubellin (Université de Nantes), Magnus Tessing Schneider (Aarhus University), Hanna Walsdorf (Universität Basel), Jed Wentz (Leiden University)

Call for papers

The term “visual dramaturgies” was coined by the scholar Knut Ove Arntzen as one of the concepts and methods of post-modern theatre. However, the visual aspect was already an integral part of theatrical narratives in the Early Modern era, from the emergence of new theatrical forms during the Renaissance to the disruptive reforms of the eighteenth century. Painted scenography put the audience in an atmosphere suitable to the plot and it changed accordingly, the candlelight could intensify the dramatic situation, and the costumes portrayed cleverly the protagonist’s nature. The movement and gestures played important dramatic roles, fashioning characters and weaving relations between them, enhancing their utterances, and setting the mood of a scene. Far from being reduced to ornament or simple entertainment, dance could be an essential part of the narrative, helping to build dramatic tension. Consequently, both playwright and librettist sometimes specified visual elements (sets, costumes or attitudes), chosen more for their dramatic potential than for their picturesque effect, proving that these elements were considered inseparable from the act of writing. This is what Pierre Frantz aptly calls the “dramaturgie du visible”. As these examples suggest, the visual effect in the theatre is always produced by subtle interplays of materials and bodies, therefore the study of their practical creation is crucial to our understanding of its history.

The interest of researchers in the visual – and material – aspects of Early modern theatre has increased in the last decade. In addition to the rather developed histories of scenography and dance, an increasing number of publications on the topic of costume, lighting and historical acting have appeared, including more technical studies interested in their production and reproduction (see bibliography below).

The conference aims to support this trend from a transdisciplinary point of view and to reunite researchers and practitioners interested in Western performing arts (music theatre, dance, drama) of the period between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century in order to share the latest research, compare practices in various periods, countries and theatrical forms, search for convergences and perhaps even debunk some misconceptions about these aspects of theatre. We invite contributions in English or in French in the form of papers with or without practical demonstrations, that focus on the visual aspects of the performance in relation to dramaturgy and poetics. The topics can include, but don’t need to be limited to the following:

• The aesthetic, dramaturgical and practical interplays of scenography and machinery;
• Dramatic functions, poetic effects and technical solutions of lighting on stage;
• Costumes, masks and props as co-creators (together with author and actor) of the characters’ identity and as amplifiers of stage movements;
• Gestures and dance as generators of meaning and affect;
• The positioning of performers on more or less narrow stages, their placement and movements, to create crowd effects or closed-door settings, pompous or intimate;
• The “period eye”: visual perception and symbolism of shapes and colours.

Please send your abstract submission (350 words) and a short bio (150 words) by 30
November 2023 through:

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