URI Providence campus to host theatrical colloquium
on civil war and civil discord representations

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- April 11, 2000 -- Scholars and performers from England, Eastern Europe, New Zealand, Hawaii, China, Israel and more will head to URI's Providence campus next October to take part in a four-day colloquium on theatrical representations of civil war and discord. All sessions will be open to the public. Anyone interested in presenting must submit a 300-word abstract or proposal by July 1 to Dr. Gordon Armstrong, Department of Theatre, Fine Arts Center, URI, Kingston, RI 02881.

Under discussion will be the restoration and recovery of societies' value systems in the aftermath of civil war and civil discord as seen through the eyes of playwrights, theater scholars, interdisciplinary faculty specialists and other performance artists.

The first-of-its-kind colloquium is coordinated by Concerned Scholars Colloquium, a private non-profit corporation in the service of multi-cultural education. Dr. Gordon Armstrong, associate professor of URI's Theatre Department is the project director. The executive committee includes Dr. John Emigh of Brown University, Dr. Ann Norton of Providence College, Drs. Amrit Singh and Tony Teng of Rhode Island College, and Drs. Guo-Ming Chen and Tom Morin of URI.

"We believe that theater is a universal medium that crosses all boundaries of ethnic, cultural, and social prejudices. To expose the world community to the common experiences of theater performances of civil war across the globe is to begin to address the issues of isolation, of polarization, of negation of similarities. The emphasis on differences leads to civil distress. The identification of universal similarities in theatrical practices can lead to new accords," says URI's Armstrong.

Some contributors' topics include "Faces of 500 Years of Civil War in Spain," "Latino Theatrical Representations of Social Discord," "The Irish Question: the Aftermath of the Accords" "The Theater of War: What I Learned from My Friends: Making Theatre During the Siege of Sarajevo."

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For Information:
Dr. Gordon Armstrong, 401-874-2706,
Jan Sawyer, 401-874-2116