Conference Update
The 2023 LMDA Conference is currently sold out . We appreciate everyone that wants to
attend and are establishing a waitling list in case of cancellations or increased capacity at the Banff
Centre venues where the conference will be held. To place your name on the waitlist, please email LMDA
Executive Director Lindsey R. Barr at admin@lmda.org with your first and
last name, as well as the type of registration you’d like. Lindsey will let you know by May 31 at the latest
if a space has become available. Thank you for your patience and for your support for LMDA as we navigate
these exciting new waters!
Accommodation & Travel Information Here!
LMDA International Dramaturgy Conference:
Dramaturgical Landscapes
June 22-25, 2023 • Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity
LMDA is thrilled to invite members from Canada, Mexico and the United States – and beyond – to Treaty 7
territory
in the mountains west of Moh’kins’tsis – Calgary – for three days of dramaturgical conversation at the Banff
Centre for Arts & Creativity.
This will be LMDA’s 8th Canadian conference, and the second in Banff following our 25th anniversary gathering
there in 2010. It’s a special place, and we can’t wait to share meals and discussions and debates with you
surrounded by the mountain landscape of Banff National Park.
The conference will be hosted by LMDA Canada and the Banff Centre Playwrights Lab, which is marking its 50th
edition in 2023…50 years of bringing playwrights, dramaturgs, theatre makers, performers and artists in all
disciplines together to explore theatrical storytelling, in a place that has for generations, millennia,
been a
gathering place for storytellers.
Banff Centre and the Playwrights Lab are focused on Canadian artists but invite, welcome and invest deeply in
international artists and organizations. Located on the shoulder of Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain, in the
territories of the Îyârhe Nakoda, Blackfoot Confederacy, Tsuut’ina Nation, and the Métis Nation of Alberta
Region 3, the Banff Centre sits on a 40 acre campus on the edge of the town of Banff, and at the heart of
Canada’s first National Park. The conference will take place on – and be inspired by – this magnificent and
inspiring landscape.
In 2023, the Conference is inviting participants to explore Land (Sky / Sea) through the conference theme of
Dramaturgical Landscapes, exploring dramaturgical practices that engage with land / sky / water.
Programming and activities will feature presentations, conversations, and case studies by artists from
Canada,
Mexico and the US, and invite us all into a retreat-style gathering with shared meals on the Banff campus
and
multiple sessions for the entire conference cohort. Banff Centre specializes in bringing people together,
and by
taking our meals as a group, enjoying extended breaks, and making opportunities for walks and hikes, we will
provide lots of time for participants to meet one another to explore dramaturgical landscapes that are both
familiar and new.
2023 General Conference Info Session
Dramaturgical Landscapes Digital Roundtable
This roundtable discussion brings together Kas Darley (UK), Chantal
Bilodeau (CA) and Lynde Rosario (US), artists and dramaturgs from both
sides of the pond, with discussion chair Sarah Sigal (UK). They will explore the
intersections of past and present, understanding the role landscape plays dramaturgically in
environmental, site-specific and site-responsive performance while also expanding on the
relationship between performers and the environment around them.
- Chantal Bilodeau (CA) is a playwright and translator whose work focuses on
the intersection of storytelling and climate change. She is the founding artistic director of
the Arts & Climate Initiative. - Kas Darley (UK) is an actor and joint artistic director of immersive theatre
specialists Teatro Vivo. - Lynde Rosario (US) is a dramaturg and the Director of Fellowship Programs at
Playwrights’ Center. She is also the Impact Assessment Director for National New Play
Network and president of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. - Sarah Sigal (UK) is a writer, dramaturg, director and researcher working
across theatre, film and fiction. She is the author of Writing in Collaborative
Theatre-Making (Bloomsbury, 2016).
Read more about programming and registration
here.
The conference team of Co-Chairs Brian Quirt and Jenna Rodgers, LMDA Canada President Matt McGeachy; LMDA
President Lynde Rosario, Board Co-Chair Anne Morgan, Inside Out Theatre Artistic Director Col Cseke, and
Calgary-based Conference Coordinator Kodie Rollan can’t wait to welcome everyone to Banff. And we also want
to
acknowledge the important organizations that are making this gathering possible.
We want to send huge thanks to Banff Centre for its substantial in-kind contributions to the
conference.
Banff, together with the Stratford Festival of Canada and Theatre Calgary, are the core sponsors of the
2023
conference. Their contributions are significant and essential. Thank you!
Several Canadian companies are sponsoring the conference, in memory of the remarkable dramaturg Iris Turcott,
best known for her work with Toronto theatres but with a national impact. She served on the LMDA Board, and
as a
dramaturg for many seasons and projects at Artistic Fraud, Canadian Stage Company, Factory Theatre and the
Banff
Playwrights Lab.
Thank you to Artistic Canadian Stage, Factory and Nightswimming for your contributions in her name.
LMDA has worked very hard to maintain registration rates at or below 2022 levels, and is pleased to announce
that
rates for early career dramaturgs have been reduced due to the generous donations of the following Canadian
play
development organizations:
Alberta Playwrights Network, Manitoba Association of Playwrights, Pat the
Dog, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Playwrights Workshop Montreal, Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, Theatre
Alberta, and the University of Calgary – School of Creative and Performing Arts.
See you in the mountains this summer for #lmda2023 !
