366 W Circle Dr
East Lansing, MI 48824
USA
The College of Arts & Letters regrets to announce that this March 27 event has been cancelled. This event will be rescheduled for Fall 2020.
Center for Interdisciplinarity (C4I) Talk
Acting and its Others: Labor’s Role in Defining Artistic Boundaries
Ann Folino White, Associate Professor of Theatre Studies and Directing, Department of Theatre
In 1913, the founding members of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) drew a clear line between the actors of the legitimate theatre that they sought to organize and other performers, conceived of as non-actors. Since then, theatre and labor relations scholars largely have uncritically viewed AEA as a collective bargaining organization, overlooking how it has continued to determine the very artistic practices that constitute what is and isn’t acting. This presentation discusses immediate and long-term implications for acting (and its others) of AEA’s jurisdictional disputes, rulings, and arbitrations, considering a collection of both little-known cases (e.g. Jumbo, 1935) and infamous ones (e.g. Miss Saigon, 1990) that have fundamentally shaped acting as an artform and occupation.
Talk begins at 12:00 and runs about 1 hour. Networking with coffee and refreshments immediately after the talk.
About C4I: The Michigan State University Center for Interdisciplinarity (C4I) advances interdisciplinary research and pedagogy at the University while preparing the next generation of citizen leaders to address the most challenging questions of our time. In addition to conducting its own research, C4I serves as a resource for faculty, postdocs, and graduate students in the College of Arts & Letters and across campus, as well as for partners in the local community and across the region. It also serves as an advocate for researchers and scholars, consults with teams, provides resources for and about interdisciplinarity, and creates opportunities for training, education, networking, mentorship, visibility, and funding both on and off campus.