Forthcoming

Lichfield Mysteries
Lichfield Mysteries is a community-based arts project, we believe the largest such event in England to be free of charge to participants and spectators. Every third year we offer, on each of two days, 27 plays, each produced by a different local group. In 2012 on each day, each play will be performed twice, first outdoors in the Market Square and then inside Lichfield Cathedral. There will also be a mobile stage performing chosen plays around the district.

The next performances will take place on Saturday and Sunday, 6th & 7th May 2012, a little earlier this year to avoid a clash with the Olympics.  For more information, please visit http://www.lichfieldmysteries.co.uk

International Medieval Congress of the European Middle Ages - Leeds
1-4 July 2013
2013 Call For Papers
Thematic Focus for 2013: Pleasure
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/

Medieval Christianity had a specific cultural attitude towards pleasure, with a strong focus on the division of this world and the afterlife. Pleasure was often either spiritual or corporeal, although sometimes seen as both (as in the mystical/ecstatic experience). Earthly pleasures were first and foremost associated with sin and damnation, and even posed a threat to health, while spiritual pleasures contributed towards salvation and a more harmonious life. The attitude towards pleasure was ambiguous: w ith the threat of the devil on one side, and the enticement of heaven on the other, pleasure was linked to both joy and pain . Questions around pleasure were posed in philosophical and theological debates throughout the Middle Ages. Pleasure was nonetheless an experience commonly and eagerly sought for - in all its forms and by all social groups, in and outside Christendom. Aristocratic life is particularly represented as a culture of pleasure in both iconography and literature. The balance between celestial and terrestrial values was renegotiated in the late medieval period, so that pleasure became an aspiration for all.

Areas of discussion could include:
•  Diverging cultural attitudes toward pleasure
•  Pleasure in non-Christian contexts
•  Earthly pleasure versus spiritual pleasure
•  Visual and narrative representations of pleasure
•  Social and corporeal manifestations of pleasure
•  Pleasurable activities
•  Individual and collective experiences of pleasure
•  Prohibition and condemnation of pleasure
•  Chastity, celibacy, fasting, and abstinence
•  Love / sexuality / pleasures of the flesh - and their specific cultural expressions
•  Medical theories and approaches to pleasure
•  Mysticism, spirituality, and pleasure
•  Creating and/or experiencing pleasure
•  Entertainment and leisure
•  Humour and fun
•  Material culture and evidence of pleasure
•  Pleasure and luxury / cultural goods / worldliness

IMC 2013 Online Proposal Forms available 1 May 2012.
Paper proposals due 31 August 2012.
Session proposals due 30 September 2012.
Hard copies of proposal forms available 16 July 2012.

Historical Dance Program
Amherst Early Music Festival
July 7-15, 2012
Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut
This Year’s Theme: “Music of the German Lands”
Dance Faculty: Dorothy Olsson, Director; Kaspar D. Mainz (from Germany)
Dance Classes:
Dance is an integral part of the Amherst Early Music Festival (a two-week early music festival with a vast array of musical offerings; see http://www.amherstearlymusic.org/). For the 2012 workshop, classes will be offered in Baroque Dance, Baroque Dance Notation, and Renaissance Dance. Participants are also entitled to attend many other events (including English country dancing, concert and lectures) in the evenings that are part of the Amherst Early Music Festival.
Classes for the Historical Dance Program will focus on dance materials from Germany, and will culminate in rehearsals for two public performances:
--a fully staged production of Georg Phillip Telemann's Der geduldige Socrates (1721) on July 13, and
--a special dance performance, “Sondershausen Sing-Ballett,” (1702), with the Festival Oboe Band on July 14.
All levels of dancers are welcome.
For more information, including an application form, on the dance programs, please see http://www.amherstearlymusic.org/ or http://www.newyorkhistoricaldance.com/. Or, contact Dr. Dorothy Olsson: dolsson@nyc.rr.com or info@amherstearlymusic.org.

Recent

John Bale’s Three Laws
Medieval English Theatre Meeting
31 March 2012
Magdalen College, Oxford
Performance of excerpts from John Bale’s Three Laws, directed by Elisabeth Dutton (University of Freiburg).

Robin Hood and the Potter
The English ballad "Robin Hood and the Potter" (c. 1500) was adapted for performance as a play and directed by Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby. Performed by students from Shenandoah Conservatory in late 15th century pronunciation at both the Southeastern Medieaval Association conference (at Agnes Scott College, GA, in October 2011) and the Longwood Medieval Conference (Longwood University, VA, in March 2012). Check SEMA website for video.