April 16-19, 2026

Schedule

Click HERE to Submit

Join us for Amplify & Ignite: A Symposium on Theatre for Social and Civic Engagement, jointly sponsored by NYU Steinhardt’s Program in Educational Theatre and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. The Symposium will be held April 16-19, 2026 at NYU Steinhardt in New York City. 

This symposium will gather socially-minded, politically-aware, and critically-engaged artists, educators, facilitators, and scholars from a variety of arts-based and community-driven contexts to reflect on their artistic, justice-centered, and/or arts-based praxis.

We invite proposals that consider:

• What do we value in theatre for social and civic engagement? How do we activate those values in relation to praxis? 

• What role does critical awareness play in theatre for social and civic engagement? In what ways can we demonstrate reflective practice in action?

• How do we apply arts-based research and investigation in theatre for social and civic engagement to generate and disseminate new knowledge?

• How do we evaluate and assess the use of theatre to address social and civic issues in a variety of community contexts?

Call for Proposals

We invite teachers, teaching artists, practitioners, administrators–anyone invested in theatre for social and civic engagement–to submit proposals for Papers, Narrative Presentations, Posters, Short-Form Workshops, and Panels (details for each described below). 

All concurrent sessions will be scheduled in 75-minute blocks on April 17-19. These shared sessions will be scheduled as follows:

• For Paper and Narrative presentations, we will schedule presentations in triads, allowing each presenter 20 minutes to present followed by 15 minutes of collective discussion. 

• For Posters, we will schedule up to five presenters in a block, allowing each presenter 5 minutes to preview their poster followed by small group discussion with individual presenters. 

• For Short-Form Workshop experiences, we will schedule presentations in duos, allowing each presenter 30 minutes to present followed by 15 minutes of collective discussion. 

We invite you to propose individual sessions which we will combine by theme, content, and/or practice. Alternatively, you can submit a proposal in collaboration–as three papers or narrative presentations (can include both), a slate of five posters, or two short-form workshops–but all presenters must be in-person. 

Similarly, you can propose a Panel. Panels will have a minimum of three in-person presenters participating in a moderated discussion centering on a common topic, theme, or issue.

Most presentation rooms have access to A/V with in-room computers–so we ask that you indicate your A/V needs with your presentation so we can plan accordingly.

Proposal Details:

Your proposal should be under 300 words and written as you would want it to appear in the program, as an invitation for Symposium attendees to participate in or witness or your session.

We welcome proposals that explore (but are not limited to):

• Case studies of community partnerships, civic engagement projects, or participatory action research

• Practice-based research, performance as inquiry, teacher action research, or classroom-based investigations

• Creative responses to censorship, funding loss, or legislative repression

• Strategies for sustaining justice-oriented arts practices in the face of burnout and scarcity

• Pedagogical models for preparing artists as organizers, advocates, or cultural workers

• Cross-sector collaborations and coalition-building in and beyond the arts

• Experimental forms of scholarship, documentation, and dissemination

Papers & Narratives

Papers and Narrative presentations may draw on personal storytelling, scholarly analysis, or practice-as-research. We especially welcome work that shares the arc of a particular project, partnership, or community-engaged process—highlighting successes, failures, questions, and lessons learned. 

Proposals in this category may include:

• Traditional papers

• Personal or narrative reflections

• Case studies

• Hybrid forms grounded in research, artistry, or practice. 

Posters

Like papers and narratives, posters may draw on personal storytelling, scholarly analysis, or practice-as-research. We welcome posters that tell the story of a project—its purpose, process, partnerships, and outcomes—through innovative forms. We will have limited access to easels, so freestanding tabletop presentation boards are best. Alternatively, we can use masking tape for hanging lightweight posters.

Proposals in this category may include:

• Practice-as research

• Case studies

• Visual representation of data and analysis

• Hybrid forms grounded in research, artistry, or practice. 

Short-Form Workshops

Propose embodied, interactive sessions that engage participants in artistic or educational processes. Workshops should include guiding questions and a brief session structure.

You might:

• Share tools for community-based creation

• Strategies for training civic and socially-engaged artists

• Games for generating dialogue and action. 

Panels

This is a space for bold imaginings, collective futuring, and expansive dialogue. Proposals in this category should not present polished work, but rather bring a burning curiosity, a messy question, or a deep yearning into the room. These sessions are opportunities to gather with others to dream together, test ideas in progress, and explore possible futures.

We especially encourage proposals that take risks with format, embrace ambiguity, or call on participants to help co-create something that doesn’t yet exist. Bring your what-ifs, your half-formed ideas, your creative restlessness—and let’s make space for something new to emerge in community!

Other

This is an open invitation to invent your own form of engagement. Have a wild idea that doesn’t quite fit anywhere else? We want to hear it.

This might include:

• a session to test a participatory theatre model or audience-engagement tool

• a co-visioning circle for a future project, coalition, or curriculum

• a collaborative response room for real-time feedback on work in progress

• an open studio or workspace that invites drop-in participation

• a social practice intervention that unfolds over time or space

• something no one has thought of yet

Let us know what you want to do, what you need to do it, and how others will participate. Think experimental, playful, communal, and emergent—we’re excited to make space for new ways of working and being together. The only requirement is that there are a minimum of two presenters for up to 75 minutes of presentation time.

Proposals are due on Saturday, November 15, 2025