making and
remaking americana

SHOWING UP is both an action and a commitment. It is the decision to be present in our bodies, in spaces, in historical practices, and for one another. SHOWING UP means a commitment of presence even when it is difficult, risky, or unfinished. In 2027, Mid-America Theatre Conference invites scholars, artists, educators, and graduate students to interrogate what it means to arrive, to remain, and to practice theatre and performance as an act of SHOWING UP. 
 

Theatre—to see, to behold—requires SHOWING UP. Performers show up in the rehearsal process and on stage. Audiences show up in shared spaces with their curiosity, active attention, to not only receive our art, but to experience it. SHOWING UP is an active choice, both for the actor and audience, creating a work that disappears as fast as it appears, leaving all involved with feelings that last far beyond any single performance. 
 

Scholars show up in the archives, through their publishing, as mentors, and as leaders in the classroom. When we remember past encounters and by how we were met—how we felt—how their SHOWING UP made us feel, before we remember anything else. 
 

The action of SHOWING UP doesn't just require your presence, it also requires engagement. 
 

The act of SHOWING UP offers us transformative possibilities for our communities. 
 

The influence of SHOWING UP shapes the way we comprehend our art, our research, and our relationships with each other. 
 

This conference theme invites artists and scholars to critically engage with the phenomenon of absence and withdrawal. How might theatre and performance help us reconcile with grief, exhaustion, and burnout alongside continued persistence and resilience conceived to the external forces who seek to prevent us from SHOWING UP for one another? What does it mean to step back, make space, or refuse participation when the consequences for doing so are dire? When is not SHOWING UP a form of resistance? What is the ethical implication of absence, not only in performance, but among colleagues, in our classrooms, or with our mentorship? 
 

For MATC 47, SHOWING UP is both an invitation and a provocation to gather in a shared space with intention, curiosity, and care. It asks us to reckon with the conditions under which we teach, make, and write about theatre and performance. Most of all, SHOWING UP implores us to consider what becomes possible when we choose to show up for our scholarship, our art, our communities, and for our futures we are still in the process of rehearsing.