News
Compiled by Eddie Cass

Conferences 2003

Details of these conferences have appeared in earlier editions of Traditional Drama Forum but we are now able to bring you more up-to-date news.

Guising: The Historical Uses of Masks and Disguises, London, 16–17 May 2003
This conference, jointly hosted by the Warburg Institute and the Folklore Society, will bring together students and scholars from many fields to consider the occasions, the costumes and the performance of guising, as well as the strategies and purposes of guisers. The programme includes:

• Terry Gunnell on the archaeological evidence for guising practices in Scandinavia
• Paul Smith on nineteenth-century Newfoundland mumming
• Vesna Marjanovic on Serbian ritual processions
• Isao Uemichi on guising in Japan
• Ted Merwin on representations of Jews on stage
• Anita Jacobson-Widding on disguised mothers in African fairytales

Other papers will look at the use of masks and disguises in literature, art, theatre, and religion in Africa, Europe, and North and South America.

Conference registration is £15 for Folklore Society members, £20 for non-members. Registration forms are available from Susan Vass at the Folklore Society, Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB (tel: 0207 862 8564; web: www.folklore-society.com). Questions about the conference should be addressed to David Hopkin at the University of Glasgow (dmh@arts.gla.ac.uk).

Mumming Traditions in Cross-Border and Cross-Community Contexts, Derry, 9-13 June 2003
The web pages for this conference have been updated at www.arts.ulst.ac.uk/academy/mumming.htm and now include a list of speakers. I understand that abstracts for the papers will be added to these pages early in April 2003.

Banbury Hobby Horse Festival

This festival, which will be of interest to many traditional drama students has grown over the years since it was founded in July 2000. This year’s festival, well worth a visit, will be held from 5 – 6 July. For details see www.hobbyhorsefestival.co.uk.