The Philadelphia Theatre Research Symposium will be held on May 5th, 2026 from 8:30AM to 5:30PM at the John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts.

Villanova Theatre is partnering with Villanova University’s Strategic Initiative for Climate, Justice, and Sustainability to make this symposium possible. This year’s theme revolves around the connection between theatre and environmental sustainability. In 2024, Extinction Rebellion interrupted a performance of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People on Broadway with the message that there can be “no theatre on a dead planet”, motivating questions concerning the theatre’s role in environmental sustainability. How has theatre and performance responded to climate change? What methods has the theatre industry used to provoke thought about this important topic, and how has it modeled change?  

This year’s keynote is Pulitzer Prize-finalist Lisa D’Amour, whose work has often focused on the theatre’s role in both social and physical environments. Her 2011 performance installation How to Build A Forest, co-created by Katie Pearl, was both a response to the deforestation caused by Hurricane Sandy and a look at how the physical materiality of theatre-making interacts with the environment.  

Lisa D'Amour

ABOUT PTRS:  

The goal of the Philadelphia Theatre Research Symposium is to provide a forum for theatre scholars and practitioners to share their research and work to enter into a dialogue about current trends in theatrical practice and scholarship. Additionally, PTRS seeks to provide a platform for the works of emerging theatre scholars. Panels will consist of paper presentations of 15-20 minutes and will be moderated by a scholar and/or practitioner.