• Introduction:Text & Presentation
• Amy Muse and Victoria Scrimer

Often, especially of late, great changes seem to come upon us suddenly. We awake one day and the world is altered, for better or worse, demanding of us a new normal. But anyone who studies drama knows that long before any big reveal on stage, change is afoot just beneath the surface of every line and gesture. As astute observers, we look for the setup—a prophesy here, a conspicuous stage prop there—that will clue us in to what lies ahead, and we wait for the pay-off. Insofar as the history of the Comparative Drama Conference constitutes a dramatic narrative, 2023 put us squarely in the set-up, that anticipatory moment when the heretofore unnoticed mechanisms of change begin to make their work visible.

This special issue of Comparative Drama announces a partnership between Comparative Drama and the Comparative Drama Conference—a journal and conference that share a name and a commitment to international, interdisciplinary scholarship on dramatic literature, but, until now, have had no formal connection. From 1980–2021, a selection [End Page 1] of the best papers from each year's Comparative Drama Conference were published in an annual book series, Text & Presentation. Going forward, one annual issue of Comparative Drama will be devoted to essays developed from the previous year's conference. The Comparative Drama Conference, founded in 1977 by Karelisa Hartigan at the University of Florida, has been a lively intellectual gathering space for scholars, playwrights, dramaturgs, critics, directors, designers, and performers for forty-five years. Over the years it has been hosted by Ohio State University (directed by Stratos Constantinidis), Loyola Marymount University (Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr.), Stevenson University (Laura Snyder), and, for a six-year run, by Rollins College under the direction of Bill Boles. Beginning in 2025, new leaders will take the reins: Mark O'Thomas and Nicholas Holden at the London Academy of Music and Drama (LAMDA) and Baron Kelly and Ann Shanahan at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will serve as co-directors. For the following six years (2025–2030), the Comparative Drama Conference's annual meeting will alternate between London, England and Madison, Wisconsin, making in-person participation a bit easier for many in our international community of scholars and encouraging us all to invest in warmer business casual attire.

Change, as it turns out, is an appropriate thematic framework for bringing together the essays in this special issue of Comparative Drama. Change is the lifeblood of good theatre. In The Empty Space, Peter Brook famously quipped that "truth in theatre is always on the move." He suggested that theatre (a vital theatre, anyway) is a place and a practice of change—from the characters on the page, to the actors on the stage, and the audience in the house. A living theatre invites improvisation, it innovates, it strays, it changes the rules, and, at its best, it changes the way we see the world. The nine essays featured here started their lives as papers given at the 2023 Comparative Drama Conference. Not only have they undergone transformations in their journeys from conference presentations to essays, all celebrate and contribute to a theatre that boldly changes, adapts, and shapeshifts to meet the psychological, political, social, and technological present and helps its audiences to do the same.

Leading off this special CDC issue is a transcript of the conference's 2023 keynote event, Jay Malarcher's interview with playwright Lucas Hnath, whose sequel to A Doll's House refuses to enshrine Ibsen's [End Page 2] masterpiece in that great embalming fluid: reverence. A Doll's House, Part 2 (2017), as its cheeky title might imply, dares instead to pluck our darling from its pedestal and toss its foundational ideas around on stage in an affectionately irreverent game of intellectual tennis. Hnath's many other plays likewise seem to attest to the fact that when you play with them, the best ideas in the theatre don't break—they bounce, coming back at us from new and surprising angles. Among many other topics, Hnath's generous and wide-ranging discussion with Malarcher touches upon his approach to teaching playwriting at NYU...

• 简介：文本和演示
• 艾米·缪斯和维多利亚·史克里默

通常，尤其是最近，巨大的变化似乎突然降临到我们身上。有一天我们醒来，世界发生了变化，无论好坏，都要求我们采取新的常态。但任何研究戏剧的人都知道，早在舞台上出现任何重大表演之前，每句台词和手势的表面之下就已经发生了变化。作为精明的观察者，我们寻找布景——这里是一个预言，那里是一个引人注目的舞台道具——这将引导我们了解未来的情况，然后我们等待回报。就比较戏剧会议的历史构成了一个戏剧性的叙述而言，2023年让我们完全进入了一个预期的时刻，迄今为止未被注意到的变化机制开始让他们的工作变得可见。

本期《比较戏剧》特刊宣布了《比较戏剧》与《比较戏剧会议》之间的合作伙伴关系，该期刊和会议具有共同的名称和对戏剧文学国际跨学科学术研究的承诺，但到目前为止，还没有正式的联系。从 1980 年到 2021 年，每年比较戏剧会议上的最佳论文精选[完第 1 页]都会在年度丛书《文本与演示》中出版。展望未来，每年一期的《比较戏剧》将专门收录上一年会议的论文。比较戏剧会议由卡雷利萨·哈蒂根 (Karelisa Hartigan) 在佛罗里达大学于 1977 年创立，四十五年来一直是学者、剧作家、戏剧家、评论家、导演、设计师和表演者的一个活跃的知识聚集场所。多年来，它一直由俄亥俄州立大学（斯特拉托斯·康斯坦蒂尼迪斯指导）、洛约拉·马利蒙特大学（小凯文·J·韦特莫尔）、史蒂文森大学（劳拉·斯奈德）主办，罗林斯学院连续六年主办在比尔·博尔斯的指导下。从 2025 年开始，新的领导者将接任：伦敦音乐与戏剧学院 (LAMDA) 的马克·奥托马斯 (Mark O'Thomas) 和尼古拉斯·霍尔登 (Nicholas Holden) 以及威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的巴伦·凯利 (Baron Kelly) 和安·沙纳汉 (Ann Shanahan) 将担任联合院长。在接下来的六年（2025-2030）中，比较戏剧会议的年会将在英国伦敦和威斯康星州麦迪逊之间轮流举行，这使得国际学者界的许多人能够更轻松地亲自参与，并鼓励我们所有人进行投资穿着温暖的商务休闲装。

事实证明，变化是一个合适的主题框架，可以将本期《比较戏剧》特刊中的文章汇集在一起​​。变化是优秀戏剧的命脉。在《空旷的空间》中，彼得·布鲁克有一句著名的俏皮话：“戏剧中的真相总是在变化。” 他认为剧院（无论如何，是一个至关重要的剧院）是一个发生变化的地方和实践——从页面上的角色，到舞台上的演员，再到房子里的观众。现场剧院需要即兴创作，它创新，它偏离，它改变规则，并且在最好的情况下，它改变我们看待世界的方式。这里介绍的九篇文章是在 2023 年比较戏剧会议上发表的论文。他们不仅在从会议演讲到论文的旅程中经历了转变，而且所有人都庆祝并为剧院做出了贡献，大胆地改变、适应和转变以满足心理、政治、社会和技术的现状，并帮助观众做同样的事情。

本期 CDC 特刊的开头是 2023 年会议主题活动的记录，即杰伊·马拉彻 (Jay Malarcher) 对剧作家卢卡斯·纳特 (Lucas Hnath) 的采访，他的《玩偶之家》续集拒绝将易卜生(第 2 页完)的杰作置于伟大的防腐液中：崇敬。正如其厚颜无耻的标题所暗示的那样， 《玩偶之家》第二部分（2017）却敢于将我们的宝贝从神座上拉下来，并在舞台上进行一场充满深情而不敬的智力网球比赛，将其基本思想抛在舞台上。赫纳特的许多其他戏剧似乎也证明了这样一个事实：当你和他们一起表演时，剧院中最好的想法不会被打破——它们会反弹，从新的、令人惊讶的角度回到我们身边。在许多其他话题中，Hnath 与 Malarcher 进行了慷慨而广泛的讨论，涉及到他在纽约大学教授剧本写作的方法……