*Please note: I'm posting this for a friend. DO NOT reply to me directly.* *CFP:* * * *'Attend the tale'…new contexts for Sweeney Todd* * * *Saturday 31 May 2008* *Lincoln** School** of Performing Arts* *Centre for Innovation in Performing Arts, University of Lincoln* In the wake of Tim Burton's recent film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical, *Sweeney Todd*, this symposium seeks to investigate how the legend has been variously re-configured and re-contextualised through a variety of media since its inception as an urban myth. Since George Dibdin-Pitt's 1847 stage melodrama based on the novel, *The String of Pearls*, the story of 'the Demon Barber of Fleet Street' has been adapted and appropriated in various live performances, cinematic and televisual contexts. This symposium aims to explore how and why the legend has captured the popular imagination for over a hundred and fifty years and invites papers that will consider topics such as: the process of adaptation, the relationship between urban legend and performance as manifest in selected versions of the tale, and the place of the story in the melodramatic imagination. Abstracts of no more than 200 words in length may be submitted to Dr Kelly V. Jones ([log in to unmask]) by Friday 25th April. ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu