Canadian Theatre Research Articles

(Un)Making History? Canadian Theatre History and the Canadian Theatre Review

(Un)Making History? Canadian Theatre History and the <i>Canadian Theatre Review</i>

“From ‘What Is to What If’”: Thinking and Questioning about Canadian Theatre Review’s Next 200 Issues

“From ‘What Is to What If’”: Thinking and Questioning about <i>Canadian Theatre Review</i>’s Next 200 Issues

Chauvinism and Its Discontents: Canadian Theatre Review 1 Revisited

Chauvinism and Its Discontents: <i>Canadian Theatre Review</i> 1 Revisited

Continue without Disabling: Fifty Years of Disability Arts in Canadian Theatre Review

Continue without Disabling: Fifty Years of Disability Arts in <i>Canadian Theatre Review</i>

“There is no such thing as a gay play”: Canadian Theatre Review and Gay Politics in the 1970s

“There is no such thing as a gay play”: <i>Canadian Theatre Review</i> and Gay Politics in the 1970s

A Reflection on Canadian Theatre Review and Recognizing Innovation and Integrity in Theatre for/by/with Young People

A Reflection on <i>Canadian Theatre Review</i> and Recognizing Innovation and Integrity in Theatre for/by/with Young People

Looking for Dance in Canadian Theatre Review

Looking for Dance in <i>Canadian Theatre Review</i>

Canadian Theatre Crossroads: Reaffirming Who We Are

Canadian Theatre Crossroads: Reaffirming Who We Are

Hourglasses and Hammers: A Reflection on Forty Years of Interculturalism in Canadian Theatre Review

Hourglasses and Hammers: A Reflection on Forty Years of Interculturalism in <i>Canadian Theatre Review</i>

Mixed with Black: A Canadian Theatre Mixed-Race Manifesto

Mixed with Black: A Canadian Theatre Mixed-Race Manifesto

The Emancipated Amateur: Rancierian Reviewing Practices and New Models of Theatre Criticism

The current proliferation of digital platforms and the reduction of arts coverage in mainstream media outlets in Canada has given rise to many theatre reviewers whose contributions to critical discourse are often dismissed because they lack professional legitimization. This article uses Jacques Rancière’s formulations of the ignorant schoolmaster and the emancipated spectator to interrogate the distinction between professional and amateur critics. It argues that participants and practices typically understood as amateur provide models of criticism that are pluralistic, affective, and inclusive. Analyzing three central case studies—a newspaper column featuring “regular” spectators, reviews by children and youth, and mentorship initiatives for emerging Black, Indigenous, and people of colour critics—the article demonstrates how amateurs challenge the notion of expertise as exclusive knowledge possessed by the elite. It highlights the benefits of opening up critical conversations during this crucial moment when the Canadian theatre industry is confronting its complicity in systemic injustices and seeking to attract new audiences.

Reflections on Canadian Soundings: Plumbing the Depths of Voice in Canadian Theatre/Profondeurs de la Voix du Théâtre Canadien

This contribution surfaces some of the key research provocations voiced through Canadian Soundings, a collaborative research effort that spanned 2020 through 2022, and which culminated in the organization of the symposium Canadian Soundings: Plumbing the Depths of Voice in Canadian Theatre/Profondeurs de la Voix du Theatre Canadien, hosted in digital and in-person formats across the fall of 2022 at the University of Victoria. This event brought together a network of scholars and practitioners to deepen the understanding of voice as a central conduit for the charting of Canadian theatre’s past, present, and future. This contribution first introduces and overviews the activities that constituted that event before surfacing the organizer’s reflections on the workshops, round table discussions, and activities programmed as part of the symposium.

Kimberley Rampersad: a conversation

St. Lawrence College faculty member Ian Simpson interviews Shaw Festival Associate Director Kimberley Rampersad and provides an overview of the background and career of this exciting new voice in Canadian theatre. She discusses her journey growing up in Winnipeg as a dancer, singer, and musical theatre performer, including her role as a dance and arts educator, building to her rapid rise to become one of Canada’s most promising and prominent young directors and choreographers. She talks about directing two of the biggest plays in the theatrical canon, “The Amen Corner" at the Shaw Festival, and “King Lear” at the Stratford Festival, both in 2023. She describes how her musical theatre background was critical in her development as a director, and the importance of mentorship and training a new generation of performers.

Listening to Linda Griffiths: Heeding to the Archives of an Emblematic Voice in Canadian Theatre

Linda Griffiths, actor and playwright, was a charismatic and vital presence within Canadian theatre from the early 1970s, writing and performing until her untimely death in 2014. She worked in theatres across Canada all the while maintaining her dedication to her home, Theatre Passe Muraille, creating award-winning pieces that were also audience hits. This article presents and employs an archival methodology that the author calls listening to Linda. In the first part of this piece, the author makes key historiographical interventions in Canadian theatre history based on her recognition of (and attentive listening to) Griffiths’s own historiographical intervention, made via her self-created and deliberately preserved archival record as well as her published autobiographical writing and interviews. Research into the Linda Griffiths fonds sheds new light on the early years of her career (1971–75) that have yet to be discussed in existing studies and rectifies misrepresentations of her story, repositioning her in the field of Canadian theatre. This methodology also sheds new light upon the analysis of her plays. In the case of O.D. on Paradise, by returning attention to this overlooked text the author discovered a multifaceted moment within Griffiths’s growth as a playwright which intertwines with the play’s historical importance. Research into Alien Creature: A Visitation from Gwendolyn MacEwen revivifies the scholarly discussion on this well-known auto/biographical piece by perceiving Griffiths’s voice within her archive and in performance as insisting Canadian women artists be heard, believing in the lasting power of their work. Therefore, by listening to this creator’s voice within her self-curated archive, the author’s methodology enables a shifting of knowledge regarding Griffiths’s contributions to Canadian theatre, the remembering of lost histories, and the lasting effects of performance.

Humor as a Weapon in Contemporary Canadian Theatre: A Study of Selected Plays by Tomson Highway.

Humor as a Weapon in Contemporary Canadian Theatre: A Study of Selected Plays by Tomson Highway.

Youth mental health performance: How young people respond to portrayals of mental health, resilience and well-being in and through drama and performance creation

This article reports on an arts-based ethno-theatre/drama education pilot study, which explored how mental health is portrayed in Canadian Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) scripts and how young people responded to these portrayals through play analysis workshops and collective theatre devising. Overall, the study was successful, with one unanticipated challenge. This article gives an overview of Phase 1: Play analysis and Phase 2: Play devising.

En/Countering Ageism Together: All the Sex I’ve Ever Had by Mammalian Diving Reflex

Toronto-based Canadian theatre group Mammalian Diving Reflex produced various editions resulting from its city tour of the performance All the Sex I’ve Ever Had (shortened as AtS) from 2010 to present, including AtS-International Edition (2014) in Toronto. In this article, Heunjung Lee analyzes the live performance of multiple city editions, most notably AtS-Gwangmyeong (2021), to understand the relational aesthetics and dramaturgy it installs among older community performers, younger creative team members, and the audience. By demonstrating the performative power of aged citizens on stage to document, remember, and combat the ageist perspectives that are deeply rooted in many cultures, including Canada, this and other editions of AtS reveal and counter the ageist stigma around the sexuality of older adults. Heunjung Lee draws on this analysis to reframe non-professional older performers as experts of age/ing, drawing on the notion of “experts of everyday” which describes non-professional performers in Reality Theatre. This new term illuminates the generosity, vulnerability, and power of the older performers who (en)counter ageist perceptions and assumptions against old age by sharing their unique experience and view of ageing, sex, and life.

Connecting Climate Change and Canadian Theatre: Reflecting on the Impact of the NAC’s Climate Cycle

The arts have a unique way of affecting the way that people feel about environmental issues in ways that other forms of communication cannot. The National Arts Centre (NAC) Climate Cycle was a program that the NAC English Theatre developed as a response to the escalating climate crisis to engage artists deeply in discussions on climate change and to grapple with how the performing arts can respond. It took place over two meetings: the Summit in Banff in 2019, which was in person, and the Green Rooms in 2020, which was online. To answer our main question of how participating in these events impacted artists’ behaviour and professional practices, we engaged with the participants through a series of surveys and in-depth interviews. Based on the results, we found that artists were impacted in three main ways: (1) instilling a sense of community among the participants; (2) encouraging the participants to continue their learning; and (3) enacting strategies to ‘green’ their practices, such as reducing touring and using alternative materials in set design. This project was helpful in understanding how the Cycle impacted artists, but it also contributed to our overall understanding of what meaningful engagement with artists on environmental topics looks like. This project was first completed as part of an undergraduate thesis in May 2021. In this most recent article, we reflect on what this research means a year later.

Making Change from Within: Political Adaptation as Activism

Political Adaptation in Canadian Theatre, by Kailin Wright, is an excellent addition to the discourse on theatre adaptations. Wright applies theories of adaptation, identification, performance, Indigenous dramaturgy, and speech acts to define political adaptation as distinct from adaptation “proper”. She contends that political adaptations activate publics or, in her terms, “dispublics,” toward changed perspectives on inherited narratives. Seminal to her argument is Michel Pêcheux’s tripartite terminology, which describes the relationship of the spectator to mainstream culture as identification, counteridentification, and disidentification.

The Conscious-Casting Conundrum

At a critical juncture in the Canadian theatre landscape, we are faced with how to consciously cast racialized performers in plays, and how to have plays written by racialized playwrights consciously produced and taught more often. Before 2020, there were many calls to achieve these actions, and since then, these calls have only been heightened. The ‘problem’ is how to do all of this without offending or appropriating, while at the same time championing some incredible actors and plays. Through personal anecdotes and current global contexts, this article attempts some approaches to solving this conscious-casting conundrum.