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I came to the Centre with a MA in Drama and a curiosity about
what happens between people when they perform together. My
work as the artistic director of Trickster's Theatre, a touring
'participatory theatre' company, led me to this question.
My performance experience, particularly in schools, was that
the school population, performing together, were creating
a new sense of community between. They were seeing each other
in new ways. While drama has long been recognized as a powerful
tool for individual development, it has not been largely researched
as a medium for culturing community.
I have been able to continue my theatre work
as a Teaching Assistant and to conduct my research through
an interdisciplinary link to the Department of Theatre, Film
& Creative Writing. This term (winter 2005), I am co-teaching
a course I developed: The History of Aboriginal Theatre in
Canada (Thtr 325B) My co-advisors are Dr. Rita Irwin of Curriculum
Studies and Stephen Heatley, MFA, Department of Theatre, Film
& Creative Writing. Dr. Lynn Fels, CCFI, who has developed
the research methodology of performative inquiry, is my other
committee member.
Being a PhD student at the Centre has been
so enriching. I have been able to develop friendships with
students from many parts of the world and to collaborate on
performative conference presentations and other scholarly
events. A highlight of my time at CCFI has been my association
with the CSCI Theatre Collective. This group of six amazing
grad. students has performed inquiry on five occasions. I
have been able to use our work as the basis for one of my
Comprehensive Papers and journal submissions. The photo (my
only digital one) is of me playing the character "Dr.
Whippee Cream" in our Academic Anti-panel at the
IIQM Conference at the Fantasyland Hotel in 2004.
Publications
2005 Companion Guide for Arcadia, ed.,
Department of Theatre, Film & Creative Writing, UBC.
Companion Guide for Village of Idiots,
ed., Department of Theatre, Film & Creative Writing, UBC.
2004 ³Redescribing a World: The Falstaff
Project.²Theatre Symposium: A Publication of the
Southeastern Theatre Conference, Vol. 12, The University of
Alabama Press. Co-written with Sarah Ferguson.
Companion Guide for The Cherry Orchard,
ed., Department of Theatre, Film & Creative Writing, UBC.
Companion Guide for Song of this Place,
ed., Department of Theatre, Film & Creative Writing, UBC.
Companion Guide for K. is for Kafka,
ed., Department of Theatre, Film & Creative Writing, UBC.
2003 Companion Guide for Measure for Measure,
ed., Department of Theatre, Film & Creative Writing, UBC.
Conference Presentations
2005 Provoking Curriculum: Trans/forming Narratives,
University of Victoria. Presentations: 1) "It's all
about you": who's in charge here? - a reader¹s
theatre; 2) Storying and Perfor(u)ming Collaborative
Curriculum: Grad Students Bailing Hard – a Happening.
2004 5th Annual Curriculum & Pedagogy
Conference, Miami University, Ohio. Presentation: Participation
Theatre: ³What Happened this Summer!²; Creative
Writing Workshop: ³Writing in the Present Tense: Dramatic
Form in Academic Writing².
IDEA Fifth World Congress, International Drama/Theatre
in
Education Association, Ottawa. Paper: ³Forum Theatre
as a
research methodology?².
Beyond the 4th Wall: Aesthetic Distance and
Community in the
21st Century, Conference, Department of Fine Arts, University
of Regina. Paper: ³Inculcating community through theatre
performance². Workshop/performance: ³Experiencing
Community
through acting together².
Fifth International Advances in Qualitative
Methods Conference,
International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, University
of Alberta. Co-presenter, workshop: Polyvocal Disruptions
and Reconstructions: a counter-panel on issues in Higher
Education.
2003 International Conference on Education
and Social Justice, Centre for
Anti-Oppressive Education, San Francisco. Presenter: paper:
³Building Relationship and Community Through Sharing
Story²;
workshop: ³An Introduction to StoryLines for Literacy:
collaborative community building through story and theatre².
STLHE Conference, UBC. Co-presenter, ³Collaborative
Re/constructions for Transformation in Higher Education²,
a
collaborative Forum theatre presentation.
The SETC Theatre Symposium 2003, ³Elizabethan
Performances in
North American Spaces, Mary Baldwin College Staunton,
Virginia.
Co-presenter, ³The More Things Change . . .: The Falstaff
Project².
Provoking Curriculum Conference, Faculty of
Education, UBC.
Co-presenter, ³Stop Run: Listen to the Silent/Silenced
Voices.
2002 The 2002 Gathering of the Northwest Philosophy
of Education Society,
³Astonishing Silences Conference², co-presenter,
³Centering
Silences in the Centre².
2001 Sixth Annual Wanapitei Aboriginal History
and Politics Summer
Colloquium, ³Oral History, Storytelling and Aboriginal
Traditional Knowledge². Sponsored by Trent University¹s
Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Native Studies and the
Department of Native Studies. Participatory Theatre
demonstration and paper: ³Legends, Laughter, and Learning:
story-telling as participatory theatre.²
1997 Into the 21st Century, Theatre of the
Oppressed Conference, part of
The Ripple Effect, the 8th International Theatre of the
Oppressed Festival, Toronto. Seminar/panel discussion: ³Naming
the Structures: Joking from the in-between-spaces; resisting
seduction and taking power from mediacy².
1995 Why Theatre: Choices for the New Century,
University of Toronto.
Paper: ³Community and the Theatre Exchange: Subverting
the
Consumer System: the Audience as Participants.²
Building Theatres, University of Alberta. Presentation: ³Some
Useful Collaborations², with Fran Trahearne, U of
A Office of
Human Rights.
1994 CAASHHE National Conference, Banff, AB.
Presentation/workshop on
using Forum and Image Theatre to explore sexual harassment
issues.
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