Richard Plant Award / Le prix Richard Plant
Named in honour of one of the Association’s co-founders, this award is given annually to the best English-language article in the field of drama, theatre, and performance studies in what is now known as Canada. The article must have appeared in print/been published electronically in 2025.
Nommé en l’honneur d’un des cofondateurs de l’Association, ce prix est remis chaque année au meilleur article savant de langue anglaise dans le domaine des études sur l’art dramatique, le théâtre et la performance, dans ce qu’on connaît actuellement comme le Canada. L’article doit être paru en version papier ou électronique en 2025.
2026 Winner
Willkie, Angélique. “Corporeal Turf: Notes on Blackness and Dramaturgy.” Power Moves: Dance, Culture, Politics, edited by Seika Boye and MJ Thompson, Playwrights Canada Press, 2025, pp. 197-223.
Professor Willkie impressed the award committee with her theorization of corporeal turf as the foundation for an approach to decolonial dramaturgy in contemporary dance. Drawing on her lived experience as a Black Jamaican woman, Willkie “connect[s] the notions of corporeality, territory, and Blackness” with her “individual navigations and negotiations as a Black artist in a creative process” over her extended career as a performer and dramaturge. Her piece lays out a dramaturgical approach “where all parties begin by contributing from their acknowledged and respective turf” (209), attending to the rich multiplicity of meanings embedded in her framing concept.
Willkie skilfully draws from a range of writing by decolonial scholars and dance practitioners in articulating an approach to performance grounded in the corporeal dramaturgy of the performer, one that is deeply situated and context dependent. In doing so she balances her “artistico-political raisons d’être” with “the reality that [her] Black performer body is a socially and politically charged site that cannot be separated from meaning, creative content, or dramaturgical contribution” (204). Willkie asks: “How do we undo the complex signification of skin without undoing the value of each individual’s lived experience or indulging in tokenism?” (216), navigating urgent and contested ideas in the field with skill and nuance.
She supports this exploration with examples drawn from personal experience as well as historical and contemporary contexts. She argues that a dramaturgy grounded in contributors’ respective corporeal turfs allows performers’ “relational bodies to be an integral part of the process rather than secondary to it” (214). This approach “invite[s] a lack of ‘transparency’” into the creation process,” encouraging participants to “renounce the illusion of universality and sameness in favour of real encounters with other historico-cultural imaginaries and lived experiences” (214).
Willkie argues that “acknowledging my corporeal turf and creating from that place allows me to consider a dramaturgical praxis that uses my Blackness as its principal lens” (218). At the same time, the dramaturgical process she details is capacious and broadly relevant, with exciting practical implications for the field. In so doing, Willkie offers the field a vital model for dramaturgical practice that foregrounds embodiment, relationality, and accountability as central components of decolonial artistic collaboration. For its theoretical sophistication, practical insight, and compelling articulation of decolonial dramaturgical practice, the committee was unanimous in its decision to award the Plant Prize to Angélique Willkie.
French:
La professeure Willkie a impressionné le jury par sa théorisation du « territoire corporel » comme fondement d’une approche de la dramaturgie décoloniale en danse contemporaine. S’appuyant sur son expérience vécue en tant que femme noire jamaïcaine, Willkie « relie les notions de corporéité, de territoire et de négritude » à ses « parcours et négociations individuels en tant qu’artiste noire au sein d’un processus créatif », tout au long de sa longue carrière d’interprète et de dramaturge.
Son article expose une approche dramaturgique « où toutes les parties commencent par apporter leur contribution à partir de leur territoire respectif et reconnu » (209), en tenant compte de la riche multiplicité de sens inhérente à son concept cadre.
Willkie s’inspire habilement d’un large éventail d’écrits d’universitaires décoloniaux et de praticiens de la danse pour articuler une approche de la performance ancrée dans la dramaturgie corporelle de l’interprète, une approche profondément située et dépendante du contexte. Ce faisant, elle concilie ses « raisons d’être artistiques et politiques » avec « la réalité selon laquelle [son] corps d’artiste noire est un lieu chargé de significations sociales et politiques qui ne peut être dissocié du sens, du contenu créatif ou de la contribution dramaturgique » (204). Willkie pose la question suivante : « Comment défaire la signification complexe de la peau sans remettre en cause la valeur de l’expérience vécue par chaque individu ni céder au symbolisme de façade ? » (216), naviguant avec habileté et nuance parmi les idées urgentes et controversées du domaine.
Elle étaye cette exploration par des exemples tirés de son expérience personnelle ainsi que de contextes historiques et contemporains. Elle soutient qu’une dramaturgie ancrée dans les territoires corporels respectifs des contributeurs permet aux « corps relationnels » des interprètes « de faire partie intégrante du processus plutôt que d’y être secondaires » (214). Cette approche « invite à un manque de “transparence” » dans le processus de création, encourageant les participants à « renoncer à l’illusion d’universalité et d’uniformité au profit de véritables rencontres avec d’autres imaginaires historico-culturels et d’autres expériences vécues » (214).
Willkie affirme que « reconnaître mon espace corporel et créer à partir de là me permet d’envisager une pratique dramaturgique qui utilise ma négritude comme prisme principal » (218). Parallèlement, le processus dramaturgique qu’elle détaille est vaste et d’une grande pertinence, avec des implications pratiques passionnantes pour le domaine. Ce faisant, Angélique Willkie offre au domaine un modèle essentiel de pratique dramaturgique qui met en avant l’incarnation, la relationnalité et la responsabilité en tant que composantes centrales de la collaboration artistique décoloniale. En raison de la sophistication théorique de son travail, de sa perspicacité pratique et de son articulation convaincante de la pratique dramaturgique décoloniale, le comité a décidé à l’unanimité d’attribuer le Prix Plant à Angélique Willkie.
Past Winners
2025 Co-Winners - Janice J. Anderson, “Black Canadas Claim the Nation amid Erasure of Africville in Boyd’s Consecrated Ground.” TRIC/RTAC 45.2.
Adriana Disman, “Becoming Anorexia: The Pathologization of ‘Self-Harm’ in Performance.” Performance Research Issue 28.7.
2024 - Christine Balt, “Imagining an Ecological Right to the City in Toronto Through Drama-Based Research.” Children’s Geographies, vol. 22, no. 1, 2023, pp. 52–65.
Honourable Mentions:
VK Preston. "Dancing the Kleptocene." postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, vol. 14, no. 2-3, 2023, pp. 247–511.
Heather Davis-Fisch, “Theatrical Recycling as Colonial Prequel: The Provocation!, Nootka Sound, and British Columbia’s “First” Play.” TRIC/RTAC, vol. 44, no. 2, 2023, pp. 170–190.
2023 - Leah Tidey, Chris Alphonse, Martina Joe, Donna Modeste, Sharon Seymour, Thomas Jones, and Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta. “Policy and protocol in Indigenous theatre projects: Hul’q’umi’num’ voices, consensus and relationality.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 326–342.
Honourable Mention:
Jenn Cole. “Jiimaan, That Teaching Sister: Practices of Archival Care.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 189, winter 2022, pp. 33–39.
2022 - Katrina Dunn and Malus fusca, "Coproducing Mimesis" in Theatre Pedagogy in the Era of Climate Crisis, eds. David Fancy and Conrad Alexandrowicz, Routledge, 2021.
Honourable Mentions:
Nazli Akhtari, « Diaspora Walks: Small Lessons in Unlearning, » Performance Matters : « Performing (in) Place: Moving on/with the Land » 7,1–2 (2021) : 73–83.
Gallagher-Ross, Jacob. 2020. « Twilight of the Idols. » Theater 50(3): 29–47
2021 - Jenn Cole “Shanty Songs and Echoing Rocks: Upsurges of Memory along Fault Lines of Extraction.” Canadian Theatre Review 182 (Spring 2020): 9-15.
Honourable Mentions:
Jill Carter “My! What Big Teeth You Have!”: On the Art of Being Seen and Not Eaten.” Canadian Theatre Review 182 (Spring 2020): 16-21.
Kim McLeod “‘Siri, Are you Female?’: Reinforcing and Resisting Gender Norms with Digital Assistants.” Critical Stages//Scènes critiques 21 (June 2020).
2020 - Benjamin Looker, “Staging Diaspora, Dramatizing Activism: Fashioning a Progressive Filipino Canadian Theatre in Toronto, 1974–2001.”
Honourable Mention - Rebecca Burton, “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Canadian Theatre Here and Now.È
2018 - Alexandra (Sasha) Kovacs, “Beyond Shame and Blame in Pauline Johnson’s Performance Histories”
Honourable mention - Michelle Olson, “Heart of the Telling”
Honourable Mention - Jill Carter, “The Physics of the Mola: W/Riting Indigenous Resurgence on the Contemporary Stage,” Modern Drama 59.1 (Spring 2016): 1-25.
2015 - Roberta Barker. "The Gallant Invalid: The Stage Consumptive and the Making of a Canadian Myth" TRIC / RTAC 35.1 (2014)
2014 - VK Preston and Alanna Thain. "Tendering the Flesh: the ABCs of Dave St-Pierre's Contemporary Utopias" TDR 57.4 (2013)
Honourable Mention - Ric Knowles and Jess Riley. "Aluna Theatre's Nohayquiensepa: The Intermedial Intercultural and the Limits of Empathy" Latina/o Canadian Theatre and Performance, Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2013.
2013 - Natalie Alvarez. "Realisms of Redress: Alameda Theatre and the Formation of a Latina/o Canadian Theatre and Politics" New Canadian Realisms Toronto:Playwrights Canada, 2012.
2013 - Louis Patrick Leroux. “From langue to body — the quest for the ‘real’ in Québécois theatre.”New Canadian Realisms Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2012.
2012 - Glen Nichols. “Identity in Performance in Carol Shields’s Stage Plays” West-Words: Celebrating Western Canadian Theatre and Playwrighting.
Honourable Mention - Christine Kim. “Performing Asian Canadian Intimacy: Theatre Replacement’s Bioboxes and Awkward Multiculturalism” Asian Canadian Theatre. Toronto: Playwrights Canada, 2011.
2011 - Barry Freeman. “Navigating the Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project: A Postmodern Ethnographic Approach to Collaborative Intercultural Theatre.”TRIC 30.1-2 (2009): 58-81.
2011 - Yana Meerzon. “The Exilic Teens: On the Intracultural Encounters in Wajdi Mouawad’s Theatre.”TRIC 30.1-2 (2009): 82-110.
2010 - Laura Levin. “Can the City Speak? Site-Specific Art After Poststructuralism.”Performance and the City. Eds. D.J. Hopkins, Shelley Orr and Kim Solga. London: Palgrave, 2009.
2009 - Kim Solga. “The Line, The Crack, and the Possibility of Architecture: Figure, Ground, Feminist Performance.” TRiC 29.1 (Spring 2008).
Honourable Mention - Julie Salverson. “Taking liberties: a theatre class of foolish witnesses.” Research in Drama Education 13.2 (June 2008).
2008 - Jennifer Drouin, “Daughters of the Carnivalized Nation in Jean-Pierre Ronfard’s Shakespearean Adaptations Lear and Vie et mort du Roi Boiteux.” TRIC 27.1 (2006).
2007 - Marlis Schweitzer. “Stepping on Stiletto: Kaleidoscope, CAPP, and Controversy.” TRIC 25. 1-2 (2004): 24-42
Honourable Mention - Jenn Stephenson. “Metatheatre and Authentication through Metonymic Compression in John Mighton’s Possible Worlds.” Theatre Journal 58.1 (March 2006): 73-93.
2006 - Rob Appleford, “Daniel David Moses: A Ghostwriter with a Vengeance,” Aboriginal Drama and Theatre, ed. Rob Appleford. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2005. 150-65.
2005 - Helen Gilbert, “Black and White and Re(a)d All Over Again: Indigenous Minstrelsy in Contemporary Canadian and Australian Theatre,” Theatre Journal 55 (2003): 679-98.
2004 - Denis Salter, “Between Wor(l)ds: LEpage’s Shakespeare Cycle,” Joseph L. Donohoe and Jane Koustas, eds. Theatre sans frontières: Essays on the Dramatic Universe of Robert Lepage. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2000. 191-204.
2003 - Sherrill Grace, “Creating the Girl from God’s Country: Nell Shipman and Sharon Pollock,” Canadian Literature 172 (2002): 98-117.
2002 - Patricia Badir, “‘So entirely unexpected’: The Modernist Dramaturgy of Marjorie Pickthall’s The Wood-Carver’s Wife,” Modern Drama 43.2 (Summer 2000).
2001 - Margaret Groome, “Affirmative Shakespeare at Canada’s Stratford Festival,” Essays in Theatre 17.2 (May 1999): 139-64.
2000 - Denis Salter, “Hector Willoughby Charlesworth and the Nationalization of Cultural Authority, 1890 – 1945,” Establishing Our Boundaries: English-Canadian Theatre Criticism, ed. Anton Wagner. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
1999 - Jonathan Rittenhouse, “‘Our Granada’: The Granada Theatre, Wellington Street, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, America, the World and Me.” TRIC/RTC 18.2 (Fall 1997): 148-166.
1998 - Robert Nunn, “”Flickering Lights and Declaiming Bodies: Semiosis in Film and Theatre,”TRIC/RTC 17.2 (Fall 1996): 147-159.
1997 - Alan Filewod, “The Comintern and the Canon: Workers’ Theatre, Eight Men Speak and the Genealogy of Mise en scène,” Australasian Drama Studies 29 (Oct. 1996): 17-32.
1996 Not awarded this year.
1995 - Jennifer Harvie & Ric Knowles, “Dialogic Monologue: a Dialogue” TRIC/RTC 15 (Fall 1994):136-163;
1995 - Patrick O’Neill, “The Impact of Copyright Legislation Upon the Publication of Sheet Music in Canada, Prior to 1924,” The Journal of Canadian Studies 28.3 (Fall 1993): 105-22.
1994 - Sheila Rabillard, “Absorption, Elimination, and the Hybrid: Some Impure Questions of Gender and Culture in the Trickster Drama of Tomson Highway,” Essays in Theatre/Études théâtrales 12.1 (Nov. 1993), 3-27.
1993 - Ric Knowles, “The Dramaturgy of the Perverse,” Theatre Research International 17.3: 226-35
1992 - Robert Nunn, “Canada Incognita: Has Quebec Theatre Discovered English-Canadian Plays?” Theatrum 24: 15-19.
1991 - Manina Jones, “The Collage in Motion: Staging the Documentary in Reaney’s Sticks and Stones,” Canadian Drama 16.1 (1989): 1-23.
1990 - Alan Filewod, “Erasing Historical Difference: The Alternative Orthodoxy in Canadian Theatre,” Theatre Journal 41.2 (May 1989): 201-21.
1989 - Ric Knowles, “The Legacy of the Festival Stage,” CTR 54 (Spring 1988): 39-45.