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 2024.
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 2024.
2025 Co-Winners
Janice J. Anderson, “Black Canadas Claim the Nation amid Erasure of Africville in Boyd’s Consecrated Ground.” TRIC/RTAC 45.2.
Janice J. Anderson’s article, “Black Canadas Claim the Nation amid Erasure of Africville in Boyd’s Consecrated Ground,” published in the TRIC/RTAC 45.2 Special Issue on Black Performance in Canada, offers impressive interdisciplinary research and an urgent intervention. Her analysis of George Boyd’s under-theorized play Consecrated Ground about the historic Black community of Africville explores how the characters “enact an ethical claim to nation achieved through relation” that “usurps the notion of Black life in Canada as a monolith” (194). Anchored in a rich socio-spatial and dramatic analysis, Anderson reanimates Africville not as a footnote in Canada’s racial history, but as a contested and enduring site of Black community, performative resistance, and national claim-staking. Through nuanced readings of theatrical characters in relation to Black Canadian identities and the intersecting dynamics of gender, class, disability, immigration status, and sexuality, Anderson reveals how Consecrated Ground affirms relational belonging across differences. Her engagement with the play offers a layered textual approach to “reading for relation” that foregrounds Black presence as multifaceted and foundational rather than supplementary to national narratives and challenges Canadian theatre’s critical apparatus by demonstrating how conventional critical frameworks fail to seriously engage with the politics and aesthetics of Black performance. This article powerfully advances the field by reframing constructions of Blackness within the nation, amplifying the work of Black scholars and artists, and offering a visionary approach to understanding Black performance in Canada.
L'article de Janice J. Anderson, intitulé « Black Canadas Claim the Nation amid Erasure of Africville in Boyd's Consecrated Ground » (Les Canadiens noirs revendiquent leur place dans la nation alors qu'Africville est rayée de la carte dans Consecrated Ground de Boyd), publié dans le numéro spécial 45.2 de TRIC/RTAC consacré aux performances artistiques des personnes de race noire au Canada, présente une recherche interdisciplinaire impressionnante et une intervention urgente. Son analyse de la pièce peu théorisée de George Boyd, Consecrated Ground, qui traite de la communauté noire historique d'Africville, explore la manière dont les personnages « revendiquent de manière éthique une nation obtenue grâce à leurs relations », qui « usurpe la notion d'une vie noire au Canada comme un monolithe » (194). S'appuyant sur une analyse socio-spatiale et dramatique riche, Anderson redonne vie à Africville, non pas comme une note de bas de page dans l'histoire raciale du Canada, mais comme un lieu contesté et durable de la communauté noire, de la résistance performative et de la revendication nationale. À travers une lecture nuancée des personnages théâtraux en relation avec les identités noires canadiennes et les dynamiques croisées du genre, de la classe, du handicap, du statut d'immigrant et de la sexualité, Anderson révèle comment Consecrated Ground affirme l'appartenance relationnelle au-delà des différences. Son engagement dans la pièce offre une approche textuelle à plusieurs niveaux de la « lecture relationnelle » qui met en avant la présence noire comme multiforme et fondamentale plutôt que complémentaire aux récits
nationaux et remet en question l'appareil critique du théâtre canadien en démontrant comment les cadres critiques conventionnels ne parviennent pas à s'engager sérieusement dans la politique et l'esthétique de la performance noire. Cet article fait considérablement avancer le domaine en recadrant les constructions de la négritude au sein de la nation, en amplifiant le travail des universitaires et des artistes noirs et en proposant une approche visionnaire pour comprendre la performance noire au Canada.
Adriana Disman, “Becoming Anorexia: The Pathologization of ‘Self-Harm’ in Performance.” Performance Research Issue 28.7.
Adriana Disman’s groundbreaking article “Becoming Anorexia: The Pathologization of ‘Self-Harm’ in Performance,”published in Performance Research Issue 28.7 “On Hunger,” represents theoretical innovation, masterful writing, and critical intervention in the field of theatre and performance studies. Drawing from queer, anti-racist, and anti-colonial feminist frameworks, Disman offers a compelling rethinking of how we interpret body-based performance art, through the work of Dutch artists L.A. Raeven. What sets this article apart is its bold challenge to interpretive habits that equate non-normative embodiment with mental illness or disease. Disman introduces pathologization as a performance analytic, exposing how critical reception that reads gendered, racialized, or disabled bodies as compulsive or too literal, can police, moralize, and ultimately silence radical aesthetic practices. In doing so, the article critiques the liberal paternalism that cloaks censorship in concern and unpacks how colonial legacies of bodily control shape our ideas of artistic legitimacy. Disman’s intervention reframes performances perceived as promoting anorexia and self-discipline not as pathological, but as complex critiques of capitalist, patriarchal, and ableist structures. The call to resist moralizing and to instead embrace ambiguity and aesthetic rigor represents a vital step forward in performance theory. In centering the worlding potential of performance and its capacity to imagine otherwise, Disman illuminates how supposed “self-harming” art can open new pathways for collective thought and political possibility. This article is an exemplar of critical inquiry, theoretical intricacy, and disciplinary advancement.
L'article pionnier d'Adriana Disman, intitulé « Becoming Anorexia: The Pathologization of “Self-Harm” in Performance » (Devenir anorexique : la pathologisation de l'« automutilation » dans la performance), publié dans le numéro 28.7 de Performance Research intitulé « On Hunger » (Sur la faim), représente une innovation théorique, une écriture magistrale et une intervention critique dans le domaine des études théâtrales et performatives. S'inspirant de cadres féministes queer, antiracistes et anticolonialistes, Disman propose une réflexion convaincante sur la manière dont nous interprétons l'art performatif basé sur le corps, à travers le travail des artistes néerlandaises L.A. Raeven. Cet article se distingue par sa remise en question audacieuse des habitudes interprétatives qui assimilent les corps non normatifs à des maladies mentales ou physiques. Disman introduit la pathologisation comme outil d'analyse de la performance, exposant comment une réception critique qui interprète les corps genrés, racialisés ou
handicapés comme compulsifs ou trop littéraux peut contrôler, moraliser et finalement réduire au silence les pratiques esthétiques radicales. Ce faisant, l'article critique le paternalisme libéral qui dissimule la censure sous le couvert de la préoccupation et démontre comment l'héritage colonial du contrôle corporel façonne nos idées sur la légitimité artistique. L'intervention de Disman recadre les performances perçues comme promouvant l'anorexie et l'autodiscipline, non pas comme pathologiques, mais comme des critiques complexes des structures capitalistes, patriarcales et capacitaires. L'appel à résister à la moralisation et à embrasser plutôt l'ambiguïté et la rigueur esthétique représente une avancée essentielle dans la théorie de la performance. En mettant l'accent sur le potentiel mondialisateur de la performance et sa capacité à imaginer autrement, Disman montre comment l'art prétendument « autodestructeur » peut ouvrir de nouvelles voies à la pensée collective et aux possibilités politiques. Cet article est un exemple de recherche critique, de complexité théorique et d'avancée disciplinaire.
Past Winners
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.