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 on a Canadian theatre or performance topic. The award is given in alternate years to a long form article/article/book chapter and a short form article, blog post or substantial piece of written criticism. The 2024 award is being given to a long form article and/or a book chapter in a scholarly collection, published in 2022 and/or 2023.
Nommé en l’honneur d’un des cofondateurs de l’Association, ce prix est remis chaque année au meilleur article de langue anglaise traitant de théâtre ou de performance au Canada. Il est décerné, en alternance, à un article long ou à un chapitre de livre puis, l’année suivante, à un article court, à un billet de blogue ou à une critique écrite majeure. En 2024, le prix récompense un article long ou un chapitre de livre dans un ouvrage collectif savant publié en 2022 ou 2023.
2024 Winner
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.
In this incisive and compelling article, Christine Balt applies the methodology of “auto-topography” to reimagine Henri Lefebvre’s “right to the city” through the perspectives of sixth graders participating in drama-based exercises during the COVID-19 pandemic. Skillfully weaving together ideas of the non nonhuman with affect theory and drama-based research, Balt describes the co-flourishing and intermingling of the ecological and the human that emerged through auto-ethnographic explorations of what the city means to children during lockdown, when access to human-made youth-centered spaces such as malls and movie theatres was not possible. Youthful attachments and imaginations are at the centre of this brilliantly constructed piece, in which Balt skillfully integrates the perspectives of youth into advanced theoretical models while also maintaining clarity and direction.
Balt argues that the youth participants reimagine how Toronto might (again) become a place for cultural and civic gathering rather than only being a primary hub for commercial activity. Her exploration of students’ affective and emotional ties to the city reveals what these “minor” feelings can teach us about how citizens’ right to the city has been put into question by Toronto’s incessant growth as a centre for global capitalism. Balt’s concept of an ecological right to the city “recalibrates Lefebvre’s suggestion that space must be sought out and ‘claimed’,” arguing that “the auto-topographies [that she offers] activate a right to the city that is also deeply relational, based in reciprocal relationships between self and place....resonat[ing] with Indigenous onto-epistemologies that foreground reciprocity as an ethical imperative...”
The stories included from these students are moving, funny, and often enlightening, revealing, though their affective qualities, the need to “re-centre enchantment, generosity, gratitude, strangeness, surprise and hilarity in the economic and social lives of young people....The youths’ creative work also compels us to imagine, courageously, what a city could look like when an ecological right to the city is enlivened through play, imagination, and story.” Congratulations Dr. Balt!
Dans cet article incisif et convaincant, Christine Balt applique la méthodologie de l'« auto-topographie » pour réimaginer le « droit à la ville » d'Henri Lefebvre à travers les perspectives d'élèves de sixième année participant à des exercices basés sur le théâtre pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Tissant habilement les idées du non non humain avec la théorie de l'affect et la recherche basée sur le théâtre, Balt décrit la co-floraison et l'entremêlement de l'écologique et de l'humain qui ont émergé lors des explorations auto-ethnographiques de ce que la ville signifie pour les enfants pendant le confinement, lorsque l'accès aux espaces créés par les humains pour les jeunes, tels que les centres commerciaux et les salles de cinéma, était impossible. L'attachement et l'imagination des jeunes sont au centre de ce travail brillamment construit, dans lequel Balt intègre habilement les perspectives des jeunes dans des modèles théoriques avancés, tout en conservant clarté et direction.
Balt soutient que les jeunes participants réimaginent la façon dont Toronto pourrait (à nouveau) devenir un lieu de rassemblement culturel et civique au lieu d'être uniquement une plaque tournante de l'activité commerciale. Son exploration des liens affectifs et émotionnels des étudiants avec la ville révèle ce que ces sentiments « mineurs » peuvent nous apprendre sur la façon dont le droit des citoyens à la ville a été remis en question par la croissance incessante de Toronto en tant que centre du capitalisme mondial. Le concept de droit écologique à la ville de Balt « recalibre la suggestion de Lefebvre selon laquelle l'espace doit être recherché et “revendiqué” », en soutenant que « les autotopographies [qu'elle propose] activent un droit à la ville qui est aussi profondément relationnel, basé sur des relations réciproques entre soi et le lieu....résonant avec les onto-épistémologies indigènes qui mettent en avant la réciprocité comme un impératif éthique... »
Les récits de ces élèves sont émouvants, drôles et souvent éclairants, révélant, par leurs qualités affectives, la nécessité de « recentrer l'enchantement, la générosité, la gratitude, l'étrangeté, la surprise et l'hilarité dans la vie économique et sociale des jeunes....Le travail créatif des jeunes nous oblige également à imaginer, avec courage, ce à quoi une ville pourrait ressembler lorsqu'un droit écologique à la ville est vivifié par le jeu, l'imagination et les récits ». Félicitations au Dr Balt !
Honourable Mentions:
VK Preston. "Dancing the Kleptocene." postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, vol. 14, no. 2-3, 2023, pp. 247–511.
In “Dancing the Kleptocene,” Preston employs an innovative and daring methodological practice of association to explore how a study of “danceways” can illuminate the Kleptocene, a term that refocuses epochal discussions of human impact on the environment through the ongoing role of colonial violence and resource extraction, as well as Indigenous dispossession. Preston follows a trail of archival references to “ballets” in early seventeenth-century Turtle Island in North America. In doing so, they reveal how “dance writing claimed cultural insight and shaped kinaesthetic discourses of geographic representation and possession,” remaining firmly critical of the colonial archive and foregrounding Indigenous ways of knowing and the work of Indigenous scholars. The committee applaud their detailed and wide-ranging work which draws from a breathtaking range of current sources.
Dans « Dancing the Kleptocene », Preston utilise une pratique méthodologique innovante et audacieuse d'association pour explorer comment une étude des « pratiques de danses » peut éclairer le Kleptocene, un terme qui recentre les discussions d'époque sur l'impact humain sur l'environnement à travers du rôle continu de la violence coloniale et de l'extraction des ressources primaires, ainsi que de la dépossession des indigènes. Preston suit la trace de références archivistiques à des « ballets » dans l'île de la Tortue, en Amérique du Nord, au début du XVIIe siècle. Ce faisant, ils révèlent comment « l'écriture de la danse revendique une connaissance culturelle et façonne les discours kinesthésiques de la représentation et de la possession géographiques », en restant fermement critiques à l'égard des archives coloniales et en mettant en avant les modes de connaissance indigènes et le travail des universitaires indigènes. Le comité applaudit ce travail détaillé et de grande envergure, qui s'appuie sur un éventail impressionnant de sources actuelles.
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.
Davis-Fisch reads across an impressive variety of historical sources in her transatlantic tracing of the late-eighteenth-century plays Nootka Sound and The Provocation!, and their shaping of the western Canadian and British settler colonial imaginary. In the article, Davis-Fisch outlines how The Provocation! “built on pre-circulating British understandings of Indigeneity and of the Pacific Northwest, recycling and activating performative and visual genealogies to create knowledge of the region, and helping lay the groundwork for the settler-colonial structures that followed in the nineteenth century.” Through Davis-Fisch’s linking of and careful and meticulous engagement with primary sources, this article marks a significant contribution towards understandings of how theatre advanced developing ideas of settler colonialism both on Turtle Island and in the imperial British homeland.
Davis-Fisch parcourt une variété impressionnante de sources historiques dans son étude transatlantique des pièces de théâtre Nootka Sound et The Provocation ! de la fin du dix-huitième siècle, et de leur influence sur l'imaginaire colonial des colons de l'Ouest canadien et de la Grande-Bretagne. Dans son article, Davis-Fisch explique comment The Provocation ! « s'est appuyée sur les conceptions britanniques de l'indigénéité et du nord-ouest du Pacifique, recyclant et activant des généalogies performatives et visuelles pour créer une connaissance de la région, et contribuant à jeter les bases des structures coloniales qui ont suivi au dix-neuvième siècle ». Grâce à la mise en relation de Davis-Fisch et à son engagement soigneux et méticuleux envers les sources de recherche primaires, cet article apporte une contribution significative à la compréhension de la manière dont le théâtre a fait progresser les idées de colonialisme de peuplement tant sur l'île de la Tortue que dans la patrie impériale britannique.
Past Winners
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.