Location: PNX138
Abstracts
Moderator: Jenny Salisbury
How can theatre pedagogies serve non-theatre students in rehearsing their futures? How can non-theatre pedagogies guide future practices in theatre training institutions? In this Working Group session moderated by Dr. Jenny Salisbury, four presenters will explore pedagogical approaches to supporting individuals within a collective through exploring crossovers between theatrical and non-theatrical work.
Barbara Clerihue (PhD Candidate, University of Victoria)
Serious Ethics, Serious games – What if theatre history training borrowed serious game practices from business, medicine, and crisis response? Could immersive ethical decision-making simulations help artists navigate the moral minefields of plays like The Theatre of Neptune or The Merchant of Venice—challenging us to confront the ambiguity, responsibility, and power that shape our art and its histories?
Edmund Stapleton (PhD Candidate, University of Toronto)
Storytelling for Non-Theatre Students – Do stories have the power to not only entertain but to build deeper relationships? Based on his doctorate and teaching work, Stapleton will offer an overview of how storytelling can be developed as a tool for non-theatre students to add to their communication toolbox.
Walter Strydom (PhD Candidate, University of Regina)
Devised Theatre Tools for Social Justice – How can collaborative creation practices support social action? Strydom will reflect on the application of devised theatre methods and frameworks to facilitate students exploring social justice and allyship.
Matthew Thomas Walker (Associate Professor, Dalhousie University)
Promoting Agency through Devised Theatre – Can devised theatre principles inform a collaborative approach to education? Walker will share frameworks and collaborative tools that encourage sharing of authority between educators and learners.
Biographies:
Dr. Jenny Salisbury teaches critical arts pedagogy at the University of Toronto. She is a founding director of the Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research. She recently completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at OISE titled 50 years of QTBIPOC Activism and Care: an archival research and verbatim theatre project.
Barbara Clerihue is a PhD candidate in Theatre at the University of Victoria. Her research focuses on the functional portrayal of older age in performance. Drawing on a diverse background spanning communication, cultural studies, planning, justice, representation, disability, organizational leadership, and performance, she brings an interdisciplinary and practice-informed perspective to her work.
Edmund Stapleton hails from Paradise, Newfoundland & Labrador and is a first year PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. His research focuses on the intersection of sports science and actor training as also how storytelling can be used in non-theatre classrooms.
Walter Strydom is a theatre artist, scholar (University of the Free State, South Africa), and PhD student (University of Regina). His practice and research share a common conviction: that theatre can empower personal expression, facilitate cross-difference solidarity, and speak truth to power, all while offering engaging and powerfully visceral experiences.
Matthew Thomas Walker is a theatre creator and educator based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. His work seeks to challenge preconceptions of where, how, and for who theatre is created. Matthew has taught, directed, and sat on panels for numerous theatre organisations and educational institutions throughout Canada, and is an Associate Professor for Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts.