Leader: Thea Fitz-James and e. clayton scofield
Location: Studio I – Concordia University
In-Person Session
This workshop explores collaborative performance methods in creative research though the idea of “deep play”. Facilitated by collaborators Clay and Thea, who co-run the Deep Play Artist Residency annually, this workshop explores how deep play can enhance artist creativity and invite interdisciplinary approaches to creative research and pedagogy.
The title is inspired by anthropologist Clifford Geertz’s concept of “deep play,” where questions of social ritual are explored through a deep or ‘risky’ commitment to play. By applying this concept to academic research / pedagogy, we aim to create opportunities for researchers/ educators to inhabit the role of the jester in relation to their own research of the social (Augusto Boal). The Deep Play Workshop explores deep play as a methodological approach for creative research and performance-as-research, exploring the possibility of creative risk in controlled and care-based environments.
Clay and Thea run a summer live-in artist residency where they explore these concepts; for CATR, we’d like to adapt some of our concepts into a 90-min workshop. This workshop combines theory (Thea) and practice (Clay) by (1) introducing our care-driven deep play methodology, (2) inviting participants into activities and games that create opportunities for play and risk and (3) reflect on how this impacts different approaches to creative research and arts pedagogy.
Thea Fitz-James
Thea Fitz-James (she/her) is a theatre academic and practitioner. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies from York University and is an adjunct assistant professor at Queen’s University. She’s developed two solo shows which have toured the Fringe circuit internationally. She is a white, queer, ‘Mad’, cis-gendered settler. For more: https://www.theafitzjames.com/
e clayton Scofield
e clayton scofield (clay, they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and poet who works between and across media to create long-form experiments in self-making and becoming as play. Their creative practice produces documents—including field notes, sculptural artifacts, maps, multichannel video, and performance scores—that are presented through publication, performance, and exhibition. For more: https://lizclaytonscofield.com/