Moderator: Heather Davis-Fisch
Location: Room 4265 – 3200 rue Jean-Brillant – Université de Montréal
(Building 27 on the UdM map)
In-Person Session
Sponsored by the Fountain School of Performing Arts – Dalhousie University
Disability Theatre in Canada: Working Together and Closing the Gaps in the East
The paper that I am proposing was published in Canada Theatre Review’s special issue (Spring 2022) and is the foundational layer of my MA research. My paper, Disability Theatre in Canada: Working Together and Closing the Gaps in the East, serves to locate and map the terrain of the D/deaf and disability arts scene across Canada. While there is an abundance of scholarship, arts practices, and widely used accessibility practices in western provinces, little is known about the scene in Canada’s eastern provinces, leaving a clear gap. This work responds to the gap by examining the cultural differences in four of Canada’s cities/regions: Vancouver, BC; Toronto, ON; Montréal, QC; and the Atlantic provinces (NS, NB, PEI, NFLD). I argue that the accessibility, disability, and linguistic (anglophone v. francophone) cultural differences affect the way disabled artists create work and how diverse audiences (disabled and non-disabled) respond to their creative practices. Using ethnographic methods, I draw from my lived experiences working as a disabled artist-scholar in connection with the above-mentioned provinces. Interwoven with my experiences, I borrow from leading Canadian Disability theatre scholars, Dr. Kirsty Johnston, Dr. Ash McAskill, Dr. Kelsie Acton, and Québécoise disability studies scholar, Laurence Parent. While this paper locates and understands the gap by highlighting key cultural differences, a larger question and issue at stake that requires action arises: How do we create a bilingual network where disabled artists can create a cross-national D/deaf and disability arts community to share resources, knowledge, and practices, eliminating the gap?
Jenn Boulay, Concordia University
Jenn Boulay is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar. She is pursuing her MA at Concordia University in Communication Studies. Her current research interrogates D/deaf and Disability Arts in Montréal, Québec, and Atlantic Canada, to better understand the gaps between the eastern and western provinces. Her work has been published in CTR, TRIC, and Knots: An Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies.
“Diversité capacitaire”, Disability Aesthetics and Pedagogical Practice: from Inclusion to Expansion
Within the past 10 years several inclusive dance and theatre companies that promote “diversité capacitaire” have emerged in Québec, such as Corpuscule Dance or Joe Jack et John. These companies have developed innovative productions that confront the ways that able-ism is embedded in institutions and in social orders that are “intolerant of deviations” (Garland-Thompson, 1996). As Tobin Siebers reminds us, disability “participates in a system of knowledge that provides materials for and increases critical consciousness about the way that some bodies make other bodies feel.” (2013). While critical disability aesthetics promote these values, they have yet to permeate higher education. Universities promote the values of “EDI” or Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, yet entry into programs remains difficult for many. This paper discusses an experiment in the inclusion of neuroatypical performers into 2 courses in Concordia’s Department of Theatre, given by professor Menka Nagrani, who brought artists from her company Les Productions des Pieds des Mains (DPDM), an integrated Theatre Company composed of performers with a range of intellectual differences, including autism and Down’s Syndrome. These guest students were invited to participate in a university setting and to share their work experience with Concordia students: as such, they became the first in the province to be enrolled in classes for University credit. Focusing on Nagrani’s pedagogical style and specific techniques, we discuss how her challenging aesthetic vision was integrated into a pedagogical practice that benefited all students. These principles and values were integrated into the course delivery and into the co-creation of an original 1 hour theatre production, First Name Basis (2023). Based on interviews and participant observation, we discuss how this project was made possible and how it fostered welcoming conditions for the students. As we argue, what is needed is for an expansion of the mandate of the University, of Theatre, and of our understanding of aesthetics from a position that promotes not only inclusion, but sets the conditions for “diversité capacitaire”.
Kim Sawchuk, Concordia University
Kim Sawchuk, is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University, Concordia University Research Chair in Mobile Media Studies Director of the ACTLab and engAGE: centre for research on aging. Sawchuk is well-known for her writings on research-creation, and her promotion of Critical Disability Studies and Critical Age Studies.
Menka Nagrani
Menka Nagrani is an interdisciplinary artist, theatre director, and choreographer. She founded Les Productions des pieds des mains in 2004, an inclusive dance and theatre company. Her socially engaged dance and theatre productions and short films have been acclaimed worldwide. Menka Nagrani has received many awards for her work and was appointed to the Order of Canada, the Order of Montréal and L’Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Alexandre Prince, Concordia University
Alexandre Prince holds a BA in History from Université Laval and is currently working on his MA in Media Studies at Concordia University. He is a member of the ACT (Ageing + Communication + Technologies) Lab, where he conducts research on critical disability studies and inclusive pedagogies.