Moderator: Taiwo Afolabi
Location: Room 1177 – Pavilion André Aidenstadt – 2920 chemin de la tour – Université de Montréal
(Building 19 on the UdM Map)
In-Person Session
Building Bridges: Mestiza Methodologies in Latina Canadian Theatre
This paper presentation utilizes mixed methodologies to deconstruct how the Latina identity is conveyed in Canadian theatre. Latina identities in Canadian theatre and media are often under/misrepresented, leaving the Latina body and identity off-stage and hidden in the wings. Though Latina artists like Carmen Aguirre, Beatriz Pizano and Lina de Guevara are prime examples of bridging their Latina identities in Canadian contexts, there is still far more to showcase and more to deconstruct. Thus, Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/Las Fronteras and Amanda Cordova’s “Mestiza Methodology” serve as inspired practice for this presentation in hopes of engaging in decolonized forms of dialogue around this topic through a mixed Latina and Indigenous lens. I hope to engage in the discourse of Latina bodies represented on Canadian stages using Mestiza methodologies to de/reconstruct the bridges made between Latin/South American and Canadian Theatre.
Yasmine Agocs, University of Toronto
Yasmine Agocs is a first-year PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. She earned her MA in Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph and her BA in Dramatic Arts at Brock University. In her MA, she conducted creative research on the relationship between scriptwriting, memory, and identity. Her current research interests lie in Latinx Theatre in Canada, collective memory in the community, and Latina representation on stage.
Redistributing the Sensible through Performance Art: A Rancièrian Approach to Social Justice
Jacques Rancière, a French philosopher and aesthetician, does not explicitly discuss the concept of justice in his writings. However, his interpretation of politics as the redistribution of the sensible offers a practical framework for understanding the role of performance art in promoting social justice. Due to its aesthetic nature, this research explores how performance art can serve as a form of dissensus against the established order. It gives visibility and voice to silenced and marginalized groups, ultimately leading to justice.
By challenging dominant discourses and amplifying marginalized voices, performance art can pave the way for impeaching the holders of power and staging justice. The “woman_life_freedom” movement in Iran exemplifies this concept, where performance art has transformed public spaces into a dynamic stage for protest and resistance, challenging state control and subverting the regime’s iconography with symbols of female empowerment.
The movement’s artistic expressions, encompassing songs, installations, poems, and performances, have amplified the voices of Iranian women, articulating their demands for equality and bodily autonomy. These artistic interventions have resonated globally, giving the movement a powerful voice and fostering a sense of collective agency among Iranian women and their supporters in staging justice.
Performance art’s ability to challenge the established order lies in its capacity to redistribute the sensible, disrupting audiences’ expectations and forcing them to reconsider their assumptions about art and the world. It is accomplished through unconventional forms of expression, such as non-traditional materials and techniques. Sharing art in public spaces has empowered individuals to challenge authorities and subvert traditional artistic norms.
In conclusion, performance art, guided by Rancière’s concept of redistributing the sensible, can play a transformative role in pursuing social justice. By challenging the status quo, amplifying marginalized voices, and fostering collective agency, performance art can contribute to a more equitable and just society.
Amin Azimi, University of Toronto
Amin Azimi is a Ph.D. student at CDTPS, University of Toronto. His fields of interest include Dramaturgy in the twenty-first century, Aesthetics and Dramaturgical aspects of Post-Dramatic Theatre, and The policies of production and representation of Iranian social movements on international theatre stages. In addition to publishing academic articles in international journals such as Asian Theatre Journal, Alternatives Théâtrales, and Theater der Zeit, he has directed and created several short films.
Fringe as Performance Methodology
This paper explores the model of the Canadian Associations of Fringe Festival (CAFF) and fringe as a performance style.
CAFF Fringes operate on a unique curation model where all festival participants are chosen via lottery. While no two fringe shows are alike, this open-access platform attracts a certain style of performance. In his book, Fringe and Fortune, Wesley Shrum describes the performance style of the fringe as a “postmodern phantasm”: “Fringe has never meant outcast or pariah. As a modifier it’s wonderfully evocative, connoting creativity, scruffiness, oddity, scandal, frivolity, youthfulness, frothiness, and frippery… But it is also a frontier, a limit, a periphery” (64-65). Looking at the model of fringe as postmodern phantasm and reading it alongside recognized postmodern art movements (Fluxus, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art), this paper positions fringe as a performance strategy and methodology. Here, opening night is not the end of the performance process, but the beginning; fringe is an art style that sees theatre as a material medium developed through performance.
Drawing on my experience teaching a fringe class this fall, I come to this topic as both a fringe artist and someone who is interested in the creation method of artists on the fringe (and how that method might be implemented in pedagogy). Curious to decouple fringe from words like “popular”, “non-professionalizing,” or even “amateur” this paper makes an argument for fringe as a postmodern performance methodology that can be implemented in pedagogy and community relationality.
Shrum, Wesley. Fringe and fortune: The role of critics in high and popular art. Princeton University Press, 1996.
Thea Fitz-James, Queen’s University
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/