Performer: Tracey Guptill
Location: Studio II – Concordia University
In-Person
My performance-based research-creation (currently in research stages, with a performance date in April 2024) is situated at the juncture of ecofeminism, embodied relationality and settler accountability. In “The Performative Power of Vocality”, Magnat highlights the reciprocal and relational aspects of breath, voice, and resonance. She asserts (2021) that “exploring the body-voice connection enables the performer to experience an interconnection between the organicity of the human body and the organicity of the natural world ” (40). The vocal act reaches beyond logocentric thinking and has the potential to reconcile the fracture between humanity and the natural world, to inspire a feeling of being a part of a living ecology. I take Magnat’s assertion as a point of departure for my research and for devising a performance with vocality at its dramaturgical base. My piece will address the complexities and impacts of working in relation to land as a white settler of European ancestry. This calls for the continued unpacking of my ancestral connections to the land on which I perform (Lachance, 2018), but also that I do not participate in the erasure of Indigenous materiality (Tuck and Mackenzie, 2015). Archival research and experimentation will be key axes of my performance method, which will emphasize respect for Indigenous peoples and be in conversation with Indigenous creators such as: Monica Mojica, Jani Lauzon, Cheryl L’Hirondelle.
Tracey Guptill, Queen’s University
Tracey is a PhD student of cultural studies, working in research-creation, using the actor’s tools – of body and voice – to reconnect settlers to the earth and engage with accountability. As artistic director of anARC Theatre, and co-creator of the company’s coLABoratory method, she devises unexpected, inter-disciplinary theatre.