Panel: Community-Engaged Art and Accessibility

Location: Zoom Room A / Salle Zoom A

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8075386377?pwd=QGMSB3uhyUxwIbvOIzkUanoMoqRkOX.1

• Julia Henderson and John Jack Paterson, “Ageing in the Performing Arts Test Kitchen: A Performance Analysis of Anti-Ageist Active Access Design”

The number and quality of opportunities for theatre professionals (performers, directors, stage managers, designers etc.) diminishes as they age, limiting their opportunities for creative expression, their ability to sustain an active and meaningful career, and their opportunities for income and associated benefits such as extended health care coverage. Professionals with disabilities can likewise encounter barriers to access and participation. The intersection of ageism and ableism is still an emerging area of study. This paper’s authors developed the community-engaged, Canada Council-funded intergenerational Creatus Project to explore these issues, holding that creative approaches have the potential to challenge existing ageist and ableist structures and practices, and open up opportunities for old(er) professionals and performers living with disabilities, and to create intergenerational connections which have the potential to shift the industry over time. This paper represents a performance analysis of a public sharing event devised by the Creatus Project’s Playwriting and Creation working group. “Ageing in the Performing Arts Test Kitchen” was presented at Vancouver’s Performing Arts Lodge. Using observations of the production, audience feedback, and participant brief reflections, we analyse how the performance employed creative accessibility strategies (including virtual participation), and shared content about ageism, ableism, and potential creative solutions related to design, directing, rehearsing and production, playwriting and devising, and institutional structures within the industry (e.g. unions, grant structures). We argue that the performance highlighted key issues related to the little-studied intersections of ageism and ableism in theatre, furthered practices of accessibility and inclusion, and foregrounded the importance of intergenerational approaches.

• Willow Martin, “Internally Motivated Performance Theory as Defined Through an Autistic Performance Tradition”

As Western Performance traditions continue to develop, predominant methodologies remain rooted in the Aristotelian theories of realism. His central notion of the “Well-Balanced” narrative is rooted in its substantiation through an established singular “Real” by which it defines its credulity. In order to establish this singular “Real”, the tradition characterizes reality through an external, essentially visual, lens. In doing so, the tenets of the practice become enmeshed in empirical rigidity, and therefore ostracize any group outside the normative experience. As a result, contemporary performance traditions isolate diverse experiences, and when attempting to portray these realities, reinforce harmful stereotypes which characterize traits through an external perspective. In defining neuro-diverse traditions, this aspect of practice becomes essential, as much of the process of identity building, and therein large parts of what Aristotle labels the plot structure, happen internally. Therefore, large parts of neuro-diverse narratives become obscured from histories, or remain entirely untold. This paper asserts a claim to an Autistic performance tradition through conversation with the seminal Aristotelian text, Poetics, as well as excerpts from Plato’s Republic. Performing a cross-examination with the journey of “Norma Khan”, the Autistic deuteragonist of the animated show Dead End: Paranormal Park, this paper questions and problematizes the history and trajectory of realist performance traditions. As Autistic identities are largely defined by “co-productions” of mimesis (as characterized by Katrina Dunn): this paper centralizes the idea of hybrid, internally motivated, uniquely embodied sensorial definitions of “Real”, and thereby establishes the foundation for an Autistic performance tradition.

• Jessica Watkin, Macy Siu, Leslie Ting, and Blythe Haynes, “Anchoring Accessibility: Developing Meaningful Accessibility in Theatre Practice”

In the past ten years there has been a growing desire to incorporate accessibility and Disabled audiences and artists into Canadian theatre, but not many tools to achieve this goal. Many artists and theatre organizations have good intentions, but there remains a gap between that desire and the actual practicalities of developing good relationships with Disabled audiences and artists through accessibility.  We suspect that to do accessibility well, and to be in good relationship with Disabled artists and audiences, artists require a meaningful engagement with accessibility in their creative process and practices. The Anchoring Accessibility Team (Jessica Watkin, Leslie Ting, Macy Siu, and Blythe Haynes) have developed a practise-based research project engaging with artist groups who are interested in cultivating accessibility practice into their creative process. Anchoring Accessibility has two distinct avenues: the research about how to foster trust and empower artists to develop meaningful accessibility practices individually and as groups; and a protocol that offers artists the tools to engage in more meaningful accessibility practices. Based in current accessibility practices, protocols, expectations, and limitations, Anchoring Accessibility takes on the labour of developing and fine-tuning a protocol – a collection of activities that an artist group can do to surface knowledge around access and identify gaps and goals for their processes. This presentation at CATR 2025 would provide an overview ofoutline the research process and development of the Anchoring Accessibility protocol, outline our findings and learnings, and give us space to discuss some of the current questions we are thinking about in relation to our current work and future iterations of the protocol.

Biographies

Julia Henderson

Julia Henderson is an Assist. Prof. in the Dept. of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at University of British Columbia, Canada. She is a registered OT and holds a PhD in Theatre. Her research with older adults uses arts-based methods, especially theatre, to redress cultural ageism and promote citizenship. Julia has published in ACH, JADT, TRiC/RTAC, and RiDE, and has recent chapters in Aging Studies and Ecocriticism, The Palgrave Handbook of Literature and Aging, and Pandemic Play.

Jack Paterson

Jack Paterson (he/him) is a Vancouver based award winning Director, Devisor, Translator, Dramaturg and Creative Producer. He was the the founder and producer of Mad Duck Theatre Collective (2001-2009), Vancouver’s only gender equity mandated theatre group, for who he adapted, produced and directed Vancouver first female Prospero and the Vancouver premieres of Titus Andronicus and Coriolanus. He is the founder of Bouche Theatre Collective, dedicated to bridging artists and audiences across distance, language and culture. He pioneered Active Access Deign, the integration of Access into the generative process with the international network of theatre makers Global Hive Labs. Recent credits include directing the Jessie nominated The Ballad of Georges Boivin (Western Gold Theatre, Vancouver), f+ International Collaboration Catalyst (flausen+ festival, Germany), and Wayang:4D with Sanggar Paripurna (Indonesia). Jack has producer or co-produced over 50 local, national and international projects, workshops and events.

Willow Martin

Willow Martin (She/They) is an MA student at the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. Willow’s research approaches questions of intersectionality and accessibility in performance contexts. Additionally, Willow works as a theatre practitioner, in a capacity as playwright, performer, producer, access consultant, and dramaturg.

Jessica Watkin

Dr. JESS WATKIN (she/they) finished her PhD at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies with research focusing on Disability Dramaturgy, care, and performance. She is a Blind artist, scholar, facilitator, educator, rug hooker, activist, and feminist. Her book Interdependent Magic: Disability Performance in Canada is the first anthology of Disability plays in Canada. She has publications in the Canadian Theatre Review, Yale Theater Magazine, Intermission magazine, and is editing an upcoming issue of Performance Matters titled dramaturgies of accessibility. She is a Disability dramaturg working in Canada.

Leslie Ting

With performances described as “breathtaking” (Onstage), and “eloquent” (Wholenote) violinists and interdisciplinary artists, Leslie Ting has been creating groundbreaking, music-driven multimedia performances since 2014 with her definitive work, Speculation. Garnering multiple award nominations, Leslie’s work combines her background as a classical musician with creative work in theatre, new media and experience as a former practicing optometrist.

Macy Siu

MACY SIU (she/her) is an artist, design researcher, and strategist who is driven by expression and empowerment tied to the hyphen of in-between spaces. Working at the intersection of art, law, and design, she turns to design processes as a tool to better understand change and drive more society-centered solutions. She is a service designer in the public sector, and educator at George Brown College, and is part of the Toronto-based foresight studio, From Later.

Blythe Haynes

BLYTHE HAYNES (she/her). Actor, Theatre Maker & Co-Artistic Director Gangway Theatre Co. Blythe holds her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from University of Alberta, but calls Toronto home, Gangway’s work Digital Divergence, a design first play creation process centering on who we are in different mediums (text, video and in person), is currently a finalist for the Cayle Chernin Equity Showcase Award. She stars and is a producer on the short film & Other Concerns, which debuted at the Big Apple Film Festival (NYC) and the Female Eye Film Festival (Toronto) in 2024, and was a co-organizer and performer on the reading 8 Men Speak (Theatre Centre). Blythe’s play Uplifting Stories for Seniors recently won second place in the 2025 Toronto Fringe 24 Hour Playwriting Contest.