Moderator / Animé par: Sara Schroeter
Location: Golden Room, Atlas Hotel

• Barry Freeman and Rebecca Burton, “PLEDGE@10: Inequities in the Repertoire of Theatre Training Programs in Canada”

If you are a woman, two-spirit, trans, or non-binary (W2STNB) student studying acting at one of the 77 post-secondary schools offering theatre training in Canada, the plays you perform in during your studies will be written predominantly by straight, white men. At auditions, you find yourself competing with the approximately 70% majority of female students for supporting roles, while the 30% minority male students compete for more varied lead roles (MacArthur, “Achieving Equity”). If you are an additionally minoritized student, perhaps Black, Indigenous, or trans, you would be even less likely to see roles reflective of your lived experience. W2STNB find themselves “outside” the stories being told, underserved by their training institutions, and disadvantaged entering the industry, despite paying the same tuition. 
In this paper, the research team of PLEDGE (an acronym for a Production Listing to Enhance Diversity and Gender Equity) will present findings from a new repertoire survey of post-secondary theatre programs in Canada. “PLEDGE@10” is a follow-up study to historical reports demonstrating inequities in theatre training (Fraticelli; Burton; Hansen and Elser; MarArthur) and it marks the 10th anniversary of the PLEDGE Project, which is a database of nearly 600 large cast (6 characters or more) plays by Canadian woman, two-spirit, trans, and non-binary creators (www.pledgeproject.ca), co-founded by Rebecca Burton and Barry Freeman. PLEDGE@10 will add to existing knowledge by: i) tracking gender, race, sexual orientation, and ability in repertoire representation, ii) analyzing a full five-years of repertoire across the country, and iii) including French-language schools.

• Kristy Smith, “Kissing Onstage: Canadian Drama Teachers’ Caring Practices for Staged Intimacy”

High school drama teachers often take on the role of artistic director for extracurricular school plays and musicals, which sometimes requires embodying the role of an intimacy coordinator as well. Many musicals performed in high schools build up to a kiss between two characters as the climactic moment of the story, and such moments receive thunderous applause from audiences comprised of students’ peers, families, and teachers. These moments provoke the question: what does it mean to have high school students perform elements of intimacy for community audiences? What practices are Canadian high school drama teachers using to guide students through staged intimacy, physical contact, or performed moments of emotional vulnerability – both in rehearsal for productions, and in drama classrooms?
In this presentation, I share insights from an interview study with high school drama teachers across Canada to showcase how care, caregiving, and creating communities of care among students are fundamental to drama pedagogy. Through sharing narratives from drama teachers, I illustrate how they foster communal caring in somewhat unorthodox ways. These narratives showcase how teachers mobilize care through relationship building, artistic work, and educational encounters that ignite students’ bodies, minds, and senses to foster greater connections with the world around them. I conclude by sharing a curated list of drama teachers’ ‘best practices’ for guiding students through challenging scene work in caring ways. These findings are particularly relevant following COVID-19 as we navigate bringing students back into embodied, collaborative learning that happens through sharing physical and emotional space with others.

Biographies

Barry Freeman

Barry Freeman is the Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. (Note we will be joined by our research team of two students, names TBD in the new year).

Rebecca Burton

Rebecca Burton is the Membership and Contracts Manager at the Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC), as well as the co-founder of Equity in Theatre (2014 – 2017).

Kristy Smith

Kristy is a Doctoral Candidate in the Faculty of Education at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her research explores how high school drama teachers build relationships with and care for students, particularly when navigating scenework that incorporates physical intimacy, emotional vulnerability, explorations of identity, and mature or controversial topics.