Location: Design Room
Moderator: Narges Montakhabi
Jenn Boulay, “Accessible by Design: Building a Future of Inclusive Theatre through Creative Accessibility”
This paper examines how embedding accessibility practices–such as audio description and captioning–can enhance accessibility within the theatre. I argue that accessibility is not a “simple add-on” (Dokumaci n.p), but rather a fundamental form of communication that challenges the dominance of conventional methods of experiencing theatre. By integrating these practices into the creative process, I explore how they can dismantle ableist structures, fostering inclusivity and offering a more accessible and engaging theatrical experience. Drawing from two plays–The Year of the Cello by Marjorie Chan and Njo Kong Kie, and I am Magnificently Ugly by Jenn Boulay–that integrate audio description both into the script and production design, I demonstrate how accessibility practices can be woven into the creative process. This approach not only challenges traditional ableist assumptions, it creates a more accessible theatre environment for everyone.
The paper asks theatre artists and scholars to reflect upon their own practices, advocating for accessibility to be more than an “afterthought”. Gerry Ellis writes, “designing to only cater for the needs of the extraordinarily narrow band of what is considered ‘normal’ resulted in societies where large groups of potential consumers could not use some products and services” (35-36). The paper thus urges the theatre community to treat accessibility as a key component of their creative practices, ensuring that their work is truly accessible to a wide range of audiences. By doing so, we rehearse accessibility, transforming it into an artistic endeavour that provides new possibilities and perspectives for the future of inclusive theatre.
Shannon Constantine, “Rehearsing an Otherwise: Performing Abjection”
What does it mean to pursue abjection as an aesthetic and political strategy of minoritarian resistance? How do feminist performers use their own bodies to reveal inheritances of social and political abjection? My paper analyses two performances to answer these questions: Yoko Ono’s ‘Cut Piece’ and Priyanthi Amunugama’s ‘Mother’s Painting’. It suggests that feminist abject performances embrace a being otherwise and pursue what Leticia Alvarado calls “an elsewhere”. My paper engages rehearsal as both method and framework to approach theatricality and visuality in performance art, and to consider viewing as a key component of performance. It draws on theory from woman of colour feminisms and queer of colour critique, and on theories of abjection and the minoritarian. The paper examines femininity as a form of embodiment that is accompanied by an inescapable inheritance of abjection in all its complexity. It analyses inscrutability, animacy, and objecthood across both performances to trace abjection as a minoritarian strategy of resistance. I argue that feminist performers such as Ono and Amunugama manipulate abject positions and choose to linger in abjection despite its risks to make minoritarian social positions more visible and tangible, to refuse incorporation into ‘acceptable’ social positions and identity categories, and to pursue alternative forms of existence. Through this reading, I highlight abject feminist performance as a rehearsal for minoritarian being, where minoritarian being becomes an alternative framework of existence and persistence despite minoritarian subjects being relegated to the fringes of society.
Heidi Malazdrewich, “Keeping the Score: Including Trauma Informed Care/Practice in Professional Directorial Process”
Engaging with Judith Herman’s and Bessel Van Der Kolk’s definitions of trauma, this paper investigates how trauma informed practice/care is shifting the way some professional theatre directors are rehearsing and presenting plays. Beginning with a brief overview of the history of the study of trauma, it offers a sociological and physiological framework to understand the primary questions surrounding caring for people affected by trauma. Further, the paper cites recent North American surveys calling attention to the public’s relationship to trauma post-COVID 19 pandemic and tracks the emergence of trauma informed practice/care in professional theatre spaces. The paper employs James Thompson’s notion of the Aesthetics of Care and links it to post-pandemic Canadian theatre practices while offering Claire K. Redfield’s trauma responsive directorial approach as an example of trauma informed practice/care in action. Lastly, the paper links the emergence of trauma informed care/practice in theatre spaces to the, now common, inclusion of intimacy directors onto professional theatrical creative teams.
Biographies:
Jenn Boulay is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar with a passion for working at the intersections of theatre and performance studies and disability studies. Her Master’s thesis situates the D/deaf and disability arts landscape across Eastern Canada, with the culmination of her project being an interactive-sound installation.
Shannon Constantine is a Ph.D. candidate in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies at Brown University. Her current research interests lie in the architectures of state power and transnational violence. Her work has been published in ASAP Review, Society and Culture in South Asia, and Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies.
Dr. Heidi Malazdrewich is a director, intimacy director, dramaturg, actor, and theatre educator. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Winnipeg and has worked with theatre companies across Canada.