Location: Shu Box (Riddell Centre, University of Regina)
• Alexandra Sproule, Naty Tremblay, Sedina Fiati, Faith-Ann Mendes, and Mojo Noble, “Switching Regina”
| Place-based theatre making can cut through stories of ‘exterior’ that actually turn out to be ‘interior’ stories when we interrogate them. Many of our stories of the world are overgeneralized, shaped by past realities and experiences that overshadow the present, or devised by people far from where we are. How does storytelling change when it is shaped by our streets, sidewalks, and parks – the places we frequent as part of our daily lives? How are our relationships with these exteriors changed when we weave them intentionally into our stories? Switch centers the unique knowledge systems, activism and artistic expressions of LGBTQ2S+, BIPOC, and intersectionality marginalized folks who varyingly experience the world as fat, mad, disabled, working class and/or criminalized. Switch devises work through a decolonial and transformative justice framework of inqueery that leverages rigorous archival research, deep site based learning, interdisciplinary collaboration and “switchy improv” to create new works in perpetual movement. After a short introduction to the Switch methodology, this workshop will offer an embodied exploration of the interplay between ‘interior’ and ‘exterior’ informed by the people and pasts/presents/futures of the place we are in. Both theatre practitioners AND non-theatre practitioners can engage in transdisciplinary Switch methodologies. In advance, Switch will connect with local queer and trans collaborators and identify existing site-relevant contextualizing research materials. Participants will experiment with Switch’s ‘inqueery’ process, an embodied form of research. They will be invited to respond to prompts designed for the space we are in using written, audio, movement-based, or visual responses, setting their own boundaries around their comfort level. Switch’s semi-improvisational inqueery and performance work invites ‘no’ and ‘maybe’ in addition to ‘yes’, necessary for collaboration rooted in deep consent and consensus. |
Biographies
The Switch Collective
| The Switch Collective is an interdisciplinary performance troupe in Tk’aronto that has been co-producing new research-creation methodologies and roving political performance works for the public sphere since 2018. The Switch Collective pushes creative and political boundaries by blending mediums and moving art & ideas through unexpected public spaces. Switch website: https://www.switch-collective.com/#/ |