Moderator: Roberta Barker
Location: Zoom Room B
ASL Interpretation will be provided
Breaking Down the Boundaries Between Health and Law through Theatre: A Research-Based Play on Medical Assistance in Dying
Drama has long been used to explore contested social issues. By evoking solid emotional connections and helping audiences visualize complex problems, theatre bridges boundaries between disciplines and allows difficult conversations to play out in an accessible way.
In 2015, the Canadian criminal code was amended to legalize physician-assisted suicide, opening the door to a huge bioethical debate. Included in the new legislation was a clause indicating that people with mental illness will be eligible for MAiD in 2023. With MAiD itself still highly contested, allowing people with suicidal ideation and various mental illnesses to qualify
presents an even greater moral dilemma.
This paper presentation will describe the process of writing an original research-based theatre piece on Medical Assistance in Death (MAiD) in Canada, exploring the boundaries between health and law through theatre. The play combines realistic and absurdist elements intending to leave audiences without concrete answers to this highly debated topic. The aim is to educate, spark deep reflection, and possibly change beliefs. This presentation will outline the research process and current context of MAiD legislation in Canada. Details of the playwriting process and a script sample will be shared to illustrate how research-based theatre effectively engages with difficult conversations that bridge multiple disciplines. Ultimately, the presentation will engage people in a theatrical exploration of one of our time’s most pressing bioethical issues, leaving attendees, just like an audience watching this play, uncertain about our future reality.
Michaela Hill (Dalhousie University – Law Student) & Hartley Jafine (McMaster University – Professor)
Bio: Michaela is a McMaster alumni and first-year law student at Dalhousie. She is interested in using theatre to explore the intersection between health and law. Michaela’s undergraduate thesis, supported by Hartley Jafine, culminated in a research-based play about Medical Assistance in Dying Legislation in Canada.
Accessibility is Communication: Embedding Accessibility into the Script
This presentation is a research-creation project that examines non-dominant modes of communication that serve as tools of access/accessibility for audience members in theatre and performance spaces. The non-dominant modes of communication I will bring forward are audio description, American Sign Language (ASL), Live Captioning, Textile Props, etc.
I intend to both challenge and examine the power relations and claimed authority that dominant/normative modes of communication have had over those that have been historically oppressed. Throughout my presentation, I plan to share an excerpt of my play-in-progress, which embeds accessibility into the script and production design; and will serve as an example of how it can be done. This research-creation aims to illustrate the infinite possibilities while breaking down barriers that tend to exclude disabled bodies from the theatre. I will invite artists and scholars to think about their practices and how they do or do not engage with accessibility in their work. As accessibility has been historically ignored, I want to encourage people to bring it to the forefront of their work. While much effort was put into making online events accessible to audiences during the pandemic and shown to be effective, why not continue these practices while we return to in-person theatre. It is to be hopeful about the future of the theatre industry, which needs to be challenged and pushed forward, as theatre is meant to be a place to bring people together, not tear them apart.
Jenn Boulay, Concordia University
Bio: Jenn is an emerging interdisciplinary performance artist, creator, and scholar. She is a graduate student at Concordia University in Communication Studies and received her BA from the University of Toronto in 2022. Her current research project maps the terrain of D/deaf and Disability Arts in Montréal, Québec. In both her academic and artistic practice, Jenn is interested in finding ways to make the theatre more accessible to performers and audiences. Jenn’s academic and creative work has been published in Feminist Space Camp, Knots: An Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies, Theatre Research in Canada, Canadian Theatre Review, and UC Magazine, and she is the current editor for Knots.