CATR Conference 2026
Dear CATR 2026 Participants,
Bienvenue au colloque de l’ACRT 2026! This year, CATR members join together to celebrate and reflect on our beloved Association’s first 50 years and to blue-sky imagine our next 50! Throughout the conference you’ll find traces of conferences’ past drawn from archives and personal collections, and you’ll hear varied visions of our future complimented by usual world-class scholarship and our cherished institutional partners.
In person in Victoria, BC and here online, we acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day. It has been a pleasure to work with faculty and graduate students at the University of Victoria’s Department of Theatre to make a reality CATR 2026: Inheritances in Transition—Rehearsing Change for Theatre and Performance Futures. Please join CATR’s Board and me in thanking co-chairs Sasha Kovacs and Sarah Robbins; past co-chair Kara Flanagan and conference assistants Atefeh Zargarzadeh and Narges Montakhabi Bakhtvar; and our Conference Organizing Team, Programming Committee, and Local Arrangements Committee for their hard work throughout the year!
Je vous invite à vous joindre à moi et au conseil d'administration de l'ACRT afin de remercier les coprésidentes Sasha Kovacs et Sarah Robbins, l’ancienne coprésidente Kara Flanagan, ainsi que les assistantes du colloque, Atefeh Zargarzadeh et Narges Montakhabi Bakhtvar ; notre équipe d'organisation du colloque, le comité de programmation ainsi que le comité des arrangements locaux pour leur travail acharné tout au long de l'année !
On a personal note, if I may, this year marks 26 years since I first became a member of CATR. Serving as your President for the past 4 years and a Board Member for most years since 2013, it has been my primary goal to see that CATR feels as welcoming now to scholars and artists as it did in the year 2000 in Edmonton when I was a graduate student. Our Association has never been so large and so attuned to the diversity of drama, theatre, and performance scholarship as it is today, thanks to you.
I can’t wait to see what the next 50 years will bring in your hands! J’ai hâte de voir ce que les 50 prochaines années vous réservent !
Sincerely,
Robin C. Whittaker
CATR President / Président de l’ACRT
Message from the Co-Chairs / Message des organisateurs
It is our great pleasure to welcome you to Inheritances in Transition: Rehearsing Change for Theatre and Performance Futures. C'est un grand plaisir pour nous de vous accueillir à Héritages en transition : répéter le changement pour le théâtre et les arts de la scène du futur. This conference marks a significant anniversary gathering for CATR/ACRT, taking place alongside concurrent milestone celebrations across the country from many organizations whose work is reflected throughout the conference.
These anniversary occasions offer much to celebrate. At the same time, they unfold amid ongoing crises within our field: the suppression of institutional critique, backlash against advances in equity, diversity, and inclusion, growing recognition of the unsustainability of inherited educational models, and many other challenges demanding rigorous reflection on the layered inheritances that shape our practices and institutions. In this context, our conference invites attendees into a collective inquiry of how we inherit, adapt, resist, and imagine anew.
In co-organizing this event, our intrepid local arrangements and programming team has drawn on the inheritances of past conference practices (we raise our hands to all past organizers) while also asking where we might depart from those traditions in order to cultivate new futures for the Association. We are especially proud to be facilitating broader engagement from local artists in our praxis workshops and publicly funded events. We are also delighted to welcome the contributions and partnership from La Société québécoise d’études théâtrales (SQET); we encourage attendees to engage with both the exhibition in the lobby and the special collaborative roundtable that highlights this important partnership. Nous sommes également ravis d’accueillir la contribution et le partenariat de la Société québécoise d’études théâtrales (SQET) ; nous invitons les participants à découvrir l’exposition présentée dans le hall ainsi que la table ronde collaborative spéciale organisée en collaboration mettant en lumière cet important partenariat.
A central focus of this gathering has also been to recognize the legacy of the Association’s founders and past presidents; we warmly invite you to join us in celebrating these contributions at the University Club reception on day one, and throughout the conference. Acknowledging that students and emerging scholars make up the largest constituency within CATR, we worked to create space for the next generation of artist-scholars to reflect on and respond to the ideas, perspectives, and practices shared throughout the conference. In special panels and roundtables across the event, we also highlight the work of past scholarly award recipients, and Association leaders (past, present, and future).
We encourage you to participate fully in the wide range of panels, roundtables, plenaries, keynote presentations, performances, praxis workshops, and social gatherings across the conference. We hope this event inspires your own transformation, shaping your future contributions to our shared purposes and work.
Drs. Sasha Kovacs and Sarah Robbins
Conference Co-Chairs on behalf of the programming and local arrangements committees
CATR Conference 2026 Supporters
Conference Credits / Crédits du colloque
Board of Directors (2025-2026)
Elected Positions / Postes Électifs
President / Président(e)
Robin C. Whittaker (2022-2026)
Vice President / Vice-Président(e)
Kailin Wright (2025-2027)
Atlantic Region / Région de l’Atlantique
Stephanie Dotto (2025-2027)
Quebec / Québec
Liviu Dospinescu (2022-2026)
Ontario
Julija Pesic (2025-2027)
Prairie Region / Région des Prairies
Sara Schroeter (2025-2027)
Alberta and the Territories / Alberta et les Territoires
Justin Blum (2022-2026)
British Columbia / Colombie-Britannique
[vacant]
Representatives-at-large / Membre sans désignation régionale
Jimena Ortúzar (2024-2026)
Heunjung Lee (2025-2027)
Francophone Representative / Représentant(e) francophone
Cassandre Chatonnier (2023-2027)
Graduate Student Representatives / Représentant(e)s des étudiant(e)s des cycles supérieurs
Jenn Boulay (2024-2026)
Nicola Sibthorpe (2025-2027)
Unaffiliated Scholar Representative / Représentant(e) des chercheurs/chercheuses sans affiliation institutionnelle
Sarah Robbins (2024-2026)
Appointed Members
Treasurer / Trésorier
Annie Gibson
Secretary / Secrétaire
Moira Day
Membership Coordinator / Coordinateur(-teur/trice) des membres
Heidi Malazdrewich
Conference Chairs / Président(es) du colloque
Sasha Kovacs, Kara Flanagan (Aug-Jan), Sarah Robbins (Feb-Jun)
Elections Officer / Responsable des élections
Thea Fitz-James
Communications Officer / Responsable de communication
Sebastian Samur
Equity Officer / Responsable de l'équité
[vacant]
Scholarly Awards Coordinator / Coordina(-teur/trice) des prix d'excellence
Jimena Ortúzar
Scholarships and Grants Coordinator / Coordina(-teur/trice) des bourses
Emily Rollie
Board Accessibility Coordinator / Coordina(-teur/trice) de l'accessibilité du conseil d'administration
Jenn Boulay
Mentorship Coordinator / Coordina(-teur/trice) du mentorat
[vacant]
Archival Committee Chair / Président(e) du comité des archives
Jessica Riley
Working Group Liaison / Agent de liaison avec les groupes de travail
Justin Blum
Liaison to SQET / Agente de liaison entre l’ACRT et la SQET
Cassandre Chatonnier
Ex-Officio Members / Membres Ex Officio
Past President / Ancien(ne) président(e)
[vacant]
Conduct Committee Representative / Représentant(e) du comité de déontologie
Jess Watkin
Liaison from SQET / Agente de liaison entre la SQET et l’ACRT
Jane Koustas
Community Member / Membre de la communauté
[vacant]
Staff
Conference Manager / Gestionnaire du colloque
Dave DeGrow
Communications Coordinator / Coordina(-teur/trice) des communications
Sebastian Samur
Standing Committees
Nominations Committee / Comité des mises en candidature
Thea Fitz-James (Elections Officer/responsable des élections), Matt Jones, Alessandro Simari
Committee on Conduct / Comité de déontologie
Jess Watkin (elected member), Selena Couture, Andy Houston, Signy Lynch
Archival Committee / Comité des archives
Jess Riley (chair/présidente), Moira Day, Kim McLeod, Robin C. Whittaker, Stephen Donnelly
Communications Committee / Comité des communications
Sebastian Samur (chair/président), Giorelle Diokno, Jenn Boulay, Robin C. Whittaker
Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Committee / Comité de l’antiracisme et de l’anti-oppression
Jimena Ortúzar (chair/présidente), Robin C. Whittaker, Jenn Boulay, Cassandre Chatonnier, Alex Ferrone, Taylor Graham, Andy Houston, Shelley Liebembuk, Carla Melo, Heunjung Lee
Ad Hoc Committees
Ad Hoc Data and Information Sharing Committee
Robin C. Whittaker (chair/président), Heidi Malazdrewich, Thea Fitz-James
Ad Hoc Recognitions Committee / Comité ad hoc des distinctions
Jimena Ortúzar (chair/présidente), Cassandre Chatonnier, Karen Fricker, Benjamin Gillespie, Robin C. Whittaker
Ad Hoc 50th Anniversary Committee / Comité ad hoc du 50e anniversaire
[committee members]
Ad Hoc CATR 50th/Gatherings Oral Histories Subcommittee / Sous-comité ad hoc des récits oraux du 50e anniversaire de CATR/Gatherings
[committee members]
Joint TheatreAgora Committee (with SQET) / Comité mixte ThéâtreAgora (avec la SQET)
[committee members]
Conference Committees
Conference Organizing Committee / Comité d’organisation du colloque
[committee members]
Programming Committee / Comité du programme
[committee members]
Local Arrangements Committee
[committee members]
Translation Committee
[committee members]
Website
Dave DeGrow, Cameron Clark, Sebastian Samur, Giorelle Diokno
Recognitions Committees / Comité des prix et distinctions
Special Thanks
Professional Staff at the University of Victoria Department of Theatre: Tim O’Gorman, Simon Farrow, and James Thurmeier;
Songhees Events and Catering;
Principal Investigator of Gatherings Project, Dr. Stephen Johnson;
Department of Theatre Chair, Dr. Yasmine Kandil;
UVic Faculty of Fine Arts Dean, Dr. Allana Lindgren;
Students of THEA310;
All conference attendees for your patience, brilliance, and willingness to go with the flow
TheatreAgora Project Funding
