Canadian Performance Documents and Debates: A Sourcebook

Canadian Performance Documents and Debates provides insight into performance activities from the seventeenth century to the early 1970s, and probes important yet vexing questions about Canada as a country and a concept. The volume collects playscripts and archival material to explore what these documents tell us about the values, debates, and priorities of artists and their audiences from the past 400 years. Analyses throughout rethink the significance of theatre, dance, opera, circus, and other performance genres and events. This landmark collection challenges readers to reconsider Canadian theatre and performance history. Foreword by Jerry Wasserman.

Contributors: Clarence S. Bayne, Kym Bird, Justin A. Blum, Amy Bowring, Jill Carter, Jenn Cole, Cynthia Cooper, Heather Davis-Fisch, Moira J. Day, Ray Ellenwood, Alan Filewod, Howard Fink, Liza Giffen, J. Paul Halferty, James Hoffman, Erin Hurley, John D. Jackson, Stephen Johnson, Sasha Kovacs, Sylvain Lavoie, Louis Patrick Leroux, Allana C. Lindgren, Denyse Lynde, Erin Joelle McCurdy, Wing Chung Ng, Glen F. Nichols, M. Cody Poulton, VK Preston, Daniel J. Ruppel, Jordan Stanger-Ross, Paul J. Stoesser, Christl Verduyn, Anthony J. Vickery, Anton Wagner
About the Book:
• Canadian Performance Documents and Debates provides insight into theatrical activities from the seventeenth century to the early 1970s, and probes important yet vexing questions about "Canada" as a country and a concept.
• The volume collects playscripts and archival material such as photographs, petitions, performance programs, and musical scores to explore what these documents tell us about the values, debates, and priorities of artists and their audiences from the past 400 years.
• In 31 chapters, leading and emerging scholars offer introductions that rethink the artistic, economic, and socio-political significance of plays, dance, opera, circuses, and other performance genres and events.
• The volume displaces the traditional dominance of text-based theatrical activities while simultaneously acknowledging the rich diversity of the performing arts―dismantling the artificial distinctions between so-called high and low art.
• Foreword by Jerry Wasserman: an actor, critic, theatre scholar, and Emeritus Professor of English and Theatre at UBC.
• Contributors are from Alberta, BC, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland. Also, Texas and the UK.

"The original motivation for the book came from the frustration with the lack of appropriate teaching resources for Canadian drama before 1967. As we began work, the project quickly evolved to cover more than just play texts. We expanded our definition of performance."

Audience:
The book will be of interest to many audiences:
• Students and scholars of theatre, dance, music, and Performance Studies.
• Undergraduate and graduate courses (e.g. theatre, theatre history, dance, music, Performance Studies, Canadian Studies, Cultural Studies).
• Teachers at all levels from high school through post-graduate university.
• Scholars of Canadian culture.
• Theatre professionals, as well as scholars in other fields looking for a reference on current questions in Canadian theatre and performance.
• The general public interested in Canadian theatre and performance.

Anthony J. Vickery is Teaching Professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Victoria. Glen F. Nichols is Professor of Drama at Mount Allison University. Allana C. Lindgren is the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria.