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Storytelling through theatre is a powerful way to reach others.
Documentary Premiere!
Finding Radical Hope
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We are a research ensemble of diverse collaborators committed to exploring the power of drama to create social change.
In Conversation With
CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS Deadline: May 7, 2021 (5pm EST)
Proximity Lab is a Verbatim Theatre research-creation project that engages diverse theatremakers to imagine, discover, and test new “pandemic-proof” methods of presenting Verbatim Theatre to audiences while retaining the ethics of care, compassion, and multiplicity of voice which are central to our practices.
Music, movement, poetry, and social justice woven together in a celebration of life, art, and beauty.
Khari Wendell McClelland returns to The Cultch stage, joined virtually by local and international musicians, scholars, and poets in a multidisciplinary performance exploring the question: What is essential and needed in these times?
CODE Conversations
See here the launch of CODE Conversations with Matthew Sheahan, secondary teacher from Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board and President of the Council of Ontario Dance and Drama Educators interviewing Andrew Kushnir and Zorana Sadiq on their experiences with the Radical Hope research, the Towards Youth production, and their poignant thoughts on why Verbatim theatre is an especially important aesthetic with young people in these times.
Another World
MA grad Esther Maloney created this animated short film based on a poem she wrote for her son at the beginning of the pandemic, when the world was upside down and he was fascinated by sinking ships.
Project: Humanity supporting youth & artists through COVID-19
P:H's COVID-19 Artist Partnership Program (CAPP). provides essential support to youth in shelters by pairing participants with artists for weekly 1:1 online mentorship sessions in a discipline of their choosing.
Tiny Tuna Big Bee: motivating climate action through music
Introducing our friends Bebe, Oona and Tutu of homegrown Toronto band ‘Tiny Tuna Big Bee’, all 12 years old and writing music as a call to action about climate change.
Artists for Real Climate Action
Artists for Real Climate Action is a non-partisan, ever-growing collection of actors, filmmakers, writers, musicians, playwrights, graphic designers, directors, and digital marketing folks all sounding the alarm over our climate crisis
Upcoming Events
- May 19, 2021: Dr. Gallagher will facilitate the panel presentation, "Youth, Ethnography, Climate Justice and the Arts: Advancing an Imaginative, Ethical and Impactful Socio-Ecological Justice Inquiry with Youth through Drama-Based Research" at the 17th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. Panelists: Christine Balt, Nancy Cardwell, Munia Tripathi, and Lindsay Valve.
- June 10, 2021: Dr. Gallagher will present with Christine Balt, Nancy Cardwell, Munia Tripathi, and Lindsay Valve at CATR-SQUET 2021. Presentation title: From Crisis and Recovery to Discovery: Innovation and Connection Across Virtual and Global Landscapes.
- June 26, 2021: Dr. Gallagher will facilitate the panel presentation, "Lost and Found: The Space of Theatre-Making in a Time of Crises" at the Children, Youth and Performance Conference at Young People’s Theatre. Panelists: Christine Balt, Nancy Cardwell, Brooke Charlebois, Danielle Denichaud, Munia Tripathi, and Lindsay Valve.
- TBD 2021: Dr. Gallagher will present the keynote address at the 4th ELTE Workshop for Arts Education, Live the Culture - Play, Arts Education and Science (Budapest, Hungary).
Latest News
Building new publics: Using agile, community-engaged, and applied theatre methodologies as social intervention in audience research
In this article, Dr. Kathleen Gallagher, with PhD candidates Lindsay Valve and Christine Balt, illustrate how an ‘agile’ research methodology acts as both inquiry and social intervention, and provides theatre artists and practitioners with novel ways to become more intentional about building engaged, intergenerational audiences.
Vulnerability, care and hope in audience research
In this article, Dr. Kathleen Gallagher, with PhD candidates Christine Balt and Lindsay Valve, consider the theatre as a vital site for the formation of an ‘intergenerational polis’ by looking to how the affective labour performed by a theatre audience creates an ‘ethics of care’, gesturing to the importance of attuning to ‘dissensus’ in audience research.
New Article by Dr. Kathleen Gallagher & Andrew Kushnir in Theatre Research in Canada
Read Dr. Gallagher's new article about the transformation of her 5-year, multi-sited ethnographic research into an original documentary play in collaboration with embedded playwright Andrew Kushnir.
Response to COVID-19 – losing and finding one another in drama: personal geographies, digital spaces and new intimacies
In this article, Dr. Kathleen Gallagher, with graduate students Christine Balt, Nancy Cardwell & Brooke Charlebois, engage with the sudden pivot to online learning and research, revealing a complex portrait of youth, connection, and the digital world at a time of physical distancing; and reflecting on what drama practices might be mobilised to invite intimacy into online learning.
Asia's Most Influential:
Dr. Urvashi Sahni
Congratulations to our collaborator. Dr.Urvashi Sahni, for being named one of Asia’s Most Influential people. Dr. Sahni is a women’s rights activist, CEO and founder of Study Hall Educational Foundation in India, which offers educational programs for vulnerable young people.