Postmarginal Edmonton 2.0:
Imagining Inclusive Performing Arts
Four days of practice workshops, roundtables, presentations, and special events. Forty diverse theatre artists. Imagining, exploring, and creating inclusive working environments in the performing arts.
May 21 – 24, 2024
University of Alberta, MacEwan University, North Saskatchewan River Valley, and Moment Discovery Laboratory
overview
Postmarginal Edmonton is a collective of theatre and performing artists, cultural workers and academics working locally in Edmonton within the broader Postmarginal project in Canada. From May 21st to 24th, 2024, diverse theatre artists met to imagine, explore and create inclusive working environments for the Edmonton performing arts scene. The four days of practice workshops, roundtables, presentations and special events were held at the University of Alberta and MacEwan University.
Building on the success of the first Postmarginal Edmonton retreat in 2021, the four days dove deeper into the approaches and ethics of inclusive performing arts creation and production. Over 40 Edmonton-based theatre and performing artists working with or within marginalities took part in the activities, and were paid for their presence. Participants included artists, theatre producers, directors, academics and diverse community members.
The content and development of this workshop was informed by a collective committee of over twenty people, and managed by a core committee of five people. Find out more about what went on and some of the reactions of participants below.
If you’re in the Edmonton area, you can get involved in future events. New activities will be announced in the near future. Please fill out this application form outlining your engagement with inclusive performing arts, your hopes or dreams in relation to inclusive performing arts in Edmonton, and your arts practice.
what the participants said
event content & schedule
practice workshops
This hands-on workshop in parallel with Casting Across Difference aims to encourage understanding of the ethical considerations of consciously casting outside of cultural identities.
Facilitated by drama therapist Bill Yong, this workshop will explore how our bodies and nervous systems respond to artistic spaces that treat us in undignified ways.
Art Babayants facilitates a workshop that uses untranslated languages as a basis for improvisation and performance.
Soni Dasmohapatra leads a practice-based exploration of the role of dance and movement in building empathy to navigate situations of conflict.
Roundtables
Using original research from Dene’Cho Thompson (University of Saskatchewan), Peter Farbridge (Postmarginal), Soni Dasmohapatra and Larrisa Poseluzny (MacEwan University), and informed by the emergent collaborative governance practice of Azimuth Theatre in Edmonton, this roundtable will focus on the theoretical and practical aspects of changing governance in theatre.
How can experiences of theatre creation coming from different perspectives and cultural backgrounds bring light into imagining a more inclusive performing arts community? This roundtable will involve conversation and practical examples to work towards decentering theatre creation in Edmonton.
Presentations
Deaf performer Connor Yuzwenko-Martin presents their work on Carbon Movements, a performance created using vibrotactile elements created by David Bobier and Jim Ruxton of the VibraFusionLab.
A short video of Montreal and Vancouver artists working with or between different neurological and disability perspectives to develop new dramaturgical ideas using interactive, immersive, and other technological devices.
Theatre artist Kristi Hansen explores the influence of the disabled body and mind as a collaborator in human-computing technology. Working with the research studio Moment Discovery, Kristi develops work that aims to move past the medical model of disability, and focus instead on the potential of body-tech as a social and creative tool for crip bodies and minds to be represented fully in the work.
A presentation by Deaf artist, Chris Dodd, discussing the aesthetics and use of technology within Deaf performance to enhance and stimulate their work. (30 minutes)
special events
Dr. Dwayne Donald leads us on a walk by the river to facilitate the emergence of new stories that can repair inherited colonial divides and give good guidance on how Indigenous peoples and Canadians can live together differently.
Members of Third Space Playback Theatre Edmonton collaborate with all the participants to synthesize the discoveries of the event and create a living memory for the future of the Postmarginal Edmonton collective.
schedule
contact
EVENT PROGRAM
Download the event program below. Printed copies will be available for reference on location.
INQUIRIES
Have questions? Please reach out to us via email at [email protected]
Partners:
