Canada, Irishness and Performance: Opening the Debate


Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto
April 15-16, 2011

 

Program

All sessions will be held at the Robert Gill Theatre, Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, unless otherwise noted. For directions and detailed information on conference locations, please visit the Locations page.


Friday April 15
12:00pm-1:00pm
Coffee & Tea; Registration
Lobby, Robert Gill Theatre
   
1:00pm-2:15pm
PANEL 1:  Irish Integration in Quebec: Performance Studies and Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Convenor: Jason King, University of Limerick
Panelists: Jason King, University of Limerick: “Spectacles of Integration: Irish Famine Orphans Adoptions in Cultural Practice and Theatrical Performance”
  Simon Jolivet, Université d'Ottawa:“Performing ‘Irishness’ in a Canadian Metropolis: Staging Irish and Irish Canadian Events in Montréal, 1890-1920”
   
COFFEE BREAK
   
2:30pm-4:00pm
PANEL 2:  Irish Theatres in Canada: Perspectives from Practitioners
Convenor: Karen Fricker, Royal Holloway, University of London
Panelists: Jean-Denis Leduc, Founder Director, Le Théâtre de La Manufacture, Le Théâtre La Licorne, (Montréal, QC)
  Rosemary Dunsmore & Breese Davies, MackenzieRo: The Irish Repertory Theatre of Canada (Toronto, ON)
  Patrick Toner, An Amharclann (Saint John, New Brunswick)
  Sharon Taylor, Toronto Irish Players (Toronto, ON)
   
BREAK
   
6:00pm-7:30pm
KEYNOTE:  Jackie Maxwell in Conversation with Ann Saddlemyer
Sponsored by the Celtic Studies Program's Annual Speakers Series fund.
*NOTE: This session will be held at Alumni Hall, Room 400, St. Michael's College, 121 St. Joseph Street*
   
Saturday April 16
10:30-11:00am
Coffee & Tea
Lobby, Robert Gill Theatre
   
11:00am-12:15pm
PANEL 3:  Counting and Accounting for Irish theatre in Quebec
Panelists: Brad Kent, Université Laval, Quebec: “Towards a History of Irish Theatre in Quebec”
  Patrick Toner, University of New Brunswick, St. John: “National Identities: Quebec and Irish Theatre in the 1980s”
   
12:15pm-1:45pm
BREAK FOR LUNCH
   
1:45pm-2:45pm
SPECIAL PANEL: IRISH STEP DANCE
Kathleen Spanos, University of Maryland: “Embodied Knowledge in Irish Step Dance: Authenticity and tradition in the North American diaspora”
To accompany her paper, Ms. Spanos will include an Irish Step Dance performance
   
COFFEE BREAK
   
3:00pm-4:15pm
KEYNOTE: Lisa Fitzpatrick (University of Ulster, Derry): “Invisible Interculturalism? Performing Ireland on the Canadian Stage”
Sponsored by The British Academy
 
4:15pm-5:30pm
CONFERENCE ROUNDUP: Irish diasporas, Canadian multiculturalism and theatrical analogies
This Roundtable discussion will feature a number of invited respondents (including Nicky Grene, Trinity College Dublin, and Anne Nothof, Athabasca University), but is open to all conference delegates for a broad discussion based on issues raised, but not fully explored, at the conference. Additional respondents TBC.
   
WALK TO MASSEY COLLEGE
   
6:00pm–7:30pm
CONFERENCE RECEPTION
Hosted by Massey College in honour of former Master, Ann Saddlemyer
See Locations page for directions to Massey College
 
 
 
Many thanks to our generous sponsors: The Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, The Celtic Studies Program, and Massey College at the University of Toronto; The British Academy; and The Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland.