On Thursday May 9, Wilfrid Laurier University will host, in collaboration with York, the Sustaining Global Connections in Feminist Theatre and Performance Historiography Project. The two-day virtual event will consist of a panel discussion with performance artists and scholars about the overwriting of women’s contributions to theatre, dance, and performance.
Melissa Blanco Borelli, an associate professor of theatre and director of the dance program at Northwestern University, will be moderating the panel. Her research interests include Blackness in Latin America, critical dance studies, performative writing, and more.
The panel will be exploring the meaning of the term “worlding.” Blanco Borelli explains: “The conference thinks about ‘worlding’ as a verb, method, and politics. I see it as an invitation to think across different geographical contexts and histories in order to paint a broader picture of what theatre and performance do given these specific contexts and histories.”
Frances Koncan, a playwright, director, and dramaturg, is also an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. She shares that after receiving her MFA in playwriting, she went straight into working and honing her theatre skills.
“My initial thoughts were that it was related to an expansion of understanding and perspectives. After some research, it seems to refer to an active process of bringing a more global perspective to things dominated by Western perspectives,” Koncan says.
Alongside Koncan and Blanco Borelli, the panel will also include Amanda Reid, an assistant professor of theatre, dance, and performance at Yale University, and meLê yamomo, an assistant professor of new dramaturges, media cultures, artistic research, and decoloniality at the University of Amsterdam.
Koncan adds that she’s most looking forward to learning from the other panelists: “They have such a wide breadth of knowledge and experience they are bringing to this panel. I think what I bring to this table — or any table, really — is a near-obsessive love of theatre, first and foremost, as an audience member.”
Blanco Borelli reflects this sentiment, adding that she is looking forward to the “exposure to scholars I have heard about but never met. I like learning about scholars’ different methodological and disciplinary frameworks for their research.”
In addition to the panel event on May 9, there will be a writers’ workshop for contributing authors of Women’s Innovations in Theatre, Dance and Performance on Friday May 10.
To learn more about this event, click here.
