ATHE forum

[Alan D Filewod]

The proposition of an ATHE forum on Canadian theatre promises to be
contentious because it institutionalizes discussions of Canadian theatre
practice in a discourse of nation, and I'm not sure how useful that is
in the ATHE context. And my experience of being on an ATHE panel
about Canadian theatre which drew an audience of eight doesn't lead me
to optimism about its prospects.
I'm also somewhat disconcerted about the rhetoric of forging "new
relationships" for ACTR. I need to be persuaded that such new relationships
are the key to the association's survival (as opposed to the antithetical
model, as embodied in the Australasian Drama Studies Association, which
meets on its own and survives because it is compact and autonomous). The
"new relationships" model seems to rest on the assumption that if ACTR
is to survive, it must cease to be ACTR.
        The arguments in favour of that assumption tend to veer in
contradictory directions: we're hearing from some sides that we need to
ally ourselves with cognate associations so we can be bigger (and
therefore more viable --- but I don't buy it); and that we should
transform ourselves into a Canadian version of ATHE with an expanded
notion of theatre research not bound by national discourse. Down that road
lies the possibility of a formal relationship, NAFTA style, with ATHE, and
possible merger as a "forum" within ATHE. A Canadian association of
theatre research that occupies a separate but equal space within/beside a
larger, totalizing American association... there is a deep ambivalence in
all this. It may come to pass: we may have a larger association of theatre
research/film studies/radio & TV studies with a permeable border with
ATHE. I will happily join, but at the same I would like to propose the
establishment of a new, local, small-scale association of scholars engaged
in research into theatre practice in Canada....
 
A Friday afternoon rant....
Alan