announcement of Lawrence Prize winner

[Scott, Shelley]

The Canadian Association for Theatre Research/ Association canadienne de la recherche théâtrale is pleased to announce the winner of the 

2009 Robert Lawrence Prize. 

 

 

The Lawrence Prize is awarded to Jill Carter, for her paper "Shaking the Paluwala Tree: Fashioning Internal 'Gathering Houses' and Re-Fashioning the Spaces of Popular Entertainment through Contemporary Investigations into Native Performance Culture (NpC)."

 

The committee was very impressed with Jill Carter's presentation. She delivered it well and with conviction and charisma. The argument Carter makes about the representation of First Nations Elders on the stage and discrimination against older female theatre practitioners is an issue that has not received sufficient critical analysis. The committee agrees that this is a genuinely important paper: it speaks to an urgent issue in Native theatre in Canada - ageism and the forgetting of the movement's Elders on stage - and does a superb job of thinking through the economics of the problem. Carter makes her points clearly and supports them well with information gathered from her interviews with members of Spiderwoman Theatre and her other observations. Her use of personal anecdotes is both productive and meaningful. Carter's stimulating and thought-provoking paper combines research with rhetorical force, opening up wide and forward-looking implications.

 

The Committee also gives honourable mention to two other outstanding emerging  scholars: Robin Whittaker for "Toward the Rehistoricization of Contemporary Amateur Theatre Practice: The (Un)Disciplined Case of Edmonton's Walterdale Playhouse," and Heather Davis-Fisch for "'Acting Native' and 'Becoming Native': The Role of Mimesis in Charles Francis Hall's Search for Franklin Survivors."

The Robert Lawrence Prize was established in 1995 by the Association to honour the memory and contribution of a valued member and friend. The prize recognizes the research of an emerging scholar who has presented an outstanding paper at the Association's yearly conference. The award of $150.00 is supported by the generous donations of Mrs Robert G. Lawrence.

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://artsservices.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/candrama/attachments/20090612/8f00e18a/attachment.html>