CELEBRATING CATR @ 50:
AN ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW PROJECT
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Gatherings Project, in partnership with the Canadian Association for Theatre Research/L’Association canadienne de la recherche théâtrale (formerly the Association for Canadian Theatre History), has initiated an ongoing project that will collect memories about the 50 years of the this organization, that has been so important to so many conducting research into performance.
AN INVITATION
The Gatherings Project invites all members, past and present, to submit any memories about the Association. These can be sent to us as written responses, or we can organize an interview with anyone interested, recording it for archival use.
Our intention for this website is two-fold:
to provide excerpts from the written and oral memories we have collected, to illustrate our intentions and to provide a place to visit and enjoy the history of the organization; and
to invite all members, past and present to contact us to contribute. This project is ongoing, so if you have not yet been contacted by us, please reach out!
We began this project to contact the early membership, and to document the Associations early years; and we are in the process of finding and contacting as many as we can. But we would be pleased to receive any member's response, from 1975 to the present.
If you are interested in contributing to this project in any way--as someone contributing memories, or someone collecting memories--please let us know and we will be in touch to help you do that.
In the meantime, we are copying below a set of questions that we use to begin a conversation for any interview, and that can be used in a written response as well. These are meant to begin a conversation--not to limit it.
We are also copying below a statement of ethics and permissions that we use in the Gatherings Project generally. The important point to make: whatever documents are created, oral and written, belong to the individual who is interviewed, and anything done with it--anything at all--required permission. Our project has spent a long time working on our permissions statement, based on indigenous principles and available on our website. We don't own this. We are caretakers.
THE GUIDING QUESTIONS
Please know that these are 'guides' and not 'rules.' No doubt the conversation will take its own course! Here are the topics of conversation we hope to talk about with you.
Describe your first experience of attending CATR. When did you first hear about it, why did you decide to attend, who did you first meet there?
What has the association meant to you, as you pursued your career?
What do you think is the impact of the association on Canadian theatre practice? What has the impact of practice been on the Association?
If you had a time machine, would you go back and change anything about the Association? Is there a moment you'd want to relive?
Can you talk about how the Association historically addressed Regional representation, Francophone representation, and/or Diversity, in your estimation?
Can you suggest others for us to interview?
ETHICS, PERMISSIONS, AND OWNERSHIP
It is essential that you know your rights with respect to a recorded interview or any written submissions. For this project, we are making use of the permissions documents created by the research project Gatherings: Archival and Oral Histories, through the University of Toronto. You can learn more about our own histories and goals from our website.
The important information is this (for both interviews and written memory submissions):
You will provide the permission to record your interview.
You will review a copy of the recording, and a transcript, after the interview, and we will edit it according to your wishes.
The recording and transcript belong to you, and a copy will be provided to you.
We will ask permission to make use of your interview for two separate purposes:
1) To keep a copy of your interview in a secure archive; and
2) to use excerpts from the interview as part of CATR's 50th anniversary celebration, in some manner.
All of this will only be done with your express consent.
More information can be found on our Getting Started and Permissions Pages. Also visit our sister site: a timeline of CATR history.
CATR @ 50 INTERVIEW GALLERY (forthcoming)
