Currents in Pacific Northwest Performance Research
Preserving Performance in the Pacific Northwest: A Symposium
What are the current waves of research into the performance history of the Pacific Northwest?
Patrick Blenkarn, Eury Chang and Selena Couture discuss how they make and interpret the archives of the Pacific Northwest region’s performance practices. Moderated by Gatherings Co-Investigator Heather Fitzsimmons-Frey
Video footage: Logan Swain and Conor Farrell
PHOTOS: ANNIE KONSTANTINOVA
[click on an image to enlarge]
PRESENTER BIOS:
Patrick Blenkarn is an interdisciplinary artist and director. His recent works feature sustained investigations into the history and function of the book, the politics and imperialism of the English language, and the history of labour and value. He has a degree in philosophy, theatre, and film from the University of King’s College and an MFA in interdisciplinary art from Simon Fraser University. He is the co-creator of the card-game-meets-archive, culturecapital, and he is the lead archivist of videocan, an online video archive of Canadian performance. For more information about videocan visit: https://videocan.ca. For more about Patrick, see: patricblenkarn.com
Eury Colin Chang is a Vancouver-born scholar and current PhD Candidate in the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC. His current dissertation research—A History of Asian Canadian Theatre: 1971-2018—is being funded through the SSHRC, UBC's FYF and the Public Scholars' Initiative. Eury brings to his academic career a rich background in the non-profit sector, having worked as a writer, editor, arts manager and dramaturge. As a pedagogue, Eury has declared teaching specialties in Early Modern (Shakespearean) Tragedy and Western Theatre Theory, though his research and publishing are decidedly contemporary with a focus on 20th and 21st century intercultural theatre, performance, and cinema. His academic writing can be found in journals (Theatre Research in Canada, Canadian Literature, Anglistik, Canadian Theatre Review) and anthologies published by Playwrights Canada Press, the University of Wisconsin Press, and Arsenal Pulp Press.
Selena Couture is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta, Edmonton/ Treaty 6 territory, Métis homelands. She researches Indigenous performance, place, languages and historiography with a parallel inquiry into performative constructions of whiteness. Within the introduction of her presentation for our symposium event, Selena uses hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language, with permission. Within her presentation, Selena discussed her work developing her recent book Against the Current and Into the Light: Performing History and Land in Coast Salish Territories and Vancouver’s Stanley Park (McGill-Queen’s Native and Northern Series, January 2020). More about this book is available here: https://www.mqup.ca/against-the-current-and-into-the-light-products-9780773559219.php. Selena’s other book is On this Patch of Grass: City Parks and Occupied Lands (Fernwood 2018).