On Tuesday, 1 June 2021, at 11am EDT, Stephen Johnson talked with Kelsey Jacobson about her first experiences with Performance--her 'First Gatherings.' That conversation is included below, in full. You can find out more about her life, scholarship and performance practice here.
Kelsey was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, attending public schools there until moving to Kingston for university. Her first significant memory of attending a theatrical performance, as her younger self would have defined it, was dressing up, at the age of 9 or 10, to go with her father to a production of Evita. This was a memorable occasion because it was unprecedented, and, as she understands it now, something that was meant for adults. Her memory of attendance is clear, and special; but the show itself is missing. Kelsey, however, drew a distinction between attending a performance like this, which was rare until later in her teenage years, and creating theatre, which she was involved in from the age of 8, in Grade 2, when a memorable teacher in her elementary school began a program of theatre that was all-inclusive. She remembers that the school produced two musicals each year, with universal involvement for all students, backstage, onstage, in the cast and in the chorus, with time in and out of class devoted to practising the music, learning the lines, creating the costumes and props, and rehearsing. She remembers up to 500 students performing a full evening's entertainment, for a run of two performances, the stage filling the cafeteria, opening out onto a gymnasium that held the audience. The complexity of these productions, in her account, is impressive, and her admiration for that teacher, Mr. Morris, well-deserved. These productions helped to give Kelsey for her love for performance, and her commitment to it from then on, through junior-high and high-school, through her attendance at productions in Calgary as a teenager, and in particular through her involvement in Artstrek, run by Theatre Alberta, which she remembers as being completely welcoming to all young people as they found their way into the arts. She attended this program, taught in it, and learned from it. As I listened to all of this, I was struck by the changes made in the interests and values of young people by particularly innovative teachers, and by the inclusive and community-oriented definition of the theatrical culture introduced. One last significant event, prior to heading off to university: in her last year of high school, Kelsey had the lead in the school play, and one evening, after the performance, flowers were waiting for her from Mr Morris.
A full transcript will be posted later.