Canadian Performance Histories & Historiograpies

Challenging the idea of a singular narrative of Canadian theatre history and centring on questions of historiography and methodology, the essays in this collection investigate performances that have been excluded from mainstream theatre histories and re-evaluate well-known theatre movements to explore cultural memory. This collection asks, how do we remember performances of the past and why do some stories survive while others have been largely forgotten? Contributors draw on recent critical developments in performance studies, historiography, Indigenous studies, and hemispheric studies to explore topics ranging from the affective labour performed in life writing by World War I veterans, to a reconsideration of the role of dramaturgs in the alternative theatre movement, to a microhistory of petitions protesting minstrel performers appearing in Toronto, to a timely consideration of digital technologies in performance art documentation.