Selena Couture: “Performance and Place~Naming” for the Performance and Geographies of Knowledge Production Work Group at the Hemispheric Institute’s Encuentro 2014.
My aim in this paper is to bring into conversation theoretical analysis of indigenous conceptions of place and place-naming with performance studies theory. While there has been much discussion of conceptions of peformativity throughout diverse fields of social sciences and humanities, including geography (see Glass and Reuben 2014), much of it focuses on Austinian speech act theory and responses to it including Butlerian conceptions of the performative as constitutive reiterations. As yet, I can find no discussions of indigenous conceptions of place and place-naming that incorporate performance studies theory. I will undertake a synthesis of these ideas by following one thread of performance studies scholarship that starts with Phelan’s Unmarked and continues through Roach’sCities of the Dead, Taylor’s The Archive and the Repertoire, and Schneider’s Performance Remains. These works offer insights into performativity regarding the nature of presence and continuity that have been thus far excluded from other disciplinary studies of place. I will then move on to discuss the tensions of marking, multiplicity and inter(in)animation in two examples of subversive place-naming using celebrity and the mega-event.
Selena Couture is a UBC PhD student in Theatre Studies. Her dissertation research focuses on indigenous and settler performances near the Coast Salish village of χʷayχʷ əy (aka Brockton Point in Stanley Park). Publications include an article in Theatre Journal on Sarah Siddons’ performance in Sheridan’s Pizarro and a chapter on the Klahowya Village tourist attraction inRecasting Commodity and Spectacle in the Indigenous Americas. She has worked as an alternative-school teacher, is on the Board of the Purple Thistle Centre, a youth arts and activism resource centre, and was a member of the editorial collective for Stay Solid! A Radical Handbook for Youth published by AK Press. She is the recipient of a UBC Four Year Fellowship, a SSHRC Doctoral award and a Killam Pre-doctoral Fellowship.
Eury Chang: From Rage to Believer: Kokoro’s Dance of Social Justice
In 1986, Kokoro Dance Theatre produced Rage, a performance based on the internment of Japanese Americans and Canadians during World War II. The most recent version, renamed The Believer, is based specifically on Gordon Hirabayashi’s resistance to curfews and containment imposed on Americans of Japanese descent during the 1940s. How does theatrical dance reconfigure moments of social (in) justice onstage? This paper argues that cultural policies are fluid: at once, they may impact citizens (or non-citizens) in detrimental ways, and by contrast, they may support artistic practices which seek to foster a more empathetic and just environment. As such, Rage and The Believer are interesting case studies which gesture towards the complex dynamic between citizens and states, and between cultural policies and artistic practices.
Eury Colin Chang is a Vancouver-born theatre scholar and artist. In addition to his work as a professional dramaturge, he has worked as editor of The Dance Central (2004-2011) andRicepaper: Asian Canadian Arts and Culture (2008-2012). Having completed his MA in Theatre Studies at UBC, he is now working towards his PhD with a focus on Asian Canadian Theatre. In addition to his research interests, Eury is the current Artistic Director of Creative Dominion, a theatre company dedicated to new performance creation.
