Tom Scholte
The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, the Coastal Jazz Society, and University of British Columbia presents Lines of Flight: Improvisation, Hope and Refuge June 23-25 at UBC Robson Square Room C400 as part of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. It is free and open to the public.
Acting and Directing Professor Tom Scholte will be presenting a keynote address on Sunday discussing Improvising Reconciliation: Dancing with Complexity in Theatre for Living’s “šxʷʔam̓ət (home).
As well, Film Studies Masters candidate Zoë Laks is presenting on Saturday as part of the Emerging Scholarship Panel discussing Seances: Investigating Mediated Memory and Self-Actualization in the Digital Age.
IMPROVISING RECONCILIATION:
Dancing with Complexity in Theatre for Living’s “šxʷʔam̓ət (home)
Tom Scholte
University of British Columbia
In February/March 2017, I was a creator/performer in Theatre for Living’s šxʷʔam̓ət (home); an exploration of issues surrounding reconciliation between Canada’s indigenous and non-indigenous peoples performed at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver. As a piece of Forum Theatre, the evening consisted of a thirty-minute play that builds to an unresolved climax followed by a repeat performance during which audience members can stop the action, replace a character of their choice, and employ different behavioural strategies in an improvisation with the remaining characters in an attempt to bring about a more positive resolution of the play. This presentation will analyze my own experience portraying Doug, a non-indigenous character with deeply internalized racist assumptions, and improvising with various audience members who attempted to shift the character’s behaviour in both successful and unsuccessful ways. These interventions will be analyzed through the lens of an “ontological tool” known as CLEHES, developed by Chilean researchers in order to empower managers and other members of “human activity systems” to make new self-reflective distinctions opening up possibilities for more positive action. Through the categories of Body (Corpo), Language, Emotion, History, Eros, and Silence, this analysis will attempt to unpack the cognitive, affective, and haptic details of particular improvisatory feedback loops and the behavioural responses they engendered.
https://theatreandfilm.sites.olt.ubc.ca/persons/tom-scholte/
http://www.coastaljazz.ca/lines_of_flight
http://improvisationinstitute.ca/
