A close-up photograph of the tops of three trees with their branches swaying in the wind. The leaves on the trees are a striking orange-brown colour. In the background, the sky is a calm, pale blue.

Working Group:

Canadian Soundings

Saturday, June 26, 2021 | 16:30 - 19:30

Live discussion on Zoom; spoken in English. No ASL interpretation or translation will be offered for this event.  

Michael Elliott & Sasha Kovacs

Join Now in Room A

In nautical terms, a sounding is used to determine the depth of water under a ship. This working group takes inspiration from this marine procedure to locate the deep histories of the voice in Canadian performance, and to explore how vocal practices and innovations impact and intersect with the buoyancy of certain habits, historiographies, and traditions in the Canadian theatre.Building on the success of the curated panel discussion at the CATR conference in 2019 and responding to the current research that situates the voice as a subject of critical inquiry in theatre studies (Magnat, 2019; Thomaidis, 2017; Smith 2017; Pascoe 2011), the working group examines the history of voice and voice training in the Canadian theatre, with a view to chart the course that brought us to our current position and propose possible streams forward. Current working group members include scholars, artists, and educators that are exploring voice as a central conduit for the charting of Canadian theatre’s past, present, and future.