GENesis Artist Panel
Panel 1: The Asian-Canadian Canon?
Monday May 3
8:15pm
This panel will focus on the idea of a canonical existence for Asian-Canadian Theatre. It will be sponsored by Playwright’s Canada Press as well as TheatreBooks, and it asks the question “Should there be a canon?” We’ve already pointed out what we feel are the strong arguments in favour of a collected anthology of work, but there are counter-arguments that should be voiced. There is a belief that “canonizing” work, especially work that speaks from a minoritized cultural perspective can marginalize that voice as opposed to strengthening it. Does a canon relegate that work identified as an “Asian-Canadian play” to a fringe division of Canadian Theatre? Is it a footnote, rather than an entry, to the over-arching Canadian canon of work? Are we ghettoizing or pigeon-holing ourselves by self-identifying work from a specific cultural voice? Alternately, does the creation of an Asian Canadian canon itself create a mould that risks excluding or marginalizing certain work within that rubric? Are some types of play less “Asian Canadian” than others? The artists on this panel are all playwrights included in the anthology, some of whom have expressed the above questions in informal discussion.
This evening will also feature excerpt readings from the Anthology by the playwrights who aren’t speaking on the panel.
Panel 2: Hybridity, Interdisciplinarity, and Asian-Canadian Subjectivities
Tuesday May 4
4:00pm
Asian-Canadian is already a hybrid category, and Asian-Canadian theatre can always involve the hybridity of forms, as artists draw upon various Asian performance cultures in the creation of theatre that takes place within the Canadian theatre industry. This panel will address the hybridized, or hyphenated, identities within the Canadian subjectivity and their effects on artistic (inter)disciplines. The fact that an increasing number of mixed-race artists—Chinese-Scottish Canadians, Chinese-Filipino Canadians, franco-Japanese Canadians, and so on—are creating new work, moreover, raises some interesting questions about how much (if at all) their mix of cultural backgrounds influences the mode of creation or the focus or form of the work. How does, for example, a mixed Asian-Caucasian artist fit into the Asian-Canadian theatrical mould, if the dominant metaphors of one-ness and whole-ness in cultural communities preclude their hybridity? The artists we’ve chosen to be on this panel are either of biracial backgrounds or are working to reconcile seemingly disparate interdisciplinary modes of creation (eg. Set design as dramaturgy, or the use of performance forms from multiple cultures as structural principles).
Panel 3: Regional Artists / Racialized Spaces
Wednesday May 5
12:00pm
Knowing full well that fu-GEN is a Toronto based company that works mainly within the borders of that city, this panel is designed to open the discussion up to artists we hear from less often: Those artists living in other regions of Canada, creating work that stems from an Asian-Canadian subjectivity, but with reduced capacity to reach members of the larger Asian-Canadian community. Is “Asian-Canadian” an adoptive term we are able to use in cosmopolitan areas to progress ideologies of an inclusive cultural framework? Or does it further the process of racializing our spaces? What does that mean for regional artists? Is it practical to include “Asian-ness” in their Canadian subjectivity? We’re very excited to have these panelists join us, because there has never been an opportunity for Asian-Canadian artists who practice in regional locations to come together and discuss the focus of their work in this manner. Unfortunately, there are no professional Asian-Canadian artists that we have been able to identify who are currently practicing in some areas (like the Atlantic Region), so the discussion can’t quite be coast to coast.
Panel 4: Roots
Wednesday May 5
4:30pm
This panel honours our senior artists. The trailblazers. The ones who made it possible for a company like fu-GEN to exist in the first place. It’s a chance for them to speak about how it all began, in the 80’s with productions like Yellow Fever and Mom, Dad, I’m Living With a White Girl, from the people that made those productions happen. Finding funding and the wherewithal to produce culturally diverse independent theatre was a huge hurdle , and the inroads that were made in the making of those productions are what allowed the current climate of Asian-Canadian theatre to develop and thrive. It’s also a way of checking in with our senior, established artists. Asking what they would have done differently then, how they feel about the present, and what direction they hope to see the future go in. One of the goals of this conference is to bridge as many gaps as possible; generations, provinces, practices… and we feel that the emerging artists who will attend this conference can only benefit from engaging in a dialogue with those who paved the way.
Panel 5: Toronto: “The World’s Most Multicultural City?”
Thursday May 6
12:00 pm
This panel discusses Toronto. fu-GEN is based in Toronto. Toronto is a major centre for theatre in general as well as a model of cultural diversity that claims in its promotional literature to be “the world’s most multicultural city.” Most of the artists fu-GEN works with are based in Toronto and we could learn a lot about ourselves and our practices by examining how we relate specifically to our city. This session will also allow visitors to the city attending the conference to hear a discussion of the unique opportunities and challenges facing Asian Canadian theatre artists in the city. Finally, the more we work and the more people we meet, the more we realize that a growing number of people who live and work out of Toronto aren’t actually from Toronto. They come from all over Canada and beyond. The perspective you gain about a city that you didn’t grow up in, but now call home, is a unique one. And the suspicion is that Toronto theatre created now is almost manufactured from that perspective. The artists on this panel represent all facets of the theatre industry; actors, directors, writers, producers, technicians, artistic directors… and they also represent a cross section of people who were born and raised Torontonian, and those who’ve adopted it as their new home.
Panel 6: Vancouver: On the Edge?
Thursday May 6
2:30pm
Vancouver is a growing, cosmopolitan city, a hub of culture and diversity and it has a richer, longer and more varied tradition with Asian-Canadian residents than Toronto does. And in geographical and theatrical senses, the city is “on the edge.” The work there is different, as artists interact with their space in Vancouver differently than they do in Toronto. The preferred modes of creation seem different, influenced by different factors than Toronto, or the rest of Canada for that matter. And to avoid speaking about it idiosyncratically, we really need to discuss why that is. Is it a result of an older existing tradition with the dominant culture? Is questioning or redefining “Asian-Canadian-ness” an exercise of lesser importance? Some of the most exciting Asian Canadian theatre is coming out of Vancouver right now; it’s a good time to start talking about it in a National context.
Panel 7: Acting Asian
Thursday May 6
4:30pm
Robert Miles’ definition of racialization as a “political and ideological process whereby particular individuals and groups are identified by direct or indirect reference to their real or imagined physical appearance or cultural characteristics” can be directly related, in principle, to Asian acting aesthetics. How we are versus how we are perceived to be, or how we are expected to be, or allowed to be if we are to be viewed by the majority share audience members of a Canadian theatre. This panel invites Asian actors from various regions in Canada to discuss the Asian acting aesthetic; how it was, how it’s changing and what we can do to form new frames of reference. How can we address it? What language do we use? And whose responsibility is it to invoke that change?
Panel 8: Concluding Roundtable
Friday May 7
2:30 pm
After all is said and done, what is left to be said… and done? This panel is not as much a summation of what we’ve learned, but a question of where to go from there. We want this conference to focus on action, on the sharing of ideas and ideologies, and this roundtable is meant to be the spark to light what kindling we’ve laid about over the week. How can we take everything that’s been discussed in the Artist Panels, in combination with the subjects of the academic papers that have been presented, and apply it to our own artistic practices to further develop ourselves as artists and the Asian-Canadian movement as a whole?