Creative Research

Ecologies of Research and Creation at DART

The research and creation environment at Brock is a rich one for Faculty in the Department of Dramatic Arts. Our core mandate of 'praxis' — or the mutual generativity of theorization and practice — affords the context for the pursuit of a broad constellation of creative/research questions, lines of inquiry, as well as a diversity of performative, scenic, and pedagogical practices. Faculty involvement in various artistic, scholarly and learning communities, both regionally and beyond, as well as our graduate teaching and supervision at Brock and elsewhere informs, fuels and enhances our individual creative and scholarly production.

Please see individual faculty profiles for details on specific projects and research/creation pathways.

Natalie Alvarez, Assistant Professor
David Fancy, Associate Professor
Glenys McQueen-Fuentes, Associate Professor
Mary Jane Miller, Professor Emerita
Marlene Moser, Associate Professor
Joe Norris, Professor
Gyllian Raby, Associate Professor
Virginia Reh, Associate Professor
David Vivian, Associate Professor
Danielle Wilson, Instructional LTA

The work of two DART faculty was recently showcased on the "Focus on Five Researcher Profiles" page of the Office of Research Services.  Read about the recent work of Dr. David Fancy and Dr. Joe Norris.
 

Investigating the Emergence of DARK-Tourism

Natalie Alvarez has had a busy year of travel in 2011-12 as part of her SSHRC-funded research project in performance studies, which investigates live, immersive simulations in a variety of contexts. In December, she paid an extended visit to the British Army's Stanford Training Area in Thetford, England where she observed interactions between soldiers and Afghan actors in mock Afghan villages constructed for the final phase of intensive training for soldiers prior to their deployment to Afghanistan. In June, Natalie spent a week at the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre's mock Afghan villages at Canadian Forces Base Wainright, Alberta where she observed soldiers undergoing tactical training scenarios and cultural intelligence training with Afghan actors in role.

In September 2011, Natalie spent a week in the Utah mountains at an immersive "insurgent training camp" for US military and law enforcement personnel. She presented her research findings at the 2011 American Society of Theatre Research in Montreal in a working session on war and war-time performance. Prior to 2011, Natalie's proposal on the illegal border crossing reenactments for tourists in El Alberto, Mexico was selected for the American Society of Theatre Research's opening plenary panel at the 2009 conference in Puerto Rico.

photo, above: Natalie enjoying an Afghan meal and trying to keep warm in a mock Afghan village at the London Ministry of Defense's Stanford Training Area, Thetford, England. 

In April 2012 Natalie was invited to speak at a workshop on performance studies methodologies.  Her panel was Writing Performance / Translating Experience (Panel 3):  April 13, 2012. Moderator: Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston, Wilfrid Laurier University.

The recorded presentations can be found at http://performancecanada.com/?post_type=portfolio&p=545, part of The Performance Studies (Canada) Project.  This is a SSHRC-funded research study that explores how the field of performance studies has developed in Canada over the past few decades, brings together performance studies researchers located in Canada to share their work, and asks how institutional and cultural conditions have produced alternative articulations of “performance” in Canadian contexts.