WELCOME to our twenty-sixth annual conference, organized this
year at the University of Toronto’s Graduate Centre for Study of Drama,
where all of our activities will be focussed. The executive and organizing
committee have put together what we hope you will find a good environment
for sharing research and discussing the issues of the day, and for making
and renewing friendships. Thanks to a record number of responses
to our call for submissions, we have planned a series of plenary and concurrent
sessions grouped around three general subject areas--Canadian Performance/Practice,
Witness to Oppression, and Opening the (Theatrical) Box. We have
added to these a non-stop round of special events, including meetings with
the Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures and the Canadian Gay
and Lesbian Studies Association, a meeting with local theatre professionals,
a play launch sponsored by Talonbooks, a reading sponsored by the Playwrights
Union of Canada and Theatrebooks, ongoing exhibitions, and–at the end of
the first day–a reception (all right, a party) celebrating ourselves at
twenty-six, and the individuals who have guided us during those years.
We will of course have our annual banquet with honoured guests; and we
will also, in an effort to provide the maximum opportunity for informal
discussion, offer daily buffet luncheons as well as the usual refreshment.
We look forward to seeing you there–bring a friend or two.
Stephen Johnson, for the organizing committee and the ACTR executive