ARTS:

THEATRE/THÉÂTRE

SEE ALSO the LITERARY CRITICISM section for discussions of drama

and specific dramatic works treated as literary genre. There may be some

overlap between this section and the LITERARY CRITICISM section.

Both might be examined for items of interest.

Armstrong, Gordon.

“Top Boys: Canadian Gay Plays: Getting It On.” Theatrum: The Theatre

Magazine 31 (Nov. 1992-Jan. 1993): 16-21.

“The Art of War: If You Don’t Know Brad Fraser, You Should.” Shift 2(3)

(Spring 1994): 16-18.

Bertin, Raymond.

“Scènes (roses) de voix d’hommes pour rendre compte, infiniment, d’une parole

qui me touche.” Jeu 28 (1983): 66-75.

“Portrait général du théâtre portant sur l’homosexualité, ou ‘théâtre gai’

actuellement au Québec; critique de quelques pièces, dont le spectacle

‘Dépluggai’ (création collective), ‘C’est pas toujours rose,’ et ‘Les

anciennes odeurs’ de Michel Tremblay” –Repère résumé.

Best, R.

“Drag Kings: Chicks with Dicks.” Canadian Woman Studies 16(2)

(Spring 1996): 58-59 (1142 words).

Boni, Franco, ed.

Rhubarb-o-rama!: Plays and Playwrights from the Rhubarb! Festival.

Winnipeg, Man.: Blizzard, 1998.

(333 p.; ISBN 092136878X)

Contains interviews, history, and ca. 20 plays.

Festival closely associated with Sky Gilbert and

<Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. See also Gilbert’s

Ejaculations from the Charm Factory for additional information.

“Buddies in Bad Neighbourhoods: Lesbian and Gay Theatre Company [Toronto].”

Theatrum: The Theatre Magazine 22 (Feb./March 1991): 7.

“Buddies in Bad Times Letting the Good Times Roll.” Globe and Mail [Metro ed.],

October 14, 1994, p. D2.

Buddies in Bad Times is a Toronto theatre that produces gay work.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Calendar. Toronto: Buddies in Bad Times.

Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives holdings: 1994-

“Death in High Park [Toronto] Inspiration for Play.” Globe and Mail [Metro ed.],

October 17, 1987, p. A13.

Demchuk, David.

“Queerculture [1990 Queerculture Festival, Presented by ‘Buddies in Bad Times’

Theatre in Toronto This April].” Theatrum: The Theatre Magazine 19

(June/July/August 1990): 35-36.

Dolan, Jill.

“Breaking the Code: Musings on Lesbian Sexuality and the Performer.”

Modern Drama [Toronto] 32(1) (March 1989): 146-158.

Dolan, Jill.

“Building a Theatrical Vernacular: Responsibility, Community, Ambivalence, and

Queer Theatre.” Modern Drama [Toronto] 39 (Spring 1996): 1-15.

Domet, Stephanie.

“Homos on the Range.” Herizons 17(2) (Fall 2003): 26+ (5 pages)

Ref.: CPI.Q index.

Concerns Lorri Millan and Shawna Dempsey and their Lesbian Rangers

performance art.

Downton, Dawn Rae.

“Angels, AIDS and Kent Stetson.” Canadian Theatre Review 57 (1988): 54-57.

Fineberg, Larry.

“The Condomed Mind.” Theatrum: The Theatre Magazine 20

(Sept./Oct. 1990): 41.

Fortier, Mark.

“Shakespeare with a Difference: Genderbending and Genrebending in ‘Goodnight

Desdemona’.” Canadian Theatre Review 59 (Summer 1989): 47-51.

Discussion of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s play, “Goodnight Desdemona

(Good Morning Juliet).”

Garceau, François, 1972-

“La problématique de la filiation dans le théâtre homosexuel québécois

contemporain, 1980-1990.” Thèse de maîtrise, Université de Montréal, 1998.

Garebian, Keith.

“Coming Out Too Far: Gay Theatre in Toronto.” In A Well-bred Muse: Selected

Theatre Writings, 1978-1988, pp. 136-142. By Keith Garebian.

Mosaic Press, 1991.

(ISBN 0889624607)

Note following essay: “Unpublished commissioned article for

The Canadian Forum, 1988”

Article discusses or mentions quite a number of plays. Rather strong

expressions of personal opinion in this piece.

“Gay Theatre Scores Big with Its Target Audience: Canada’s Homosexual

Community Is Large, Rich and Self-Aware and Playwrights Are Cashing In on It.

Who Cares If the Critics Don’t Always Approve?” Globe and Mail [Metro

ed.], March 14, 1998, p. C9.

Gilbert, Reid.

“(Re)Visioned, Invisible, and Mute: Male Bodies in Rumble Productions’

‘Strains’.” Modern Drama [Toronto] 39 (Spring 1996): 160-176.

Canadian theatre production in Vancouver.

Gilbert, Sky.

“Dramaturgy for Radical Theatre.” Canadian Theatre Review 87

(Summer 1996): 25+.

About Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto, which is “committed to

producing radical Canadian plays as a queer theater company….Buddies

responds to the increasingly less white and less straight parts of culture” –

abstract from Expanded Academic ASAP electronic index.

Gilbert, Sky.

“Steal Well: Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Club Queen World.”

Canadian Theatre Review 103 (Summer 2000): 28 (4 pages)

“Issues discussed concern intercultural communication and class

conflict in Canada’s gay club scene. Topics include the social aspects

of drag performance” –abstract in Expanded Academic ASAP index.

Goodman, Lizabeth.

“Who’s Looking at Who(m)?: Re-Visiting Medusa.” Modern Drama [Toronto]

39 (Spring 1996): 190-210.

Theatre by lesbians for lesbian audiences.

Greenhill, Pauline.

“Lesbian Mess(ages): Decoding Shawna Dempsey’s ‘Cake Squish’ at the Festival

du Voyeur.” Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal 23 (Fall 1998): 91-99.

Grignard, Christopher Robert.

“Driving and ‘Making, Out’ [in] Your Hometown (with Original Writing, Play).”

MA thesis, University of Guelph, 2002.

(122 p.)

Ref.: Proquest Digital Dissertations database, in which it is stated

that the “thesis is an investigation of the contemporary Canadian

gay male playwright’s drive to ‘make, out,’ that is,

re-conceptualize, their [sic] hometown via theatre.” The one-act play, ‘The

Orchard Drive,” is set in

“re-visit a homophobic action taken by the city mayor.”

Grignard, Christopher.

“Monstrous Ejaculations : Sky Gilbert’s Ejaculations from the Charm Factory.”

Canadian Theatre Review, issue 120 (Fall 2004): 50-55.

Ref.: CBCA index, which includes Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

[Toronto] in index record.

Halferty, J. Paul.

“Performing the Construction of Queer Spaces.” Canadian Theatre Review

no. 134 (Spring 2008): 18+

CTR describes article on electronic title page, viewed October 17, 2008,

( http://www.utpjournals.com/ctr/CTR%20134%20Content.pdf )

as follows:

“Gay bars, argues…[the author], offer spaces that effectively serve as

scripting sites, where those who experience their sexual inclinations and

identities can perform them within the context of ‘safe’ queer space that

forges a sense of community.”

This article is in an issue titled: “Consuming Performance: Intersections of

Theatre, Bars and Restaurants.”

Heald, Susan.

“Sex and Pleasure, Art and Politics, and Trying to Get Some Rest: An Interview

with Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, Performance Artists.”

Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal 23 (Fall 1998): 80-90.

Hunt, Nigel.

“‘Steel Kiss’ Makes Out: Interview.”

Theatrum: A Theatre Journal 9 (Spring 1988): 5-8.

Lavoie, Pierre.

“De la rigueur et de la susceptibilité.” Jeu 67 (juin 1993): 131-135.

Théâtre et homosexualité; Jeu; Michel Marc Bouchard; etc.

Lavoie, Pierre, et Lépine, Stéphane.

“Théâtrographie.” Jeu 54 (1990): 127-133.

“Nous avons indiqué toutes les pièces où [la thématique homosexuelle

masculine et féminine] était abordée, non pas seulement celles où elle

en est le thème central.” De 1966 à 1989.

Lawson, Robert.

“The Lost Boy: Homosexuality in ‘B-Movie’.” Canadian Theatre Review 59

(Summer 1989): 52-54.

Lengthy review of Toronto production of Tom Woods’s comedy,

“B-Movie, the Play.”

Lépine, Stéphane.

“La contre-nature de Chrysippe Tanguay, écologiste: recréation et engendrement:

quelques considérations psychodramatiques.” Jeu 32 (1984): 137-140.

La pièce de Michel Marc Bouchard.

Mark, Lisa G.

“Hijacking Cabaret [Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan].” Border Crossings 14(1)

(Winter 1995): 34-37.

Shiller, Romy Sara.

“A Critical Exploration of Cross-Dressing and Drag in Gender Performance and

Camp in Contemporary North American Drama and Film.”

Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 1999.

(222 p.)

Van der Veen, Jace.

“Theatre Transcends Issues: David for Queen by John Lazarus.”

Canadian Theatre Review 59 (Summer 1989): 42-46.

Wallace, Robert.

“Homo création: pour une poétique du théâtre gai.” Jeu 54 (1990): 24-42.

Article translated from English and published in this special issue of

Jeu devoted to homosexuality and the Québec theatre.

Wallace, Robert.

“Homo Creation: Towards a Poetics of Gay Male Theatre.” Essays on Canadian

Writing 54 (Winter 1994): 212-236 (10,263 words).

Wallace, Robert.

“To Become: The Ideological Function of Gay Theatre.” Canadian Theatre

Review 59 (Summer 1989): 5-10.

“What’s Eating Sky Gilbert? Gay Theatre Has Finally Moved into the Mainstream,

but the Man Who Helped Make It Possible Is Not Impressed.”

Toronto Life, March 1997, pp. 45-51 (4757 words).

<Toronto gay theatre.

Whitehead, L. Jay.

“Taming the Inferno: Finding my Version of Masculine.” M.F.A. thesis,

York University, 2007.

(ISBN 9780494293133)

Ref. AMICUS catalogue record no. 33839578.

The following is an excerpt from the summary in AMICUS record:

“My personal exploration of studio work, including studies in movement,
voice and acting are utilized to solve my actor's challenge of neutralizing
culturally acquired gay behaviours…. The process and research leads to a
final discovery that experimentation and implementation of an inside-out
approach to character development, as well as trusting the character
wholly, are key to finding confidence to overcome challenges, doubt and
fear in a queer actor's process.”

Zolbrod, Sara M.

“Exploring the Culture of Shame: An Interview with Terrie Hamazaki.”

Kinesis, Sept. 1997, pp. 17-18.

Theatre; Vancouver; mothers and daughters; lesbians.