The 33rd annual Festival of Original Theatre (FOOT) Conference at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies is open for registration. This year’s FOOT Conference with its theme “Interdependent Networks” will take place on February 6 and 7, 2025 at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse at 79 St. George Street. Learn more about the conference in the FOOT 2025 Conference Agenda and read the FOOT 2025 Book of Abstracts.
“Interdependent Networks” prompts participants to consider what networks they are a part of and crucially, how they are interdependent. We would love to inquire: What networks are you a part of? What does interdependence mean to you? What does it look like in your research/practice?
This year’s keynote lecturer is Dr. Natalie Alvarez.
Keynote Lecture: Dr. Natalie Alvarez
Thursday, February 6 at 2 PM, Hart House
Natalie Álvarez is Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies and Associate Dean of Scholarly, Research and Creative Activities in the Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research on immersive simulations in the public sphere, Latina/o/x performance, and performance activism in the Americas has been widely published in international journals and compendiums. She is the author, editor, and co-editor of five books, Theatre & War (Metheun/Bloomsbury, 2023), Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times: Performance Actions in the Americas (Palgrave, 2019; winner of ATHE’s Excellence in Editing award), Immersions in Cultural Difference: Tourism, War, Performance (U of Michigan P, 2018; winner of the Ann Saddlemyer Award by CATR), Essays on Latina/o Canadian Theatre and Performance and Fronteras Vivientes: Eight Latina/o Canadian Plays (Playwrights Canada Press, 2013; winners of the 2014 and 2015 Patrick O’Neil Book Prize by CATR). She is also the incoming co-editor of the Theatre & book series with Metheun/Bloomsbury. Alvarez is co- investigator (with Laura Levin, PI, York U) of Hemispheric Encounters: Developing Transborder Research-Creation Practices, a seven-year, SSHRC Partnership Grant-funded research program that brings together scholars, artists, activists, and community organizations from across the Americas to explore hemispheric performance as an artistic practice for addressing social and environmental justice. She is also Principal Investigator of the SSHRC Insight study “Scenario Training to Improve Police Response to Individuals in Mental Crisis: Impacts and Efficacy,” a multidisciplinary research team she has led with Dr. Jennifer Lavoie (WLU) and Dr. Yasmine Kandil (UVic) composed of people with lived experience of mental illness, clinicians, Indigenous cultural safety experts, simulation experts, researchers, and de-escalation trainers, who have designed a scenario-based training curriculum and evaluation framework, the Mental Health and Crisis Response Applied Training and Education Program (MHCR). As of 1 April 2024, the MHCR is now a regulatory requirement and mandatory training for all police officers in Ontario, establishing for the first time in history a professional standard in de-escalation and mental health crisis response.
Dr. Natalie Alvarez will speak on Thursday, February 6 at 2 PM at Hart House.
Keynote Workshop: Isabel Ahat and Kathy Vuu from Mammalian Diving Reflex
Friday, February 7 at 2 PM, Playhouse and Outside
RSVP FOR EVENT: https://forms.gle/quQcvaawfMZH5CVd7
Abstract: Everyone is Interesting is a community-focused project that aims to explore, engage with, and unite the individuals within a community. Inspired by our internationally acclaimed social acupuncture workshops and performances, we use intensive exercises to facilitate flows of energy and connection between people, providing a series of intimate, unusual, and joyful experiences that prove the universal truth: Everyone is Interesting. Everyone is Interesting is a format that produces a bespoke experience and performance tailored to a specific community. This performance operates with a deep awareness of the effects of connecting with others and the understanding that, in the right context, people will take care of even the most random stranger.
Mammalian Diving Reflex creates site and social-specific performance events, theatre productions, participatory gallery installations, videos, art objects and theoretical texts to foster dialogue and dismantle barriers between individuals of all backgrounds. Our work has been experienced in 105+ cities in 29 countries across 200+ unique tours and is known in Canada & abroad for innovative approaches to performance, receiving numerous accolades for creative collaborations. In 2022, we were awarded South Korea’s prestigious Dong-A Award for ‘Best New Conceptual Play’ for All the Sex I’ve Ever Had. We have been shortlisted for a number of awards: the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art (2019); the BKM Preis Kulturelle Bildung (2017); the Ellen Stewart International Award (2016) for promoting social change & in 2016 were named to San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center’s Top 100, an international list of creative minds shaping the future of culture.
Keynote Presenter: Dr. Jessica Watkin
The program will be available soon and will offer multiple presentations, panel discussions, and workshops. Please register in advance to receive the meeting details and full agenda.
The full program and schedule will be posted and available very soon. You can also follow us on Instagram at https://linktr.ee/footconference for updates.