Signy Lynch

Signy Lynch is Assistant Professor in English and Drama at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and a graduate faculty member at the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies. Her areas of research and teaching specialization include contemporary intercultural, diasporic, and Black theatres in Canada; interdisciplinary/intermedial and participatory performance; audience research; and theatre criticism. 

Her peer-reviewed and public-facing articles appear in publications including Theatre Research in Canada, Contemporary Theatre Review, Canadian Theatre Review, and New Theatre Quarterly, alt.theatre, Cdn Times, and Intermission Magazine. She is co-editor of Canadian Theatre Review volume 186, “Theatre After the Explosion” (Spring 2021). She is currently developing a book manuscript based on her SSHRC-funded dissertation, which won York University’s Barbara Godard Prize for best dissertation in Canadian Studies (2021), and helped her to secure a Governor General’s Gold Academic Medal (2022). 

She also works as a critical dramaturg, where she seeks to push the boundaries of traditional theatre criticism to imagine critical and creative practices that can reflect our digital and intercultural present and futures. She has facilitated the Toronto Fringe’s New Young Reviewers program for three years, and her essay “Performing at Home in the Pandemic” (Canadian Theatre Review vol. 191) was named runner-up for Outstanding Critical Essay by the Canadian Theatre Critics Association (2022).

She is co-director of the Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research (centreforspectatorship.com), and co-chair of the board of directors of Toronto’s Cahoots Theatre. 

Selected Works

“Casting Audiences: How Theatre Passe Muraille’s ‘Black Out Nights’ Challenge Conventional Approaches to Audience.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 193, Winter 2023, p. 45-48.

“Critical Disengagement: The Epistemic and White Supremacist Violence of Theatre Criticism in Canada and the USA.” New Theatre Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 1, 2023 p. 34-49. First author, co-authored with Michelle MacArthur.

“Closing the Distance: Intermediality, Immediacy, and Intercultural Affect in Tetsuro Shigematsu’s Empire of the Son.” Theatre Research in Canada, vol. 43, no. 2, Fall 2022, p. 191-205.

“Performing at Home in the Pandemic: Boca del Lupo’s Plays2Perform@Home Collection.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 191, Summer 2022, p. 71-75. 

“A Roundtable on Hiring and Labour in the Field.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 190, Spring 2022, p. 77-80. Co-authored collaborative piece.

“Power, Perception, and Professionalism: An Empirical Study of Digital Theatre Criticism in Canada.” Contemporary Theatre Review, vol. 31, no. 4, 2021, p. 455-470. Co-authored with Michelle MacArthur and Scott Mealey.
  
Journal Issues Edited: “Theatre After the Explosion.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 186, Spring 2021, p. 1-99. Co-edited with Thea Fitz-James.