Post-Show
L. de Vries
Talk-Back Guest Speakers
I suggest that the following speakers join us for a talk-back following select performances. Thinking about scheduling conflicts we can schedule one to three of the following guests for each of the talk back nights. These talk-back sessions are critical in allowing the audience to engage with the material. Leila Farah who performs her history of being a diasporic person often says that she requires “a ‘talk-back’ session following each performance in order to make a space for such expansion of topics touched on in the performance to occur. Often, these dialogic moments are filled with the most satisfactory pedagogical instances” (Farah 325). Thus, the importance of the talk-back cannot be underscored.
Guillermo Verdecchia
Guillermo Verdecchia works within the Toronto theatre community as well as within the scholarly theatre community at the University of Toronto. His experience as dramaturge, director, translator, and actor would be an interesting perspective, particularly given his interest in intercultural memory and Canadian theatre(“Guillermo Verdecchia”). His play Fronteras Americanas is, like Come Good Rain, a polycharacter monodrama that actively engages with themes of identity, globalization, and diasporic experience (Tilley 317). Verdecchia might be an interesting person to include in a panel about theatre artists and diaspora in Toronto, this kind of community building might be helpful to our audience in imagining the plurality of diasporic experiences in Toronto. We may also be able to ask him about his opinions on the performance of polycharacter monodrama and some suggestions for our actor as he begins taking on the monolith that is this performance text.
Charles Mulekwa
Wrote his PhD dissertation on the subject of Performing the Legacy of War in Uganda which explores the work of a number of playwrights from Uganda who tell their story in response to their own memory of war and violence. These artists are not all responding to the same instances of violence but share sources of knowledge. Mulekwa, an expert on the subject, would be a wonderful addition to a panel about the play as he may be able to open up the conversation broader. We could ask him questions about how to continue the conversations surrounding violence, immigration, and diasporic experiences.
Sarah O’Sullivan
Sarah O’Sullivan focuses her research on the region of Northern Uganda and is part of the Anthropology department and African Studies department at the University of Toronto. Some of her research interests include stigma, development, vulnerability, and political violence(“Sarah O’Sullivan”). Some of these research interests are pertinent to understanding the political history of Uganda, especially during the time that Seremba lived there. We might want to invite her for a panel discussion on the political history of Uganda.
Jane Liu - Africa-China Debates
Jane Liu is currently teaching a Course on the “Geopolitics and Debates on Africa-China Economic Relations” in the African Studies department at the University of Toronto(“Programs and Courses”). Her work is typically focused on environmental science and climate change. This may be of interest to us as we examine the relationships between Canada and Uganda. Canadian pollutants have a very real impact on the Ugandan climate (watch the film The Yes Men Are Revolting for more information about this) thus, Liu can highlight some of the ways that Canadians are complicit in the suffering of Ugandans more broadly(“The Yes Men are Revolting”).
Guillermo Verdecchia
Guillermo Verdecchia works within the Toronto theatre community as well as within the scholarly theatre community at the University of Toronto. His experience as dramaturge, director, translator, and actor would be an interesting perspective, particularly given his interest in intercultural memory and Canadian theatre(“Guillermo Verdecchia”). His play Fronteras Americanas is, like Come Good Rain, a polycharacter monodrama that actively engages with themes of identity, globalization, and diasporic experience (Tilley 317). Verdecchia might be an interesting person to include in a panel about theatre artists and diaspora in Toronto, this kind of community building might be helpful to our audience in imagining the plurality of diasporic experiences in Toronto. We may also be able to ask him about his opinions on the performance of polycharacter monodrama and some suggestions for our actor as he begins taking on the monolith that is this performance text.
Charles Mulekwa
Wrote his PhD dissertation on the subject of Performing the Legacy of War in Uganda which explores the work of a number of playwrights from Uganda who tell their story in response to their own memory of war and violence. These artists are not all responding to the same instances of violence but share sources of knowledge. Mulekwa, an expert on the subject, would be a wonderful addition to a panel about the play as he may be able to open up the conversation broader. We could ask him questions about how to continue the conversations surrounding violence, immigration, and diasporic experiences.
Sarah O’Sullivan
Sarah O’Sullivan focuses her research on the region of Northern Uganda and is part of the Anthropology department and African Studies department at the University of Toronto. Some of her research interests include stigma, development, vulnerability, and political violence(“Sarah O’Sullivan”). Some of these research interests are pertinent to understanding the political history of Uganda, especially during the time that Seremba lived there. We might want to invite her for a panel discussion on the political history of Uganda.
Jane Liu - Africa-China Debates
Jane Liu is currently teaching a Course on the “Geopolitics and Debates on Africa-China Economic Relations” in the African Studies department at the University of Toronto(“Programs and Courses”). Her work is typically focused on environmental science and climate change. This may be of interest to us as we examine the relationships between Canada and Uganda. Canadian pollutants have a very real impact on the Ugandan climate (watch the film The Yes Men Are Revolting for more information about this) thus, Liu can highlight some of the ways that Canadians are complicit in the suffering of Ugandans more broadly(“The Yes Men are Revolting”).
Expert Consultants to Speak at Select Rehearsals
Ric Knowles
Knowles is an esteemed Canadian theatre scholar who has written numerous texts on the subject of intercultural theatre. He is the author of numerous books including Reading the Material Theatre (2004), Theatre & Interculturalism (2010), How Theatre Means (2014), Performing the Intercultural City (2017) among others(“Ric Knowles”). Knowles’ wealth of knowledge about Canadian theatre history would likely be useful to us as we think about how to perform this piece. We may want to reach out to him to attend some of our meetings as an outside perspective.
Kevin Lewis O’Neill
Kevin Lewis O’Neill is the Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, and he hosts a podcast called Between, Across, and Through(“Kevin Lewis O’Neill”). We may wish to reach out to O’Neill and see if George Seremba could be interviewed on the podcast to talk about Uganda and his experience in Canada as part of a promotion for our play.
Works Cited:
"Guillermo Verdecchia." Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. 21 Sept. 2018. Web. 05 Dec. 2020. <https://www.cdtps.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/guillermo-verdecchia>.
"Kevin Lewis O'Neill." Department for the Study of Religion. 22 July 2020. Web. 06 Dec. 2020.
Mulekwa, Charles. Performing the Legacy of War in Uganda. Dissertation, Brown University, 2012.
"Programs and Courses." New College - University of Toronto. Web. 05 Dec. 2020. <http://www.newcollege.utoronto.ca/academics/new-college-academic-programs/ african-studies/programs-and-courses/>.
"Ric Knowles." University of Guelph. 2020. Web. 2020. <https://www.uoguelph.ca/arts/sets/people/ric-knowles>.
"Sarah O'Sullivan." Anthropology. Web. 05 Dec. 2020. https://anthropology.utoronto.ca/people/faculty/sarah-osullivan/
The Yes Men Are Revolting. Dir. Igor Vamos, Jacques Servin, and Laura Nix. Amazon Prime. 20 Aug. 2015. Web. 2020.
Knowles is an esteemed Canadian theatre scholar who has written numerous texts on the subject of intercultural theatre. He is the author of numerous books including Reading the Material Theatre (2004), Theatre & Interculturalism (2010), How Theatre Means (2014), Performing the Intercultural City (2017) among others(“Ric Knowles”). Knowles’ wealth of knowledge about Canadian theatre history would likely be useful to us as we think about how to perform this piece. We may want to reach out to him to attend some of our meetings as an outside perspective.
Kevin Lewis O’Neill
Kevin Lewis O’Neill is the Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, and he hosts a podcast called Between, Across, and Through(“Kevin Lewis O’Neill”). We may wish to reach out to O’Neill and see if George Seremba could be interviewed on the podcast to talk about Uganda and his experience in Canada as part of a promotion for our play.
Works Cited:
"Guillermo Verdecchia." Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. 21 Sept. 2018. Web. 05 Dec. 2020. <https://www.cdtps.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/guillermo-verdecchia>.
"Kevin Lewis O'Neill." Department for the Study of Religion. 22 July 2020. Web. 06 Dec. 2020.
Mulekwa, Charles. Performing the Legacy of War in Uganda. Dissertation, Brown University, 2012.
"Programs and Courses." New College - University of Toronto. Web. 05 Dec. 2020. <http://www.newcollege.utoronto.ca/academics/new-college-academic-programs/ african-studies/programs-and-courses/>.
"Ric Knowles." University of Guelph. 2020. Web. 2020. <https://www.uoguelph.ca/arts/sets/people/ric-knowles>.
"Sarah O'Sullivan." Anthropology. Web. 05 Dec. 2020. https://anthropology.utoronto.ca/people/faculty/sarah-osullivan/
The Yes Men Are Revolting. Dir. Igor Vamos, Jacques Servin, and Laura Nix. Amazon Prime. 20 Aug. 2015. Web. 2020.