My ARIA research project covers English-language Quebec plays and productions by black and LGBTQ+ playwrights from 1980 to the present. I was supervised by Professor Erin Hurley, who conducts a larger research project aiming to document, analyze, contextualize, and disseminate the history of English-language drama (plays) and theatre (production, performance, industry) in Quebec from 1930 to 2010, to bring into focus the largest, longest-lived, and most internally varied minority-language form of theatre in Quebec. As Prof. Hurley’s research assistant, my role over the summer was to gather, interpret, and synthesize information about English-language Quebec drama, with a focus on plays written by black and queer playwrights. My tasks included bibliographic research and interpretive analysis, as well as archival research with theatre companies.
I was interested in an ARIA project primarily because I had been assisting Prof. Hurley with her research from the preceding winter semester, and ARIA would allow me to continue my work with her over the summer. Furthermore, I was drawn to academia and was eager to gain research experience. The prospect of working closely with a supervisor and developing my own research project was extremely exciting. The opportunity to connect with other like-minded students from different programs was another aspect that drew me to ARIA.
I had two main learning objectives for this internship, the first being the development of more advanced skills in primary source documentation and interpretation, discourse analysis across a literary corpus, and genre and style identification. This goal was attained through my reading, analyzing, and entering information of over forty plays in a FileMaker database. My second objective was the acquisition of a deeper knowledge of English-language drama in Quebec, its themes, preoccupations, and influences as well as its major playwrights. I was able to expand on such knowledge particularly through the lenses of black and queer drama in Quebec, which was the focus of my research.
Some of the highlights of my summer internship were the mapping project and the interviews that I attended alongside my professor. The mapping project is an ongoing part of Prof. Hurley’s research which seeks to map first-person stories onto their locations about what did or did not happen in the English-language theatre scene in Montreal. As an input to the story-map, Prof. Hurley interviewed two creators of a ground-breaking Black Theatre Workshop (BTW) show entitled The Children of Kush Arising (1995). Attending these interviews was a valuable experience from which I had the opportunity to learn about the collective and creative process of the show whose script I had closely read, its genesis story, and the message the creators were seeking to convey. Another major highlight of my internship was attending the symposium— “The Theatres of Collectivities”—organized by the Société québécoise d’études théâtrales (SQET) and held at the University of Montreal. The symposium, at which Prof. Hurley also spoke, covered a variety of topics including Indigenous and environmental theatre, as well as reflections on the balance between cultural property and creative freedom. The variety of the presentations, ranging from scholars’ reports on their recent or ongoing research projects, experimental performances, and roundtable discussions were immensely enriching and inspiring. The symposium truly expanded my horizons on theatre research and the world of academia.
The main challenge I encountered was defining the frame of my own project within the larger research led by my professor. Over the summer, I took on a variety of tasks from which I initially had trouble figuring out what coherent conclusions I could draw from them. To overcome this challenge, I reflected on what I learned rather than what argument I wanted to make. Going from there, I could more easily sort through the skills and knowledge that I acquired during the internship to discern comprehensive results. A different challenge I encountered was maintaining my level of productivity. To stay motivated and on track with my progress, I created a weekly schedule and tried as much as possible to keep to it. Changing locations and occasionally working outdoors helped as well.
Through ARIA, I discovered that there was so much more to research than I thought. ARIA has not only strengthened, but also encouraged my passion for research, and I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my donor Mr. Mark W. Gallop, the Arts Internship Office, and my supervisor Prof. Erin Hurley, who have made this internship possible.
