1 The abiding images I retain of the Shifting Tides Conference centre on the issue of the relationship, in Canada, between practice and scholarship. Throughout the conference practitioners from Atlantic Canada mixed with academics. Many of the practitioners who attended appeared slightly nervous, even defensive, feeling perhaps that they were fish out of water. I believe there is a mistrust between those who solely practice theatre in this country and those who solely devote themselves to research. Those such as myself who are dedicated equally to both fields, believing that they are, in fact, one field (as elsewhere they are perceived), are caught uncomfortably in-between. We witness the condescension and, at times, utter inanity of niche- or agenda-driven scholarship, and understand why practitioners are reluctant to subject themselves to critical scrutiny. On the other hand, we recognize that the theatre community in Canada has seldom been the best critical judge of what it produces, and that art that is not the product of applied knowledge—historical, theoretical, and intercultural—is doomed to irrelevance.

2 The Shifting Tides Conference attempted to address this unnecessary gap in understanding by bringing together artists, academics, and those who refuse to label themselves one or the other. It provided a forum where some of the insecurities felt within the Atlantic theatre community could be addressed, where critical issues could be raised, and where, most of all, dialogue could take place. Shifting Tides—as does this issue of Theatre Research in Canada dedicated to its activities—contributed in a material way to the progressive dialogue that must continue to take place in the theatre communities of this country.