Bruce
Barton
Editor
These are exciting times at Theatre Research in Canada/Recherches théâtrales au Canada. In the past six months we have seen the completion of a multiple-year redesign project that completely reconceptualized the visual presentation of the journal; we have introduced an entirely new editorial staff, including our first ever Associate French Language Editor; and we have, with this double-issue, distributed two full years of publication. Also with this issue we begin an exciting new practice with the publication of an issue-length guest-edited theme section — in this instance on the topic of translation. Edited by Louise Ladouceur of the University of Alberta and Glen Nichols of the Université de Moncton, this collection of articles represents a significant contribution to current Canadian and European scholarship on translation (the introduction of which I will leave to the section’s two editors). It also provides an additional injection of editorial perspective and expertise, as the first of a growing list of theme issues currently in the works. With topics such as “Atlantic Canadian Theatre and Drama,” “Theatre and Education,” “Theatre and Religion,” and “Space and Subjectivity in Performance,” these guest-edited collections will, on a regular basis, bring unprecedented focus and depth of research to the journal’s pages. Published alternately with general, non-theme issues, these single topic issues will combine scholarly articles with relevant Forum pieces and (whenever possible) related review items, in order to approach specific subject areas from a variety of angles and avenues of analysis.
However, this double issue offers, in a sense, the best of both worlds. In addition to the section on translation, 24.1-2 also includes five impressive general topic articles from a wide range of scholars. While Reid Gilbert and Robert Appleford will likely be familiar names for many academics and enthusiasts of Canadian drama and theatre, three of the articles included in the general section are by new and conspicuously promising researchers. Dense yet agile in the application of theory, Gilbert’s and Appleford’s contributions address related themes concerning Aboriginal engagements with established western dramaturgical traditions. Levin’s and Read’s articles share a focus on the works of Judith Thompson, and the approaches and analytical frameworks they employ, while conspicuously different, provide significant, complementary resonance. And Ingrid Mündel’s study of contemporary Canadian popular theatre raises a series of pertinent and problematic questions regarding practitioner intention and effect, and calls for a heightened degree of theoretical awareness and practical self-scrutiny. Combined, these five articles present both established and emerging researchers working at sophisticated levels of interrogation and analysis, boding remarkably well for the critical landscape of Canadian theatre, drama, and performance scholarship.
The past half year has also been a time of loss. Ronald Bryden – a figure well-known to practically everyone associated with Canadian theatre and drama, and particularly those whose travels have taken them within the orbit of the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the University of Toronto – passed away on November 22, 2004. My own association with Ron was first-hand and deeply significant; he supervised my dissertation, and in the process he guided me, inspired me, and became my friend. Yet mine was only one of myriad relationships that connected him to so very many members of the academic and professional theatre spheres in this country. He will be sorely missed. The sole entry in the Forum section of this issue is, relatively speaking, quite brief. But Ann Saddlemyer’s heartfelt memorial and celebration of Ron Bryden provides this publication with a vital conclusion.
As I stated at the outset, these are exciting times for our journal – times of looking ahead with enthusiasm, optimism, and a drive for innovation. These are also times of remembrance. I would like to think that Ron would approve of the new forms and the new spaces we are exploring.