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Making way : DramaWay's history, artistic praxis and contribution to Canadian disability theatre

University of British Columbia

This is a study of DramaWay – a Toronto-based company that facilitates creative arts programming for individuals with special needs. Founded in 1999, this company has grown and developed to provide a sought after service for the disability community in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). While there are other companies in Canada providing similar opportunities, I interrogate DramaWay’s distinctive approach within the broader context. More particularly, I investigate how DramaWay’s praxis contributes to the continuing development of disability theatre in Canada. Their work, I argue, merits more scholarly and critical attention than they have thus far garnered in the broader literature concerning disability performance in Canada and abroad. In this thesis I build from the insights of this broader scholarly field to provide an in-depth analysis of DramaWay’s history, artistic praxis and current educational infrastructure. Through my examination of archival materials, as well as information gathered through formal interviews with DramaWay’s artistic director, staff, volunteers and performers, I conclude that DramaWay’s praxis in presenting the talent of performers with special needs provides a unique and valuable contribution to disability theatre in Canada.

Text

2017-08-16

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62659

Theatre

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/