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1	Political Stages: Gay Theatre in Toronto, 1967 - 1985 Halferty, John Paul Frederick 29 July 2014 (has links) Abstract This dissertation constructs an analytical history of gay theatre in Toronto from 1967 to 1985, a period that saw the radical reformation of the city’s gay community and its not-for-profit theatre industry. It undertakes this research using a cultural materialist theoretical frame that enables it to recover the history of gay theatre in Toronto and connect this history to the contemporary development of gay community and theatrical production in the city. By recovering the history of gay theatre in Toronto, this dissertation demonstrates its seminal importance to the history of gay culture in Canada, and to Canadian theatre history. To construct its narrative of gay theatre history in Toronto, this dissertation focuses on three pioneering gay playwrights, John Herbert, Robert Wallace, and Sky Gilbert, historically contextualizing these within three distinct eras of contemporary gay history and Toronto theatre history. Chapter one addresses the years prior to the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada in 1969, analyzing the theatrical development of John Herbert’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes, and the political significance of the New York production’s tour to Toronto’s Central Library Theatre in October 1967. Chapter two examines the rise of gay liberation and the Alternative theatre movements, 1969 to 1976, recovering the production history of Robert Wallace’s long-neglected play, No Deposit, No Return. Chapter three investigates the backlash against gay liberation, the consolidation of gay community as a political minority, and the emergence of AIDS, 1977-1985, focusing on the early career of Sky Gilbert, and the significance of his play, Drag Queens on Trial. Paying close attention to the politics of gay identity and community in Toronto, and providing a thick description of the biographical, social, cultural, and political discourses that shaped the lives of these playwrights and impacted the production and reception of their plays, this dissertation reveals the important part gay theatre played in the reformation of Toronto’s gay community and its not-for-profit theatre industry in this foundational period. Gay theatre, Toronto theatre, history 0465
2	Are We There Yet? Gay Representation in Contemporary Canadian Drama Berto, Tony 16 August 2013 (has links) This study acknowledges that historical antipathies towards gay men have marginalised their theatrical representation in the past. However, over the last century a change has occurred in the social location of gay men in Canada (from being marginalised to being included). Given these changes, questions arise as to whether staged representations of gay men are still marginalised today. Given antipathies towards homosexuality and homophobia may contribute to the how theatres determine the riskiness of productions, my investigation sought a correlation between financial risk in theatrical production and the marginalisation of gay representations on stage. Furthermore, given that gay sex itself, and its representation on stage, have been theorised as loci of antipathies to gayness, I investigate the relationship between the visibility and overtness of gay sex in a given play and the production of that play’s proximity to the mainstream. The study located four plays from across the spectrum of production conditions (from high to low financial risk) in BC. Analysis of these four plays shows general trends, not only in the plays’ constructions but also in the material conditions of their productions that indicate that gay representations become more overt, visible and sexually explicit when less financial risk was at stake. Various factors are identified – including the development of the script, the producing theatre, venue, and promotion of the production – that shape gay representation. The analysis reveals that historical theatrical practices, that have had the effect of marginalizing the representations of gays in the past, are still in place. These practices appear more prevalent the higher the financial risk of the production. / The author would like to sincerely thank Ann Wilson, Ric Knowles, Matthew Hayday, Alan Shepard, Sky Gilbert, Daniel MacIvor, Michael Lewis MacLennan, Conrad Alexandrowicz, Chris Grignard, Edward Roy, Brad Fraser, Cole J. Alvis, Jonathan Seinan, David Oiye, Clinton Walker, Sean Cummings, Darrin Hagin, and Chris Galatchian. / SSHRC, The Heather McCallum Scholarship, Lambda Prize for achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gendered studies. Daniel MacIvor Michael Lewis MacLennan Conrad Alexandrowicz Christopher Grignard His Greatness The Shooting Stage Beggars Would Ride The Orchard Drive Gay theatre Canadian Theatre Contemporary Theatre. Mainstream theatre Alternative Theatre Queer theatre Queer Canadian Theatre Gay social location of gay men gay history Vancouver B.C. lower mainland Kelowna Fringe theatre push festival wild excursions Vancouver arts club firehall theatre staging gay sex Alan Sinfield homosexuality conditions of production conditions of reception horizon of expectation four Ds homophobia gay cultural production gay youth Tennessee Williams material conditions marginalising representations of gays

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Political Stages: Gay Theatre in Toronto, 1967 - 1985

Are We There Yet? Gay Representation in Contemporary Canadian Drama