“Unspoken Futures” uses research-creation, ethnography, and theatre performance to explore how individuals with disabilities and neurodivergencies imagine and intervene in emergent futures.
In partnership with York University’s Department of Theatre, Dance and Performance, Theatre Direct, and Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology, Dr. Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston, along with co-facilitators Lisa Marie DiLiberto and Sasha Singer-Wilson, collaborated with self-identified disabled and neurodivergent artists Timothy Anderson, Andreas Prinz, Tyler Preece, Angela Sun, and Zoe Tomaras.
This collaborative work culminated in a free public presentation in The Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre at York University at 1 p.m. on February 22, 2024.
Supported by a SSHRC Connection Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Project Details
The complex and diverse lived experiences of individuals with disabilities and neurodivergencies often inspire them to envision, desire, and shape futures in unique and imaginative ways. These futures reflect not only their personal aspirations but also their interactions with societal norms and expectations, and medical care. However, such visions and desires can be difficult to articulate through verbal means, as they encompass embodied, emotional, and sensory dimensions that can transcend language. This inability to fully express embodied perspectives can lead to misunderstandings and misrepresentations, profoundly impacting the daily lives of people with disabilities, their access to equitable care, and the ways in which society perceives and values them as individuals.
To convey these desires for and imaginings of possible futures, multi-sensory research methods might be required. “Unspoken Futures” sought to bring these imaginings to life through an innovative blend of ethnography and theatre-making. Theatre engages the senses and emotions, serving as a powerful medium for conveying ethnographic knowledge about lived experiences in a collaborative, informative, and empathetic way.
“Unspoken Futures” bridges the gap between academic research and public understanding while advocating for more inclusive futures that might result in more holistic medical care, informed and compassionate policies, and in the reduction of stigma. The final performance invited audiences to rethink how we understand and study disability futures.
Project Facilitators:
Dr. Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston is an anthropologist, performance theorist, and theatre director. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre, Dance & Performance at York University. Her research focuses on performance ethnography, arts-based research, storytelling, autofiction, aging, migration, disability, and climate emotions. She trained as a theatre director under the renowned Polish theatre and visual artist Józef Szajna and has worked as a theatre director and playwright in both Canada and Poland.
Sasha Singer-Wilson (she/her) is a theatre artist, writer, and facilitator. Her work explores land connection, intergenerational relationships, and the climate crisis. A graduate of the Acting Conservatory at York, Sasha has an MFA in Theatre and Creative Writing from UBC and is currently a PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies at York. Sasha has trained and worked with companies across Turtle Island such as The Arts Club, Soulpepper, Brave New Play Rites, Convergence Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Pleiades Theatre, Theatre Gargantua, One Yellow Rabbit, SummerWorks, and PTC. She co-ran the artist-driven theatre company the blood projects where she made immersive and site-specific performances in intimate spaces such as the critically acclaimed Little Tongues, This Is It, and runner up for the SummerWorks Emerging Artist Award, Inside. Sasha facilitates courses and workshops in theatre-making, creative writing, and voice, and is honoured to teach/learn voice and speech at The Centre for Indigenous Theatre and York. www.sashasingerwilson.com
Lisa Marie DiLiberto is the Executive Artistic Director at Theatre Direct – one of the country’s leading companies for young audiences; the Founder and Lead Advisor for Balancing Act – a national initiative supporting parents and caregivers in the performing arts; and in 2022 she was co-curator of JUNIOR at Harbourfront Centre – Canada’s largest international children’s festival. Lisa Marie’s most ambitious artistic adventure to date is The Tale of a Town – Canada, an oral history, media and theatre project which toured to every province and territory and awarded and has since been adapted into an animated series for TVO called Main Street Ontario. Other artistic endeavors include the development of a binaural audio piece for World Stage at Harbourfront Centre and the site-specific production of The Four Corners as playwright in residence at Theatre Passe Muraille. Lisa Marie worked in community-engaged as the Associate Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre and as the Artistic Director of Arts4All at the Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre. Lisa Marie serves on the board of Community Arts Guild in Scarborough and the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). She is a graduate of George Brown Theatre School and Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris, France and currently a PhD candidate at York University pursuing research in site-specific performance ethnography with children. Above all, Lisa Marie is a fierce little league coach for her two wild music-loving baseball playing boys.
Unspoken Futures
&
York University Present:
UNSPOKEN FUTURES
“Unspoken Futures” uses research-creation, ethnography, and theatre performance to explore how individuals with disabilities and neurodivergencies imagine and intervene in emergent futures.
In partnership with York University’s Department of Theatre, Dance and Performance, Theatre Direct, and Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology, Dr. Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston, along with co-facilitators Lisa Marie DiLiberto and Sasha Singer-Wilson, collaborated with self-identified disabled and neurodivergent artists Timothy Anderson, Andreas Prinz, Tyler Preece, Angela Sun, and Zoe Tomaras.
This collaborative work culminated in a free public presentation in The Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre at York University at 1 p.m. on February 22, 2024.
Supported by a SSHRC Connection Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Project Details
The complex and diverse lived experiences of individuals with disabilities and neurodivergencies often inspire them to envision, desire, and shape futures in unique and imaginative ways. These futures reflect not only their personal aspirations but also their interactions with societal norms and expectations, and medical care. However, such visions and desires can be difficult to articulate through verbal means, as they encompass embodied, emotional, and sensory dimensions that can transcend language. This inability to fully express embodied perspectives can lead to misunderstandings and misrepresentations, profoundly impacting the daily lives of people with disabilities, their access to equitable care, and the ways in which society perceives and values them as individuals.
To convey these desires for and imaginings of possible futures, multi-sensory research methods might be required. “Unspoken Futures” sought to bring these imaginings to life through an innovative blend of ethnography and theatre-making. Theatre engages the senses and emotions, serving as a powerful medium for conveying ethnographic knowledge about lived experiences in a collaborative, informative, and empathetic way.
“Unspoken Futures” bridges the gap between academic research and public understanding while advocating for more inclusive futures that might result in more holistic medical care, informed and compassionate policies, and in the reduction of stigma. The final performance invited audiences to rethink how we understand and study disability futures.
Project Facilitators:
Dr. Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston is an anthropologist, performance theorist, and theatre director. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre, Dance & Performance at York University. Her research focuses on performance ethnography, arts-based research, storytelling, autofiction, aging, migration, disability, and climate emotions. She trained as a theatre director under the renowned Polish theatre and visual artist Józef Szajna and has worked as a theatre director and playwright in both Canada and Poland.
Sasha Singer-Wilson (she/her) is a theatre artist, writer, and facilitator. Her work explores land connection, intergenerational relationships, and the climate crisis. A graduate of the Acting Conservatory at York, Sasha has an MFA in Theatre and Creative Writing from UBC and is currently a PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies at York. Sasha has trained and worked with companies across Turtle Island such as The Arts Club, Soulpepper, Brave New Play Rites, Convergence Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Pleiades Theatre, Theatre Gargantua, One Yellow Rabbit, SummerWorks, and PTC. She co-ran the artist-driven theatre company the blood projects where she made immersive and site-specific performances in intimate spaces such as the critically acclaimed Little Tongues, This Is It, and runner up for the SummerWorks Emerging Artist Award, Inside. Sasha facilitates courses and workshops in theatre-making, creative writing, and voice, and is honoured to teach/learn voice and speech at The Centre for Indigenous Theatre and York. www.sashasingerwilson.com
Lisa Marie DiLiberto is the Executive Artistic Director at Theatre Direct – one of the country’s leading companies for young audiences; the Founder and Lead Advisor for Balancing Act – a national initiative supporting parents and caregivers in the performing arts; and in 2022 she was co-curator of JUNIOR at Harbourfront Centre – Canada’s largest international children’s festival. Lisa Marie’s most ambitious artistic adventure to date is The Tale of a Town – Canada, an oral history, media and theatre project which toured to every province and territory and awarded and has since been adapted into an animated series for TVO called Main Street Ontario. Other artistic endeavors include the development of a binaural audio piece for World Stage at Harbourfront Centre and the site-specific production of The Four Corners as playwright in residence at Theatre Passe Muraille. Lisa Marie worked in community-engaged as the Associate Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre and as the Artistic Director of Arts4All at the Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre. Lisa Marie serves on the board of Community Arts Guild in Scarborough and the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). She is a graduate of George Brown Theatre School and Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris, France and currently a PhD candidate at York University pursuing research in site-specific performance ethnography with children. Above all, Lisa Marie is a fierce little league coach for her two wild music-loving baseball playing boys.