| Abstrakt: |
In British North America during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, army officers held domain over amateur theatre, performing in all-male garrison theatricals for the towns in which they were stationed. But, as women entered education and training institutions in post-Confederation university cities, it was they who came to dominate the field as their counterparts had across the Atlantic. Theatre scholars have tended to overlook the work of young educated women who used theatre to bridge gaps between private and public spheres. These women drew on local talent and early modern and contemporary plays for purposes that included personal edification and societal improvement, and presented to the educated classes an alternative to the foreign professional touring companies of the day. Their work was frequently received in their time with critical acclaim, in favour of the work of practitioners who can be read more directly as 'pioneers' of a Canadian theatre profession. This essay offers a discussion of the space of non-professionalizing practices with particular emphasis on the Canadian context, followed by an archive-based analysis of the Women's Dramatic Club of University College (WDC) at the University of Toronto and their training, production and reception record, and conclusions concerning the club's place within the field of cultural production as a producer of public taste in Toronto during the first two decades of the last century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
