Michelle La Flamme - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Michelle La Flamme

thirdspace: a journal of feminist theory & culture, 2003

Canadian Theatre Review, Jul 1, 2012

A performance event celebrating 25 years of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters is used as ... more A performance event celebrating 25 years of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters is used as a sample case to analyse issues of indigeneity, performance and identity for a group of Aboriginal actors, academics and community members. This specific performance event demonstrated how several different communities can coalesce around a single unifying script. In addition, this performance event articulated how the play affected individual Aboriginal women and the event utilised several cultural features that reflected a specific community's protocols. As context, the author considers how institutional support and a policy of indigenization provided the possibility of an academic event to honor one of Canada's most celebrated Aboriginal playwrights.

Canadian Theatre Review, Jul 1, 2009

Canadian Theatre Review, Jul 1, 2009

Drew Hayden Taylor has been writing plays for years that use comedy and stereotypes to address in... more Drew Hayden Taylor has been writing plays for years that use comedy and stereotypes to address intercultural issues. Taylor’s fourth play in his Blues quartet, The Berlin Blues, like the preceding three plays – The Bootlegger Blues (1991), The Baby Blues (1999) and Buz’Gem Blues (2002) – contains a thread of physical comedy, word play and revelations that coalesce around the intercultural aspects of negotiating racial divides. In his latest Blues play, we find a somewhat stereotypical German couple, bent on building their German’s fantasy theme park in Ojibway territory. Predictably, this capitalist venture is greeted in the community with both scepticism and optimism. The German’s envision “Ojibway World”(22), complete with the “Medicine Ferris Wheel,” “four directions shuttle service,” “Turtle Island Aquarium,” “Whiskeyjack Pub and Bar” and a hotel called “Haida-way” and the “Weesageechek Water Slide”(19). Considering the German couple’s predilection for indianische anything, this plot-line is to be expected. The other elements of the plot include stampeding buffalo that take revenge, a loosely developed love story and an Aboriginal man’s “buy-in” to this capitalist dream. The carnivalesque elements and the fantasy-world setting are Taylor’s attempts to transcend the normative, but unfortunately, the binaries of Aboriginal/German worked to keep this reader fixated on entrenched cultural stereotypes that lack flexibility.

Canadian Theatre Review, Oct 1, 2020

In this review of Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, Michelle La Fl... more In this review of Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, Michelle La Flamme brings her experience in the field of Indigenous performance to a focused reading of the newest edited volume on Indigenous theatre. La Flamme outlines the significant pedagogical, dramaturgical, and personal insights on performance practice that are offered by Indigenous actors, directors, and educators committed to decolonizing theatre. She traces the strengths of the book and, at the same time, notes ways in which Indigenous performance scholarship might develop as it makes room for new forms and voices.

Canadian Theatre Review, Nov 1, 2016

Canadian Theatre Review (CTR) delivers critical analysis and innovative coverage of the current i... more Canadian Theatre Review (CTR) delivers critical analysis and innovative coverage of the current issues and trends in Canadian theatre. CTR Online features over 500 in-depth feature articles, thought-provoking scripts, manifestos, slideshows, videos, design portfolios, photo essays, and more. Recent issue themes have included Time's Up, Home and Away: Canadians Abroad, Gaming, and Radical Hospitalities.

Theatre Research in Canada-recherches Theatrales Au Canada, Jun 1, 2010

Canadian Theatre Review

Trauma in Aboriginal performance art practice implicitly reveals the precariousness of any establ... more Trauma in Aboriginal performance art practice implicitly reveals the precariousness of any established Aboriginal history. In the reenactment of trauma - individual pain confronting collective pain - performance art does not make meaning or create closure. Marcia Crosby

Canadian Theatre Review, 2020

In this review of Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, Michelle La Fl... more In this review of Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, Michelle La Flamme brings her experience in the field of Indigenous performance to a focused reading of the newest edited volume on Indigenous theatre. La Flamme outlines the significant pedagogical, dramaturgical, and personal insights on performance practice that are offered by Indigenous actors, directors, and educators committed to decolonizing theatre. She traces the strengths of the book and, at the same time, notes ways in which Indigenous performance scholarship might develop as it makes room for new forms and voices.

Theatre Research in Canada, 2010

This collection of essays offers critical discussions that illuminate some of the power behind pl... more This collection of essays offers critical discussions that illuminate some of the power behind playwright Marie Clements’s vision. There are many ways to associate her work with different debates and questions that have animated Canadian literary criticism. Whether her work is linked to larger postcolonial concerns regarding the “coming to voice” of Aboriginal writers, framed within the rising interest and acceptance of Aboriginal theatre that has rocked the country since Highway’s seminal work Rez Sisters, or understood within a larger discourse around feminist writing, these essays suggest there is much interest in both the medium and the message in her work. Clements is also one of many Aboriginal (and postcolonial Canadian) playwrights whose work offers a revision of Canadian narratives predicated on the notion that Canada was “won” by the colonial imperative. Much fruitful discussion can come from understanding Clements's repeated thematic interest in this contentious Canad...

Theatre Research in Canada, 2010

The paper begins by discussing some Aboriginal teachings offering the author’s working definition... more The paper begins by discussing some Aboriginal teachings offering the author’s working definition of Medicine based on the teachings that elders have shared. These cultural traditions reflect a belief in the power of performance and the possibility of performance as medicinal. The paper applies some of these teachings about Medicine to suggest that the form and experience of these theatrical events can be understood as contemporary good Medicine. These performances and plays by Aboriginal people bring balance to the witnesses through honouring the deceased by way of naming rituals, they bring balance to communities by showing the humanity of Aboriginal women, and they provide a cathartic ritual or ceremony for the release of trauma.

Canadian Theatre Review, 2016

Canadian Theatre Review (CTR) delivers critical analysis and innovative coverage of the current i... more Canadian Theatre Review (CTR) delivers critical analysis and innovative coverage of the current issues and trends in Canadian theatre. CTR Online features over 500 in-depth feature articles, thought-provoking scripts, manifestos, slideshows, videos, design portfolios, photo essays, and more. Recent issue themes have included Time's Up, Home and Away: Canadians Abroad, Gaming, and Radical Hospitalities.

Thirdspace a Journal of Feminist Theory Culture, Jul 18, 2008

This is not about the swinging café door à la Fred Wah, this is about the Wall and hitting it har... more This is not about the swinging café door à la Fred Wah, this is about the Wall and hitting it hard… The Master's houses are not built with straw and one huff and one puff or several “Whaps” will not allow the ease of entry within and through these walls… there is no ...

Thirdspace a Journal of Feminist Theory Culture, Jun 20, 2008

Canadian Theatre Review, 2012

A performance event celebrating 25 years of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters is used as ... more A performance event celebrating 25 years of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters is used as a sample case to analyse issues of indigeneity, performance and identity for a group of Aboriginal actors, academics and community members. This specific performance event demonstrated how several different communities can coalesce around a single unifying script. In addition, this performance event articulated how the play affected individual Aboriginal women and the event utilised several cultural features that reflected a specific community's protocols. As context, the author considers how institutional support and a policy of indigenization provided the possibility of an academic event to honor one of Canada's most celebrated Aboriginal playwrights.

Canadian Theatre Review

Drew Hayden Taylor has been writing plays for years that use comedy and stereotypes to address in... more Drew Hayden Taylor has been writing plays for years that use comedy and stereotypes to address intercultural issues. Taylor’s fourth play in his Blues quartet, The Berlin Blues, like the preceding three plays – The Bootlegger Blues (1991), The Baby Blues (1999) and Buz’Gem Blues (2002) – contains a thread of physical comedy, word play and revelations that coalesce around the intercultural aspects of negotiating racial divides. In his latest Blues play, we find a somewhat stereotypical German couple, bent on building their German’s fantasy theme park in Ojibway territory. Predictably, this capitalist venture is greeted in the community with both scepticism and optimism. The German’s envision “Ojibway World”(22), complete with the “Medicine Ferris Wheel,” “four directions shuttle service,” “Turtle Island Aquarium,” “Whiskeyjack Pub and Bar” and a hotel called “Haida-way” and the “Weesageechek Water Slide”(19). Considering the German couple’s predilection for indianische anything, this...

thirdspace: a journal of feminist theory & culture, 2003

Canadian Theatre Review, Jul 1, 2012

A performance event celebrating 25 years of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters is used as ... more A performance event celebrating 25 years of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters is used as a sample case to analyse issues of indigeneity, performance and identity for a group of Aboriginal actors, academics and community members. This specific performance event demonstrated how several different communities can coalesce around a single unifying script. In addition, this performance event articulated how the play affected individual Aboriginal women and the event utilised several cultural features that reflected a specific community's protocols. As context, the author considers how institutional support and a policy of indigenization provided the possibility of an academic event to honor one of Canada's most celebrated Aboriginal playwrights.

Canadian Theatre Review, Jul 1, 2009

Canadian Theatre Review, Jul 1, 2009

Drew Hayden Taylor has been writing plays for years that use comedy and stereotypes to address in... more Drew Hayden Taylor has been writing plays for years that use comedy and stereotypes to address intercultural issues. Taylor’s fourth play in his Blues quartet, The Berlin Blues, like the preceding three plays – The Bootlegger Blues (1991), The Baby Blues (1999) and Buz’Gem Blues (2002) – contains a thread of physical comedy, word play and revelations that coalesce around the intercultural aspects of negotiating racial divides. In his latest Blues play, we find a somewhat stereotypical German couple, bent on building their German’s fantasy theme park in Ojibway territory. Predictably, this capitalist venture is greeted in the community with both scepticism and optimism. The German’s envision “Ojibway World”(22), complete with the “Medicine Ferris Wheel,” “four directions shuttle service,” “Turtle Island Aquarium,” “Whiskeyjack Pub and Bar” and a hotel called “Haida-way” and the “Weesageechek Water Slide”(19). Considering the German couple’s predilection for indianische anything, this plot-line is to be expected. The other elements of the plot include stampeding buffalo that take revenge, a loosely developed love story and an Aboriginal man’s “buy-in” to this capitalist dream. The carnivalesque elements and the fantasy-world setting are Taylor’s attempts to transcend the normative, but unfortunately, the binaries of Aboriginal/German worked to keep this reader fixated on entrenched cultural stereotypes that lack flexibility.

Canadian Theatre Review, Oct 1, 2020

In this review of Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, Michelle La Fl... more In this review of Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, Michelle La Flamme brings her experience in the field of Indigenous performance to a focused reading of the newest edited volume on Indigenous theatre. La Flamme outlines the significant pedagogical, dramaturgical, and personal insights on performance practice that are offered by Indigenous actors, directors, and educators committed to decolonizing theatre. She traces the strengths of the book and, at the same time, notes ways in which Indigenous performance scholarship might develop as it makes room for new forms and voices.

Canadian Theatre Review, Nov 1, 2016

Canadian Theatre Review (CTR) delivers critical analysis and innovative coverage of the current i... more Canadian Theatre Review (CTR) delivers critical analysis and innovative coverage of the current issues and trends in Canadian theatre. CTR Online features over 500 in-depth feature articles, thought-provoking scripts, manifestos, slideshows, videos, design portfolios, photo essays, and more. Recent issue themes have included Time's Up, Home and Away: Canadians Abroad, Gaming, and Radical Hospitalities.

Theatre Research in Canada-recherches Theatrales Au Canada, Jun 1, 2010

Canadian Theatre Review

Trauma in Aboriginal performance art practice implicitly reveals the precariousness of any establ... more Trauma in Aboriginal performance art practice implicitly reveals the precariousness of any established Aboriginal history. In the reenactment of trauma - individual pain confronting collective pain - performance art does not make meaning or create closure. Marcia Crosby

Canadian Theatre Review, 2020

In this review of Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, Michelle La Fl... more In this review of Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, Michelle La Flamme brings her experience in the field of Indigenous performance to a focused reading of the newest edited volume on Indigenous theatre. La Flamme outlines the significant pedagogical, dramaturgical, and personal insights on performance practice that are offered by Indigenous actors, directors, and educators committed to decolonizing theatre. She traces the strengths of the book and, at the same time, notes ways in which Indigenous performance scholarship might develop as it makes room for new forms and voices.

Theatre Research in Canada, 2010

This collection of essays offers critical discussions that illuminate some of the power behind pl... more This collection of essays offers critical discussions that illuminate some of the power behind playwright Marie Clements’s vision. There are many ways to associate her work with different debates and questions that have animated Canadian literary criticism. Whether her work is linked to larger postcolonial concerns regarding the “coming to voice” of Aboriginal writers, framed within the rising interest and acceptance of Aboriginal theatre that has rocked the country since Highway’s seminal work Rez Sisters, or understood within a larger discourse around feminist writing, these essays suggest there is much interest in both the medium and the message in her work. Clements is also one of many Aboriginal (and postcolonial Canadian) playwrights whose work offers a revision of Canadian narratives predicated on the notion that Canada was “won” by the colonial imperative. Much fruitful discussion can come from understanding Clements's repeated thematic interest in this contentious Canad...

Theatre Research in Canada, 2010

The paper begins by discussing some Aboriginal teachings offering the author’s working definition... more The paper begins by discussing some Aboriginal teachings offering the author’s working definition of Medicine based on the teachings that elders have shared. These cultural traditions reflect a belief in the power of performance and the possibility of performance as medicinal. The paper applies some of these teachings about Medicine to suggest that the form and experience of these theatrical events can be understood as contemporary good Medicine. These performances and plays by Aboriginal people bring balance to the witnesses through honouring the deceased by way of naming rituals, they bring balance to communities by showing the humanity of Aboriginal women, and they provide a cathartic ritual or ceremony for the release of trauma.

Canadian Theatre Review, 2016

Canadian Theatre Review (CTR) delivers critical analysis and innovative coverage of the current i... more Canadian Theatre Review (CTR) delivers critical analysis and innovative coverage of the current issues and trends in Canadian theatre. CTR Online features over 500 in-depth feature articles, thought-provoking scripts, manifestos, slideshows, videos, design portfolios, photo essays, and more. Recent issue themes have included Time's Up, Home and Away: Canadians Abroad, Gaming, and Radical Hospitalities.

Thirdspace a Journal of Feminist Theory Culture, Jul 18, 2008

This is not about the swinging café door à la Fred Wah, this is about the Wall and hitting it har... more This is not about the swinging café door à la Fred Wah, this is about the Wall and hitting it hard… The Master's houses are not built with straw and one huff and one puff or several “Whaps” will not allow the ease of entry within and through these walls… there is no ...

Thirdspace a Journal of Feminist Theory Culture, Jun 20, 2008

Canadian Theatre Review, 2012

A performance event celebrating 25 years of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters is used as ... more A performance event celebrating 25 years of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters is used as a sample case to analyse issues of indigeneity, performance and identity for a group of Aboriginal actors, academics and community members. This specific performance event demonstrated how several different communities can coalesce around a single unifying script. In addition, this performance event articulated how the play affected individual Aboriginal women and the event utilised several cultural features that reflected a specific community's protocols. As context, the author considers how institutional support and a policy of indigenization provided the possibility of an academic event to honor one of Canada's most celebrated Aboriginal playwrights.

Canadian Theatre Review

Drew Hayden Taylor has been writing plays for years that use comedy and stereotypes to address in... more Drew Hayden Taylor has been writing plays for years that use comedy and stereotypes to address intercultural issues. Taylor’s fourth play in his Blues quartet, The Berlin Blues, like the preceding three plays – The Bootlegger Blues (1991), The Baby Blues (1999) and Buz’Gem Blues (2002) – contains a thread of physical comedy, word play and revelations that coalesce around the intercultural aspects of negotiating racial divides. In his latest Blues play, we find a somewhat stereotypical German couple, bent on building their German’s fantasy theme park in Ojibway territory. Predictably, this capitalist venture is greeted in the community with both scepticism and optimism. The German’s envision “Ojibway World”(22), complete with the “Medicine Ferris Wheel,” “four directions shuttle service,” “Turtle Island Aquarium,” “Whiskeyjack Pub and Bar” and a hotel called “Haida-way” and the “Weesageechek Water Slide”(19). Considering the German couple’s predilection for indianische anything, this...