How, Why, and What

Canadian Theatre Review in Performance Matters

Authors

  • Selena Couture University of Alberta
  • Melissa Poll Kansas State University

Abstract

In her article in this issue, “Here We Are, in the Middle,” Algonquin/Irish theatre artist and scholar Yvette Nolan asks readers to celebrate conversations across divisions and, consequently, to grow. Her words sum up the impetus for this issue: through its publication, we are asking readers to preserve and reflect upon a critical moment in our field, one that raises pressing questions about freedom of speech, solidarity, and ethical discourse.

Author Biographies

Selena Couture, University of Alberta

Selena Couture is a settler scholar, Associate Professor, and HM Tory Research Chair at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton/ Treaty 6 territory and Métis Region No.4. Her research deconstructs conceptions of settler colonial white possession while foregrounding the maintenance of Indigenous places through performance. Publications include: Against the Current and Into the Light (2020) and On this Patch of Grass (2018). She is a co-director of the Ecologies research cluster with Hemispheric Encounters which delves into legacies of transnational resource extraction and land politics focusing on site-based performance strategies that address politics of land (and agencies of its more-than human inhabitants), as well as spatial politics of occupying public spaces. She serves on the board of directors of Vancouver’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and Solid State Community Society. She is the co-editor of this issue of Performance Matters.

Melissa Poll, Kansas State University

Melissa Poll is a settler Canadian and teaches in Social Transformation Studies and English at Kansas State University, which is located on the ancestral land of the Kaw, Osage, and Pawnee, among other nations. Melissa’s research on Indigenous/settler performance collaborations, feminism, and devising has been published in The Cambridge Companion to Stage Directors, Contemporary Theatre Review, Theatre Research in Canada, and Body Space Technology. She published her monograph, Robert Lepage’s Scenographic Dramaturgy, with Palgrave Macmillan in 2018. Since 2019, Melissa has worked as the Equity and Inclusion Dramaturg for Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival. Her publications with Canadian Theatre Review include “Mapping the New Critical Terrain: Rules, Ethics, Hierarchies” (CTR 168); “The Hidden Costs of Aspiring to Global City Status: Robert Lepage, Vancouver and Twenty-First Century China Collide at the 2010 Cultural Olympiad” (CTR 164); and “Root Vegetables and Reflections on West Coast Culture: Radix’s BEUTFL CARATS for Progress Lab” (CTR 155).

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Published

2026-08-28

How to Cite

Couture, Selena, and Melissa Poll. 2026. “How, Why, and What: Canadian Theatre Review in Performance Matters”. Performance Matters 12 (1). Vancouver:1–10. https://www.performancematters-thejournal.com/index.php/pm/article/view/610.

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2026): Re-Assembling: CTR 199–200

Section

Introduction

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Selena Couture, Melissa Poll

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the journal. By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use, with proper attribution, in educational and other non-commercial settings.

Manuscripts submitted to Performance Matters should be original works that have not been published elsewhere. Note that authors are responsible for obtaining permission to include copyrighted material in any article or review published in Performance Matters.