Tracking Dramaturgical Influence: Lessons from the Archive Urjo Kareda 1982-1986

Tracking Dramaturgical Influence: Lessons from the Archive Urjo Kareda 1982-1986 by Jessica Riley A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literary Studies/Theatre Studies in English Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Jessica Riley, August 2015 ABSTRACT TRACKING DRAMATURGICAL INFLUENCE: LESSONS FROM THE ARCHIVE URJO KAREDA 1982-1986 Jessica Riley Advisor: University of Guelph, 2015 Dr. Ric Knowles What difference does a dramaturg make? While recent publications on dramaturgical practice have begun to recognize the subjective and even creative influence of the dramaturg, this turn has been largely restricted to the field of production dramaturgy. When it comes to new play development, particularly of text-based, single-authored scripts, dramaturgical influence remains a fraught and under-examined subject. Drawing on original archival research, this dissertation examines the nature and implications of developmental dramaturgy as it was practiced by influential Canadian dramaturg Urjo Kareda. Chapter one lays the groundwork for this study. Engaging with and troubling the received narrative of Kareda’s role in Canadian theatre history, this chapter draws on Kareda’s published writing and interviews as well as a range of extant archival records in order to reconstruct the subjective tastes, priorities, and preoccupations that informed his dramaturgical practice. Building on this foundational sense of Kareda’s dramaturgical sensibility, subsequent case studies examine the influence of Kareda’s feedback on three scripts developed in the first four years of his artistic directorship at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre: Rachel Wyatt’s Chairs and Tables (1983-1984), Don Hannah’s The Wedding Script (1984-1986), and Judith Thompson’s White Biting Dog (1982-1984). These case studies track each playwright’s negotiation of Kareda’s comments and questions through dozens of drafts (including, crucially, those marked up by Kareda), revealing the often unacknowledged and unexamined contributions of dramaturgical feedback to the trajectories of script development. Supplemented by interviews with the playwrights, these case studies offer the first archive-based analysis of the processes and influences of developmental dramaturgy, identifying new ways of thinking about the role and practice of the dramaturg. Each case study intervenes in ongoing debates about approaches to developmental dramaturgy in Canada and internationally, evolving an argument for the recognition of the dramaturg—often idealized as occupying a neutral and non-prescriptive position of service to the playwright—as a shaping, creative force in new play development. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, a very warm thank you to my advisor, Ric Knowles, for his own inspiring research and writing and, especially, for the generous insight and tireless support that has helped shape this project. Thank you as well to the other two members of my advisory committee, Alan Filewod and Kathryn Harvey, who have given a budding historian the tools and the confidence to enter the world of the past. I also wish to extend my gratitude to the entire committee for the valuable feedback provided at various stages of the development of this project. Many thanks as well to the additional members of my examination committee, Stephen Johnson and Pat Flood, for generously agreeing to read and respond to this work. Thank you to Stephen Johnson, Heather Davis-Fisch, and Roberta Barker, the organizers of the annual Performance History and Historiography seminar of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research. This inspiring community of scholars has aided me greatly in thinking through the challenges and opportunities of archival research. Thank you to Shelagh Hewitt-Kareda and Hersh Zeifman for granting me access to the Urjo Kareda fonds at Library and Archives Canada. Thanks also to Shelagh for the conversation, and for the tea. Thank you to Skip Shand, for making key introductions over the course of this project and, long before that, for helping me see myself as a scholar. Many thanks to the archivists and staff at Library and Archives Canada and at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University. A very special thanks to the staff of the Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph, whose warm and enthusiastic assistance brightened many days “down in the archives.” My thanks as well to Rachel Wyatt, Don Hannah, Judith Thompson, Joan MacLeod, and Andy McKim, for sharing their thoughts and memories of Urjo. Thank you to the School of English and Theatre Studies and the College of Arts at the University of Guelph for financial and institutional support of this project. Thank you to the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for partially funding this research. Heartfelt thanks also to my parents, Lindsey Riley and Marian Thurston, and to the rest of my family. Thank you to the many friends, old and new, who enrich my life and my thinking. A special thank you to my dear friend Mona Awad, whose unfailing support and brilliant insights have been a sustaining force through the process of writing this dissertation. And finally thank you to John Reed, whose love has seen me through this project and so much more. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction The “Other Side” of Developmental Dramaturgy: Urjo Kareda and the Case for Examining Dramaturgical Influence................................................1 Chapter 1 The Dramaturg as Ghost: Archival Remains and the Presence of the Personal......................................................................13 Chapter 2 Interrogative Feedback and the Myth of Neutral Dramaturgy Rachel Wyatt’s Chairs and Tables (1983-1984)...........................................................................64 Chapter 3 Context and Confluence: Dramaturgy In and Beyond the Tarragon Playwrights Unit Don Hannah’s The Wedding Script (1984-1986).........................................................................115 Chapter 4 “A Dramaturgical Chimera” Judith Thompson’s White Biting Dog (1982-1984).....................................................................163 Conclusion “The Involved Other”: Dramaturgy, Subjectivity, and Creating a Process......................................................................209 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………….214 v INTRODUCTION The “Other Side” of Developmental Dramaturgy: Urjo Kareda and the Case for Examining Dramaturgical Influence The prominent and influential role of the late Urjo Kareda (1944-2001) in the history of Canadian theatre is widely acknowledged. In publications such as the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and Toronto Life, and in his weekly CBC radio program, Urjo’s Diary, Kareda publicly shared his views on theatre—as well as opera, dance, and film—with candour, conviction, and a noteworthy confidence in his own well-developed personal aesthetic. As Kareda’s long-time colleague and friend Andy McKim once put it: “Urjo was never afraid of his own opinion” (qtd. in Breon 6). From 1971 to 1975, during an historic period in Toronto theatre that saw a dramatic increase in the production of original Canadian plays (rather than American or British imports), Kareda served as lead theatre critic for the Toronto Star and his astute, often enthusiastic, reviews have, as Robin Whittaker has observed most recently, “received significant scholarly attention” for their “extraordinary influence on playwriting and new play production” (154). Given the brevity of his time at the Star, however, it is surprising that relatively little scholarship has been devoted to Kareda’s more direct—and arguably more extraordinary— influence on new play development through his decades of work as a dramaturg. Kareda’s tenure as artistic director of Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre (1982-2001) marks the longest phase of his career in developmental dramaturgy.1 During his nineteen years at Tarragon, Kareda was involved in the development of some of Canada’s most celebrated plays and playwrights, collaborating closely on scripts by Joan MacLeod, Jason Sherman, and Judith Thompson, among many others. Anecdotal accounts attribute considerable influence—both positive and negative— 1 Kareda’s involvement in new play dramaturgy precedes his appointment as Tarragon artistic director by a few years. It begins in 1975 with his role as Literary Manager of the Stratford Festival followed by a brief stint as director of script development for CBC Radio Drama from 1980-1982 (Benson and Conolly 284). 1 to Kareda’s dramaturgical feedback and development processes. MacLeod, for example, reflects gratefully on her experiences with Kareda: “He really opened important doors for me with [his] notes…. I’ll never have another mentorship like that. It was just so important to me” (Personal Interview). Conversely, Michael Devine, a former member of the Tarragon Playwrights Unit, accuses Kareda of “using his influence like a blunderbuss at Tarragon Theatre” (“Change” 3-4). Beyond these anecdotal accounts, however, little attention has been paid to the influential contribution of Kareda’s dramaturgy to the plays on which he worked. The relative absence of scholarship devoted to Kareda’s work as a dramaturg can be partly attributed to the period with which his earlier, journalistic career coincided. The emergence of the alternate theatre movement in the early 1970s (particularly as it developed in Toronto) has been a prominent focus in the writing of Canadian theatre history, and Kareda’s

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