Rehearsing Justice: Theatre, Sexuality and the Sacred
Victoria RueFeminist Theology
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Abstract
The actor's process in a rehearsal hall is reality and metaphor. It can be a rehearsal for justice, where we can live freely. In this laboratory the actor becomes all of us. Like the actor, we inhabit our bodies and our sexualities, sometimes as spiritual practice, or as sacred and creative, even as incarnations. In particular, women's bodies remember what it is like to be no-body and what it is like to be a some-body. The texts of women's bodies contain their history of pain, wellness and illness.
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Dedications This is not one man's effort; though my name appears first, I walk alongside giants who I owe so much. This thesis would have been impossible without the love and support of many. First to my ancestors, whose survival and love brought me into existence and continue to offer me new ways forward. To Ari, my immense gratitude and learning with and from you is woven through this work (more on that in the introduction). To mon grand chou Kyall, it is no secret that your love and affection is the magic that restores and rejuvenates me, that has brought me back to life, that ushers me into our future. To my supervisor, Dr. Margot Francis, in the face of many obstacles and while providing mentorship to many, your time with me has always felt like a priority and a gift-almost as if I was your only student. Your care, delicate guidance, constant belief, and trust in my capacities has brought me back time and again to strive to finish this thesis. Thanks for keeping me honest, just, and in pursuit of the generative. To my supervisory committee: Dr. Susan Spearey and Dr. Brenda Anderson, I am so grateful for the behind-the-scenes support. Your excitement for this work, your help in the final stages, and all the unseen contributions are invaluable. And Sue, thank you for giving me the lens and language to recalibrate how I think about my work. To my external examiner, Beau Coleman, MFA, your theatrical enthusiasm for the work during my defense was a dream. To Colin Anthes, thank you for your devising workshop. To the Department of Dramatic Arts, thank you for the rehearsal/performance spaces provided. iv To my immediate, in-law, extended, and chosen family: thank you for being steadfast and enthusiastically supporting this period in my life. To my Niagara family, thank you for marking each milestone with wine and camaraderie. To my SJES cohort, your compassion and drive for a just equitable world taught me how to see the seemingly invisible. To my past (Jonathan ages 0 to 34) and to my future, thank you for desiring growth, compassion, and betterment. Thank you for not giving up. This is for you. This is for me. I will carry all of you with me always. Land Acknowledgment As a settler on this land, I want to acknowledge the Turtle Island territories on which this thesis was written, and the workshop of That Power performed. While researching, co-creating, and performing That Power, and writing the first half of this thesis, I was an uninvited guest on the ancestral lands governed by the Dish With One Spoon Wampum between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Anishinaabe Nation (known as St. Catharines, Ontario). I finalized this thesis as an uninvited guest on the unceded ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Lekwungen-speaking peoples, now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations (known as Victoria, British Columbia). I thank these peoples for their hospitality as I live, work, and play on these territories and I choose to live as a guest who respects the hospitality shown to me and choose the path of mutual respect that leads to all persons co-existing side-by-side, in agreement. I have much to learn about how acknowledgment can be an integration of "intentions, states of being, and actions in your own bones and blood and breath" (Ravensbergen, 2019, p. 30). This work and learning towards living in an active state of acknowledgment as a permanent uninvited guest and settler on these lands will continue past this thesis. v
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