Interviewing the mothers of invention: A qualitative analysis of women theatre practitioners in Toronto

This thesis analyzes theatre's function as a workplace and the ways in which a specific group of twenty-five women operate within this institutional environment. Through the use of qualitative research tools and Dorothy Smith's approach to institutional ethnography as an investigative methodology, this study questions what it means for women to work in Toronto theatre, and examines the social, political and economic conditions that enable and/or hinder women's ability to gain access to employment. The Introduction lays the groundwork for the study by (anonymously) introducing the women involved, discussing the analytic procedure, and laying out the organization of the thesis. Chapter 2 outlines the basic critical theories and methods used in the body of the analysis, and addresses issues surrounding materialist feminism, feminist standpoint theory, feminist ethnography and qualitative interview and research techniques. Chapter 3 looks at the concept of theatre as an institution and investigates institutional practices and ideologies via various models of theatre organization. Chapter 4 studies the importance of the culture of institutionalized theatre education by focusing specifically on the studying of theatre or drama in a university context; unearthing some of the institutional ideologies behind learning; and comparing some of the liberal contexts in which this particular group of women have studied to the engendered practices they have encountered. Chapter 5 examines the intersection of history, institution and women's theatre practice in Toronto between the late 1960s and the mid-1990s as it has been influenced by Rina Fraticelli's The Status of Women in Canadian Theatre, primarily in reference to Red Light and Nightwood Theatres. In using the infrastructure of these two theatres as case studies it references specific elaborated examples of women artistic directors, freelance directors and playwrights in alternative and feminist theatre. Chapter 6 bridges the worlds of motherhood and theatre practice by exploring the concepts of "motherwork" and maternal identity and the ways in which they interact with theatre. The Conclusion calls for a rethinking of the notion of work in theatre to one that is more generous in form and makes a number of suggestions toward improving women's status in Canadian theatre.