Julia Henderson
Theatre Studies PHD candidate Julia Henderson has received an honourable mention from the Robert C. Lawrence Prize Committee for her paper, “Resisting Dominant Ideologies of Aging: Sally Clark’s Moo and Ten Ways To Abuse An Old Woman”. Delivered at the The Canadian Association for Theatre Research conference in Calgary in May, we’re proud of Julia on receiving this prestigious prize.
Content of the paper: Considering Sally Clark’s work within the larger history of a systemic “ageism” in the dramatic texts and performance of the Western Theatre, Henderson’s eloquently written and presented paper makes a strong case for revisioning Canadian playwright, Sally Clark, as one of a pioneering wave of national and international playwrights who have fought to write and perform older women, in all their nuances and complexity, in a world where we still typically see older male figures dominating the stage. Integrating an impressive range of literary, historical, medical, aesthetic and performance analysis, Henderson’s careful textual analysis of Clark’s strategies to break up the narrative of progressive decline and the “gaze” of invisibility that obliterates older women characters from serious/sympathetic consideration is enhanced by references to the thought of a number of international and Canadian critics, including Knowles and Whittaker, and other groundbreaking Canadian plays including Maillet’s La Sagouine, and Tremblay’s Albertine in Five Times which also explore the polyvocality of aging women on stage and their mental health.
http://catracrt.ca/robert-g-lawrence-prize-2015-invitation-and-criteria-prix-robert-g-lawrence-2015-invitation-et-criteres/