Invisibility in Research and Performance with Jessica Watkin

In her chapter “The Ontology of Performance,” Peggy Phelan suggests that a feeling of mastery over a visual sits within the gaze of the spectator. Something happens in the transaction of seeing and being seen on stage, and that provides a language of invisibility when that transaction is broken. Jessica Watkins explored the possibilities for performance and research in that invisibility. 

Jessica Watkin is a PhD Student at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. Her research explores accessible approaches to creating theatre and performance by artists with disabilities in Canada. As an artist, Jessica has created and performed around Ontario and was an artist-academic participant at the National Art Centre’s The Study and Republic of Inclusion in June 2017 in Ottawa. In Toronto, she is a Blind Community Consultant and consults on accessibility around Ontario and Quebec. With her interest in accessibility, disability, performance, and advocacy, Jessica Co-Curated the 2018 Festival of Original Theatre at CDTPS called “Supporting Bodies/Changing Minds.”

Working Group Readings:

Watkin, Jessica. (2017). "The Invisible Opportunity: All the Light We Cannot See (in Research)". in Canadian Theatre Review, Vol 172. 

Fletcher-Watshon, Ben. (2015). "Relaxed performance: audiences with autism in mainstream theatre". in The Scottish Journal of Performance. Vol 2.2. 

Presented at the University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus.