Introduction to “Shedding Skins”: Marie Brassard’s Keynote Performance/Address at the 2015 ATHE Conference

As vice president for the 2015 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference in Montreal, I was committed to immersing our members in an experience that spoke to both Canada and Québec in particular. I wanted Canadian and Québécois voices to be heard in the workshops and performances, in the concurrent sessions, and in any special events that we planned. Central to this was the choice of theme: I wanted the theme to give rise to a particularly Québécois point of view. Québec’s motto Je me souviens, which is also on the provincial license plate, grounded the theme both socially and politically in Québec and seemed an exciting frame for the Montreal conference.

One specific desire of the conference committee was that the keynote speaker should be able to ground the conference in the theme both socially and politically, while addressing it from a theatrical point of view.¹ And so it seemed that the only plausible choice was a Québécois artist. The next step was to research possible speakers.² Throughout this early process the keynote subcommittee was cognizant of several considerations beyond our desire to choose a Québécois theatre artist. We were very aware that some of the people on our list would be unknown to our largely US membership. In the end we decided that it was more imperative to maintain the integrity of the relationship between the content of the keynote and the conference theme regardless of concerns over name recognition. We believed that an intriguing Québécois artist would be a strong draw, given the positive reception of the membership to the conference theme when it was announced at the previous year’s conference in Phoenix.

As the discussion with the full committee ensued, it became clear that four possibilities were most favored: Michel Marc Bouchard, Marie Brassard, the duo of Denise Guilbault and Alisa Palmer, and Wajdi Mouawad. Montreal-based Brassard is an award-winning actor/playwright who became known to international audiences through her work with Robert Lepage, especially on Le Polygraphe; she has gone on to write and perform her own work and to found Infrarouge, a theatre company dedicated to exploring the integration of new technologies and performance.

In 2014 Brassard had premiered a new work, in both French and English, titled Me Talking to Myself in the Future. The title itself caught the imaginations of the committee members. Reviewer Michael Lyons explains that in the play, “[a]n old woman imagines herself in the past, and a young girl remembers herself in the future.” When I watched the video online I was captivated by her presence, her ability to jump across time and switch characters in an instant, and the abstract visuals that sometimes dominated the screen.³ In the eyes of the committee members this piece made her an ideal candidate for keynote speaker. She is a bilingual Québécoise artist with an international reputation whose current work addressed Je me souviens in a unique and relevant manner. After much discussion the committee agreed that Brassard was our first choice to deliver the keynote at ATHE 2015. Throughout the planning stages for this event Brassard was gracious in all of our communications, which helped to take the stress out of a very complicated planning process.

As those who attended the keynote presentation will remember, Le Grand Salon at the Fairmont Le Reine Elizabeth Hotel was full. We opened the conference with a First Nations drumming circle by the Buffalo Hat Singers and a welcome from Elder John Cree of the Kanehsatake First Nation. The audience’s attention then turned to the stage in the ballroom space where Brassard presented. She stood in the middle of the stage with three screens behind her, projecting an orange, almost fire-ringed silhouette of a woman who may or may not have been Brassard. The full text of her keynote address follows this introduction. We were so pleased that her performance/address was incredibly well-received by...