Editorial

The famous epigraph from E. M. Forster's novel Howards End, "Only connect ... ," might very well serve for this edition of the Views and Reviews section of CTR. Epitomizing the theme of the novel, the phrase "Only connect ..." speaks to the benefits its turn-of-the-century characters derive from forging relationships between individuals of differing economic and social background, gender, education, and philosophical outlook. As the novel demonstrates, links between points of difference open up new possibilities and perspectives. Each of the pieces presented here takes a slightly different approach to this notion of connection, but all demonstrate the stimulating intellectual animation, delightful pleasure in belonging, and often much-needed support found in interconnected communities engaged in a shared enterprise.

To honour the hundredth anniversary season of Ottawa Little Theatre (OLT), Robin C. Whittaker delves into the rich history of the company. Launched in 1913 as the Society for the Study and Production of Dramatic Art, the OLT now produces ten plays annually, employing approximately two hundred volunteers over the season. As a nonprofessionalized company (Whittaker eschews the label "amateur"), the OLT places a high value on both the community it serves as a kind of regional theatre for the Ottawa area and the community of its creative members. About its choice not to become a professional company, as other contemporary little theatres did, executive director Lynn McGuigan says, "That discussion has gone on for many years .... Of course some of [the members] have a desire to become professional, ... but fundamentally our people love coming here to 'play' and want to maintain a space where they can do that."

As the theme of connection goes, Samuel Beckett's existential Waiting for Godot figures large in our imagination as perhaps the antithesis of connection. In a dystopian world of seemingly malevolent objects, non sequiturs, and incomplete actions, Vladimir and Estragon are isolated from their material world and from other people. Perhaps we might say they are alone together, but still alone. However, in a recent Fringe production of Godot, reviewed for CTR by David Yee, the play becomes a triumph of community. Reconceived by performers Eric Craig and David Christo with Caden Douglas, this Godot is a fifty-four-hour marathon as the play is performed as a continuous loop until the clock runs out. On the one hand, the extreme number of repeated iterations emphasizes the characters' entrapment in a hopeless eternal cycle. On the other hand, this same extremity over time sets up a strong teleological narrative in the quest for completion. It is in this heightened situation that the project becomes in its final moments a grandly uplifting triumph, not only for the actors but also for the devoted community of audience members who have accompanied them.

Pleasure taken in the interpersonal connections generated in the creation of performance work is also the focus of Natalie Harrower's review of the film documentary Girls on Top by director Cassandra Nicolaou. Produced during the rehearsals and performances of Soulpepper's 2007 run of Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, the documentary celebrates the emotional bonds formed by the members of the acting company. In her review, Harrower brings into focus the contrast between the undermining, competitive, and selfish behaviour of the play's characters with the warm, funny, and, most of all, supportive environment in the rehearsal hall and the dressing rooms. Watching the documentary will make you wish you could be part of this community, too.

Applying the same ideals of community and collaboration that we laud in the creation of theatre to the creation of theatre and performance scholarship, six students from the Graduate Program in Theatre Studies at York are challenging the status quo of solo authorship to work as an ensemble. Joseph Roach writes, "We imagine ourselves as sole, isolated humanists laboring away in our carrel without any connection or indebtedness to (or participation in) a larger network of thinking that actually puts our ideas into the form that makes them interesting. I want to acknowledge those networks of connection in which each of us is a nodal point, not an isolated star" (qtd. in Young). Bradley...