Editor’s note

I come to the role of Editor of Youth Theatre Journal as a Canadian citizen; I may indeed be the first Canadian Editor of the journal. I live slightly to the north of the longest undefended border in the world. The history between our two countries has been largely peaceful and cooperative, with a few blips along the way (the War of 1812 anyone?) But Canada has long been aware that living next door to its closest neighbour and partner in trade – at ten times its population and with the largest military on the planet – can be challenging. Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once said to an American audience in Washington, “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt” (“The elephant and the mouse”, 2019). Well, since the last Presidential election, Canada has been sleeping with more twitches and grunts emerging from Washington than perhaps ever before.

But one potentially good thing about having a Canadian at the helm of YTJ at this point in history may be that, as an outsider, I may bring some alternative perspectives to what is happening. The view across our border is not a pretty one these days, that is certain. Yet it is a far more open and hospitable view than for those who try in desperation to cross the southern border, soon to be a wall. Canada has resisted America’s will in the past; we refused to join the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq in 2003, for example. And while your President tries to turn the clock of social progress and social justice back to the Dark Ages, Canadians have been able to stand strong behind our shared beliefs in a multicultural society, universal healthcare, abortion rights, public education, gun control, high levels of immigration and peaceful coexistence.

We Canadians are not perfect, though! We are wrestling with our shameful history of residential schools, in which Indigenous children were torn away from their families and communities and were subjected too often to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. And in Indigenous communities across the country there remain many problems, including access to basic needs such as clean water. We are struggling with changing our economy from one driven by nonrenewable resources such as oil and gas to renewable and greener options. Our current federal government is committed to addressing climate change, yet recently purchased a pipeline from an oil company with our tax dollars. This pipeline will cross from Alberta to British Columbia (where I live), threatening wilderness, Indigenous lands, and the Pacific Ocean coastline with the dangers of a spill. And in Quebec, which has always had an uneasy alliance with the rest of Canada, the province has brought in legislation that will prohibit any show of religion by anyone working in the public sector, including teachers. This is thinly disguised Islamophobia, but the law will also affect observant Jews and Sikhs. Finally, Ontario has a new rightwing premier who takes his playbook straight from Donald Trump, thus moving our largest and wealthiest province into a tough time of cutbacks and the end of many progressive social programs.

So why am I sharing these thoughts with you in the context of an editorial for a journal that publishes research on young people, education and theatre/performance? I do so because I believe politics and economics matter, and have both a direct and indirect effect on what it is that we do. As I write this, President Trump is proposing cutting funding to the National Endowment of the Arts and to public broadcasting. America has already had the lowest per capita funding for the arts compared to other developed countries; studies consistently show the United States lagging far behind (McCaughey 2005; National Endowment for the Arts 2000). Historically, America has tended to fund the arts through patronage, thus relying on both the whims and tastes of wealthy benefactors. In countries such as Canada, the UK and most of the European Union, funding is provided by government through taxation and delivered by national and provincial/state arts councils in an arms-length peer review model. These facts matter, as they trickle down in reality to theatre companies in the US that struggle to survive, and may be pressed to take fewer risks in their programming, for fear of losing precarious funding. Needless to say, similar problems are currently effecting education in America, with an inexperienced billionaire overseeing the attempt to dismantle teachers’ unions and public education in favour of private charter schools for those who are fortunate enough to be able to afford them.

The times we are living through are grim. Where do we hold on to hope when all around us we are witness to plutocracy over democracy, violence over peace, ignorance over wisdom? I have personally found hope in the form of young activists who are taking to the streets and raising their voices high in the name of issues such as ending gun violence, addressing climate change and fighting for gender equity and the rights of minorities. After the horrible attack on Parkland School in Florida, I was inspired by the students who stood up and faced the cameras and microphones without fear, and with plenty of anger, to denounce the insanity of American gun laws. It did not surprise me to find out that these students were experienced in theatre, as well as part of a strong debating program. Their theatre training, and ability to hold their ground while making an argument, gave them the power to speak through their grief, and to lead a movement against gun violence. When Emma Gonzalez stood at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington and stayed silent for the amount of time it took the gunman to erase 17 lives, she well understood the power of performance. Similarly, Greta Thunberg in Sweden has sparked a global youth movement fighting for the future in the face of irreversible climate change. This young woman has Asperger’s Syndrome, yet this supposed “disability” has become a strength in her fierce focus on saving the planet, and her being completely unintimidated by those in power. In the UK, young people have rallied in their attempt to stop a decision made by their elders to leave the European Union; these young people voted up to 70% to Remain and are demanding that their parents and grandparents who voted Leave not jeopardize their future as citizens of Europe.

These young people, and many more, are speaking truth to power, and using the tools of theatre and performance to assist them. Our special issue later this year, co-edited by Gus Weltsek and Clare Hamoor, will focus on these matters more closely. I am excited to see how that issue might inspire readers of YTJ to take bolder risks themselves in the kind of theatre and performance work they are doing with young people at this crucial moment.

This general issue also contains much to inspire: here you will read about research theorizing the impact of drama education field founders on pre-service teachers, on theatre for early years/theatre for the very young, on new models for rehearsing Shakespeare, and on an innovative Canadian youth program in opera. All of these diverse national/international authors accomplish their task, which is to convince the reader of the educational importance that lies in the intersections between theatre/performance, education and young people. Of course, they are also preaching to the converted, in that readers of YTJ are already believers in the positive power of drama and theatre for and with young people. So I suppose my challenge to readers during my time as Editor is to wonder out loud: What you are doing in advocating for the future of the performing arts in education and in culture and society? What risks have you taken to ensure the strength and sustainability of our field? Where does your hope lie in these dark times, and how do you keep it burning? With whom are you standing as an ally, and to whom are you turning your back? Whose hands are you holding, and toward whose are you reaching? What must yet be done?