Amanda C. Wager

Artistic Portfolio

Youth Language Warriors: Reawakening Hul'qumi'num through Intergenerational Relationships and the Arts (2018-2021); Artistic Director, Facilitator, Researcher, Grant Writer

Dr. Amanda Wager and her interdisciplinary research team members have been developing relationships with community groups in Nanaimo while in the process of creating the ARC: A Centre for Art, Research & Community. Amanda’s collaborative and participatory research, that will be centred around the ARC, is dedicated to youth-led community-engaged action research that disseminates knowledge through the arts. Collaboration with the Tsawalk Learning Centre interweaves partnerships with the Nanaimo Art Gallery, Crimson Coast Dance and the Snuneymuxw Hul'qumi'num language learning community. Local youth participatory action researchers use the arts to promote their voices and the local Hul'qumi'num language, while

collectively understanding the social barriers to education and well-being in order to seek action for change. Dr. Wager has a new co-edited volume in press, Engaging Youth in Critical Arts Pedagogies and Creative Research for Social Justice: Opportunities and Challenges of Arts-Based Work and Research with Young People (Routledge).

“I appreciate every moment I walk beside and smile together with the community I am so grateful to work with. These photos are of the youth art work created over the few years.”

FX Youth Workshop

Youth StopMotion Workshop

Winter Workshop: Youth Card Printmaking

*Permissions were granted by all individuals and parents or legal guardians for the use of footage and imagesthroughout portfolio.

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Amanda C. Wager

Artistic Portfolio

Surviving in the Cracks (2009-2015): Director, Playwright, Researcher, Performer Together with eight street youth, we created an applied theatre production regarding the closures of the Vancouver underage safe houses. The youth had no prior acting or scriptwriting experience. My dissertation includes the script and an analysis of the process. Performances: The Gathering Place & Ironworks Studios, June 14-19, 2009. http://www.theironworks.ca/events09_June.htm; Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpaFYvfNnw&t=2s Scene 3: Bad News http://youtu.be/OtfhQ4LvOoI; Greg Masuda created a documentary film about the popular theatre production: https://cargocollective.com/gregmasuda/SURVIVING-IN-THE-CRACKS

Youth brainstorms of the script Youth meeting at a downtown adult shelter

Rehearsing in the basement of a hospital Warm-ups before final performance at Ironworks

The backdrop created by local graffiti artists Safe house scene

Youth protest scene Final scene: Becoming a statistic

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Amanda C. Wager

Artistic Portfolio

Playback Theatre

Gaps, Complicities, and Connections: Stories from a Movement Towards Racial Justice in Higher Education by Nisha Sajnani and Amanda Wager (2019): Director, Playwright, Researcher, Performer

In Playback Theatre we refer to “the red thread,” the connection that can emerge between spontaneously told stories–not simply a theme, but a kind of dialogue between the stories themselves. We are seeing a red thread emerge in this blog, a conversation about Playback Theatre’s capacities and responsibilities in relation to participation, inclusiveness, and social justice. This article from Nisha Sajnani and Amanda Wager continues the red thread, looking at a sequence of performances exploring racial justice on an American university campus: https://playbacktheatrereflects.net/2017/06/19/gaps-complicities-and-connections-stories-from-a-movement-towards-racial-justice-in-higher-education-by-nisha-sajnani-and-amanda-wager/

PT actors in a Narrative V (from left to right): Nisha Sajnani (conductor), Melissa Nussbaum, Johnny Lapham, Shoshana Narva, Kelly DuMar, and Myles C. Green

After a short form playback, there is a pause in the room and a lot of tears. After the PT, the teller expresses “that is exactly how I felt.”

The PT team offers a short form in response to a story about bridging the gaps that arise in communication because of assumptions and stereotypes. The form ends in an image of one person of color reaching out to others.

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Amanda C. Wager

Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness

Photos of Student Work

The following pictures depict tableaus and community mapping during a process drama regarding

youth homelessness. In depth exploration of this work can be viewed in the following article:

Wager, A.C. & Winters, K.L. (2013). Expanding educators’ awareness of youth homelessness

through critical dramatic inquiry. Teaching and Learning, Special Issue #2: Equity,

Engagement, Teaching and Learning, 7(3), 29-46.

https://journals.library.brocku.ca/teachingandlearning/index.php/home/article/view/400

Youth Shelter Tableaux

Youth Homelessness Tableaux

Drawing a Community Map

Student Journal

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Amanda C. Wager

Artistic Portfolio

Another Slice University @ iTunes University (2011): Acting Mentor, Creator, Facilitator, Researcher. Director: Colin Andrew Ford

These short films of street youth teaching the public about youth homelessness were created by, for and with street-youth. Prior to filming, I worked with the youth facilitating the creation of the films. During filming I, along with the director, facilitated the artistic direction of the shorts by assisting with art and costume design and mentoring the youth in performance. The youth had no previous experience performing. Films can be viewed at: https://anotherslice.ca/project/asu/

Naming the Shadows (2009): Shadow Theatre Designer, Puppeteer, Researcher. Playwright: Donard Mackenzie

Based on my travels and research of shadow puppet theatres in Indonesia, I created a shadow puppet theatre showcasing Dr. Belliveau’s research using Shakespeare in the elementary classroom. As a weekly visiting drama artist, I facilitated the elementary students in the creation of the shadow puppets. We—Dr. Belliveau, Donard Mackenzie, Jamie Beck, and Graham Lea—presented this work at various local and international conferences, including IDIERI 2009 in Australia. Below are two images of the shadows. More can be viewed within the article: http://cjprt.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/cjprt/article/view/29/18

Children (names blacked-out) creating shadow puppets Shadow puppet theatre

Shadow puppet scene Shadow puppet scene

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Amanda C. Wager

Artistic Portfolio

Love wins. (2008): Creator, Director, Scenic & Costume Designer

Together with 196 kindergarten to Grade 5 students, I created and directed a school-wide performance to celebrate the memory of the freedom fighter Dr. Martin Luther King. After visiting every classroom and discussing various historical freedom fighters, each grade level chose a freedom fighter to represent for the final performance. I then found scripts online or wrote the scripts myself and held grade-level rehearsals once a week for a month. Performance: January 31, 2008.

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Amanda C. Wager

Artistic Portfolio

The Great Kapok Tree, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, A Bad Case of the Stripes, Chatos Kitchen, Cinderella Bigfoot, & Tacky the Penguin (2005-2006): Facilitator, Director, Mask Creator

As a Spanish/English bilingual teacher in an inner-city elementary school, I scripted and found scripts online for children’s storybooks, as well as drew masks for the characters. After doing a reading, students did character development and coloured their mask. The plays were practiced in both Spanish and English during our language arts block, as well as in an after school drama program that I facilitated. The last week of school my students transformed our classroom into a rainforest and performed The Great Kapok Tree/El Gran Capoquero for their families and peers. In the university courses that I teach, I make the scripts and masks available for students to download at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5_ladiebMvkSHFmaGxkQXF1VEE?usp=sharing

A few examples of puppets that I drew:

Puppets for Cinderella Bigfoot

Puppets for The Great Kapok Tree

Readers Theatre of The Great Kapok Tree. Tacky the Penguin performed for the Winter Assembly.

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Amanda C. Wager

Artistic Portfolio

Bringing Stories to Life: Reader's Theatre and Its’ power in the Bilingual Classroom (2005): Filmmaker I created a short film documenting Family Reading Night, which I organized at an inner-city elementary school. I invited Urban Gateways Theatre Company to perform for the entire school and organized five classroom spaces surrounding different children’s literature books. In each classroom students performed reader’s theatre for their families. The short film I created can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/30iX443kffw

Bash (2001): Scenic Designer. Coyote Theatre Company. Director: Jeffrey Mousseau In these three dark stories, my aluminum wall set design reflects how ordinary people so easily can be shattered. Performances: April 22-May 5.

My set sketch. The aluminum wall ended-up being from floor to ceiling. It moved to different angles between stories.

Reviews: The Boston Phoenix: http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/arts/theater/documents/01387644.htm Playbill: https://www.playbill.com/article/coyote-theatre-to-have-a-boston-bash-april-19-may-5-com-96135

Central Park West (2001): Scenic Designer. Boston Director's Lab. Director: Jesselynn Opie

A Woody Allen play that takes place in a couples New York City apartment. Performances: Saturdays March-February

My set sketch & notes

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Amanda C. Wager

Artistic Portfolio

Bunnicula (2000): Scenic designer. Majestic Theatre. Emerson Stage. Director: Robert Colby For Emerson Stage’s production of Bunnicula, I created a 32 foot backdrop that made the house look like we were seeing it from the cat and dog’s perspective. The cat and dog are the main characters in the play. I designed and painted all of the overly large furniture pieces. My set design won the 2001 Evvy Award, which was the Emerson Stage award given to the best scenic design of the year.

Apokalypsis (1999): Scenic designer. Majestic Theatre. Emerson Stage. Choreographer: Prometheus Dance, Artistic Directors: Diane Arvanites-Noya & Tommy Neblett Apokalypsis was the last performance that was part of a trio of dance series. It was a very dark piece and was supposed to convey the time before the Berlin Wall came down. The dance performances prior had a Greek design. I designed a wall that flew in and the performers danced against. A scrim flew down between the Greek buildings and the wall creating a dark shadow effect.

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Amanda C. Wager

Artistic Portfolio

The Frog Prince (1999): Scenic Designer. Team Players of Emerson College. Director: Julia Wackenheim A very small production with enough funding for me to paint the floor and make rocks as stools.

A Less than Perfect Day. (1998): Scenic Designer. Theatre-in-the-Round, Emerson Stage. Director: Melinda Lopez This was a compilation of female monologues. I cut out a female body and used a sprayer with various overlapping shades to represent the multiple stories being told.

The Bug (1998): Scenic Designer. Theatre-in-the-Round. Emerson Stage. Director: Tim Banker A silly story about a man who falls in love with a bug. The scenes take place between two apartments. Since this was theatre-in-the-round I built two door frames to represent the apartment doors, restaurant doors, and bedroom doors. The frames hung from hooks and would be moved between the scenes.

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Artistic Portfolio

Amanda Claudia Wager Canada Research Chair & Professor

2688 Willemar Avenue Courtenay, British Columbia, V9R 5S5 Canada

Amanda.Wager@viu.ca Office mobile: 250.618.1505

Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8693-3025

COMMUNITY THEATRE & DRAMA TRAINING

Maps & Memories: 4th Downtown Eastside Artfare Institute. Vancouver Moving Theatre & Toronto’s Jumblies Theatre (Directors: Savannah Walling & Ruth Howard). Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2014. Transforming Communities Using Forum Theatre: Empower Your Inner Voice. Headlines Theatre (Director: David Diamond). Centre for Aboriginal Programs & Services, Justice Institute of British Columbia, New Westminister, British Columbia, Canada, 2010. Forum Theatre Workshop with David Diamond: After Homelessness Playbuilding Workshop. Headlines Theatre (Director: David Diamond). Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2009. On the Nature of the Dramatic Process: Dorothy Heathcote Summer Drama Institute. Director: Dorothy Heathcote. University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 2009.

DRAMA WARM-UPS WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/site/awagerdramawarmups/?tmpl=%2Fsystem%2Fapp%2Ftemplates%2Fprint%2F&showPrintDialog=1

ARTISTIC WORKS, PERFORMANCES, DESIGNS, OTHER

Drama/Theatre/Film Wager, A. & Sajnani, N. (October, 2015). Facilitator, Researcher, Actor. Examining race through playback theatre. Examining

Race Conversations. Lesley University, Boston, USA.

Wager, A. C. (July, 2014). Workshop Documentation & Final Report Author, Participant. Maps & Memories: 4th Downtown Eastside Artfare Institute. Vancouver Moving Theatre & Toronto’s Jumblies Theatre (Directors: Savannah Walling & Ruth Howard). Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2014.

Rogers, T., Wager, A., Schroeter, S., & Hauge, C. (2011). Acting Mentor, Creator, Facilitator, Researcher. iTunes University: Another Slice University. Street-youth addressing issues of youth homelessness. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Lea, G. W. (November, 2009). Actor, Researcher. Centering the Human Subject: A Play in Four Related Themes. Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (CIHR funded research project), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Conrad, D. (July, 2009). Performer (reader). Performing incarceration: Applied theatre with incarcerated youth. International Drama In Education Research Institute, Sydney, Australia.

Mackenzie, D. (May & July, 2009). Shadow Theatre Designer, Puppeteer, Researcher. Naming the Shadows. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Performances at Canadian Association of Theatre Research & Arts Researchers and Teachers Society in Ottawa, Canada. And at the International Drama In Education Research Institute in Sydney, Australia.

Wager, A. (June, 2009). Director, Playwright, Researcher, Performer. Surviving in the Cracks. Vancouver Youth Visions Coalition in partnership with Partnering in Community Health Research at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Performances: The Gathering Place & Ironworks Studios, June 14-19, 2009.

Wager, A. (January, 2008). Creator, Director, Scenic & Costume Designer. Love wins. Walker Elementary School, Evanston, Illinois, USA. Performance: January 31, 2008.

Wager, A. (June, 2006). Facilitator, Director, Mask Creator. The Great Kapok Tree, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, A Bad Case of the Stripes, Chato’s Kitchen, Cinderella Bigfoot, & Tacky the Penguin. Kanoon Magnet Elementary School. Chicago, Illinois, USA. Performance: June 26, 2006.

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Artistic Portfolio

Wager, A. (December, 2005). Literacy Night Organizer & Filmmaker. Bringing stories to life: Reader's theatre and its’ power in the bilingual classroom. Kanoon Magnet Elementary School. Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Wager, A. (November, 2005). Organizer, Director, Facilitator. Family reading night: Reader’s theatre and its power in the bilingual community. Kanoon Magnet Elementary School. Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Wager, A. (2001). Scenic Designer. Bash. Coyote Theatre Company. Boston, MA, USA. Performances: April 22-May 5. Reviews: The Boston Globe, The Theatre Mirror, The Boston Phoenix.

Wager, A. (2001). Scenic Designer. Central Park West. Boston Director's Lab. Boston, MA, USA. Performances: Saturdays March-February.

Wager, A. (1999/2000). Scenic Designer. Bunnicula; Apokalypsis; The Frog Prince; A Less than Perfect Day; The Bug. Emerson College, Boston, MA, USA.

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