Madness Manifest: Creativity, Art and the Margins of Mental Health

Monday, January 14th, 2008
Department of Dramatics Arts at Brock University, St. Catharines, ON

On January 14, 2008, the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University will host an interdisciplinary, one-day symposium on the topic of mental health, ‘madness’ and creativity as part of its mainstage season featuring performances of Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker and Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade. The symposium’s aim is to investigate this emergent theme of our mainstage productions from a multiplicity of vantage points by bringing together scholars and practitioners from a variety of disciplines. Of particular interest is the arguably contentious and challenging process of representing ‘madness’ in performance and other forms of artistic expression.

Comprised of scholarly papers, panel discussions, workshops, and performances, the symposium will serve as a critical forum to address issues of mental health, an opportunity for outreach, awareness, and an educational resource for students involved in our productions and their audiences. Ultimately, the symposium will explore the creative and productive potentialities to be found in the tensions between ‘insanity’ and ‘sanity,’ ‘madness’ and ‘normalcy’ in the arts and society. The symposium will feature a performance of The Chant by the Workman Arts Project, based out of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, followed by a discussion with the company.