Plurilingual Performance Practice in nowhen and Exploring New Agency for the Contemporary Actor

This dissertation presents the written component of Alison Wong’s investigation into her thesis project: the directing of the site-specific production titled nowhen, as a part of the 2021 Dream in High Park with the Canadian Stage Company. The directorial approach is outlined in the research paper, including the adaptation of source material from the publication Living Hyphen, the influence of plurilingual performance practice, and the consideration of translanguaging as methodology for performance creation. The journal excerpts reflect on the discoveries, accomplishments, and challenges the director, her collaborators, and the performers faced in a process that called upon new working relationships with language, space, and time in theatre-making, while also facing the COVID-19 pandemic. The epilogue highlights key learnings through the lens of plurilingual performance practice as it relates to the representation of transnational identities in theatre.