Connecting & Outreach
2nd CRLCC International Conference
Glendon College, York University, Toronto Canada
This spring, Johanna Nutter and I were invited to speak on “Creative Translation” in theatre and our work with New Translation Canada | Nouvelle Traduction Canada.
2nd CRLCC International Conference
Contact and Engagement: Languages, Cultures and Knowledges
More information:
www.yorku.ca/glendon/research-centres/crlcc/crlcc-upcoming-events/2nd-crlcc-international-conference
May 9-10, 2025
Glendon College, York University (Toronto, CAN)
To mark their 20th anniversary, The Center for Language and Culture Contact (CRLCC) at Glendon College, an international conference on May 9-10, 2025, on topics related to language, culture, and knowledge contact in the 21st century.
Contact is a rich, multipronged concept. It can be linked to travel, migration, communication, translation, trade and exchange, cooperation, and solidarity, among other experiences and forms of relation. It can happen synchronically within specific spaces (multicultural societies, global cities, organizations or workplaces, multilingual classrooms, networks, airports, chatrooms, etc.) or diachronically, as seen historically in processes such as colonization and globalization. Whether physical or virtual, contact inherently entails movement and non-fixity.
CRLCC invited researchers, scholars, artists, and graduate students to participate in this week-long series of events dedicated to exploring a wide range of topics related to language, culture and knowledge contacts and exchanges.
Towards a truly national theatre in both official languages
The theatre translation process is sometimes misunderstood. Professionally, it’s classed as “Creative Translation.” Rather than a word-for-word substitution, the source text is a point of reference to create an equally compelling work in the new language. It is a uniquely collaborative art; one where the collaborators are the cultures and languages of the original and target population as embodied by the artists involved.
Every three years, four or five Canadian playwrights in both official languages (French & English) are nominated for the Siminovitch Prize, Canada’s top theatre award. Each of these playwrights represents a leading voice in Canadian playwriting as nominated by their peers.
We contacted each of the playwrights who shared our excitement for this vision. They each selected one piece from their body of work for translation. These works represent a diversity of leading Canadian playwrights from different regions, lived experiences, cultural and linguistic heritages and draw from across their careers–from early noted works to recent creations.
We imagine a truly national theatre community where the works of Anglophone and Francophone artists are available and promoted to audiences in both official languages.