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I brought three of Toronto’s seasoned stage managers together, at the 2003 Mini-Conference on Dramaturgy, to discuss their dramaturgical contribution to the rehearsal process. The conversation was eye opening to many of the conference participants, some of whom (new and established alike) admitted to never having thought of the stage manager as a creative partner. During the conference session, Naomi Campbell, Shauna Janssen and J.P. Robichaud spoke eloquently about the myriad ways they contribute, far beyond setting schedules, corralling personnel and running shows. It was a potent reminder of how valuable the stage manager can be, particularly on new work Naomi, for instance, was so central to my production of Jason Sherman’s Reading Hebron that I insisted she be credited as the Assistant Director, in addition to her work as the stage manager. Casting your stage manager can be as vital as any other artistic choice. Here are further thoughts, culled from an extended e-mail conversation among the three artists.

Boruslawski and to all participants in the visioning workshops and charrettes as well as the neighbours of Gorilla Park.

In this article I foreground the potential that “urban scenography” has to shape both pedagogical and interdisciplinary learning experiences. In May 2019, I devised an international field school and travelled to Copenhagen, Denmark, with twelve students from Concordia University’s departments of theatre, studio, design, geography and urban planning. We took up residency at Teaterøen (Theatre Island), located on Refshaleøen, a deindustrialized manmade island located across the harbour from Copenhagen’s city centre. On Teaterøen scenography is everywhere. Embedded in this rapidly gentrifying, yet unfinished and at times vagrant islandscape, in this field school we approached scenography as a perspective on, or way of thinking about its potential and possibilities for researching wider performance-making, spatial and urban practices; questioning the when and where of scenography. One of the pedagogical goals of the urban scenographies themed field school was to engage students with the potential that scenographics opens up for other kinds of interdisciplinary, collaborative, creative practices, and performance dramaturgies.