Christine Brubaker as Principal Investigator at the University of Calgary, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi as co-Investigator at the University of Regina, and Yvette Nolan received a SSHRC Insight Development Grant to conduct collective research into the critical uncertainties and possible futures affecting the professional theatre community in the Canadian prairie provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

The research project uses participatory action research and strategic foresight to surface and identify signals, trends, critical uncertainties and generate a range of possible futures with an intention to specifically understand the implications and opportunities for prairie-based theatre companies and theatre artists. Creative Futures has collaborated with the research team since 2021 to design and facilitate strategic foresight tools in support of the research objectives.

Our Approach:

• Capacity Building: The project started with a series of training sessions in order to orient the research team to the field of strategic foresight and to identify what tools and resources might be most useful to explore the future of prairie-based theatre. Five sessions were held, covering horizon scanning, scenario development, and scenario application.

• Scan Clubs: To apply our learning, Creative Futures facilitated a series of scan clubs where the entire team could share signals of change that may impact the future of prairie-based theatre and discuss possible implications. In parallel to the Scan Clubs, the Reimagine and Rebuild community hosted conversations with the theatre community to identify signals of change, which were fed into our process.

• Trend Synthesis: The 200+ signals of change collected through the Scan Clubs and community conversations were organized into 40+ trends impacting prairie-based theatre in 2040.

• Scenario Development: Over the course of four days, Creative Futures facilitated a process with the team to co-create four possible futures of prairie-based theatre in 2040.

• Testing & Validation: The draft scenarios were shared and tested with the Reimagine and Rebuild Community in order to refine the content and add depth to the future worlds.

• Virtual Workshop Series: The last step of the project involved bringing together 25+ theatre artists from the prairies to identify a radically optimistic vision for the future of prairie-based theatre, and the steps needed to get there. Held over two weeks, the workshop series was an opportunity to apply and share the learning over the last year. 

Results:

Insights from the virtual workshop series (and broader process) were synthesized into a series of reports, journal articles, and blog posts. These publications are meant to broaden the learnings of the project and to invite a broader audience to participate in the process.