Robert Motum
{{Short description|Canadian playwright and theatre creator}}
Robert Motum is a Canadian playwright and theatre creator.{{Cite web |date=2018-09-07 |title=Robert Motum |url=https://www.cdtps.utoronto.ca/people/directories/graduate-students/robert-motum |access-date=2023-05-25 |website=Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies |language=en}} He is noted for his background in site-specific performance{{Cite journal |last=Motum |first=Robert |date=2022-11-01 |title=Performing in Public: Ethics of a Site-Specific Theatre Practice |url=https://ctr.utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/ctr.192.009 |journal=Canadian Theatre Review |language=en |volume=192 |pages=37–40 |doi=10.3138/ctr.192.009 |issn=0315-0836}} and for his 2018 play, A Community Target.{{Cite web |title=Outside The March A Community Target |url=https://outsidethemarch.ca/the-experiences/a-community-target/ |access-date=2023-05-25 |language=en-US}}
Personal life and education
Motum was born in Oshawa, Ontario. He attended the University of Waterloo for his BA in Drama{{Cite web |date=2016-04-22 |title=Collecting the Ghosts of Waterloo and Staging our Memories |url=https://uwaterloo.ca/alumni/blog/post/collecting-ghosts-waterloo-and-staging-our-memories |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=Alumni |language=en}} and Aberystwyth University for his MA in Practising Performance.{{Cite web |date=2017-02-06 |title=Memory book aims to touch community heart |url=https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2017/02/06/memory-book-aims-to-touch-community-heart.html |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=therecord.com |language=en}} He is currently completing a PhD in performance studies at the University of Toronto and teaches at Sheridan College.
Theatre career
As a site-specific theatre practitioner, Motum has a history of staging new theatrical work outside of purpose-built auditoriums. His 2013 play, Transience, was staged on an active Grand River Transit city bus as it circled its loop of Kitchener-Waterloo.{{Cite web |last=WIP |date=2013-04-07 |title=Theatre review: Transience |url=https://englishatwaterloo.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/theatre-review-transience/ |access-date=2023-05-26 |language=en}} He has since staged work in public parks,{{Cite news |last=Bueckert |first=Kate |date=September 30, 2016 |title=KW Guidebook uses personal memories to promote local attractions |work=CBC Kitchener-Waterloo |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/kitchener-waterloo-guidebook-personal-memories-1.3784507 |access-date=May 26, 2023}} in a Queen Street art gallery,{{Cite web |date=2018-07-11 |title=Toronto Fringe: Art, friendship & astroturf in the quirky, edgy, hilarious The Grass is Greenest at the Houston Astrodome |url=https://lifewithmorecowbell.com/2018/07/11/toronto-fringe-art-friendship-astroturf-in-the-quirky-edgy-hilarious-the-grass-is-greenest-at-the-houston-astrodome/ |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=life with more cowbell |language=en}} inside a vacant Target store,{{Cite web |title=Soon you can watch a play about Target Canada's demise (from inside an old Target store) |url=https://www.blogto.com/arts/2016/02/soon_you_can_watch_a_play_about_target_canadas_demise_from_inside_an_old_target_store/ |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=www.blogto.com |language=en}} in a castle,{{Cite web |last=Week |first=System Whitby This |date=2017-02-22 |title=Local playwrights a part of Trafalgar 24 in Whitby |url=https://www.durhamregion.com/things-to-do/local-playwrights-a-part-of-trafalgar-24-in-whitby/article_4e4eec2d-cebd-5d61-94dd-85bde2e30b91.html |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=DurhamRegion.com |language=en}} throughout the streets of Hamilton, Ontario,{{Cite news |date=2021-08-16 |title=Bringing Little Africa back to life on Hamilton Mountain |language=en |work=The Hamilton Spectator |url=https://www.thespec.com/local-hamilton-mountain/life/2021/08/16/bringing-little-africa-back-to-life-on-hamilton-mountain.html |access-date=2023-05-26 |issn=1189-9417}} and in augmented reality.{{Cite web |title=index |url=https://playthishamilton.com/ |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=playthishamilton.com}} His work has been supported by the Stratford Festival, the Ellen Ross Stuart Opening Doors Award,{{Cite web |last=tugrul |title=2018 Winners of the Ellen Ross Stuart Opening Doors Awards Announced – Ontario Arts Foundation |url=https://oafdn.ca/2018-winners-of-the-ellen-ross-stuart-opening-doors-awards-announced/ |access-date=2023-05-26 |language=en-US}} Outside the March and others.
His verbatim play, A Community Target, is based on interviews with over 60 former employees of Target Canada and recounts the dramatic collapse of the retailer in the country. Staged inside a vacant Target store in Hamilton, Ontario, the piece garnered national{{Cite web |last=Horgan |first=Colin |date=2016-02-24 |title=Target, the play: A fallen retailer becomes theatre |url=https://macleans.ca/culture/arts/target-the-play-a-fallen-retailer-becomes-theatre/ |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=Macleans.ca |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2016-03-01 |title=Target Canada play marks a new stage in retailer’s tale |url=https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/03/01/target-canada-play-marks-a-new-stage-in-retailers-tale.html |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=thestar.com |language=en}} and international media attention.{{Cite news |date=February 25, 2016 |title=Ontario man writing play about the rise and fall of Target in Canada |work=CBC As It Happens |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.3464007/ontario-man-writing-play-about-the-rise-and-fall-of-target-in-canada-1.3464014 |access-date=May 26, 2023}}
Academic scholarship
Motum has written about the ethics of site-specific performance for various academic publications including the Canadian Theatre Review and Theatre Research in Canada.{{Cite journal |last=Motum |first=Robert |date=2021-10-01 |title=Reflections on a Verbatim Approach to Staging Age |url=https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/tric.42.2.f03 |journal=Theatre Research in Canada |language=en |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=293–299 |doi=10.3138/tric.42.2.f03 |issn=1196-1198}} Motum also researches the political performance of micronationhood and has organised a symposium on subversive states in 2023 at the University of Toronto.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-11 |title=A Symposium on Subversive States |url=https://www.cdtps.utoronto.ca/events/subversive-states |access-date=2024-03-19 |website=Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies |language=en}}