Anne Smith is a theatre scholar/practitioner and educator who has a long time interest in Indigenous performance from her time working “on reserve” in child protection and community development, to directing a touring Aboriginal Theatre Company, through co-creating and co-teaching senior-level courses in Aboriginal theatre history, aesthetics, and performance at UBC, to directing plays by Aboriginal writers.
In 2013/14 she directed the multi-cultural community play project, “Chasing the Dream: the GP Century Play”, to celebrate Grande Prairie, Alberta’s, 100th Anniversary. In 2015 she participated in a cross-Canada reconciliation research tour, Train of Thought, and was the local correspondent for the Performing Turtle Island Symposium. Since 2016 she has mentored graduate students for the SelfDesign Graduate Institute, GIFTLearning, and Antioch University’s IMA Program, directed historic reenactment, and taught Canadian theatre, focusing mainly on Indigenous playwrights and woman playwrights, for Simon Fraser’s Liberal Arts Program and North Island College on Vancouver Island.
Annie has published in Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Research In Canada, alt.theatre, SouthEastern Theatre Conference Journal. You can also discover her Train of Thought blog.