The research behind the curtain of In My Day

by | Mar 31, 2026 | Events, health, Research, Theatre

By focusing on BC’s historical HIV/AIDS crisis, the new UVic production In My Day highlighted collaboration between researchers, community and performance-makers

Neon lights, club beats, a generation on the edge of disaster: when UVic’s Phoenix Theatre staged the moving and dynamic verbatim play In My Day in March 2026, it brought an essential chapter of Canadian history to life on the stage.

In My Day was both inspired by and based on the UVic oral-history research project “HIV In My Day”, which was supported by the School of Public Health & Social Policy, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council and now housed in the UVic Libraries Special Collections & University Archives. Between 2017 and 2020, “HIV In My Day” collected sound and video interviews with long-term HIV survivors and their caregivers about their experiences living through the first 15 years of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Vancouver.

The original “HIV In My Day” archive was established by Nathan Lachowsky, then a professor with UVic’s School of Public Health and Social Policy and now Dean of UNBC’s Faculty of Human & Health Sciences, but the resulting play In My Day was written by Victoria playwright Rick Waines and guest directed by former Belfry Theatre artistic director Roy Surette. Nearly 100 authentic voices drawn from the original archival material were brought to life by a cast of 19 student actors, using themes of joy, care and connection to tell the story of life in the queer community during the early days of the epidemic.

“What does performance do to both archival and oral histories, in terms of activating that material?” asks Department of Theatre professor Sasha Kovacs, whose own SSHRC funding via the Gatherings: Archival and Oral Histories of Performance partnership also supported this production. “And what does it mean for a new generation of students to understand this particular moment in history, to hear these stories from those bodies and these perspectives?”

Set designer Claudia Fraser’s research brought BC’s turbulent AIDS history to life (photo: Dean Kalyan)

Life becomes art through research

A Victoria playwright whose work uses autofiction and verbatim material to discuss his experiences living with HIV and the historical impacts HIV has on communities, Waines is intimately involved with this story. A hemophiliac who was diagnosed with HIV at just 21 in the 1980s, he was both one of the interviews for, and transcriber of, the original oral-history project; now, he uses the tools of narrative theatre to amplify his lived experience and challenge ongoing stigmas.

“This is a piece of memorial art,” he says. “It’s a powerful way of telling the stories of people who are no longer with us — it’s a naming, like, ‘Here we are, here are our stories.’ You’re going to get to know some of the folks through the memories of those of us who survived.”

As a play, In My Day was first workshopped in 2021 in the Belfry Theatre’s SPARK festival, then later performed in 2023 by Vancouver’s ZeeZee Theatre at the Cultch. The Phoenix production offers a significant reworking of the material to fit the student cast — “including a guy named Rick, who’s transcribing these interviews poorly and slowly,” laughs Waines.

Part of Avery Kester’s lobby display

In all iterations of the play to date, Waines has worked with young casts lacking firsthand experience of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, so educating them — as well as audiences — is a priority. “Not just the dates, names and drugs, but the feeling [of having HIV/AIDS] in their bodies,” he says. “Young queer folk don’t always understand or know the genealogy of their history . . . so when a young queer couple in the audience stands up at a talk-back session and says what the show meant to him or her, that’s enough for me.”

“It’s been fantastic having Rick here throughout the whole rehearsal period,” notes Kovacs. “Being able to share first-hand memories of these times has been invaluable — and the student playing the character ‘Rick’ [Elliot Baskin Smith] has been regularly conversing with him, which has been a fun part of the process.”

In fact, the two Ricks — Waines and Baskin Smith — both did a live interview with CBC Radio about their experiences working on this play.

Projection designer Molly Somers captured Vancouver’s queer hotspots (photo: Dean Kalyan)

Theatre with an ongoing impact

Kovacs believes the impact of In My Day goes well beyond the Theatre department and into the broader community: by dramatizing the oral history archive, the play provides an opportunity for students to understand how their work can serve larger goals and priorities — which is one of the goals of any research-informed creation project, like the Climate Disaster Project’s verbatim  survivor play Eyes of the Beast, presented at the Phoenix in 2024. “This is an opportunity to think more about producing this kind of work,” says Kovacs.

For In My Day, the student cast all had access to the original interviews — both written transcripts and videos — which Kovacs describes as “a key part of the process.” She also ensured that the show’s student design team spent time in the Museum of Vancouver’s gay and lesbian archives to properly capture the period. In this work, the students also learned about the historical intersections of performance and health activisms across more locally situated 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.

“This production not only catalyzes all that work but is also a way of encouraging students to engage with raw archival material. I sometimes think we take for granted how progressive the work was in these communities at that time . . . the way they were talking about gender and sexuality was really groundbreaking.”

Costume designer Helga Woolsey recreated the queer looks of the 1980s (photo: Dean Kalyan)

Collaborating on authentic history

Kovacs feels interdisciplinary projects like In My Day offer an ideal opportunity to educate students about the importance of collaboration between researchers and performance-makers. “This is all about engaging community with public health history: how do we engage those conversations into artistic practice?” she asks. “But with this production, I’m also interested in how we care for the health of the performers lifting this powerful, emotional and authentic work — that’s something we need to talk about more in the work we do as theater artists. While we’re telling stories about health, we also need to keep our creative team healthy and safe.”

With that in mind, In My Day honours not only those who were lost but the resilient communities who continue to care for one another and shape our collective future. During the play’s run, Phoenix Theatre also hosted an HIV community day, supported by UVic’s Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health, and presented an engaging visual timeline (by local artist Peggy Frank), art pieces from HIV positive community members and an exhibit in the lobby (created by Applied Theatre MA student Avery Kester, with guidance from Kovacs) which offered further insight into the interviews and archival materials that inspired the play and its production.

A close-up of Peggy Frank’s timeline

“Most plays and shows about HIV/AIDS focus on the American or British experience, so In My Day also gives us an opportunity to reflect on a more localized circumstance,” concludes Kovacs. “What are the stories being told within our local community, being created by local theatre companies? Who’s devoted to fostering the voices of folks who actually live here? This is a big moment for the Phoenix to produce a Canadian story by a Canadian playwright, while also advancing the faculty’s strategic priority to address the intersections of arts and health.”

—John Threlfall, with files from Claudia Phillips

New competition prize for School of Music

by | Mar 25, 2026 | Alumni, Award, donor, Events, School of Music

Let’s say it’s 1912 and you’re a young, musically inclined girl who enjoys whistling . . . but your father says it isn’t “ladylike“ to whistle: what do you do? If you’re Eleanor Gray, you embrace the song in your heart and pursue singing lessons instead.

Fast-forward 113 years and that lifelong love of music has now become the foundation for the School of Music’s new $40,000 Eleanor Gray Memorial Piano & Voice Duo Competition Prize — an addition to the overall $2 million bequest created by donor Douglas Gray (LLB) to honour his mother.

The inaugural competition starts at 8pm Tuesday, March 31 in Music’s Phillip T Young Recital Hall and is free to attend. If you can’t make it, you can listen to it live here.

About Eleanor

Eleanor Gray was a talented pianist, singer and Royal (then Toronto) Conservatory of Music alumna who ensured that all five of her children were also part of the RCM piano program.

A lifelong singer and pianist, Eleanor remarkably sang in a choir and played piano for church services up to the age of 100, stopping only before her passing at 101.

About the prize

Beginning in the 2025/26 academic year and running through 2028, the Eleanor Gray Prize will be earmarked for School of Music students who take part in an annual art song competition for piano and voice, with cash prizes awarded for the duo winners in both first ($1,500 each) and second place ($1,000 each).

The remarkable Eleanor Gray at 92

A portion of this bequest will also go towards the existing donor-funded Collaborative Piano Endowment, which ensures that our 63 Steinway pianos remain concert-ready — a huge benefit to our status as the only All-Steinway School in Canada, thanks to the efforts of critically acclaimed pianist and professor Arthur Rowe. “Maintaining our excellent instruments is crucial, so these funds will help ensure the longevity and excellence of our Steinways,” says Rowe.

A piano and voice competition prize is ideal for our School of Music, given the enviable reputation of our Voice program — anchored by the likes of tenor Benjamin Butterfield, soprano Anne Grimm, mezzo-soprano Marion Newman and acclaimed vocal coach Kinza Tyrrell, plus an ever-increasing number of alumni stars like Isaiah Bell, Josh Lovell and Newman herself.

Marion Newman leading a voice recital (photo: Beth Bingham)

Had Eleanor Gray been a student a century later, her infectious enthusiasm, intellect and energy would have made her an ideal student at our School of Music. Given her deep appreciation for piano and voice duets, as well as her encouraging attitude and natural caring and warmth for others, we’re sure Eleanor would appreciate this new competition prize.

A longtime resident of Victoria who truly loved life and lived it to the fullest, Eleanor was always young at heart and was full of joy. She now rests in Ross Bay Cemetery, ensuring her spirit remains close to the city she so loved.

Gregory Scofield at national repatriation event

by | Mar 23, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, Faculty, indigenous, Undergraduate, Writing

After more than a century in the Vatican collection, a Métis model dog sled from the 1920s was repatriated on February 25, with Writing professor Gregory Scofield as the lead expert on the identification and return of the model to its community of origin.

The story was carried across a number of national news outlets, notably including CBC, the Globe & Mail and the Canadian Press. Scofield (far left) was pictured in the national coverage alongside (from right) Sherry Ferrel Racette (University of Regina), Victoria Pruden (Métis National Council), Governor General Mary Simon, His Excellency Whit Fraser, and the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity & Culture.

The model sled — made from leather, wood and glass beads — was one of thousands of items sent to Rome in 1925 by missionaries around the world for an exhibit organized by Pope Pius XI. Now, after decades of calls for their return, the sled was one of 62 items repatriated to Indigenous Peoples from the Vatican last year.

“We’re not simply opening a box. We’re welcoming something very special home,” said Pruden during the ceremony. “We’re beginning a new chapter, a chapter that’s grounded in relationship, kinship and connection.” Métis officials say they’ll be working with experts — including Scofield — to determine which community the sled came from.

“Seeing this artifact in its rightful place is a potent reminder that the work of reconciliation is worthwhile and produces tangible results,” noted the Governor General at the event. Watch a video of the unveiling here.

Repatriating and teaching beadwork

As a Red River Metis of Cree, Scottish and European descent, award-winning poet and memoirist Gregory Scofield practices traditional 19th century Cree-Metis floral beadwork and is an acknowledged expert in the field. He also connects it through his teaching by offering a course on Indigenous women’s resistance writing and material art, which combines hands-on learning in traditional Cree-Metis beadwork with readings, films and writing practice centered on resurgence and resistance.

“Because everything happened for me at that kitchen table . . . I wanted to be able to bring that mental, emotional and tactile experience to students, who really have very little understanding or knowledge of Indigenous history or the impacts of colonial violence toward Indigenous women,” he explains. “I teach my students how Indigenous women used beadwork as a way to resist colonial violence, as a way of maintaining and preserving identity—but also as a way of telling stories. It’s beadwork as a form of resistance.”

Another form of resistance is Scofield’s history of repatriating beadwork pieces — a practice which began years ago when he noticed a beaded pocket-watch holder in a Royal BC Museum display mislabeled as “Victoriana,” when he recognized it as a piece of 19th century Cree-Metis beadwork. He holds many such pieces in his own collection.

“I often refer to myself as an ‘unintentional curator’ because a lot of specifically Cree-Metis pieces are folded into other First Nations or Victoriana exhibits, because curators haven’t any idea about us as a people and our unique artforms,” he says. “By misidentifying them, the stories and geography are stripped away, and communities are stripped of their identity too.”

Ever the poet, Scofield sees this as more than just repatriation. “It’s about giving these pieces their stories back.”

 

Take our Spring 2026 student survey!

by | Mar 23, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, Graduate, School of Music, Theatre, Undergraduate, Visual Arts, Writing

1969 was a year of transformation: the moon landing, the Stonewall riots, Woodstock, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre opens, Margaret Atwood publishes her first novel, Canada becomes officially bilingual . . . amidst that time of change, Fine Arts emerged as UVic’s newest Faculty.

With our 60th anniversary coming up in 2029, Fine Arts is currently doing a short survey of our community, and student opinions and experiences are an essential part of this process. We invite you to add your voices with this anonymous survey: it only has eight questions and should take you less than 15 minutes.

Take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/GRDP8LX

You’ll also see an option to enter to win one of ten $50 ONECard top-ups on the final page. Your prize entry will be totally separate from your anonymous survey responses.

Deadline for entries is April 7.

Paul Walde on how art can shape our relationship with the environment

by | Mar 18, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, climate, Events, Faculty, Visual Arts

Weather is one of the forces that shape our daily lives, yet we rarely think of it in terms of art. But for award-winning intermedia artist, composer, curator and University of Victoria Department of Visual Arts professor Paul Walde, weather is so much more than just the title of his latest exhibit, Paul Walde: Weather Conditions. 

Walde’s body of work has long explored unexpected interconnections between landscape, identity and technology, most notably by his 2013 site-specific sound performance Requiem for a Glacier, which featured a 55-piece choir and orchestra filmed live on the Farnham Glacier in BC’s Purcell Mountains. Running until April 11 at UVic’s downtown Legacy Gallery, Weather Conditions — curated by Carolyn Butler Palmer, the Williams Legacy Chair in the Department of Art History and Visual Studies — offers a double exhibit of site-specific video installations, both reflecting weather and art history in unique ways. Paul offers his insights with this Expert Q&A. 

Q. Weather is one aspect of the human experience that everyone shares: we predict it, discuss it, try to avoid it and arrange our lives around it. Why bring it into a gallery space?

A. Another aspect of the human experience is that we’re altering our climate through our actions, and this is altering the weather. Extreme weather events are on the rise and there is new concern that, if we continue on the path we’re on, the low-lying clouds that do a lot to reflect sunlight and keep the Earth cool could disappear, leaving only the higher altitude clouds which will accelerate climate change exponentially by allowing more sunlight in and trapping that heat. As an artist, I’m interested in how cultural attitudes shape our relationship with the environment. 

Q. Your creative practice has been engaged with environmental issues for the past 30 years. How can art bring awareness to issues like climate change in ways that science or politics can’t?

A. The great thing about art is that it can present information to people in experiential ways, including emotional and spiritual dimensions. This is a very different experience than being told something. Science and politics tend to tell people things but, as a professor, I’ve found folks really don’t like to be told anything. It’s more effective to create experiences that allow people to draw their own conclusions. This way, the information is internalized and becomes a part of their own thought processes, so the level of engagement and uptake is greater. The duration of my work is also important in this, as these longer works provide opportunities for people to think for themselves—which is in direct opposition to the “attention economy” and how content is consumed on social-media platforms. 

Q. You often stage your performances in challenging locations highlighting the natural environment — glaciers, lakes and, most recently, old-growth forests — then pair them with meditative music that you compose. What’s your intention with these interdisciplinary juxtapositions?

A. I believe that culture comes from the land, where one is in the world that shapes who they are. This attitude has been affirmed and informed by the work that I’ve been doing with the Awi’nakola Foundation over the past six years. By bringing obvious cultural activities like opera, classical music and art handling into the natural environment, I’m essentially saying that these sites are cultural. The fact that contemporary urban societies don’t seem to recognize this is part of my point. I’d add that cultural values that don’t make this connection are the main reason we’re facing impending environmental catastrophe. What could be more valuable than clean water, clean air and abundant biodiverse ecosystems? Yet here we are feeding water to data centres that are also using vast amounts of energy, making it harder to transition to clean energy.

Q. Both pieces in this exhibit — “Of Weather (For Geoff Hendricks)” and “Tom Thomson Centennial Swim” — reference the work of other artists. How important is it to acknowledge the history of art, and the role of the individual artist, in your work? 

A. Art history is happening all around us all the time.Acknowledging this history is another way of acknowledging where aspects of cultural thought come from, good or bad. For me, art history is sometimes a scaffolding of ideas to build upon and other times it’s something to push back upon. For example, the work of the Group of Seven was very dominant when I was growing up in northern Ontario, where the Group made their first trips. As a young artist, however, their approach didn’t connect with me. Since then, I’ve attempted to make alternative landscape art that deals with the complex issues that frame our relationship with the environment.

Q. Tell us about the “image ballet” that will be performed on March 28. What’s the intention of having pictures of clouds move around an indoor environment, and how does that reflect the original staging of this piece?  

A. For the past 25 years the artworld has become more globalized and mobile. There are now dozens of international biennials and art fairs. Behind the scenes in these events are armies of art-handlers who are moving, setting upand taking down these shows. There is, of course, also a massive carbon footprint connected with these activities. By moving images of clouds around, I’m referring to how we as humans are changing the weather and are therefore responsible for it. And, on another level, because the “image ballet” involves large canvases being moved by art handlers, I’m referring to the art world’s culpability in all of this. 

Weather Conditions runs until April 11 with two live musical performances on Saturday, March 28, at Legacy Gallery (630 Yates). Registration is required for the live musical performances.

A media kit containing high-resolution photos of Paul Walde and his exhibit Paul Walde: Weather Conditions is available on Dropbox.