Biography
Stephen Lawson is a transdisciplinary artist, performer, curator, and educator. Upon graduating from the acting program of the National Theatre School of Canada, Stephen became a co-founder of the Winnipeg-based performance troupe PRIMUS (1989-1998) under the direction of Richard Fowler. Since that time, his work as a director has included several genre-defying live artworks, and he has taught internationally on various aspects of devised performance through universities, community groups, and art centres (curriculum vitae).
Stephen moved to Montreal in 2001 at which point he began collaborating with his domestic partner multidisciplinary artist Aaron Pollard under the moniker 2boys.tv, and they have created a wide repertoire of transdisciplinary artworks and performances for museums, galleries, theatres, clubs, artist-run centres, universities and festivals, including the Havana Biennial, Triennale Québécoise at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Under the Radar Festival in New York City, the National Review of Live Art in Glasgow Scotland, and the Hemispheric Institute biennial Encuentros in Santiago de Chile, Sao Paolo, Bueno Aires, Bogota, Mexico City (and Montreal where he was the Encuentro Producer through Concordia University).
He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies of York University in Toronto where he is pursuing his research project on critical drag practices throughout the hemispheric Americas: TRANS/FORMING AUTHENTICITY: Stigmatized Bodies, Creative Perversions and the Performative Power of Shame. Stephen was a Collaborator Member of the Canadian Consortium on Performance and Politics in the Americas, is currently a Collaborator Member on the SSHRC funded partnership project Hemispheric Encounters, and Part-Time Faculty in the Theatre Department of Concordia University.
Selected recent works
Entre Coronas y Virus / Between Crowns and Viruses (online exhibition with artist, Elyla Sinvergüenza)
Casta Diva: When the Lip Sync Speaks (Essay)
