I’m so excited to welcome you to my hometown, Toronto – it’s not just the place Drake calls “The Six,” but a city of great diversity, great growth (we’re the 4th largest city in North America) and with that, great challenges. Toronto is in the ‘Dish With One Spoon Territory’ –  a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. The “Dish” represents what is now southern Ontario, from the Great Lakes to Quebec and from Lake Simcoe into the United States. We all eat out of the Dish, all of us that share this territory, with only one spoon. That means we have to share the responsibility of ensuring the dish is never empty, which includes taking care of the land and the creatures we share it with. Importantly, there are no knives at the table, representing the idea that we must keep the peace.

The conference theme is “Crossing Borders” – for many of you, you’ll be crossing a border of one kind or another to attend this conference. That act inspired me to think about what other kinds of borders are people crossing in their work and their lives in order to make art. It became clear through the Call for Proposals that the theme resonated with a lot of you and the conversations at the conference will deal with all kinds of borders and the ways in which we acknowledge them or cross them.  If you can’t wait for the conference to get the conversations going, feel free to use social media with the conference hashtag: #LMDA18 and don’t forget to #keepcalmandtrustthedramaturg!

There’s also lots going on in Toronto that weekend – the Luminato Arts Festival, Pride Weekend, National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21), a Craft Beer Festival – so I hope you’ll come enjoy the conference but also enjoy all that a city like Toronto has to offer.

Be sure to register early and book accommodations as soon as you can – there’s so much happening that weekend in the city that hotels, Airbnbs and hostels are sure to book up quickly. There are some rooms being held for LMDA conference goers but don’t wait too long to reserve them!

Sincerely,

Joanna Falck
Literary Manager, Tarragon Theatre
2018 LMDA Conference Chair