Lesley was asked to contribute a work, text, video or performance, in preparation for a roundtable she was invited to speak on in Vancouver. 

Panelists were offered three provocations:

+ As devised, post-dramatic, and interdisciplinary theatricalities become more and more prevalent, where, how and why does the queer playwright function?

+ If what is queer is deconstructive, is "the queer playwright" an oxymoron?

+ And is there a queering that takes place within "traditional" playwriting practices?

​

Lesley felt the need to address the presuppostion of the binary - 'queer' vs 'straight' or 'heterosexual' - that underlay the questions. She also wanted to explore the idea of what 'queer' is - something not just confined to who one has sex with: also queer as a constellation of values - and to propose that the very nature of being an artist or playwrights is queer.

​

In addition to participating in the panel, Lesley's new play Camera Obscura (hungry ghosts) received a staged reading, directed by Chelsea Haberlin and produced by the frank theatre and It's A Zoo. Camera Obscura (hungry ghosts) eventually opened in 2018 in Vancouver at the Roundhouse, produced by The Frank and the Queer Arts Festival. It went on to receive seven Vancouver Theatre Awards (Jessies) including Outstanding Director, Playwright, Set, Sound, Video; winning Outstanding Production and Lighting. The play is inspired by the life and work of video artist Paul Wong

​