The Walker Cultural Leader series brings leading artists, performers, practitioners and academics to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University. Engaging, lively and erudite, these sessions celebrate professional achievement, artistic endeavour and the indelible role of culture in our society. Please join us.

This educational program is generously funded by Marilyn I. Walker.

Here is the programming hosted by the Department of Dramatic Arts for the WCL2013-14.
For complete program information please see the MIWSFPA.

Jill Dolan

Jill Dolan is the Annan Professor of English and Professor of Theater at Princeton University, where she also directs the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Dolan will give a masterclass in online arts criticism, as well as a public lecture on “Moving the Body Politic: How Feminism and Theatre Inspire Social Re-imaginings.” She will participate in a colloquium and open roundtable on the changing face of arts criticism in the digital age.

Feb. 20

• Masterclass in Online Arts Criticism: DART 3P95/96 students 2 – 5 pm, Rm. TH 257 (closed session)

Feb. 21

• Public Lecture: “Moving the Body Politic: How Feminism and Theatre Inspire Social Re-imaginings” 10 am, Sankey Chambers (free community event). Presented in association with the Department of Dramatic Arts and the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies

• Colloquium: “The changing face of arts criticism in the digital age,”     2 – 6 pm, Sankey Chambers Keynote and presentations. (free community event)

2:00 pm – 2:30 pm

• WELCOME AND PRESENTATION by students in DART 3P96: Studies in Praxis – Theatre Criticism

2:30 pm – 4:00 pm

• PANEL DISCUSSION: Critics and the arts in Niagara
• Chair: David Fancy, associate professor of Dramatic Arts, Brock University, co-artistic director, neXt Company Theatre.
• Participants: Monica Dufault, artistic director, Essential Collective Theatre; John Law, arts and entertainment writer, Sun Media; Sara Palmieri, Marketing Manager at the Centre for the Arts, Brock University and co-founder of the In the Soil Arts Festival; Stephen Remus, minister of energy, minds, and resources, Niagara Arts Centre; Steve Solski, director, St. Catharines Centre for the Performing Arts; Candice Turner-Smith, managing director, Niagara Symphony Orchestra
• Respondent: Jill Dolan

4:15 pm – 5:45 pm

• PANEL DISCUSSION: Embedded criticism: a new way forward, or criticism-as-PR?
• Chair: Lawrence Switzky, assistant professor of Drama, University of Toronto at Mississauga
• Participants: Maddy Costa, critic and blogger, London, UK; Karen Fricker, assistant professor of Dramatic Arts, Brock University; Andy Horwitz, founder, Culturebot.org, New York; Jackie Maxwell, artistic director, Shaw Festival
• Respondent: Jacob Gallagher-Ross, assistant professor of Theatre, State University of New York at Buffalo

Feb. 22

• Colloquium cont’d.: “The changing face of arts criticism in the digital age,” 10 am – 1 pm, Sankey Chambers. There will be a roundtable component (free community event)

10:00 am – 10:30 am

• WELCOME AND PRESENTATION by students in DART 3P96: Studies in Praxis – Theatre Criticism

10:30 am – 12:00 pm

• PANEL DISCUSSION: Bloggers, critics, and cultural legitimation
• Chair: Karen Fricker
• Participants: Jill Dolan; J. Kelly Nestruck, lead theatre critic, The Globe and Mail; Richard Ouzonian, lead theatre critic, Toronto Star; Holger Syme, Chair, Department of English and Drama, University of Toronto at Mississauga, and blogger; Odette Yazbeck, director of public relations, Shaw Festival
• Respondent: Andy Horwitz

12:15 pm – 1:00 pm

• COLLOQUIUM WRAP-UP
• Chair: Karen Fricker
• Participants: Maddy Costa; Jill Dolan; Rosemary Drage Hale, Director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Brock University; Andy Horwitz

DOWNLOAD THE POSTER (click to download)

INFORMATION SHEET (click to download): The Changing Face of Theatre Criticism in the Digital Age A Colloquium at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University 21-­22 February 2014

In addition to the support of the Walker Cultural Leaders series, the colloquium is funded by Brock’s Humanities Research Institute and its SSHRC Institutional Grant scheme, and by the St Catharines Performing Arts Centre.
We are grateful for these important investments by our collaborating partners.

CONTACT: Prof. Karen Fricker, Dramatic Arts, kfricker@brocku.ca

Jill Dolan is the author of The Feminist Spectator as Critic (1989, 2012); Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theatre (2005); Theatre & Sexuality (2010); and many other books and essays. She won the 2011 Outstanding Teacher Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and a lifetime achievement award from the Women and Theatre Program (2011). She writes The Feminist Spectator blog at www.TheFeministSpectator.com, for which she won the 2010-11 George Jean Nathan Award for dramatic criticism. A book of her selected blog posts and new essays, The Feminist Spectator in Action: Feminist Criticism for Stage and Screen, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in July 2013. Her full bio can be found at www.princeton.edu/arts/arts_at_princeton/theater/professor_bios/dolan/

Patrice Baldwin

Patrice Baldwin is a world leader in Drama, Education and the Arts in learning, and their connections to the latest developments in Neuroscience.

Baldwin will spend eight days teaching, speaking, and giving demonstration classes at Brock and throughout the Niagara peninsula.

Oct. 3 & 8

• Teaching/Demonstrations: DART 1F95, 2P01, 3P03, 3F92 students, scheduled class times (closed session)

Oct. 5

• Drama in Education Intensive Workshop: 9:30 am – 5:30 pm,Centre Stage Theatre School and Productions, 3505 Mainway, Burlington, ON (free for DART students; all others $20 to cover costs for refreshments and venue). Limited registration.

Oct. 7

• Teaching/Demonstration Classes: FOE pre-service and DART students and alumni, 8 am – 2 pm, Faculty of Education (FOE), Hamilton Campus, 1842 King St. East, Hamilton, ON (closed session)

Oct. 9

• Teaching/Demonstrations in Niagara Schools: FOE pre-service students, DART students and alumni, and Niagara teachers (closed session)
• Public Lecture: “Neuroscience, Creativity, and Learning: Recent Research and Connections to Drama in Education and Arts-Based Learning,” 7:30 – 8:30 pm, Pond Inlet (free community event)

CONTACT: Georgann Watson, Administrative Assistant, Dramatic Arts, dramatic@brocku.ca

Patrice Baldwin is president of the International Drama, Theatre and Education Association (IDEA), and Chair of National Drama (the UK’s leading professional association for drama teachers and theatre educators), and is also an Executive Forum member of the World Alliance for Arts Education. A renowned advocate for the Arts and Drama Education, she is a prolific and respected author, with a particular interest in: Drama as a way of teaching literacy and as a way of learning across the curriculum; Drama and Arts-based creativity; and Drama and Neuroscience. Baldwin, a visiting lecturer at the University of Warwick, is known for her lectures, keynote addresses, and workshops at international conferences.

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