{"id":50487,"date":"2018-04-12T08:01:01","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T12:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=50487"},"modified":"2018-07-16T15:33:29","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T19:33:29","slug":"graduating-students-present-gritty-play-about-oil-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/04\/graduating-students-present-gritty-play-about-oil-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduating students present gritty play about oil in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the final production of the regular 2017-18 season, Brock\u2019s fourth-year Dramatic Arts students will tackle some hard-hitting Canadian issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

The DART 4F56 ensemble will present Len Falkenstein\u2019s award-winning play <\/span>Lac\/Athabasca<\/span><\/i> in the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre. The production, inspired by the Lac-M\u00e9gantic train explosion of 2013, tells the dark truth of the forces behind the disaster.<\/span><\/p>\n

Co-directed by Professor Gyllian Raby and student Mark Dickinson, the play premiered at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts on Thursday, April 12 and will continue nightly until Saturday, April 14.<\/span><\/p>\n

Audiences follow the train filled with explosive fuel as it journeys across time and place, beginning with townsfolk sharing their experiences of the tragic event and lamenting for the lives lost. The crowd is taken to tour the magnificent Athabasca glacier and meets workers at the oil sand companies in Fort McMurray, witnessing Canada\u2019s exploitation of its land and peoples from the 1800s to now. The beauty and terror of these encounters reveal a Canadian dream as twisted as the train tracks that stretch across it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The DART 4F56 students unanimously picked the play not only because of its Canadian roots, but also because \u201cit\u2019s about something that matters,\u201d says Raby. The production tells the story of the train explosion, but audiences can also \u201cexpect to see a First Nations story play out,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were fortunate enough to be advised by Adrienne Smoke of the Six Nations and William Constant, a Cree mentor, to make sure we were approaching the Indigenous story correctly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On a daily basis, Canadians are reading about the problem of oil and the exploitation of natural resources. <\/span>Lac\/Athabasca<\/span><\/i> is a deeply Canadian play that provokes reflection on corporate greed, environmental policies and the future transportation of oil.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to Dickinson, the 2017-18 Dramatic Arts fourth-year ensemble features cast members Mackenzie Kerr, Adrian Marchesano, Sarah Marks, Michelle Mohammed, Tarndeep Pannu, Naomi Richardson and Kaylyn Valdez-Scott. Set construction is by Helena Ciuciura, costume design by Samantha Mastrella, properties design by Rebecca Downing, sound design by Jillian Wardell, lighting design by Meryl Ochoa, and projections design and production management by Chelsea Wilson, assisted by guest instructor and Brock University Dramatic Arts alumnus, James McCoy. The production team also includes Allie Aubry as stage manager and Candice Burn as head of publicity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lac\/Athabasca<\/span><\/i> plays Friday, April 13 and Saturday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the MIWFSPA in downtown St. Catharines. Tickets are $5 (plus taxes and fees) from the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre box office at\u00a0<\/span>905-688-0722\u00a0<\/span>or\u00a0<\/span>online.<\/span><\/a> Tickets will also be available at the door. Limited parking is available onsite.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the final production of the regular 2017-18 season, Brock\u2019s fourth-year Dramatic Arts students will tackle some hard-hitting Canadian issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":50488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,37,6833,1,4],"tags":[6516,656,6518,6517,5903],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50491,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50487\/revisions\/50491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}