Brock arts students have been honing their creative skills and working alongside professional theatre artists through a new summer workshop series presented by the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART).<\/p>\n
The inaugural DART Summer Institute of Performance Research ran from May 29 to July 7 at the University\u2019s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA).<\/p>\n
Conceptualized by DART Chair and Professor Jennifer Roberts-Smith, the workshop allowed students to be at the centre of the creative process as professional theatre-makers, artists and DART faculty explored performance ideas, working scripts and scenic possibilities for future work.<\/p>\n
Roberts-Smith said DART\u2019s Summer Institute was founded to expand opportunities for what the department calls \u2018vertically-integrated\u2019 experiential learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s \u2018vertical\u2019 because members of the DART community at all career stages are learning together,\u201d she said. \u201cCollaborative research means we\u2019re asking questions that none of us \u2014 not even the most seasoned professionals and faculty \u2014 know how to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts-Smith said the model sees students\u2019 perspectives and contributions as just as important as workshop leaders.<\/p>\n
Anthr-Apology, a session led by DART Professor David Fancy and DART Scenographer and Associate Professor David Vivian, explored the creative possibilities of a new performance collective, with the first stage of presentation slated for 2024, building on creative research undertaken on the fall DART Mainstage production AnthropoScene<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Fancy and Vivian are motivated by exploring the ways in which theatre and performance as art forms can be truly responsive to the climate crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cThe project is based on the idea that the world needs a truth and reconciliation commission for all humans and their relationship with one another, as well as their individual and collective relationships with the planet,\u201d Fancy said.<\/p>\n Vivian said the workshop also generated opportunities for participating graduate- and senior-level MIWSFPA students \u201cto bridge their undergraduate studies to the next level of scholarship and professional opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n In another session, Packing a Punch, students worked directly with theatre artist Trevor Copp, Artistic Director and Founder of Tottering Biped Theatre (TBT). Students participated in the creative process of developing TBT\u2019s new multimedia live-action play, Mr. Punch,<\/em> adapted from a lesser-known Neil Gaiman graphic novel.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a brilliant week. In the end, what we really found was momentum and artistic excitement about this piece and its possibilities,\u201d Copp said.<\/p>\n Evalyn Parry, DART\u2019s 2022-23 Walker Cultural Leader and award-winning queer performance-maker, theatrical innovator and artistic leader, led a workshop engaging with choral performance and text from their master\u2019s research-creation thesis, \u201cAn Unsettled Account,\u201d reflecting on queer arts leadership, decolonial futures and systems change.<\/p>\n \u201cTogether with my longtime collaborator Karin Randoja (music director for the workshop), rich discoveries were made about how the choral arrangements \u2014 both sung and spoken \u2014 work on the page and translate into the bodies and voices of singers and actors,\u201d Parry said.<\/p>\n