News

  • Dramatic Arts Professor receives prestigious Richard Plant Award

    Friday, September 27, 2013 | By

    The Canadian Association for Theatre Research has, since its inception, been the principal catalyst for expansion of theatre research in Canada. The Association works to promote research and publication of the results of this research into Canadian theatre and drama. Every year, CATR announces the results of awards for innovative and forward thinking research into theatre and drama in Canada.

    Dr. Natalie Alverez, associate professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University was recently awarded the Richard Plant Award by the Canadian Association for Theatre Research for her essay "Realisms of Redress: Alameda Theatre and the Formation of a Latina/o Canadian Theatre and Politics". This essay, published in New Canadian Realisms: New Essays on Canadian Theatre edited by Roberta Baker and Kim Solga, digs deeply into the pressing practical and scholarly debates concerning racial embodiment on Canadian stages. It is grounded in a rich historical survey of policies, practices and theoretic debates on identity and casting that have shaped Canadian theatre practice. Her arguments draw from the perspective of a Latina/o Canadian theatre culture in formation, particularly as demonstrated by the distinctive casting practices of Toronto’s Alameda Theatre that seek a repressive realism. Professor Alvarez provocatively argues for the potential of an indexical realism to build the foundation for a more viable realism of redress.

    At the 2013 Congress, Alvarez’s two edited books on Latina/o Canadian theatre and performance Fronteras Viventes: Eight Latina/o Canadian Plays and Latina/o Canadian Theatre and Performance were launched at the annual Playwrights Canada Press luncheon. These books are the first collections on Latina/o Canadian theatre and performance and engage in a cross-border dialogue with prominent and emerging US and Canadian scholars who take a hemispheric perspective in their examinations of Canadian “Latinidad.”

    Professor Alvarez has been busy the last few years traveling for her Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded research project in performance studies which investigates live, immersive simulations in a variety of contexts. In her investigation into the emergence of "dark-tourism", Alvarez has observed interactions between soldiers and Afgan actors in mock Afgan villages constructed for the final phase of intensive training. She also spent a week in the Utah mountains at an immersive "insurgent training camp" for US military and law enforcement personnel. She presented her research findings at the 2011 American Society of Theatre Research in Montreal in a working session on war and war-time performance. Prior to 2011, Alvarez’s proposal on the illegal border crossing reenactments for tourists in El Alberto, Mexico was selected for the American Society of Theatre Research’s opening plenary panel at the 2009 conference in Puerto Rico.

    The Department of Dramatic Arts congratulates Professor Alvarez for her award and looks forward to the new knowledge and experiences she will share with the students when she rejoins the department in July 2014.

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • A major step towards the opening of the St. Catharines Performing Arts Centre

    Friday, September 27, 2013 | By

    The construction of the St. Catharines Performing Arts Centre took a new step towards completion on August 15, 2013. The first crane was erected over the site at the same time the first corporate gift was unveiled. The $250,000 donation from Algoma Central Corporation will secure the name for the lobby of the new facility. This space will be the most central area of the $60.7-million building, $18 million of which was donated by the Government of Canada and $18 million of which was donated by the Government of Ontario.

    City officials see this donation and the erection of the first crane as major steps towards making the dream of the revitilization of the area into reality.

    The St. Catharines Performing Arts Centre will include four performance spaces: a 775-seat concert hall, 300-seat recital hall, 187-seat film theatre and a 210-seat theatre/dance venue.

    When the facility is opened in the fall of 2015, it is expected to host 600 events every year and see 125,000 visitors annually.

    A webcam focused upon the progress of the construction of the Performing Arts Centre can be seen here. The progress of the Marilyn I Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts facility can be seen in the upper right corner of the video feed. The school is anticipated to welcome over 600 students, staff and faculty in the fall of 2015.

    (A screen shot from the PAC webcam)

    The St. Catharines Standard did a full article on the event.

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • Dramatic Arts Professor launches a new look at the Eurovision Song Contest

    Wednesday, September 25, 2013 | By

    Professor Karen Fricker of Brock University’s Dramatic Arts Department has spent the last decade attending "Europe’s favourite TV show", the Eurovision Song Contest.

    Professor Fricker, who lectures in the praxis concentration, spent a week last May in Malm_, Sweden where she launched her new co-edited book Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics at the Eurovision Song Contest at the centre of the annual pop song festival watched by over 170 million people all over the world.

    Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics at the Eurovision Song Contest argues that this popular music competition is a symbolic contact zone between European cultures: an arena for European identification in which both national solidarity and participation in a European identity are confirmed, and a site where cultural struggles over the meanings, frontiers and limits of Europe are enacted.

    With her new book, Karen has received much attention as a Eurovision media expert. She covered the contest as a journalist for the Irish Times and wrote a blog post this year for the Guardian about the U.K. and Eurovision.

    The Department of Dramatic Arts is celebrating the launch of Professor Fricker’s book on September 26th in TH 235 from 5:00pm – 6:00pm. Refreshments and musical entertainment will be provided, as well as a brief and entertaining introduction to all things Eurovision.

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • Fabric sale to benefit scholarship fund, Aug. 23 and 24

    Wednesday, August 14, 2013 | By

    The Department of Dramatic Arts will be hosting a Fabic Sale. The fabrics are priced to sell. A grocery store bag full of smaller pieces – good for quilting – will go for $20. Bolt prices will run $2 to $10 a metre. The fabric sale happens Aug. 23 and 24 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day in Thistle 141.

    Sewers and crafters with their own stockpiles of materials are also welcome to offer up their wares for sale. Tables at the fabric sale can be rented for $30, with rental proceeds also going to the scholarship fund.

    Proceeds from the sale will go to the Marlene Moser Memorial Scholarship Fund, named for the former Dramatic Arts chair, who died of breast cancer in 2010.  The fund provides financial help to drama students.

    For more information or to inquire about renting a table, email Roberta at rdoylend@brocku.ca.

    See the story in the Brock News

     

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • Technical Theatre Job Opportunity in the Department of Dramatic Arts

    Monday, July 15, 2013 | By

    IATSE 01/2013 Theatre Technical Production Assistant, Department of Dramatic Arts (DART), Faculty of Humanities

    (closes Friday, July 19, 2013)
    Reporting to the Production Manager and/or Technical Director, the Theatre Technical Production Assistant is responsible for providing the technical elements for departmental production and teaching, supporting teaching of technical production by instruction or lab demonstration, supervising and maintaining DART spaces, technical inventory and equipment, and coordinating and supervising students and hired technicians. 

    for more information and to apply please please see this page for the posting

    download the posting in a PDF file

    Inquiries about the job opportunity may be sent to the Production Manager, Brian Cumberland bcumberland@brocku.ca

    Inquiries about the Department and its programs may be sent to the Chair, Professor David Vivian dvivian@brocku.ca

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • Dramatic Arts student adventuring at the Banff Centre

    Thursday, June 27, 2013 | By

    The Banff Center, located in the scenic Rocky Mountains of Alberta, is the largest arts and creativity incubator on the planet. Every year over 8000 artists, leaders, and researchers come from all over Canada and worldwide to participate in a large variety of arts programs. This year, a Dramatic Arts student, Gina Greco, is participating in a work study program as a wardrobe technician.

    Gina, a Dramatic Arts Student concentrating in Production and Design, has worked on a number of projects within the department. Focusing on aspects of costuming, she has worked on the One Acts Festival, the Fall 2012 mainstage The Suicide – A Russian Comedy by Nikolai Erdman, directed by Gyllian Raby, Empty Box Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and the independent production Runner, written and directed by colleague and student in the Dramatic Arts program, Nicole Titus.

    Banff’s Theatre Arts Production, Design, and technology training programs have been running for more than 60 years. Participants are guided by many creative and design teams working simultaneously in opera, dance, theatre and interdisciplinary performance. With a combination of hands-on experiences and skill based training, the program seeks to inform and inspire the next generation of theatre makers and artists.

    Some projects Gina will be working on are preparing a costume set for the opera Marriage of Figaro, making alterations on the costumes of an opera arriving from England, as well as a professional dance show. She will be working along side three other work-study technicians as a cutter and a First Hand under the guidance of the Head of Wardrobe Patsy Thomas.

    “The most exciting thing is getting an opportunity to practise my craft in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s my first time out west and I couldn’t ask for a better reason to be here,” Gina exclaimed.

    “I think the biggest challenge will be adapting to working in a professional theatre environment, since I’ve never done something on this scale. But I’m totally up to that challenge!” she added.

    To follow Gina’s experiences as cutter and first hand at the Banff festival, check out her blog on Tumblr.

    Gina tmblr screenshot

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  • Congratulations to 2013 SSHRC award recipient and Dramatic Arts graduate, Erica Charles

    Saturday, June 22, 2013 | By

    The Department extends its hearty congratulations to 2013 SSHRC award recipient and Dramatic Arts graduate, Erica Charles.  Erica was awarded the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Award: Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship — Master’s for her work “The voice in phenomenology and semiotic theory.”

    Sendzik is one of 31 Brock graduate students who received a share of $975,000 of funding under SSHRC’s Talent Program, designed to give master’s and doctoral students a boost. – See more at: http://www.brocku.ca/brock-news/?p=23112#sthash.3cfFspTg.dpuf

    Sendzik is one of 31 Brock graduate students who received a share of $975,000 of funding under SSHRC’s Talent Program, designed to give master’s and doctoral students a boost. – See more at: http://www.brocku.ca/brock-news/?p=23112#sthash.3cfFspTg.dpuf

    Sendzik is one of 31 Brock graduate students who received a share of $975,000 of funding under SSHRC’s Talent Program, designed to give master’s and doctoral students a boost. – See more at: http://www.brocku.ca/brock-news/?p=23112#sthash.3cfFspTg.dpuf

    Erica is one of 31 Brock graduate students who received a share of $975,000 of funding under SSHRC’s Talent Program, designed to give master’s and doctoral students a boost.

    Sendzik is one of 31 Brock graduate students who received a share of $975,000 of funding under SSHRC’s Talent Program, designed to give master’s and doctoral students a boost. – See more at: http://www.brocku.ca/brock-news/?p=23112#sthash.3cfFspTg.dpuf

    Sendzik is one of 31 Brock graduate students who received a share of $975,000 of funding under SSHRC’s Talent Program, designed to give master’s and doctoral students a boost. – See more at: http://www.brocku.ca/brock-news/?p=23112#sthash.3cfFspTg.dpuf

    Most of these students, including Erica, received funding under SSHRC’s Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s category. The remainder had grants under two doctoral categories.

    “Graduate students are involved in outstanding research that matters in so many ways to people of all ages living in our closest neighbourhoods, in communities around Canada, and in the far reaches of the world,” says Mike Plyley, Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies.

    “We are very proud of the success of our students in these highly competitive awards. This is a measure of excellence and recognition of the scope and calibre of work that our students pursue as they create their distinct identities as the researchers, scholars, and leaders of tomorrow.”

    Erica was recently seen performing in An Acre of Time by Jason Sherman, Studio Theatre, and The Blue Room by David Hare, Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, both productions of the Department of Dramatic Arts of the Marilyn I Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University. She will be seen on the stages of the Toronto and Hamilton Fringe Festivals in Fulcrum Theatre’s production of HERE.  A multimedia dance-theatre piece from the company that won Best of Hamilton Fringe in 2012, HERE examines the notions of being stuck and learning when to say goodbye to something you love.

    View the complete list of grant recipients and their research.

     

    with notes from: 31 Brock grad students receive SSHRC scholarships, posted by tmayer on Jun 18th, 2013.

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts is breaking new ground

    Thursday, June 13, 2013 | By

    Faculty, students, senior administration and local politicians gathered on Friday May 31st to celebrate the ground-breaking ceremony for the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. With a budget of $39.6 million, the project will transform the former Canada Haircloth textile mill into an educational, creative and presentation complex of some 600 students, faculty and staff. Following the move to full construction mode in January 2012 the faculty, staff and students will begin their work in the innovative facility at 198 St. Paul in September 2015.

    Noting that the new facility will be "an economic hub for arts and digital media" and fuel the revitalization of downtown St. Catharines, Jack Lightstone, President and Vice-Chancellor of Brock University, remarked told the gathering that the new Walker School "is a tribute to the concept of community partnership. This is much more than a building. It is a statement about what can happen when many hands work together to build a better future."

    Douglas Kneale, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, described the new facility for the school as a "living, breathing furnace of innovation" where artists of all disciplines "collide creatively …like sparks off a flint." He continued:
    "In return, the community of St. Catharines will catch fire and experience in new ways the transcendence, the ache, the wow that only the arts can give us."

    The facility project includes the renovation of existing buildings, some of which date to the mid-19th century, and the construction of new purpose-built facilities. In order to preserve the visual appeal of the historic architecture much of the retrofitting and renovation will take place indoors. The landmark’s exterior will be refurbished with new windows and restored brickwork.

    The project received $26.2 million from the Ontario government and is also being supported by generous partners from across the community. Marilyn I. Walker’s gift of $15 million was the remarkable catalyst for the creation of this much-anticipated complex that will serve the teaching, learning, and creative research in the fine and performing arts at Brock University.

    As well as shared spaces such as the new MIWSFPA learning commons, digital media lab, and praxis lecture hall, the department of Dramatic Arts will enjoy four performance studios (two of which can be used for public presentation), a carpentry and woodworking shop, costume shop and storage facility, design studio, and a new flexible studio theatre for teaching and presentation twelve months of the year.  The Department of Visual Arts will also be programming a new Visual Arts Exhibition Gallery, adjacent.

    Students of the School will also be using the film/video theatre and music recital hall built by the City of St. Catharines in the adjacent Performing Arts Center also scheduled to open in 2015.

    You can follow the construction of the Performing Arts Centre and the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (top of screen) at the Performing Arts Centre Construction Cam.

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  • Summer Teaching Institute – designed to connect and inspire Brock teachers

    Friday, June 07, 2013 | By

    A two day certificate program designed to connect and inspire Brock teachers.

    Tuesday August 20 – Wednesday August 21 2013

    • examine tools and processes that promote learning and memory;
    • identify prompts that enhance interest and make complex or abstract material more relevant and accessible;
    • explore reflective activities and strategies that help the students and the teacher to deepen the learning and assess its impact.

    The session will be highly interactive.  Participants will learn primarily through experiencing and then reflecting upon activities and exercises, as well as sharing ideas from their own tool box.

    Categories: News

  • Dramatic Arts students engaging in new challenges at the Shaw Festival

    Tuesday, June 04, 2013 | By

    Every year Brock’s emerging theatre artists have an opportunity to intern for a six-week intensive learning experience at one of Canada’s most renowned theatre organizations, the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

    Kevin Chew, a Concurrent Education student studying Dramatic Arts at Brock University, is the successful Intern candidate for 2013. Kevin was recently seen performing on the stage of the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre of the Centre for the Arts at Brock University in the Department’s February mainstage The Blue Room by David Hare, directed by Virginia Reh. For his upper year thesis project Kevin conceived and directed the innovative investigation of restaurant service industry in the immersive dinner theatre event entitled Table 99, self-produced at Isaac’s Bar and Grill at Brock University.

    Students of the Department of Dramatic Arts are eligible to apply for this intensive residency following the successful completion of DART 4P92 Voice and Text of Bernard Shaw. Their academic studies in the Department come alive in the festival milieu of Shaw company professionals producing at the top of their game.

    During his six weeks in Niagara-on-the-Lake Kevin will be working with Shaw’s Director of Audience and Community Engagement, Norm Bradshaw (former Senior Major Gifts Officer for Brock’s Faculty of Humanities), Shaw Intern directors Paul Van Dyke and Rose Plotek, Festival Co-Artistic Director Eda Holmes (directing Arcadia by Tom Stoppard), and Festival Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell (directing Enchanted April by Matthew Barber).

    Following the development of world-class theatre productions from rehearsal studio through to opening night Kevin is also involved with projects such as cataloguing, appraising and photographing pieces in the art collection of the Shaw Festival, developing templates for potential community outreach/engagement programs, education and engagement research, and assisting in the Festival’s Stage Properties shop in Virgil, Ontario.

    Through participation in singing and Alexander technique workshops, scheduled lunches and casual conversations with his new peers and mentors, Kevin is discovering what it means to contribute to the wealth of creative talent in the Festival company of theatre artists, production staff and administrators.

    For original insight into theatre production at Canada’s second largest repertory theatre company, follow Kevin’s Facebook group Brock-Shaw Internship.

    The DART Shaw Festival Internship program is generously supported for three years by proceeds from the annual  General Brock’s October Soiree. DART graduates who have completed the internship include Robyn Cunningham (2012) and Jacqueline Costa (2011).

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