Media releases

• Brock mainstage production puts human behaviour, climate crisis in spotlight

  Friday, October 28, 2022 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 28 October 2022 – R0119

  Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) is inviting the community to experience a journey through time and place in AnthropoScene.

  The fall mainstage production explores how the alienation that results from humans’ supremacist behaviour towards one another contributes to the climate crisis, as well as engages the ethics of theatricalizing the present climate emergency.

  AnthropoScene playfully mingles elements of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, real-life figures including Toussaint L’Ouverture and various youth climate justice activists, and fictional characters across multiple locations and time periods.

  The production, which debuts Friday, Oct. 28 and continues into the first week of November, involves one of the largest groups of students, faculty and staff in recent years. Twelve DART students will perform, as 30 others assist in creative and backstage roles. This original work is written and directed by David Fancy, designed by David Vivian, and choreographed by Trevor Copp and Colin Anthes, with live music performed by Devon Fornelli.

  “I’m so pleased at the skill and talent of the many students involved in creating this production, from actors to assistant designers, directors and sound designers — the list goes on,” says Fancy, a Brock DART Professor.

  Conveying so many complex elements within the production has been no easy task, but one the cast and crew have handled impressively, he says.

  “Our Dramatic Arts students have really shown courage and insight in dealing with the challenging materials that this play covers: self-harm, racism and environmental harm,” Fancy says. “They have also brought great verve and joy to the choreography, company dance numbers and comedic aspects of the project.”

  To help immerse audiences in multiple locations and time periods, the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre has taken on a new form.

  “I imagine the audience having an experience of poetry, drama, comedy, dance, beautiful design, light and sound that will transport them to different places and times,” Fancy says. “I’ve configured the theatre differently than it usually is in order to help the audience feel they are being brought somewhere else.”

  AnthropoScene opens Friday, Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m., with additional performances on Oct. 29 and 30, and Nov. 4 and 5. All shows take place at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre in Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in Downtown St. Catharines.

  A roundtable discussion, also open to the public, will take place on the production stage Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 6:30 p.m., with a panel of experts from Brock and other institutions discussing topics related to staging planetary evolution and destruction.

  Brock Professor of Art Education Fiona Blaikie will lead the discussion alongside Fancy, Vivian, Christine Daigle, Katrina Dunn, Lin Snelling and Priya Thomas.

  Tickets for AnthropoScene are $20 for the general public and $16 for students and seniors. For a full schedule of performances or to purchase tickets, visit the Brock University Tickets website.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209 

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  Categories: Media releases

• Watching — and preserving — horror gems may be tricky in age of streaming services, says Brock expert

  Wednesday, October 26, 2022 | By Brock University

  EXPERT ADVISORY: 26 October 2022 – R0118

  Those planning to treat themselves to a horror favourite or an undiscovered genre gem this Halloween should beware.

  Liz Clarke, Associate Professor in Brock University’s Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, warns that anyone planning to stream their favourite scary movie or show should check the availability of their desired titles in advance or risk being disappointed.

  “When streaming services first started to gain traction in the market, there was a hope they would be more diverse, because streaming services can target specific audiences and interests much better than the broadcast television model,” says Clarke. “The fantasy they pitched to us was of unlimited choice and flexibility — but, in reality, that hasn’t panned out.”

  Recent uproar over changes to HBO Max and The Cartoon Network after the WarnerMedia and Discovery merger earlier this year is only the latest evidence of consumers being startled by the sudden loss of content that they expected to be on-demand as part of their subscriptions.

  Fan favourites often disappear from streaming services with little warning, and new or unconventional titles may be even harder to find.

  Just this week, Clarke settled in with a list of the best horror films directed by women to make some seasonal selections, only to learn that a mere handful of the titles that most interested her were available, in spite of multiple subscriptions and a free trial of a dedicated horror streaming service.

  “Even with smaller audiences, it’s still a matter of having to attract and maintain subscribers, and streaming services recognize that to focus on any niche is less profitable than focusing on the masses for more return,” she says.

  Clarke notes that lack of access to content isn’t unusual from a historical standpoint. The time when average people had the opportunity to own copies of their favourite films or television shows is actually a short moment in the context of cinema, between the onset of VCRs in the early 1980s and the huge drop in popularity of physical media like DVDs and Blu-Rays of the last few years.

  But she admits that her research on silent film in the 1910s, which was hampered by the loss or degradation of physical media and more than 90 per cent of the silent film cannon over the past century, is not altogether different from trying to find new horror films directed by women available to watch today.

  “These are films that were reviewed and recognized perhaps during festivals or limited theatrical releases, but not distributed in a major way, so they disappear,” Clarke says.

  With no physical releases and no guarantee of future availability via streaming, it may be a challenge to locate and study these films in the future — let alone watch them this Halloween.

  “It’s going to be difficult for researchers going forward,” says Clarke. “A lot of silent film is lost because at the time, people didn’t think it was of value; the weekly films were just fleeting, not worth archiving or saving. My guess is that something similar may be happening with these horror movies made by women, that they’re not deemed culturally relevant enough by the streaming services, which are now the gatekeepers.” 

  Liz Clarke, Associate Professor in Brock University’s Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, is available for media interviews on the topic.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209 

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  Categories: Media releases