Articles by author: Nikki Prudden

  • Active Citizenship: Drama in Education & Applied Theatre Symposium

    Monday, December 07, 2015 | By

    When:
    Friday, January 29, 2016, 7 – 8:30 pm Keynote by Kathy Lundy, with a response by Jonothan Neelands (Open to Public)
    Saturday January 30, 2016, 10 – 4 pm, Workshops by Kathy Lundy and Juliana Saxton (by registration only)
    Sunday January 31, 2016, 10 – 4 pm, Workshop by Jonothan Neelands (by registration only)

    Locations: Friday: Dramatic Arts Theatre, 15 Artists’ Common, Saturday & Sunday: MW 207 & 211, 15 Artists’ Common

    A symposium on the role of Drama in Education and Applied Theatre in exploring concepts of citizenship, community and care as they relate to living with others in structured and unstructured spaces.

    Please contact Yasmine Kandil and Joe Norris for more information.

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    Categories: Events

  • Engaging Possibilities / Joining The Fires

    Saturday, October 17, 2015 | By

    When:

    • Part #1: November 17 – 19, 2015
    • Part #2: April 12 – May 10, 2016 12 – 5 pm, May 17, 9 am – 5 pm

    Location:

    • Part #1: Studio A (MW 251), 15 Artists’ Common
    • Part #2: Studio B (MW 247), 15 Artists’ Common

    Workshops for Community Members who use Alternative, Augmented Communication (AAC) and Open Studio on May 17.

    Presentation of transdisciplinary workshops including the Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) community and DART scenography students.
    Workshops will be in the afternoons (exact timing TBA). Workshops open to students and the DART community; possible final public outcome (TBA).

    Workshops open to particpants ONLY.

    Contact David at dvivian@brocku.ca for more information.

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    Categories: Events

  • Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts Alumni Homecoming

    Tuesday, September 15, 2015 | By

    Event date: September 18, 2015, 5 pm – 11 pm

    ***PLEASE SEE THIS NEWS UPDATE ABOUT PARKING ON SEPTEMBER 18TH***

    Alumni of the Arts and Culture, Dramatic Arts, Music and Visual Arts programs and our friends and guests from the Niagara Region and GTA are cordially invited to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Alumni Homecoming and Grand Opening!

    Please join us for an evening of captivating artwork, exciting performances and beautiful music. Grab a glass of wine, take yourself on a tour of the incredible new MIWSFPA facility and spend some time reconnecting with classmates, professors and friends from the Departments of Dramatic Arts, Music, and Visual Arts, and our Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture.

    Official opening ceremonies begin at 3:00; Open house begins at 5:00 pm; VISA Art Gallery Alumni exhibition opens at 5:00 pm; VISA Alumni Dinner, 6:30 – 8 pm at Gord’s Place, 84 James Street; MUSI programming across the evening in multiple venues at 15 Artists’ Common; Cabaret in the DART Theatre at 7:30 pm.

    Affiliated events also include:

    Tale of a Town St. Catharines
    Addressing the Void

    and

    Confluence Field Trip #1, a fifteen minute walk from Rodman Hall to MWSFPA along the Merritt Trail and McGuire St.. for more information see: confluencefieldtrips.ca

    Hope to see you there!

    See the Facebook event by clicking here.

    GET YOUR TICKETS HERE to reserve a seat at the VISA Alumni dinner!

    GET YOUR TICKETS HERE for the DART theatre CABARET!

    For more information about the Homecoming Weekend program at Brock University, to register for events and to learn about shuttle bus service to the region be sure to visit
    https://brocku.ca/alumni/celebrate-homecoming-2
    ***Please note this event will take place at our new address at 15 Artists’ Common, also known as the former Canada Haircloth Building, in downtown St. Catharines. ***not at 500 Glenridge Avenue ***

    Here is a link to a Google street view from June, when our address was known to be IceDogs Way, and here is a Google map for directions to the facilities.

    Please see the Brock University Campus Map here: https://brocku.ca/blogs/campus-map/miwsfpa/

    We are adjacent to the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre and the Meridian Centre.

    ***PLEASE SEE THIS NEWS UPDATE ABOUT PARKING ON SEPTEMBER 18TH***

    *****

    Hear ye! Hear ye! the excellent program for our event on September 18th!

    VISA Painting Studio 
    location: MW 416
    4:00-9:00 pm
    Open house Exhibition
    and
    Musical performances in the VISA Painting Studio by:
    Brock Jazz Band
    Carly Manley
    Danny Lamb Trio
    Grace Notes String Ensemble
    Brock Beatles Band

    VISA Drawing Studio 
    location: MW 406
    4:00 – 9:00 pm
    Open house Exhibition
    and
    Musical performances in the VISA Drawing Studio by:
    Sabrina Xin Liu, piano
    Leanne Vida, piano/vocal
    Andrea Nolan, piano/vocal
    Neva Tesolin, piano/vocal
    Leland, piano/vocal
    Melissa-Marie Shriner, piano/vocal
    H. Campbell, piano/vocal

    VISA Gallery
    First floor at the Main Entrance, 15 Artists’ Common
    MW 159
    5:00-7:00 pm
    Opening Reception for the Alumni exhibition
    and
    Musical performances in the VISA Gallery by:
    Grace Snippe, cello
    Brody Smith, guitar
    Allison Scholtens, violin
    Tyler Merza, guitar

    Classical Recital in the MUSI Vocal Studio 
    location: MW 104
    6:00 – 9:00 pm
    Christina Lerose, piano
    Leanne Vida, soprano
    Jorgo Kalo, piano
    Victoria Hoshowsky, soprano
    Negin Rezaei Asl, piano
    Caroline Nicole Corkum, soprano and Alexandre Soulodre, piano
    Serena Atallah, piano
    Erika Versluis, soprano and Tyler Versluis, piano
    Sabrina Xin Liu, piano
    Leanne Vida, soprano and Jorgo Kalo, piano

    DART Theatre Cabaret!  
    Location: DART Theatre
    MW 262
    7:30 pm – 11:00 pm
    Hosted by Cass Van Wyck and Rox Chwaluk
    Guests are welcome to come and go.
    In order of performance:

    Arms Up Comedy: Caitlin English, Jacqueline Costa, Eric Frank, Chris Boyle
    Attic Window Theatre, In Real Life: Collin Glavac, Colin B. Anthes, Eduardo DiMartino, Nicola Franco, Hayley Rose Malouin
    Piano and Vocal: Lee Stewart
    Brock Improv Alumni: Richard Varty, Rox Chwaluk, Brandon Pachan, Alana Perri.
    Piano and Vocal: Melissa-Marie Shriner and Grace Snippe
    One Four One Collective, Stuck in Horse- Send Help! : Evan Mulrooney and Kevin Chew
    Piano and Vocal: Neva Tesolin
    MOVE! : Alex Kazam, Adrien Hurst, Jerry Prom, Mitchell Peebles, Caleb Fast, Mikey Henley
    Music by Alejandro Del Pino
    The Labour of Forrest Nympho: A Drag Birthing: Geoffrey Heaney
    Piano and Vocal: Andrea Nolan
    Empty Box Theatre, Waiting for Alonzo:  Hayley Rose Malouin, Victoria Cutler, Sean Rintoul
    Piano and Vocal: Holly Campbell
    Garden City Improv: Collin Glavac, Ross Mosher, Jamie Roboz, David Bernard, Hayley Malouin, Jonas McLean
    Guitar and Vocal: Aaron Berger
    Open Mic!
    FOX TRAIL: Iain Lidstone, Marcus Schwan, Brent Cairns, Adam Wood, Alannah Garrett
    ~the end~

    Special events not to be missed!:

    New Work in Progress: Addressing the Void 
    by Maggie Hunter and performed by Abby Rollo, Gemma Bordonaro and Jacqui Noel. (DART)
    location: Studio D MW 256.
    6:00 pm, 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm

    Special Installation of Tale of a Town St. Catharines. Listening Booths by FIXT POINT and Suitcase in Point Theatre Company.
    Various locations in the MIWSFPA.

    Confluence Field Trip #1, a fifteen minute walk from Rodman Hall to the MIWSFPA along the Merritt Trail and McGuire St.
    Artist: Elizabeth Chitty. Participants are invited to participate in this self-guided tour of a section of the Twelve Mile Creek valley. For more information see: http://confluencefieldtrips.ca/

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future students, News

  • City Treaty

    Wednesday, September 02, 2015 | By

    Performance Dates:
    Saturday, September 19, 2015, 5 – 9 pm
    Sunday, September 20, 2015, 12:30 – 9:30 pm
    Location: In and around the DART Theatre and lobby, 15 Artists’ Common, Other Downtown Locations

    Click here to reserve your seat for a performance or register for a workshop.

    Saturday:
    5:00 PM Opening Ceremony
    5:30 PM Dance, Drumming & Vendor Fair
    6:30 PM Historical Talk with Rick Hill
    7:00 PM City Treaty Presentation

    Sunday:
    12:30 PM Perpetual Peace Project Concert
    2:00 PM City Treaty Presentation
    3:00 PM Workshops
    5:00 PM Closing Ceremony
    5:30 PM Celebration at Rise Above,
    120 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines

    Featuring a stage adaptation of Marvin Francis’ epic poem City Treaty, a historical talk with Rick Hill, workshops, dance demonstrations, music, food and more. The event wishes to honour the land the new theatre is built upon and open its doors to all peoples.

    Click here to download the City Treaty Newsletter (PDF)

     

    Visit the City Treaty website for more information

     

    Thanks to our partners and sponsors :
    Carousel Players, Native Friendship Centre, Rise Above Vegan Restaurant and Bakery, Brock University: Aboriginal Student Services, BSIG Research program, Department of Dramatic Arts and the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Office of Research Services Student Venture Program, Social Justice Research Institute, Tecumseh Centre for Aboriginal Research and Education. 

    Jessica Carmichael has gathered a St. Catharines Indigenous Theatre Projects Collective and is adapting the poem for performance with Falen Johnson, Steve Baranyai ,Cole Alvis and Shelley Niro. Jessica is an artistic associate at Native Earth who has just started as the new Artistic Director at Carousel Players in St. Catharines, Falen is a respected Six Nations playwright, Cole is the executive director of the Indigenous Performers’ Alliance, Steve is a musician performer with Perpetual Peace Projects, and Shelley is a respected multi-disciplinary visual artist.

    Marvin Francis (N. Alberta’s Heart Lake Nation d. 2005) received the John Hirsch Award for City Treaty in 2002. John K. Sampson described it in the Globe and Mail as: “Everything a great poem should be–nasty, rude, sneaky, cranky, smart, truthful and intelligent”.

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    Categories: Events

  • Exhibition: DART@PQ2015

    Sunday, August 30, 2015 | By

    September 2015 – April 2016

    Opening: Alumni Homecoming and Grand Opening,
    September 18, 2015
    Location: DART Theatre Lobby, 2nd Level, 15 Artists’ Common

    Exhibit of DART’s participation in the Canadian PQ2015 (Prague Quadrennial) exhibit Elevations, including parts of national collective project Totem. Theme: MUSIC. WEATHER. POLITICS. Also including: Fault Lines: digital exhibit of Brock students’ work. 

     

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors

  • DART 4F56 presents: Awkward and Uncomfortable

    Wednesday, April 01, 2015 | By

    Saturday, April 18 2015, 7:30 pm to 10 pm

    Three interlocking stories explore how to survive the turbulence that washes over us when we question fundamental aspects of our identities. Is it better to find the answers to our secrets or to leave them locked away? And where is that elusive happy ending?

    Presented by the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART 4F56).

    Location: Room ST107 (Studio Theatre), Schmon Tower, Brock University, 500 Glenridge Avenue, St. Catharines.
    Admission: Donations accepted

    Book your tickets by emailing: awkwardanduncomfortable@gmail.com or calling 906.688.5550 x5255

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    Categories: Events, Plays

  • Awkward and Uncomfortable

    Monday, March 16, 2015 | By

    Three interlocking stories explore how to survive the turbulence that washes over us when we question fundamental aspects of our identities. Is it better to find the answers to our secrets or to leave them locked away? And where is that elusive happy ending?

    More details:

    The Department of Dramatic Arts’ fourth-year production brings “Awkward and Uncomfortable” to a whole new level!

    An original performance by the fourth-year Devised Theatre class (DART 4F56) will be held on April 16, 17, and 18, 2015 at 7:30 pm, in the Studio Theatre (ST107) at Brock University.

    It is awkward and uncomfortable, but you’ll always have to deal with the two per cent of negative extremists.  If you’re an artist or you buck the trend of mainstream culture you’ll always be shouting out from the margins! How does one keep going when the struggle always comes looking for us? Answers are explored through spoken word, choreography and scenes that explore trust, relationships, and self-acceptance. Do we continue relationships when trust is unclear? Do we follow our future when those around us do not believe in it?

    Tracy is a construction worker who’s just been accepted by the guys, but it all falls apart. Diane and her partner have struggled to be accepted as a lesbian couple, and won, but suddenly her relationship seems empty. Carl has successfully completed his gender transition but his past comes back to bite him in a lawsuit that has unexpected consequences. This production by graduating students of Dramatic Arts’ devising class offers superhero guidance for the survival of the quirkiest at the Droopy Vine bar where all are welcome.

    Set designer Alanna Stewart has created a playful space inspired by Brazilian Favelas that displays the distressed urban world though graffiti and bright colours, a giant community piecing together against all odds. Costume designer Gina Greco, positions the characters as parts of the urban hierarchy through a clash of modern Toronto Queen West and Church Wellesley style, in order to present a beautiful slum, haute, and fantasy world.

    Professor and director Gyllian Raby guided the creative process drawing on her experience of creating new plays with One Yellow Rabbit and the RSVP process. Ensemble members include: Amanda McDonnell; Nick Leno; Kendra Neaves; Hayley Malouin;  Misha Harding; Michael Caccamo; Chloe Coyle;  Bri Lidstone; Nicola Franco; Rachel Romanoski; Katie Coseni;  Sean Rintoul; Marie Barros;  Emily Ferrier;  Maggi Robertson and Kate Croome.

    The DART 4F56 class is one where students work together collectively. Students use the knowledge they have accumulated throughout their four years of the Dramatic Arts program to create, build, and produce a collaborative piece that embraces the physical expressivity of Grotowski and LeCoq, action study from Stanislavsky, the performance clarity of Brechtian theories, and the work in voice, speech and spontaneity that grounds research and critical theory in human relations. A good theatre process takes awkward and uncomfortable to a whole new level!

    FOR TICKET RESERVATIONS: awkwardanduncomfortable@gmail.com
    Location: Room ST107 (Studio Theatre), Schmon Tower, Brock Campus.
    Admission: Donations accepted

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    Categories: Events, Plays

  • RUR: Rise of the Robot God

    Tuesday, January 20, 2015 | By

    We are dedicating this final production in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre to the memory of our late poet, Terrance Cox, who passed in the evening of January 16, 2015. Please see this post for more information.

    Directed by David Fancy
    Set Design & Costume Design by David Vivian
    Lighting Design by Jennifer Jimenez
    Music by Steve Chan

    An updated version of Karel Capek’s 1930s classic robot play.

    The past and future of artificial life, complete with phasers and show tunes!

    Show dates/times: February 12, 13, and 14, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
    Matinee performance: February 13 at 11:30 a.m.

    purchase tickets here

    social media: rurrobotrising.tumblr.com
    on twitter: #rurrobotrising

    Performed in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Brock University

    Karel Capek invented the word ‘robot’ in 1920s Czechoslovakia and the world has never been the same since. Our updated version of this Marxist robot melodrama features lots of bots and borgs, an apocalyptic vision of the future, and, of course, a theremin. Come witness the robot apocalypse!

    In Rossum’s Universal Robots (1920), Karel Capek invites us into an uncertain future in which the world is overrun by mass-produced robots. Although their makers hoped these machines would free human beings from the bondage of labour, instead, the robots mimic their makers and resort to war against all humans. This play is a precursor to so much subsequent science fiction dealing with artificial intelligence—from Star Trek to Terminator, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Her. Like these later stories, the play deals with the anxieties of creating artificial life-forms, the awe in the face of robot power and possibility, and the fear of the end of human life on the planet.

    In the play, Rossum’s robot factory is visited by President Glory’s daughter Helena, a robot emancipationist. She attempts to convince the other humans working at the plant that the robots deserve their own freedom. Instead, she never leaves the factory, marries into the Rossum clan, and is present when the robot genocide of humans takes place. The final humans on the planet struggle to understand what has gone wrong. At a time of increasing technologization of labour and the becoming-digital of many people’s daily lives in the Economic North, this production offers an opportunity to imagine different futures beyond the ‘mechanization of everything.’

    Teachers and faculty should read this letter about group bookings and discounts.

    A Primer for Robot Audiences is available for review, prepared by Lead robot author, Andrew Godin: download to print a copy. (PDF, 4.8 MB)

    purchase tickets here

    Media

    See the video below to learn more about the show!

    see the article in Niagara This Week!
    see the article in Niagara This Week!

     

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    Categories: Events, Plays

  • THE BELLE’S STRATAGEM

    Sunday, October 12, 2014 | By

    “Marie Antoinette” by Yuling Deng

    WRITTEN BY: Hannah Cowley
    DIRECTED BY: Gyllian Raby
    SCENOGRAPHER: Kelly Wolf

    November 13, 14, and 15, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
    Matinee performance: November 14 at 11:30 a.m.

    Performed in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Brock University

    Hannah Cowley’s most successful Town Comedy of 1783 demonstrated how to get your man and keep him in Georgian times — but once relocated in today’s Toronto, the laughing feminism lurking within the Marriage Plot is exposed in all its decadent hilarity.

    purchase tickets here

    A Study Guide is available for review, prepared by Assistant Director Nicholas Leno: download to print a copy (PDF, 3.7 MB)

    Please scan here to buy tickets and follow us on social media. keepingupwithmrsracket.com

    The Belle’s (Social Media) Stratagem
    A central character in the Department of Dramatic Arts’ autumn Mainstage production, The Belle’s Stratagem, will have an active life on social media thanks to a partnership between students in one of the department’s courses and the Mainstage production team. The goal of this partnership is extend the life of The Belle’s Stratagem both before ad after the actual run (November 13-15) and to engage audiences in critical dialogue around the show.

    Director and DART professor Gyllian Raby and assistant director Nick Leno have adapted and updated Hannah Cowley’s 18th-century comedy to be set in today’s Toronto. Through Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, tech-savvy students in DART 3P95: Studies in Praxis I: Theatre Criticism are creating an online identity for one of the play’s central characters, Mrs. Racket. Followers of @racketlife can see photos of her favourite products, read her daily aphorisms, and watch “fan” videos posted on YouTube. Mrs. Racket’s online persona not only develops the character beyond the page and stage, but also highlights some of the production’s key themes related to consumerism, celebrity, and social class.

    The social media platforms officially launch on October 20. Each platform is interconnected through the blog www.keepingupwithmrsracket.com; the blog is also accessible via the production’s QR code, which is included in all publicity materials. Followers are encouraged to interact with Mrs. Racket across all three platforms using the hashtag #racketlife: they can repost her Instagram photos or post and tag their own, tweet with Mrs. Racket, and vlog about the production on YouTube. The possibilities for participation are endless! During the show’s run, Praxis students will be present before each performance to demonstrate this technology through an interactive lobby display.

    This partnership is part of a key component of the Theatre Criticism course, in which students immerse themselves behind-the-scenes in creative processes with local arts organizations, and write about it for the course blog, DARTcritics.com. The Belle’s (Social Media) Stratagem is an innovation this year, the first time that Theatre Criticism students have gone behind the scenes on a DART Mainstage and the first time that the learning outcomes involve a social media strategy.

    Instagram account: @racketlife
    Twitter account: @racketlife
    YouTube channel: Racketlife

    some words from our guests:

    …excellent adaptation with the references to modern Toronto and all its foibles.
    – Associate Dean, Dr. Brian Power

    By re-historicizing Hannah Cowley, [Gyllian Raby, the director] is able to liberate her message. Cowley’s hesitant feminism is sharpened in Raby’s adaption. And shifting the play’s locale from eighteenth-century London to twenty-first century Toronto, Raby adds biting commentary – much of it delivered through choruses of rap music – on the ravaging cultural and economic effects of unfettered financial capitalism, which goes well beyond Cowley’s predictable tut-tutting about the vulgar spending displays of England’s nabobs. . . . . Mixing rap music with formal eighteenth-century drama sounds depressingly like a sterile post-modern conceit. But it works wonderfully well in this instance, partly because Raby is the director of the play she adapted. She directs an exuberant student cast who seem just as much at home mincing through the formalities of a masqued ball as they do gyrating to the strains of Rick Ross, Lil’ Mama, and Salt ’n’ Pepa.
    – from a review by Professor Emeritus John Sainsbury in the online British Journal of Eighteenth-Century Studies published by the The British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

    Press:

    Published on Nov 8, 2014: The Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University presents The Belle’s Stratagem from November 13th to 15th. Katie Jones reports. See the Cogeco TV report on The Belle’s Stratagem:

     

    Published on Nov 11, 2014: From Brock TV, a look into The Belles Stratagem, opening this Thursday! Meet the cast and crew of DART’s latest production of Hannah Cowley’s The Belle’s Stratagem.

     

    Photos:

    Painting the set floor for Belles Stratagem. L-R: Nikka Collison, Caroline Coon, Andrew Von Lukawiecki, and Brian Cumberland (Production Manager)

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    Categories: Events, Plays

  • FRAGMENTOS

    Sunday, March 02, 2014 | By

    April 11, & 12, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
    Matinee: Saturday, April 12th – 2pm

    It’s 1938 and in the fractured world left behind The Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War seizes the hopes and fears of the world as people unite and divide over the threat of Fascism. In Canada it is declared a crime to volunteer to fight in Spain, yet 1,546 Canadians make the illegal journey to fight for Democracy in the hopes of creating a better world. Fragmentos follows the journeys of 18 Canadians and Spaniards as they pursue their beliefs in the possibilities of a new life.

    Written by the students of DART 4F56, this ensemble production explores the creation of actor-created theatre incorporating circus, song, movement, dance and visual media.

    Location: Room ST107 (Studio Theatre), Schmon Tower, Brock Campus
    Admission: Donations Accepted

    This presentation is the culmination of 6-months of play development and rehearsal by our graduating Performance, and Production & Design Concentrations students
    Admission is first-come, first-seated.

    For more information: dramatic@brocku.ca or x5255

    Let us know you’re coming by joining our Facebook event.

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    Categories: Events, Plays

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