Events

• Playwright/Actor Damien Atkins to Visit Brock Department of Dramatic Arts

  Tuesday, January 09, 2018 | By dtemprile

  

  Toronto based actor and playwright Damien Atkins will do a reading from his work followed by a conversation with students in DART 3P92 Scriptwriting

  Date: Tuesday Feb. 13

  Time: 10:30 am

  Location: STUDIO B MW247 Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts

  This is a free community event! All are welcome to attend.

  Damien Atkins is a playwright and actor who has performed across Canada and the United States. Playwriting credits include miss chatelaine (The Grand Theatre/Theatre Passe Muraille), Real Live Girl (Buddies in Bad Times/Manitoba Theatre Centre/The Grand), the adaptation (with Marjorie Chan) of Hisashi Inoue’s play In The Garden, Two Suns for Crow’s Theatre, Good Mother (Stratford Festival), Lucy (Canadian Stage Co./Ensemble Studio Theatre – NYC/Delaware Theatre Co.), The Mill, Part Four: Ash (theatrefront), The Gay Heritage Project (with Andrew Kushnir and Paul Dunn – Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), and We Are Not Alone (Crow’s Theatre/Segal Centre). He is the youngest playwright ever produced by the Stratford Festival. Damien has been nominated for nine Dora Mavor Moore Awards for acting and writing, including nominations for Best New Play for Lucy and The Gay Heritage Project. He has received the PRISM/UBC Creative Writing Residency Prize for Good Mother and a Dora for Best New Musical for Real Live Girl. Damien has been playwright-in-residence at UBC, Canadian Stage, Crow’s Theatre, and Factory Theatre, as well as a Guest Instructor at The National Theatre School.

  Tags: Damien Atkins, DART 3P92, Department of Dramatic Arts, drama in education, Dramatic Arts, Free community event, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Scriptwriting
  Categories: Events, News, Visiting Artists

• The State of Our Art: Drama in Education and Applied Theatre in Ontario

  Friday, November 03, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  The Department of Dramatic Arts, Brock University and the Walker Cultural Leader Series presents:

  The Second Drama in Education and Applied Theatre Symposium.

  January 26 and 27, 2018

  Our world as we know it is rapidly changing, with scholars identifying present events as ‘post-normal’ (O’Connor and Anderson 2015). In this climate of anxiety and political uncertainty, how is the practice of drama in education and applied theatre a means to respond to and attempt to speak back to these times? The lectures and workshops will offer key insights into how our scholars use this practice to grapple with these issues.

  Featuring Julie Salverson (Queens University), Kathleen Gallagher (OISE), and workshops by by Professors: Kathleen Gallagher, Joe Norris (replacing Kathy Lundy as listed in the PDF), Julie Salverson, Larry Schwartz, and Belarie Zatzman.

  for more information download this PDF.

  Keynote: Friday, January 26 7:30pm
  Professor Julie Salverson, Queens University

  Marilyn I. Walker Theatre at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts

  All of us today, as scholars, artists and citizens, are challenged with listening to and telling forward the story of this home we call Canada. As we consider this task, where are the possibilities for change, for hope, and for honest listening – listening not to consume and extract (what scholar Dylan Robinson calls hungry listening) but to acknowledge and attend? I will talk about ways to think and feel about what it means to witness and respond to calls for justice as whole people who draw upon a rich variety of resources. How do all of us, individually and collectively, honour our own heritage, traditions and teachers? How do we bring these to the table and to how we live, work and attend? What do each of us offer to the conversation? This is about what it means to be “on the ground”, to negotiate the challenge to witness with the alarm and feeling of consequence that entails a meeting with a traumatized environment. I will draw on Karen Barad’s performative metaphysics, Donna Haraway’s “staying with the trouble” and E.V.Walter’s discussion of “places of experience” to re-imagine my ideas of foolish witness.

  Keynote: Saturday, January 27 9:00am
  Professor Kathleen Gallagher, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

  Marilyn I. Walker Theatre at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts

  In this keynote, I will use a case study of one research site in Lucknow, India, in my current multi-sited, applied theatre research, Youth, Theatre, Radical Hope and the Ethical Imaginary: an intercultural investigation of drama pedagogy, performance and civic engagement (2014-2019) to consider how drama can ‘speak back to these times’ if we deem- as some social innovation theorists do- the social world as made and imagined. How have the students in India, and how might we in our various pedagogical and creating contexts, use theatre to understand social systems and imagine a progressive sociality? In India, using drama, performance and critical dialogues, the work is both deeply political and radically hopeful through the ways in which it reorients, redefines and revisions the social world. Their classroom practice follows from a 19th century feminist theatre history, I will argue, that enables a transformative ambition, just what is needed in these harrowing global times. As democracies thin under populist and neoliberal regimes across most nation states, the young people and their teachers in India have long understood the power of collective opposition as a social practice and political resistance, but they have also seized upon drama and performance as the most powerful means to this end. Social innovation scholars have suggested that by harnessing what they are calling “collective intelligence”, it may be possible to dramatically improve societies’ ability to tackle seemingly intractable social problems. The students at Prerna school in India have positioned theatre as a “language of care” and a central tool for understanding the political economy and deconstructing the forces of oppression. It is time for all of us to harness the unimaginable, in our classrooms, on our stages, and in the street.

  Workshops: Saturday, January 27, 2018
  DART Studio A workshops: Julie Salverson (10:30 am-1:00 pm) / Belarie Zatzman (2:30-5:00 pm)
  DART Studio C workshops: Joe Norris (10:30 am-1:00 pm) / David Booth (2:30-5:00 pm)
  DART Studio D workshops: Larry Swartz (10:30 am-1:00 pm) / Kathleen Gallagher (2:30-5:00 pm)

  Julie Salverson, Queens University.
  10:30 – 1:00, Studio A
  Who we are as witnesses
  I have facilitated a few sessions this year based on a Quaker practice of holding a question in the light. The question for this workshop is: how can we live together better? I will speak for a few minutes about the deep preparation I require to enter the thorny territory of witnessing, the heritage, traditions and teachings that inform my work, and what a response to these times means to me. I will then invite people in the room to speak to this. There will be no direct interaction or discussion, this is about witnessing and listening.

  Joe Norris, Department of Dramatic Arts, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University.
  10:30 – 1:00 Studio C
  Reexamining Canadian History through Story Circles, Picture Interpretation, Tableaus, Choral Speech and Writing in Role
  Award winner for his publications in his pioneering work in playbuilding as research, duoethnography, a form of dialogic research, and alternative forms of arts-based assessment, Joe also devotes considerable time developing and piloting units of teaching the curriculum through drama. While this workshop will focus specifically on the Klondike, the approaches used can be applied to many curricular topics.

  Larry Swartz, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto.
  10:30 – 1:00 Studio D
  MORE THAN A PLAY
  This practical interactive workshop will demonstrate strategies for using minimal and dialogue scripts to enhance interpretation skills, to build community and to address social justice issues. Handout provided.

  Belarie Zatzman, Department of Theatre, School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design, York University.
  2:30 -5:00 Studio A
  Performing Objects
  In this workshop, we will consider participatory practices that can be used in history, art and drama classes, or in museum / gallery contexts. We will explore applied theatre strategies for examining and interpreting “performing objects” in order to help us construct our encounters with archival objects or artworks, from the present.

  David Booth, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto.
  2:30 -5:00 Studio C
  A Novel Approach to Drama
  This workshop will explore the Young Adult novel as a source and inspiration for improvised role playing leading to dramatic scene building. This genre of contemporary literature is written especially for our students, and explores issues of coming of age, relationships, social justice, and identity. As teachers, we can use the themes and events in these texts as stimuli for interpreting, exploring and inventing situations and scenarios as a whole class, working in groups and partners, as we construct our scenes into a playmaking conclusion.

  Kathleen Gallagher, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
  2:30 -5:00 Studio D
  Verbatim Theatre: telling other people’s stories
  Physical, ethical, social, and artistic questions converge at the centre of Verbatim Theatre practice. This session will invite participants to explore and examine some of the techniques and practices that are currently in use, in the evolving genre of Verbatim Theatre. Part story-telling, part composite, part-mimicry, part invention, the work will invite critical discussion about the skills, the social value, and the creative impulses connected to this form of theatre-making. Extending its reach beyond theatre and performance, Verbatim has found a place, too, in social science research. Harnessed to ideas about power relations and ‘collaborative’, multi-vocal, qualitative research practices and forms of dissemination, this genre of theatre further opens up discussions about the ever-expanding defi nitions of research methodology.

  Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University
  A free community event, please register for the workshops:
  the-state-of-our-art-symposium-workshops.eventbrite.com
  (Maximum 20 per session)

  for more information download this PDF.

  Please note that limited parking is available at the MIWSFPA for guests and presenters on a first come, first served basis.

  Due to multiple event programming on the evening of Friday, January 26 please allow ample time to find nearby parking.

  Tags: Applied Theatre, Bellary Zatzman, drama in education, Joe Norris, Kathleen Gallagher., Larry Swartz, symposium
  Categories: Events, News, Visiting Artists

• DART presents: Five Women Wearing the Same Dress

  Thursday, November 02, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  It’s the perfect day for the perfect Tennessee wedding– but where are the bridesmaids?

  Skulking in her attic refuge, Meredith rebels. Frances prays. Mindy eats. Georgeanne lusts, and Trisha swears off romance forever– until Tripp, the wise-cracking usher turns her eye. Trouble lurks everywhere for these colourful and disorderly women, and as the music gets louder and things get rowdier, they must come together to figure out past burns and current conundrums. With a little booze, a little wisdom, and lot of crazy talk, they help one another navigate the storms of life.

  Five Women Wearing the Same Dress comes to St. Catharines from Academy Award winning author Alan Ball of “American Beauty”.

  You have never experienced a wedding party like this one!

  Directed by professor Gyllian Raby, and assisted by Tarndeep Pannu. Other students from the 2017-2018 4F56 ensemble include cast members Helena Ciuciura, Meryl Ochoa, Samantha Mastrella, Rebecca Downing, Candice Burn and Mark Dickinson. Set Design is by Jillian Wardell, Costume Design by Sarah Marks, Sound Design by Naomi Richardson, and Lighting Design by guest instructor James McCoy. The production is Stage Managed by Chelsea Wilson, Allie Aubry and Michelle Mohammed with Kaylyn Valdez-Scott as Publicist, and Adrian Marchesano and Mackenzie Kerr on the Production Team.

  Characters:

  Meredith Marlowe: The bride’s rebellious, pot-smoking younger sister who is very sarcastic and much annoyed with the whole fiasco downstairs. Sporting an outwardly tough attitude, she has a lot of insecurity to hide. Bridesmaid.
  Georgeanne Darby: Tracy’s “ugly sidekick” in high school and college. Accepted the invite to be a bridesmaid even though her relationship with Tracy is strained because Tracy’s boyfriend had once got her pregnant. Bridesmaid.
  Trisha: One of Tracy’s former friends with a supposed bad reputation; a jaded beauty. Bridesmaid.
  Frances: The very naive and religious cousin of the bride. Bridesmaid.
  Mindy McClure: The groom’s clumsy and outspoken lesbian sister. Bridesmaid.
  Tripp Davenport (Griffen Lyle Davenport the Third): An usher who falls for Trisha.

  When: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1 and SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2017

  Time: 7:30 pm to 9:15 pm.

  Location: The Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, Brock University

  Tickets: $7†; $5† child (14 and under); $5† eyeGo program. Free admission to current students of the MIWSFPA with valid student ID card. † Applicable fees and taxes are extra. ONLY 100 SEATS AVAILABLE for each performance, don’t delay.

  Available from the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre Box Office: 905.688.0722 or Long Distance Toll Free: 1.855.515.0722; online: firstontariopac.ca

  Tags: DART 4F56, Five Women, Play, theatre
  Categories: Events, Performance Season, Plays

• PANTALONE’S PALACE, DART’S First Mainstage for 2017-18, opens October 27!

  Wednesday, October 25, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  Pantalone’s Palace

  Love and power collide in this fun-filled, fast paced physical comedy.

  Written and Directed by Mike Griffin

  Set & Costume Design by: Kelly Wolf
  Lighting Design by Chris Malkowski
  Sound Design by: James McCoy
  Mask Maker: Gina Bastone
  Assistant Direction by: Helena Ciuciura

  Hardworking Columbina just wants to enjoy the majestic Wooers’ Woods in peace after a long day’s work, but the greedy business tycoon Pantalone is scheming. When Columbina discovers his plot to build the biggest casino in the world, she knows she must take action. Armed with her wits and her lovesick friends, she aims to set things right in this fun-filled, fast paced, physical comedy that explores the meeting of contemporary life and classical Commedia dell’Arte.

  When: October 27 – November 4, 2017
  FRIDAY, OCT. 27 & SATURDAY, OCT. 28 at 7:30 pm
  SUNDAY, OCT. 29 at 2:00 pm
  FRIDAY, NOV. 3 at 11:30 am & 7:30 pm
  SATURDAY, NOV. 4 at 7:30 pm

  The Department invites teachers and educators to bring their students to see this exciting new production of Commedia dell’arte.
  Read the Special Invitation to learn more.

  See the article in the Brock News.

  See the teaser video.

  Marilyn I. Walker Theatre at the
  Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
  Limited paid parking onsite

  Purchase tickets at the FirstOntario PAC Box Office
  905.688.0722 or online firstontariopac.ca
  Tickets: $18 Adults|$15 Seniors/Students| $5 eyeGo | $12 Groups
  *Applicable fees and taxes are extra

  Tags: commedia, commedia dell’arte, Dramatic Arts, Mainstage, Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, Performance, Play, plays
  Categories: Events, News, Performance Season, Plays

• A public lecture in applied theatre with guest speaker Juliana Saxton, Professor Emeritus

  Wednesday, September 20, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  The Department of Dramatic Arts is pleased to invite you to attend a lecture by:

  Juliana Saxton

  Professor Emeritus, Master Teacher, and International Speaker

  “Seeing the World instead of Numbly recognizing it: witnessing & representation in Applied Theatre”
  This lecture examines the means by which embodied representation of “direct speech” may, through the devices of distancing (Eriksson, 2009)/ différance (Derrida, 1963) /ostranenie (Shklovsky, 1917) engage audiences and actors alike in ”seeing the world” in all its ambiguities, more clearly.

  Friday September 22nd 7:30pm
  Marilyn I. Walker Theatre

  Open to the Brock and DART community, and friends.

  Sponsored by the Social Justice Research Institute

  For more information contact: Dr. Yasmine Kandil, ykandil@brocku.ca

  Tags: Applied Theatre, Juliana Saxton, lecture
  Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Events, News

• Lac/Athabasca

  Saturday, September 16, 2017 | By dvivian

  By Len Falkenstein.

  A play about the Lac Megantique explosion and the environment.

  DART 4F56 is a production class that morphs each year depending on the people enrolled, but is always student driven and student produced. It enables students to work as a company in multiple production roles, utilizing the spectrum of skills they have developed in DART, from in depth research, to dramaturgical analysis resulting in the staging choices.

  A Media Release for this production will be available.

  When: FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2018 and SATURDAY, APRIL14, 2018. Matinee (TBC): SATURDAY, APRIL14, 2018

  Time: 7:30 pm to 8:45 pm.

  Location: The Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, Brock University

  Tickets: $7†; $5† child (14 and under); $5† eyeGo program. Free admission to current students of the MIWSFPA with valid student ID card.

  † Applicable fees and taxes are extra.

  Available from the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre Box Office: 905.688.0722 or Long Distance Toll Free: 1.855.515.0722; online: firstontariopac.ca

  Tags: DART 4F56
  Categories: Events, Performance Season, Plays

• Return to the Nile: a newcomer’s journey

  Friday, April 28, 2017 | By Nikki Prudden

  

  “Return to the Nile: a newcomer’s journey” was performed this morning by a group of six students who have studied Applied Theatre. They teamed up with Dr. Yasmine Kandil to interview and engage with six immigrant and refugee participants from the Niagara Folk Arts Centre.

  There are two more performances at the MIWSFPA this Friday and Saturday at 6 pm.

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  Tags: Applied Theatre, immigration, Niagara Folk Arts Centre, refugee, Return to the Nile: a newcomer's journey, Yasmine Kandil
  Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News

• DART 4F56 presents Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom

  Thursday, March 16, 2017 | By Brock University

  

  There’s something strange in the neighbourhood…

  The Department of Dramatic Arts 4F56 Ensemble presents Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom by Jennifer Haley, a chilling play that blurs the line between the real and the virtual in present day suburbia. This production runs April 21and 22, 2017, and will be held in the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common.

  The kids are obsessed with Neighborhood 3, a new video game that uses GPS technology to map their own suburban homes into a battle terrain. Pets start disappearing, players freak out, and suddenly the parents can no longer keep track of their teens. As the young players battle a legion of zombies to reach the Final House, they confront their family’s dysfunctions as well as the dreaded Neighborhood Association. In this community, good parenting is nowhere to be found and the adults’ lackadaisical involvement in their teens’ lives has devastating repercussions.

  Award winning playwright Jennifer Haley, referred to as “the first major playwright of the digital age” by New York Theatre, focuses her theatrical work on virtual reality and its effect on families. Her cautionary tale explores the transition from technological escapism to violent obsession. Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom asks ‘what is the impact of the virtual on the real? Can real life violence be blamed on violent video games? Who is raising your child – you or your iPad?’

  Production managed by Linda Duong, and built by Dana Morin, Neighborhood 3 is directed by Gyllian Raby (Professor) and Olivia De Sousa, and designed by Kaitlyn Seguin (set), Nicole James (properties), Allison Pressnail (projections and lighting), Sydney Francolini (sound), John Clancy (costume), Rachelle Scott, and Demetri Tsioros (choreography and fights). The 4F56 Ensemble further includes Sarah Bradford, Nikka Collison, Caroline Coon, Ben Fallis, Lena Hall, Chantal Hatton, Alexandra Li Tomulescu, Jonah McGrath, Elena Milenkovski, Dana Morin, and Elizabeth Pereira.

  Plan to join us for this provocative and unsettling melodrama held in Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common, in downtown St. Catharines. Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom runs April 21 and 22, 2017 at 7:30 pm. There will be a free preview day on April 21 at 11:30 am. Tickets are $5 (applicable fees and taxes are extra) and are available for purchase at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Box Office at 905.688.0722; toll-free 1.855.515.0722; e-mail: boxoffice@firstontariopac.ca; or online: firstontariopac.ca

   

   

  Tags: DART, Dramatic Arts, MIWSFPA, Play, theatre
  Categories: Events, Plays

• ONE ACT FESTIVAL 2017

  Thursday, March 16, 2017 | By Brock University

  

  Theatre students take charge in Brock University’s ONE ACT FESTIVAL 2017!

  Every year, Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts presents an exciting festival of ten one-act plays, all completely directed by, designed by and starring the bright and talented students of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. This year’s ONE ACT FESTIVAL 2017 will be held at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre on April 7 and 8, 2017, and promises an engaging and diverse variety of experiences for the theatre-going audience.

  The ONE ACT FESTIVAL 2017 is presented in two parts over two days. Both parts are performed each day of the festival. Audiences may choose to view the full run of plays in one day, or watch one part per day.
  

  Part One (April 7 at 2 pm & April 8 at 7:30 pm):	Part Two (April 7 at 7:30 pm & April 8 at 2 pm):
  Pillow by Frederick Stroppel Directed by: Kelli Sitarski Designed by: Aislinn Doran & Allie Aubry	The Tarantino Variation by Seth Kramer Directed by: Samantha Mastrella Designed by: Jillian Wardell & Alex Agostinho
  A Florentine Tragedy (excerpt) by Oscar Wilde Directed by: Mark Dickinson Designed by: Allie Aubry & Aislinn Doran	Ghost Trio by Samuel Beckett Directed by: Helena Ciuciura Designed by: Laura Burton & Ariel Nelson
  One for the Road by Harold Pinter Directed by: Michelle Mohammed Designed by: Alex Agostinho & Jillian Wardell	Check Please by Jonathan Rand Directed by: Candice Burn Designed by: Ariel Nelson & Laura Burton
  The Cowboy by Patrick Holland Directed by: Mackenzie Kerr Designed by: Jillian Wardell & Alex Agostinho	Irene and Lillian Forever by Bonnie Farmer Directed by: Tarndeep Pannu Designed by: Allie Aubry & Aislinn Doran
  Batteries Not Included by Caitlin English Directed by: Iain Beaumont Designed by: Chelsea Wilson	All By Myself by Robert Scott Directed by: Naomi Richardson Designed by: Chelsea Wilson

  As the final assignment for the third-year Directing II class, each directing student chooses a one-act play to produce for the ONE ACT FESTIVAL 2017. This year, the directing and design students are mentored by Visiting Director (and retired faculty member) Professor Virginia Reh, collaborating with Professor David Vivian. The students direct, design and perform ten short plays as they complete their courses in directing and theatrical design.

  Topics of the plays include the exploration of human relations in historical settings through to the thrills and chills of contemporary life. Professor Virginia Reh states, “Over the years I have enjoyed watching the young directors select challenging plays and grow their confidence and artistry during the 10 weeks of rehearsal development. Completing the One Act Festival is a capstone achievement as they prepare for their final year of study.

  This is the first year the directing and design students have collaborated together to realize the festival. Professor David Vivian states, “As we complete the second season at 15 Artists’ Common our students will bring their bold visions to life in a reconfigured Marilyn I. Walker Theatre. With every production we learn about innovative possibilities provided by our excellent new facility.”

  The festival will be held in the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre at 15 Artists’ Common, downtown St. Catharines on April 7 and 8, 2017. Part One will be performed on April 7 at 2 pm and April 8 at 7:30 pm. Part Two will be performed on April 7 at 7:30 pm and April 8 at 2 pm. Seating at this event is limited. Tickets are available at the door, and admission is “pay-what-you-can.”

  Parking is not available on-site, however, there are more than 1,000 spots available in nearby parking garages, surface lots, and on city streets within a five-minute walk to our address at 15 Artists’ Common. Visit http://www.stcatharines.ca/en/livein/ParkingLotsGarages.asp for a list of parking locations.

  Such performances from the Department of Dramatic Arts are an integral part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ mandate in building connections between the community and the breadth of talent and creativity at Brock University.

  Tags: BrockU, DART, Dramatic Arts, MIWSFPA, One Acts, One Acts Festival, Play, theatre
  Categories: Events, Plays

• On Cultural Power: The August Wilson/Robert Brustein Discussion, Re-enacted!

  Wednesday, February 15, 2017 | By Brock University

  

  Experience the famous and controversial 1997 debate that took New York by storm: “The intellectual equivalent of extreme fighting” – Frank Rich

  March 15, 2017 at 6 pm

  Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines

  To reserve your tickets for this free community event, visit this link: http://bit.ly/2k8CbnP

  Tags: alumni, DART, Debate, Discussion, Dramatic Arts, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, plays, theatre
  Categories: Events, Plays