Events

The Blue Room

Saturday, January 26, 2013 | By mbalsom

By David Hare, freely adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde

Director: Virginia Reh
Scenographer: David Vivian
Lighting Design: Ken Garrett
Assistant Director: Jessi Robinson

February 14, 15 & 16, 2013: 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Matinee: February 15, 2013: 1pm – 3 pm

Directed by Professor Virginia Reh, The Blue Room is David Hare’s 1998 adaptation of Schnitzler’s Reigen (La Ronde), first produced in 1921. The plot is a “sexual daisychain”: the Girl couples with the Cab Driver, then the Cab Driver with the Au Pair, etc. Each time the new participant in one scene moves on to the next scene and so on, until in the final scene the Girl returns and encounters the Aristocrat. The play looks at casual sexual encounters as a (mostly) unsatisfactory substitute for human connection. This is a universal and timeless quest. The play is an important exploration with diverse current points-of-view: as each character has encounters with two different partners, the play explores the shifting status relationships (both social and personal). The relational dynamics of the play have interesting correspondences to explorations on social media.

Tickets: Adults $15.00, Students/Seniors $12.00, Groups $10.00, eyeGo $5.00. H.S.T. extra.

Theme-oriented and moderated workshops will be available. DART 3F93: Social Issues Theatre for Community Development, taught by Professor Joe Norris, will employ Process Drama and Applied Theatre techniques to explore themes that underlie the Blue Room. Scenes will be created that delve into issue of identity, innocence, risks, thresholds, secrets, awkwardness, beliefs, mores, taboos, exploitation and power. With a participatory dimension cast and audience will enter into conversations to explore the issues further.

Please contact us for more information.

THE BLUE ROOM: A Primer
is available for review before you come to see the production

low res 709kb
high res 2139 kb
print res 3690 kb

Media:

Interactive Arts and Science program student Patrick Gagliardi has put together a sultry trailer for the show.

from COGECO TV, Published on Feb 8, 2013: The Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University are hoping to spice up your Valentines Day with their new production “The Blue Room’.

In the buff with Brock’s Blue Room:
A fun full-first-page-of-the-section article about our upcoming mainstage in the city paper – another great reason to study dramatic arts at Brock University. Come see the play and discover what its really all about.

See the article about the show in The Brock Press, the independent student newspaper.

Tags: Arthur Schnitzler, David Hare, La Ronde, Mainstage, plays, The Blue Room
Categories: Events, Plays
The Suicide – A Russian Comedy

Sunday, October 07, 2012 | By mbalsom
November 8-10, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Student Matinee: November 09 at 11:30 AM

A Russian Comedy by Nikolai Erdman
Adapted by: Gyllian Raby and Anna MacAlpine
Director: Gyllian Raby
Russian Consultant: Larisa Brodsky
Set Design: Nigel Scott
Costume Design: Roberta Doylend
Lighting Design: Ken Garrett
Assistant Director: Dylan Sylvester
Assistant Designer and Poster Design: Stephanie Baxter
Music Director: Anna MacAlpine
Movement: Trevor Copp, with Rachel Romanowski

A classic comedy that satirizes the New society which was developing in Russia under Lenin’s New Economic Policy of 1924 – a program that many communists considered to be a step backwards for communism. A fast moving, unpretentious examination of hubris and lifestyle and its expression in style: physical poise, dress and drawl. An examination of conformity. The play is ultimately very homely in its definition of human happiness with the physicalized characters, balancing serious satire and comedy.

Themes: big items in the human condition: love, ego, appetite, meaning of life and social convention.

There is NO mature language or sexual content and the violence is “keystone cops” – this show is fine for youth.

High-School teachers should read this letter about the Matinee performance opportunity (PDF, 247 KB)
A Study Guide is available for review, prepared by Gyllian Raby and Anna MacAlpine.

A copy of this special new adaptation of the script is available for download here. (PDF, 120kb)

The Suicide, By Nicolai Erdman
Adapted by Gyllian Raby and Anna MacAlpine
Thanks to Larisa Brodsky.
Royalty free with permission, 2012.
Gyllian Raby
Department of Dramatic Arts
Brock University
[email protected]

Photos:

Director Gyllian Raby and Set Designer Nigel Scott present the concept of the set design for this innovative new production of The Suicide, seen below:
Production images below courtesy of Naturally in Niagara. Click the link to see more of their images from our media call.
Tags: Mainstage, Nikolai Erdman, The Suicide - A Russian Comedy
Categories: Events, Plays
Graduates of the Department of Dramatic Arts are on the boards again and this time they are playing IN THE SOIL.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 | By Brock University

The Clockmaker by Stephen Massicotte

April 27 @ 8:00pm and April 28 @ 2:00pm
Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre 101 King Street, St Catharines

Tickets: $10 at the door
Festival pass: $25 through inthesoil.on.ca

Nathan Tanner MacDonald – Director
Geoffrey Heaney – Performer
Dylan Mawson – Performer
Michael Pearson – Performer
Caitlin Popek – Performer
Kate Hardy – Stage Manager
Finn Archinuk – Designer

Nathan Tanner Mac Donald – a resident of the St Catharines and recent graduate of the Department of Dramatic Arts – has brought together a company of DART students to present The Clockmaker by Stephen Massicotte. A metaphysical rollercoaster, The Clockmaker may seem like little more than a love story set inside a murder-mystery-to-be, but it just might end up exposing the very truth of existence itself. The show will be performed April 27 @ 8:00pm and April 28 @ 2:00pm at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre in downtown St Catharines.

Nathan recently performed in the 2011 STRUTT wearable art show and this past summer he wrote and directed Circus, which played at Factory Theatre in the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival. Nathan’s company includes graduates and Geoffrey Heaney, Dylan Mawson, Michael Pearson, Caitlin Popek as Performers, current student Kate Hardy as Stage Manager and graduate Finn Archinuk as the Designer.

In the Soil Arts Festival brings Niagara artists from a range of disciplines together to provide unique audience experiences. The festival nurtures the creation of new work, showcases talent, encourages innovation, offers learning opportunities for youth and provides intimate and uncommon platforms for audiences to experience work by contemporary performing and literary artists, musicians and media artists. In the Soil is Niagara’s homegrown arts festival and is working to make a Niagara that is self-determining and culturally distinct.

for more information see the IN THE SOIL website.

Break-a-leg, Nathan, Caitlin, Dylan, Finn, Geoffrey, Kate and Michael!

Tags: Caitlin Popek, Dylan Mawson, Finn Archinuk, Geoffrey Heaney, In the Soil, Kate Hardy, Michale Pearson, Nathan Tanner MacDonald, The Clockmaker
Categories: Alumni, Current Students, Events, News, Plays
Shadows of a Toymaker

Sunday, March 11, 2012 | By Nikki Prudden

A new play starts April 11 in ST 103 “Black” at Brock University. The graduating students of DART 4F56 present the outcome of their year-long exploration in collective creation.

April 11, 2012 – 7:00pm
April 12, 2012 – 7:00pm
April 13, 2012 – 7:00pm

Shadows of a Toymaker is written and created by the graduating students of the Department of Dramatic Arts, Brock University, inspired by the gothic stories of writers Edgar Allen Poe and Angela Carter. This play explores the fictitious lives of the toymaker Mattel and his family, exposing their bizarre methods of survival as they confront the monsters lurking in the darkness within themselves and each other. Come join the madness as we search for the light!

This is the story of a house on a hill,
A house full of secrets sure to make your blood chill.
Nobody knows of what’s taken place,
In this house full of misfits all fallen from grace.
So take a peek inside these walls,
As the door swings open and the curtain falls.
For they are not enough to hide,
All of the madness that takes place inside…

Gather round everyone and open your ears,
I will tell you a story to quiet your fears.
We live in a world of darkness and sorrow,
But we have to believe in a brighter tomorrow.
Yes, there are monsters that live on this earth,
There were monsters before that had given them birth.
There have always been evils to put us to test,
But there have always been people to put them to rest…

Tags: DART 4F56, Shadows of a Toymaker
Categories: Events, Plays
Always loved the musical RENT!? Opening February 2nd for four performances only.

Thursday, January 26, 2012 | By Brock University

Always loved the musical RENT!? Brock Musical Theatre’s finest performers presented a fun-filled show that opened February 2^nd for four performances only.

RENT showcased the performing and producing talents of students in the Department of Dramatic Arts and the entire University community. The show was directed by Jessi Robinson with musical direction by Krystyna MacKay and choreography by Sarah Waller. Music was performed by local band Xprime.

Brock Musical Theatre is a university club with 19 cast members, as well as numerous production and volunteer crew members from several academic programs. BMT has been presenting music theatre to the Brock University community since 2005, showcasing such popular shows as Jesus Christ Superstar, Footloose, and Urinetown. Brock Musical Theatre president Karyn Lorence thanks the Brock University Student Union for their support of this production and BMT.

Tags: BMT, Brock Musical Theatre, musical theatre, RENT
Categories: Events, Plays
Lion in the Streets

Thursday, January 12, 2012 | By Nikki Prudden
Written by Judith Thompson

Directed by Danielle Wilson
Designed by David Vivian

Lion in the Streets is a beautiful nightmare.
– Danielle Wilson, director

February 16, 2012 – 7:30 pm
February 17, 2012 – matinee 11:30 am AND 7:30 pm
February 18, 2012 – 7:30 pm

Adult $15 : Students/Seniors $12 : eyeGO $5 : Group Rates $10
Buy tickets at arts.brocku.ca

All DART Students receive ONE free ticket.

Lion in the Streets is a play in which the obsessions of the characters erupt forth in heightened, surreal and imagistic language. The young protagonist, a Portuguese immigrant to Toronto named Isobel, is a ghost in a purgatorial condition. She deftly moves in and out of critical, extreme moments in each of the characters lives while searching for the man who killed her seventeen years prior. Twentieth century music underscores the critical moments in these characters’ lives animated with contemporary movement inspired by dance company La La La Human Steps. This unique mixture complements and elucidates surreal moments while revealing Thompson’s brilliant, sparkling humor. The production embodies our contemporary quest for faith, truth, and a ‘state of grace’ while contending with the absurdity of daily life.

Lion in the Streets is written by award-winning Canadian Playwright Judith Thompson. Premiered at the Tarragon Theatre in 1990 the play won the Chalmers Outstanding New Play Award in 1991. Thompson’s plays embrace subconscious elements of human experience not often seen on stage, capturing audience’s attention across the country. Canadian theatre companies regularly perform her work, such as Soulpepper’s 2011 production of White Biting Dog at the Young Center in Toronto.Lion in the Streets continues to be one of Thompson’s most known and most popular plays. High School students will be confronted with daring subject matter which could provide context and relevance to their lives. The play explores themes of repressed violence and sexuality, the search for identity and the powerful nature of love and forgiveness. While the subject matter is dark, Thompson has crafted this exquisitely surreal play with moments of humor, hope and redemption or what she calls “moments of grace”.

Contemporary movement will be choreographed by Gerald Trentham, Artistic Director of Toronto’s Pounds Per Square Inch Performance company. Our production will showcase 8 second to fourth year Brock students, playing a total of 29 roles, with additional assistance from students studying the areas of production, stagecraft, design and directing.

With this production both Director Danielle Wilson and scenographer David Vivian look forward to honoring the wit and intelligence of our departed colleague, Dr Marlene Moser, a leading scholar of the oeuvre of Judith Thompson. Moser’s published thesis entitled “Postmodern Feminist Readings of Identity in selected works of Judith Thompson, Margaret Hollingsworth and Patricia Gruben” (Ph.D. Thesis, 1998. Graduate Center for Study of Drama University of Toronto) and the article “Identities of Ambivalence: Judith Thompson’s Perfect Pie” (Theatre Research in Canada, Volume 27 Number 1/ Spring 2006), explore themes of gender, narrative, identification of the subject and patriarchal abuse, dwelling upon their relationship to the stage, the language and how the audience will perceive them.

High School Teachers and Educators: please read this letter for detailed information about the production, curriculum ties, and student matinee booking.

Lion in the Streets: A Study Guide, is an introduction to our production, prepared by our Dramaturge and Third Year DART student, Erica Charles. Included are: 1) Collaboration, 2) Play Synopsis, 3) The Playwright: Judith Thompson, 4) Director’s Notes, 5) Designer’s Notes, 6) Isobel and her Lion, 7) Symbolism, 8) Images, 9) An Interview with Judith Thompson by Eleanor Wachtel, 10) Additional References, 11) List of Figures, 12) Endnotes and Bibliography.

Download your PDF copy of Lion in the Streets: A Study Guide
(PDF, 8.7 MB, remotely hosted)

Download a copy of the poster (PDF, 1 MB)

Buy tickets at arts.brocku.ca

Press:

“Dramatic Arts play explores the death of a young girl” – see the article in The Brock News

Photos:
Tags: Danielle Wilson, David Vivian, Judith Thompson, Lion in the Streets, Mainstage, plays
Categories: Events, Plays
Another Successful Event for COMMOTION

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 | By Brock University

Commotioneers From Laura Secord Secondary School created and performed “On the Line”, a play about violence on and off the internet. Photo: Ron Gonzalez, David Chanthilath, Sarah Lundrigan-Randall, Matt Willms, Nathan Hammerling, Alexandra Li Tomulescu, Danielle Lauzon, Lianna Wouda, Jenna Ahle, Tannar Smith, James Thompson and Tanisha Medford

Commotion is a tri-generational program that trains emerging Brock Graduates to create theatre and work with high school students in the surrounding community. The program is run by Gyllian Raby, a Brock professor and Pablo Felices Luna, the artistic director for Carousel Players youth theatre in St Catharines. In reaching out to the local youth, this program is a vital resource to identifying and teaching the relationship between the creative process and group dynamics for Brock’s emerging artists.

Twice a week, for a twelve week period, the students engage in high-octane, personal and inventive processes that lead towards devising a one-act play for public presentation. The groups alernate their creative strategies between four compass points of resource exploration, scored improvisation, evaluation of cultural assumptions and participation with their surrounding community. Community members from cross-disciplinary backgrounds provided feedback to the students and attempt to illuminate the expressive voice of the group presentation as a whole. As a crucial aspect to the program, this process aims to unfold the interests and concerns that are the common denominator of the group, rather than those proposed by external media.

The presentations were held at the Courthouse Theatre in St Catharines between December 8th and 10th and were a great success!

Gyllian comments, “In the last two weeks of the program, the COMMOTION team helps the groups ‘weave’ their material into a one-act plays and rehearse for the production. The fact that the play script arrives so late can be nerve-wracking, but the final production is made possible by the trust the participants develop in their work and in one another, as well as the professional artistic support by Carousel Players. The young people we have worked with have taught us a great deal about collaborative processes, ownership and creative practice. They have inspired us.”

The COMMOTION Project is made possible by SSHRC: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Department of Dramatic Arts of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University, Carousel Players, TALK Niagara and approval from the District School Board of Niagara.

Tags: Carousel Players, Commotion, District School Board of Niagara, dsbn, Gyllian Raby, Laura Secord Secondary School, Pablo Felices Luna, SSHRC, TALK Niagara, youth
Categories: Events
Orpheus Descending

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 | By Nikki Prudden
Written by Tennessee Williams

Directed by Virginia Reh
Designed by Michael Greves

The tragedy of a closed society, destroying the ‘other’ within and without.
– Virginia Reh, director

November 10, 2011 – 7:30 pm
November 11, 2011 – matinee 1 pm AND 7:30 pm
November 12, 2011 – 7:30 pm

Adults $15 : Students/Seniors $12 : eyeGO $5 : Group Rates $10. Buy tickets at arts.brocku.ca

All DART students receive ONE free ticket.

Orpheus Descending is a modern version of the Greek myth in which Orpheus, the beloved musician of the gods, goes down to the underworld to rescue his dead wife Eurydice. Orpheus is forbidden to look at his wife until they are clear of the underworld, but he cannot resist, looks, and loses her forever. In Williams’ play, Valentine Xavier (Val), a guitar-playing stranger, comes into a small town in the U.S South and “rescues” an unhappy Lady Torrance. He breaks the rules of the tight society of the town, with catastrophic results.

The play was first performed on Broadway in 1957 and was adapted for the screen in 1959, starring Marlon Brando. With this presentation the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts is celebrating the 100th birthday of this great twentieth century American playwright. This is one of many productions from the Williams’ canon to be seen this season, including The Night of the Iguana at Hart House Theatre in Toronto, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Shaw Festival, Camino Real at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and The Wooster Group’s innovative rendition of Vieux Carré in New York.

Director Virginia Reh is delighted to have Brock alumnus Michael Greves design this production of Orpheus Descending. Since graduating from the Department of Dramatic Arts Greves has been involved in countless productions including the Shaw Festival and was seen recently on stage in Stray Theatre’s production of Les chaises at the Sullivan Mahoney Theatre. Our production stars 17 second through fourth year students supported by student colleagues in direction, dramaturgy, stagecraft and production.

High School Teachers and Educators: please read this letter for detailed information about the production, curriculum ties, and student matinee booking.

Orpheus Descending: A Study Guide, is an introduction to our production, prepared by our creative production team. Chapter titles include: Collaboration, List of Characters, The Plot, The Playwright: Tennessee Williams, Director’s Notes, Production History, Faith, Myth and Spirituality, Aunt Conjure and the Choctaw, Historical Content, Dramaturge’s Notes, Discussion Questions, List of Terms, List of Figures, Endnotes and Bibliography.

Download your PDF copy of Orpheus Descending: A Study Guide
(PDF, 2 MB)

Selected Press Coverage:

Brock University’s Orpheus Descending points spotlight at outsiders
see the article by Jonathan van Ekelenberg in The Niagara News

preview article and video in the St. Catharines Standard

Celebrating 100 years of Tennessee Williams in The Brock Press

This year, the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University presents Tennesse Williams’ Orpheus Descending directed by Virginia Reh. Pictured is a screenshot from a video feature in the series “Artist Profiles” by BROCK TV, which includes questions answered by Virginia Reh, and actors Trevor Ketcheson and Rebekka Gondosch. This video is not currently online.

Photos:
Tags: 2011-12, Mainstage, Orpheus Descending, plays, Tennessee Williams
Categories: Events, Plays
General Brock’s October Soiree for 2011 a brilliant success!

Monday, October 17, 2011 | By Brock University

Students from the Department of Dramatic Arts along with their colleagues in the Departments of Music and Visual Arts entertained almost 350 guests and dignitaries in period costume at the General Brock’s October Soiree, held Saturday October 15, 2011. More than $110,000 was raised, fifty percent of which after costs will accrue to scholarships in support of students in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

Douglas Kneale, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, remarked “To judge from the comments of guests during the evening, it was universally acknowledged as the best Soiree yet, with a high degree of talent and professionalism in our re-enactors, emcee Derek Ewert, and all the singers and dancers.”

See the Cogeco TV news item which includes on-camera interviews with several Brock spokespeople.

Tags: General Brock Soiree, Soiree
Categories: Events
Special performance: Which Way to the Bastille? at Rodman Hall

Thursday, September 29, 2011 | By Brock University

Image: Milutin Gubash, The Hotel Tito, 2010. Lambda color print (24″ x 50″). Image courtesy of the artist.

MILUTIN GUBASH
The Hotel Tito
September 16 – December 30, 2011
Opening Reception: September 15, 2011, 7 -9 pm
Curated by Shirley Madill

In collaboration with Musee d’art de Joliette

Special performance: Which Way to the Bastille?
Following the premier on September 15 the second of eight short performances by students of the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) occurs September 23, 2011 after 12 noon. Tanisha Minson and Dylan Mawson, senior students in the DART program have collaborated with the artist and faculty of DART to create a brief interpretation of the text during the course of the exhibition. The performance will function as a dramatic evocation of the principal tenets of the artist’s and the curatorial program.

Performance are scheduled for:
Thursday, September 15, evening, at the opening reception.
Friday, September 23, 12 noon, last day of the artist’s residency
Thursday, September 29, 6:30 pm
Saturday, October 15, 2:30 pm
Thursday, October 27, 8 pm
Sunday, November 6, 2:30 pm
Friday, November 18, 11:30 am
Saturday, December 3, 2:30 pm

The exhibit in brief:
Milutin Gubash has pursued a multidisciplinary practice revolving around video, photography and performance since 2002. This ten-year survey of work by Milutin Gubash includes a residency project with the Department of Dramatic Arts and the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University. Beginning with the work titled, Re-Enacting Tragedies While My Parents Look On, the exhibition includes various works that focus on daily-life occurrences with historical and philosophical narratives. Gubash is interested in exploring how individuals and ideas can overwrite commonly held perceptions of landscape, politics and expectations of representation.
www.milutingubash.com
—-
The exhibit in detail:
Milutin Gubash has pursued a multidisciplinary art practice revolving around video, photography and performance since 2002. He first made a name for himself in 2003 with the webcast project Re-Enacting Tragedies While My Parents Look On, in which he “re-created,” with his parents, various tragic news stories reported in the Calgary Herald. Gubash plays the part of the victim, dressed in a dark suit that now has become a signature for the artist.

By layering daily-life occurrences with historical and philosophical narratives, Gubash is interested in exploring how individuals and ideas can overwrite commonly held perceptions of landscape, politics and expectations of representation. His imagery portrays the same individuals (family and friends) living absurd situations or experiencing actual moments of psychological reflection. Together, the Gubash family and friends create a dreamscape of funny and sincere gestures while experimenting with their own relational identities. Gubash often insists on creating multiple contexts within which to engage his series of mini- narratives. By locating his own performative gestures at the scenes of such events, Gubash dares to heighten his personal psychological inquiry and that of his collaborators.

This exhibition includes a selection of works produced over the past ten years with emphasis on the recent interconnected projects: Which Way to the Bastille?, These Paintings, and Hotel Tito.

During a residency with the Department of Dramatic Arts, Brock University, Gubash worked with Associate Professor David Vivian, Associate Professor Dr. Natalie Alvarez, and a company of selected students to develop a “live animation” of Which Way to the Bastille? Situated as an ongoing and regular interpretation of the text during the course of the exhibition, the performance will function as a dramatic evocation of the principal tenets of the artist’s and the curatorial program. Associate Professor Catherine Parayre (Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures) of Brock University will lead an upper-level course in text and image based around this exhibition under the auspices of the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

A version of this exhibition will also be seen at the Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa; Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; and the Musée d’art de Joliette, Quebec.

Milutin Gubash was born in Novi Sad (Serbia) and has been living in Montreal since 2005.

Shirley Madill
Exhibition Curator

Tags: Dylan Mawson, Milutin Gubash, special performance, Tanisha Minson, Which Way to the Bastille?
Categories: Events