Plays

  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • One Acts Festival

    Thursday, February 20, 2014 | By

    Break-a-leg! to the student directors, cast and crew, faculty and staff who are opening the One Acts Festival TODAY!

    Every year as the final assignment for the Third Year Directing class each student choses a one act play to produce for the One Act Festival. This year’s One Acts Festival is approaching and the dates are as follow:

    Friday March 21st: Group A starting at 2pm Group B at 7pm
    Saturday March 22nd: Group B starting at 2pm & Group A at 7pm.

    Group A’s shows are:
    The Feast
    Overtones
    Hide & Seek
    Fourteen

    Group B’s shows are:
    Tales of the Grotesque
    Don Juan in Chicago
    Playwriting 101
    Rat Snake

    When: March 21 & 22, 2014 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
    Location: ST 107 “Studio Theatre” and ST 103 “Black”
    Admission: Donations Accepted
    Contact: dramatic@brocku.ca or 905-988-5550 x 5255

    Come out and support the 3rd year directors and all the students involved this year! Seating is limited, so please show up early to get your seats! See the FB events page here.

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  • Gimme 2!

    Wednesday, February 05, 2014 | By

    2 minutes, 2 actors! Gimme 2! is the first presentation of our first year students in short performances written and directed by their senior DART mentors. An Homage to Jerzy Growtowski!

    Open Rehearsal at 6 pm, show at 8 pm. Admission is first-come, first-seated.

    For more information: dramatic@brocku.ca or 905-688-5550 x5255

    Contact bcumberland@brocku.ca to reserve a seat if you know you can only attend one or the other presentations.

    Date & Time: March 5, 2014: 8 pm – 10 pm
    Location: ST 107 (Studio Theatre), Schmon Tower, Brock University
    Cost: $0.00
    Contact: dramatic@brocku.ca or 905-688-5550 x5255

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  • Jehanne of the Witches

    Tuesday, January 28, 2014 | By

    jehanne_promo_dvJEHANNE OF THE WITCHES

    by Sally Clark

    February 13-15, 2014 at 7:30 PM
    Student Matinee February 14 at 1:00 PM

    DIRECTED BY Virginia Reh
    Scenographer: David Vivian

    Assistant Director:  Casey Gillis
    Assistant Designer: James McCoy
    Dramaturg:  Brittany Stewart

    Black magic, illusion, and the suppression of Truth. Voices swirl as Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais, the infamous Bluebeard, concoct a witches’ brew of sexuality and the use – and abuse – of power.

    The Department of Dramatic Arts of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts is proud to present this play by Canadian playwright Sally Clark. Ms Clark was part of a wave of female playwrights in the 1980s who wrote plays about notable women from a female perspective. The play is mostly based on solid historical fact; Clark weaves her magic through unique interpretation and theatricality.

    Information:

    View our media release.

    High-School teachers should read this letter about the Matinee performance opportunity available for Jehanne of the Witches (February 2014). We’re also providing information on Secondary Education Curriculum Ties.

    NEW! An Audience Guide is available for download.

    Download the poster

    Join us on our Facebook event page

    Purchase tickets here!

    Media:

    see the preview on Cogeco TV below:

     

    see the article in the Brock News:

    david_jehanne_01-300x226
    That burning feeling: Jehanne of the Witches

     

    Media call photos:

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  • TWELFTH NIGHT, (or what you will) a comedy by William Shakespeare at the Department of Dramatic Arts

    Tuesday, October 29, 2013 | By

    image by Nitin Vadukul

    image by Nitin Vadukul

    TWELFTH NIGHT, (or what you will)

    a comedy by William Shakespeare

    November 7 – 9, 2013 at 7:30 PM
    Student Matinee November 08 at 11:30 AM

    DIRECTED BY Gyllian Raby
    Co-Director and Vocal Coach: Danielle Wilson
    Assistant Director and Dramaturge: Keavy Lynch

    If music be the food of love, play on!
    “Twelfth Night, (or what you will)” presented on stage at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre

    The Department of Dramatic Arts’ rendition of Twelfth Night gives this classic Shakespearean comedy a 20th century twist, setting it in the 1950s and taking audiences to the era of soul-searching country blues. This production runs November 7, 8 and 9, 2013 at 7:30 p.m., and November 8 at 11:30 a.m., held at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Brock University.

    The magical fictitious kingdom of Illyria is a modern world where boys are boys and girls are girls and subterranean passions blow apart rigid conventions. Fools, lovers, and shipwrecked souls grapple adverse fortunes and comic misunderstandings to find what truth and love might mean. To meet Shakespeare’s demand that Illyria be a land where music is “the food of love,” we present the fool musician Feste as the leader of a country blues band.

    The production is a directorial collaboration between Dramatic Arts faculty Gyllian Raby and Danielle Wilson, assisted by Keavy Lynch. Raby states, “We are performing Twelfth Night using music rooted in contemporary culture, so although this production is not a musical, music is threaded throughout the play.” Wilson adds, “The play has many of the elements common to Elizabethan romantic comedy, including the devices of mistaken identity, separated twins, and gender-crossing disguise, and its plot revolves around whether one can manage betrayal, and overcome the obstacles to truth and love.“

    Have a look at our media release (PDF).

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

    High-School teachers should read this letter about the Matinee performance opportunities available for Twefth Night (November 2013) and Jehanne of the Witches (February 2014)  (PDF)

    A Study Guide is available for review,
    prepared by Gyllian Raby and Keavy Lynch:
    download to print a copy (PDF, 2.0 MB)

    watch this preview on Cogeco TV:

    see the article in the Brock News!

    (From left): Sean Rintoul, Chris Chapman and Bri Lidstone perform in the Department of Dramatic Arts production of Twelfth Night, which opens Nov. 7 at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre.

    (From left): Sean Rintoul, Chris Chapman and Bri Lidstone perform in the Department of Dramatic Arts production of Twelfth Night, which opens Nov. 7 at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre.

    Announcing $5.00 Fridays!

    all holders of Brock ID cards – students, staff and faculty – are invited to take advantage of a special new price for the Matinee mainstage performance. Please present your ID card upon purchase of your ticket.
    Tickets for all performances including the $5.00 Friday Matinees are available through the  Box Office of the Centre for the Arts
    or  905.688.5550  x 3257

    For more information, please contact Marie Balsom, Co-ordinator of the School of Fine and Performing Arts, at 905-688-5550, ext. 4765; e-mail: mbalsom@brocku.ca

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  • An Acre of Time by Jason Sherman (DART 4F56)

    Monday, March 11, 2013 | By

    anacreoftimeApril 11, 12 & 13, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.
    A government land surveyor (Julia) uncovers the history of an acre of land near the Ottawa River, a barren rectangle that contains the memories of all who passed through it, from the last native hunter to the first white settler. Somehow, the layers of loss, land and remembrance enable Julia to grasp what she needs in order to let go.
    Location: Room ST107 (Studio Theatre) Schmon Tower, Brock Campus
    Admission: Donations accepted

    This is part of the Industrial Fabric 3 program. (Click the link for more information.)

    BROCK UNIVERSITY
    MEDIA RELEASE
    April 2, 2013
    Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
    905.688.5550 x4765

    An Acre of Time by Jason Sherman, presented on stage at the Studio Theatre, Brock University Inspired by the book of the same title by Phil Jenkins.
    Graduating Dramatic Arts students enrolled in Advanced Studies in Theatre (DART 4F56) at Brock University, will perform An Acre of Time by Canadian award-winning playwright Jason Sherman, held at the Studio Theatre at Brock University, from April 11 – 13, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

    An Acre of Time tells the story of government land surveyor (Julia) who uncovers the history of an acre of land on the LeBreton Flats near the Ottawa River. This barren rectangle contains the memories of all who passed through it, from the last native hunter to the first white settler. Somehow, the layers of loss, land and remembrance enable Julia to grasp what she needs in order to let go.
    The LeBreton Flats is a blank urban space that has been in limbo for decades. In 1962, the government expropriated it and knocked down its community. The Flats represent not only a government’s abdication of responsibility, but also an emotional void that can only be filled by recognizing and honouring the ghosts who still live there.

    Julia, played in different time periods by three actors: Kaitlin Race, Cassandra van Wyck, and Olivia Jackson, learns that there are different kinds of mapping processes, and that the most important survey brings our own lives to light. Julia’s government work crew colleagues, played by Kanthan Annalingam, Karyn Lorence, Shauna James and Emma Strong, become guides on Julia’s journey as she encounters the ghosts of Samuel de Champlain, played by Erica Charles, and surveyor John Stegmann, played by Jessi Robinson. The speculator John LeBreton is played by Stephanie Neale. Tom, a first nations artist played by James Lowe, conjures the spirit of Constant Penency, an Algonquin hunter who has joined the spirit of Julia’s daughter, Louise, played by Grace Ruppenthal. Evan Mulroney plays Bill, Julia’s husband who lost their daughter Louise to a river drowning.

    The set, lighting and video design, by Dylan O’Connor, James McCoy and Nathan Heuchan, is a meditation on mapping and memory that pulls the layers of story into a unified whole with props and costumes designed by Jo Pacinda and John McGowan. The production, in its complex entirety, is stage managed by Kate Hardy and directed by professor Gyllian Raby.

    An Acre of Time performances run: Thursday, April 11, Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13, 2013, at 7:30 p.m., and will be held at the Studio Theatre (Rm. ST107) Schmon Tower, Brock University. Admission is by donation.

    For more information about this production, e-mail dramatic.arts@brocku.ca

    Such productions 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 creative talent that defines our academic programs at Brock University.
    -30-

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