Current Students

  • Creative collaboration sets stage for new student play

    Image caption: Fourth-year Dramatic Arts students and members of Peregrine Theatre Co. look for hope and amidst life’s challenges in their new play Mementos. From left are Megan Mastantuono, Simon Bell, Oliver Webb Wilkinson and Maddox Keller.

    Friday, April 04, 2025 | by 

    Aspiring theatre artists at Brock are mining the complexity of human experience in an original production premiering at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre.

    Mementos, a new play conceived and created by students in DART 4D56 Collaborative Play Development, is the result of a year-long creative exploration into the world theatre-making from the initial inspiration to final presentation.

    Through fragmented storytelling that builds a wider narrative arc, Mementos captures the beauty — and ugliness — of what it means to be human. Audiences take on an active role of “onlooker” as pieces of character’s lives, full of love, loss and uncertainty, unfold on stage.

    DART 4D56 gives students the opportunity to develop their artistic voices, showcase their work and gain knowledge from industry professionals by taking on the roles of a small theatre company. The ensemble, Peregrine Theatre Co., is comprised of seven students each contributing to the final production in creative and technical ways.

    Fourth-year student Megan Mastantuono, Mementos Associate Director and Head of Wardrobe, said working with a small company meant collaboration was key.

    “As an ensemble, we’ve done a lot of writing together to create the final play. Through writing different pieces of the production, I have discovered new things about myself. It is an emotionally charged show for all of us,” she said.

    Fourth-year student Maddox Keller, Peregrine Theatre Co.’s Head of Sound Design who also performs and leads the ensembles marketing and promotion, said his most valuable takeaway is embracing the idea that developing artistic work is never finished.

    “No matter how you slice it, your first draft will never be the complete product. Things will change, things will get cut, things won’t always work on the first try — and that’s OK. The work will continue to grow and develop because of these stumbles,” he said.

    The first iteration of Mementos was shown in November at Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) under a different name: Picking Up the Pieces. The first draft of the script was created using a variety of devising experiments and exercises, challenging the cast to create material based on personal experience and interests.

    Mementos explores themes from Picking Up the Pieces, such as loss and societal commentary, refining and expanding ideas to create an immersive and impactful performance for audiences.

    Fourth-year student Oliver Webb Wilkinson — Mementos’ Costume Designer, Performer, Scripter and Graphic Designer — reflected on how working on the show has impacted the group’s artistic development.

    Mementos is a big experiment for all of us. Through nonlinear storytelling we examine human connection, the balance of hope and existential worry, and what we carry with us from our pasts,” he said. “I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far as a company, and I can’t wait for folks to see it.”

    Mementos runs from Thursday, April 10 to Saturday, April 12 at the MIWSFPA. Tickets can be purchased through Brock University Tickets.

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    Categories: Current Students, Performance Season, Plays

  • DART Invitationals provide a unique audition process at Brock

    Image caption: Participants of Brock University’s Dramatic Arts March Invitational create and explore a piece of theatre together.

    Thursday, March 20, 2025 | by 

    High school students across Canada are preparing for Brock University’s upcoming DART Invitationals.

    DART, an acronym that refers to the Dramatic Arts program at Brock University, recently held their first annual invitational of the year on March 1. Students who received a conditional offer of admission to the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Dramatic Arts or Bachelor of Arts (Honours)/Dramatic Arts Concurrent Education programs were invited to attend the invitational, held at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), as a part of their admissions process.

    Unlike other, more traditional auditions, students who attended the invitational participated in a series of workshops that allowed them to develop introductory skills in performance, creation, design and production. The day gave students an opportunity to use what they learned to work together and create a piece of theatre with their peers.

    In preparation for the second invitational on May 3, The Brock Press spoke to DART student Adia Buckle — who participated in the process in May 2024 — about her experience being a part of the event.

    Buckle said while she got nervous driving herself from her hometown of Hamilton, she was “so excited to create.”

    The day started with a series of activities that allowed Buckle and her fellow classmates to get comfortable in the space they would be working in. The attendees, having been asked to read Sophocles’ play Antigone, all came with an essay they had prepared about the work. Their reading and writing helped guide them, inspiring many of the pieces they worked on throughout the day.

    This work was facilitated by upper-year student volunteers, professors and other Brock staff, allowing students like Buckle the opportunity to meet some of their future DART peers. David Vivian, a professor in the Dramatic Arts department at Brock, said he thinks professors and the current students are the heart of the DART invitational experience.

    “The Chair of the Department, Jennifer Roberts Smith, and the Invitational team of faculty and students, begin the day with presentations to the applicants and their parents and guardians about the program […] and then about the ideas that circulate in and inform our understanding of the play that we have asked our applicants to come prepared to investigate and explore during the day [of the invitational],” said Vivian.

    By allowing students to work with their prospective instructors, Vivian believes DART places all their applicants on a path to success for when they arrive in September. The process also allows students to get acquainted with the campus.

    “I had an opportunity to meet some of my future classmates,” said Buckle, an experience that gave her and her peers something to talk about when classes started in the fall. “Even figuring out where the bathrooms were prior to the first week of school was a comfort to me in those first days of university where everything was a little scary.”

    But most meaningful to Buckle was the experience she had working with her group to create a piece of theatre. “The moment where all of us were excitedly brainstorming, our passion at an all-time high,” said Buckle, “that is my favourite part of theatre creation.”

    While Buckle has spent much of her life working in the theatre world, she said the adrenaline of that moment is what draws her back to the work time after time. Getting to work alongside fellow artists and creatives helped cement her choice to pursue studies in dramatic arts at Brock University.

    Creating this feeling is the goal for Vivian and the other event organizers, as Vivian said participants often report that the experience helped them make sure they were making the right choice.

    “[Students] often remark that our methods and the context of learning at the MIWSFPA are different than what they’ve experienced when applying for other programs,” said Vivian, “and that by participating in the Invitational, they’ve discovered something that is unique and attractive to them.”

    Vivian, much like the students who attend the invitational, has found that his favourite part of the process is getting to learn about applicants’ dreams and hopes for the future, as well as what matters most in their lives.

    “Our applicants never fail to impress us with the depth and breadth of their passion for making theatre,” said Vivian, “whether by teaching theatre to youth in their future careers as teachers, as theatre artists, content generators, scholars and researchers, [or] as entrepreneurs and community leaders who want to make change in our world.”

    The work that Vivian and his colleagues are doing is important and timely, shaping young artistic minds to ensure the future of dramatic arts is in exceptionally good hands.

    Read the article directly here: https://brockpress.com/dart-invitationals-provide-a-unique-audition-process-at-brock/

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

  • Brock to make splash with Metamorphoses mainstage

    Image caption: Brock University’s Dramatic Arts mainstage performance of Ovid’s Metamorphoses opens this Friday, Feb. 28 at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre.

    Monday, February 24, 2025 | by 

    Creative minds in Brock University’s Faculty of Humanities have joined forces to bring an epic ancient Roman poem to life on stage.

    The Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) will present playwright Mary Zimmerman’s award-winning adaption of Metamorphoses — complete with a challenging stage element sure to make waves with audiences.

    The play, which includes a large pool of water central to the production, opens Friday, Feb. 28 at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre stage in downtown St. Catharines.

    Though the original literary work dates back more than 2,000 years, Metamorphoses continues to capture imaginations across creative and academic disciplines. Written in Latin by Ovid, a Roman poet exiled by emperor Augustus in 8 CE, the collection of myths explores themes of transformation, beauty and struggle in the ancient world.

    “Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation shows how powerless people are empowered through Ovid’s stories, and we hope the hilarity and poignant drama will open similar transformations for audiences,” said retired DART Associate Professor Gyllian Raby, who is directing the production.

    Adam Rappold, Assistant Professor of Classics and Archaeology, teaches a course dedicated to Ovid’s Metamorphoses and worked on the mainstage as Dramaturge —  an expert in the interpretation and composition of theatrical works, often advising on the text and how it is represented on stage.

    Rappold advised on the poem’s literary devices and shared insights with the cast about storytelling and the construction of myths.

    “Contemporary artists and scholars have re-examined the rebelliousness of Ovid’s poem and rediscovered the critique of the Roman Empire, revealing the full compassionate range of the exiled Ovid’s vision,” he said.

    Raby says that theatrically, this has been the most challenging play she has tackled to date. She credits the production team at Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts for rising to the occasion.

    The DART cast and production crew created a technically advanced and visually stunning stage environment, including the large pool of water famously called for by Zimmerman’s adaptation.

    DART Technical Director Gavin Fearon said throughout rehearsals, the production crew have continued to discover new aspects of the pool’s impact on every element of the show including choreography, props and lighting.

    “Students in every role are navigating challenges introduced by the water,” he said. “The costumes team in particular, needed to track wet and dry quick changes in under 30 seconds.”

    Audiences will also experience original music of composer and DART sound design Instructor Joe Lapinski (BA ’99) who has drawn inspiration from the ancient Greek philosophical idea that celestial bodies make music, known as the “music of the spheres.”

    Voice Instructor and soprano Leanne Vida in the Department of Music coached individual singers in the production, including fourth-year actor Maddox Keller, who also took on the role of Choral Conductor.

    Metamorphoses opens Friday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in downtown St. Catharines. Performances will also take place Saturday, March 1; Friday, March 7; and Saturday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. A matinee performance is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 2.

    General admission tickets are $25 and tickets for students and seniors are $20. Visit Brock University Tickets to reserve seats.

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    Categories: Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, News, Performance Season, Plays

  • Dramatic Arts welcomes celebrated theatre leader for mainstage production

    Image caption: Simone Cinapri (left), a fourth-year Concurrent Education student with teachables in Dramatic Arts (DART) and History, rehearses on stage at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre with guest Director Soheil Parsa and second-year DART student Lennon Paul (right) in preparation for DART’s mainstage production of Scorched.

    Director and writer Soheil Parsa is bringing his award-winning theatre expertise and artistry to Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA).

    Parsa, co-founder and former artistic director of Modern Times Stage Company in Toronto, is directing Scorched, a bold, innovative play written by Wajdi Mouawad, for the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) fall mainstage production. Parsa was Dramatic Arts Walker Cultural Leader for the 2023-24 season.

    With set and costume design by DART Associate Professor and Scenographer David Vivian, the deeply political and philosophical play explores fate, retribution and the human capacity for violence and destruction.

    Scorched tells the story of Nawal, a woman who fled a country tormented by violence, and her twins, Janine and Simon, who were raised in Quebec. Following Nawal’s death, the twins must return to their mother’s war-torn country to carry out her last wishes and deliver letters to their father, believed dead, and a brother they didn’t know they had.

    Parsa said Scorched strongly resonates with the events shaping the world today.

    “In this remarkable poetic piece, Mouawad explores the darker sides of human nature, contemporary barbarism, dehumanization in the face of war, friendship, separation, love and loss,” he said.

    Fourth-year Concurrent Education student Simone Cinapri, who plays the role of Janine, said Parsa guided the cast and creative team through the challenging script with patience and wisdom.

    “Beyond developing my skills as an actor, this experience has taught me about dedication, communication and creativity, lessons I will carry with me beyond my time at Brock,” she said.

    Cinapri explored how to bring characters like Janine to life — characters Parsa described as archetypal beings representing the essence of human hope, struggle and failure — as a tribute to women who have been affected by war and sexual violence.

    “By exploring the cycle of violence experienced by immigrant families in the play, I have drawn connections to my own family who faced many barriers to live in Canada today,” she said. “I am so grateful for DART’s dedication to providing memorable learning opportunities through mainstage productions.”

    Vivian, who attended National Theatre School with Mouawad, said the DART students involved in the production have “carried the characters in the play very carefully in our hearts these past few months.”

    “Digging deep into the histories and destinies of a multi-generation family led by women of great humanity has been simultaneously a privilege and a challenging responsibility for the artists of DART,” he said.

    Scorched opens Friday, Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in downtown St. Catharines. Performances will also take place Saturday, Nov. 2, Friday, Nov. 8 and Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. A matinee performance is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 3.

    General admission tickets are available for $25 and tickets for students and seniors are available for $20. Visit the DART event website to reserve tickets.

    The public is also invited to a mini symposium on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 6:00 p.m. at the Film House (FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre) for an engaging conversation with lead creatives from the production and guest scholars from Brock’s Faculties of Humanities and Applied Health Sciences. Free registration, ticket required.

    Content Advisory: The production contains mature content and is only recommended for individuals aged 16 and up.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Media Releases, News, Performance Season, Plays

  • Announcing DART Open Studies and Summer Institute

    The Department of Dramatic Arts is launching the summer of 2024 with a selection of learning and creative theatre-making opportunities at both the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in downtown St. Catharines, at the Stratford Festival, and at theatres in Toronto and the region.  Many of the courses have online learning components.

    Following the Spring Session course, DART 1F01 Acting for Non Majors, a successful online course that began April 29, Dramatic Arts has opened registration to a selection of courses for non-Dramatic Arts students, alumni, students from other universities, and members of the public. This is an especially good opportunity for recent alumni looking to build their professional networks, graduate students looking for research-creation experience, or for other non-DART students looking to get some creative research experience in theatre and/or work on a particular project of interest.

    This includes:

    DART 3P91 Shakespeare in Performance and DART 4P51 Shakespeare: Voice and Text: two-weeks of viewing, studying, and performing Shakespeare with members of the Stratford Festival company in Stratford, Ontario. June 10-22, 2024.

    DART 3P40 Self-Producing: a two week, online intensive preparing students to produce independent projects with producer, writer, and director Matt Mackenzie. Online. June 24-July 6, 2024.

    DART 4P94 Creative and Critical Responses to Theatre: three weeks of viewing and responding to professional theatre in the GTA and Niagara region with theatre critic Karen Fricker.  Online and at the theatres. July 15-Aug 2, 2024.

    DART 3P90 Performance Research Workshop: five weeks of creative research and development workshops with professional theatre companies at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. June 7-July 26, 2024.

    DART 3F90 Performance Research Project: five weeks of staged workshop development with Hamilton’s Red Beti Theatre at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

    July 29-August 30, 2024

    Members of the public interested in registering for these courses, including roles as creative researchers in the Summer Institute program, may join us through the Open Studies program. Open studies is a good opportunity for anyone (eg. artists, producers, teachers, recent alumni, mature students) to enhance skills in a particular area, take a course for interest, or try out DART before applying to a degree program. This will be of particular interest to people interested in the self-producing and theatre criticism courses! If you are taking the course for credit, tuition is charged, but the application process is very quick and easy.  Brock University Open Studies is available to people with all educational backgrounds, is part-time study, does not require you to enroll in a full certificate or degree, and has no formal admission requirements. Folks participating in the Summer Institute as creative researchers are not obliged to enrol in a course; they can also apply to participate part -time on just one or a few projects.

    See the Open Studies and Summer Institute flyers for more information.

     

    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Events, News, Uncategorised

  • Putting theatre skills to work at Edinburgh Fringe Festival

    Pictured above: Fourth-year Dramatic Arts student Manikham Marianne Vongboutdy recently returned from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where she put her Brock theatre training to work gaining international experience.

    THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 09, 2023 | by

    Carrying with her the skills she’s learned as a Brock Dramatic Arts (DART) student, Manikham Marianne Vongboutdy recently headed overseas to work at the world’s largest performance arts festival.

    The fourth-year student spent time this summer with the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she was invited by her high school to work as a stage manager on the St. Catharines Collegiate and West Niagara Secondary School production, Piece of Me.

    With a concentration in production and design, Vongboutdy said her Brock theatre training was key to her landing the stage management gig in Scotland.

    “Working with Brock’s state-of-the-art technology in Dramatic Arts has been invaluable,” she said. “Learning tech in the theatre has been a special experience. I am developing the skills I will need in the professional theatre world.”

    Piece of Me navigates the relationship of a mother and daughter in a coming-of-age tale offering an innovative take on adolescence told through a teenager’s eyes. Like the characters in the play, Vongboutdy has found many moments of personal reflection as she has grown in her creative practice at Brock.

    Piece of Me was an adaptation based on two different plays exploring similar subject matter, which from a stage management perspective, meant merging two plays into one. This complex staging posed interesting challenges that Vongboutdy was prepared to take on.

    As an upper-year DART student, she was able to transfer the skills gained in her first few years at Brock to her international experience, such as learning to sew in wardrobe classes so she could step up and help with costumes or painting props using skills from props classes.

    “A unique thing about studying at the Marilyn is that we get to learn about different aspects of staging a show, which served me so well during my Edinburgh experience,” she said. “We are stronger artists because of it.”

    After her experience abroad, Vongboutdy said she has a wider perspective of what theatre can look like.

    “It was eye-opening for me,” she said. “As a stage manager, we try and put forward the best show possible, but part of our job is to work with what is happening in the moment. I am thrilled to put my experience into practice.”

    Vongboutdy is now working as stage manager for Brock’s upcoming winter mainstage production, The Mysterious Mind of Molly McGillicuddy, written and directed by DART Instructor Mike Griffin. The play explores brain injury and related mental health issues through the styles of full-mask, puppetry and physical theatre.

    Working with Griffin is a valuable experience for Vongboutdy, who aims to pursue a master’s degree in puppetry. Exploring the medium is especially important to her Laotian heritage, a culture in which many teachings occur using masks and puppets.

    “As an immigrant, I always hold my home and culture in Laos very close, and I try to incorporate elements of my culture into the work I do every day creating theatre,” she said.

    The Mysterious Mind of Molly McGillicuddy will run at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre Feb. 15 to 19. More information can be found on the DART website.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, In the Media, News, Uncategorised

  • New summer workshop puts students at centre of creative process

    Image caption: Dramatic Arts (DART) Research Assistants Geneviève Batista (left) and Ezri Fenton participated in the DART Summer Institute of Performance Research workshop session ‘Anthr-Apology.’

    Brock arts students have been honing their creative skills and working alongside professional theatre artists through a new summer workshop series presented by the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART).

    The inaugural DART Summer Institute of Performance Research ran from May 29 to July 7 at the University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA).

    Conceptualized by DART Chair and Professor Jennifer Roberts-Smith, the workshop allowed students to be at the centre of the creative process as professional theatre-makers, artists and DART faculty explored performance ideas, working scripts and scenic possibilities for future work.

    Roberts-Smith said DART’s Summer Institute was founded to expand opportunities for what the department calls ‘vertically-integrated’ experiential learning.

    “It’s ‘vertical’ because members of the DART community at all career stages are learning together,” she said. “Collaborative research means we’re asking questions that none of us — not even the most seasoned professionals and faculty — know how to answer.”

    Roberts-Smith said the model sees students’ perspectives and contributions as just as important as workshop leaders.

    Anthr-Apology, a session led by DART Professor David Fancy and DART Scenographer and Associate Professor David Vivian, explored the creative possibilities of a new performance collective, with the first stage of presentation slated for 2024, building on creative research undertaken on the fall DART Mainstage production AnthropoScene.

    Fancy and Vivian are motivated by exploring the ways in which theatre and performance as art forms can be truly responsive to the climate crisis.

    “The project is based on the idea that the world needs a truth and reconciliation commission for all humans and their relationship with one another, as well as their individual and collective relationships with the planet,” Fancy said.

    Vivian said the workshop also generated opportunities for participating graduate- and senior-level MIWSFPA students “to bridge their undergraduate studies to the next level of scholarship and professional opportunities.”

    In another session, Packing a Punch, students worked directly with theatre artist Trevor Copp, Artistic Director and Founder of Tottering Biped Theatre (TBT). Students participated in the creative process of developing TBT’s new multimedia live-action play, Mr. Punch, adapted from a lesser-known Neil Gaiman graphic novel.

    “It was a brilliant week. In the end, what we really found was momentum and artistic excitement about this piece and its possibilities,” Copp said.

    Evalyn Parry, DART’s 2022-23 Walker Cultural Leader and award-winning queer performance-maker, theatrical innovator and artistic leader, led a workshop engaging with choral performance and text from their master’s research-creation thesis, “An Unsettled Account,” reflecting on queer arts leadership, decolonial futures and systems change.

    “Together with my longtime collaborator Karin Randoja (music director for the workshop), rich discoveries were made about how the choral arrangements — both sung and spoken — work on the page and translate into the bodies and voices of singers and actors,” Parry said.

    DART Instructor Mike Griffin, Faculty of Humanities’ 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award recipient, workshopped ideas for his DART winter mainstage production, The Mysterious Mind of Molly McGillicuddy. An original new work written and directed by Griffin, the play explores brain injury and related mental health issues.

    “This has been a great laboratory experience for the development of Molly. The show is primarily movement-based and so we have had a productive week of getting up on our feet and physically working through and testing ideas. A highlight was seeing how deeply connected to the work the students became after such a short period of time. It really speaks to the value of this kind of intensive work,” Griffin said.

    “A set of very strong projects with exciting futures emerged from the inaugural Summer Institute,” Roberts-Smith said. “DART students brought fresh and wise perspectives essential to the success of each project.”

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future students, News, Performance Season, Plays, Uncategorised

  • Dramatic Arts student to learn behind the scenes at Shaw Festival

    Image Caption: Ava Robitaille, a fourth-year Dramatic Arts student, has been selected for an internship at the Shaw Festival for the 2023 season.

    Originally published THURSDAY, MAY 04, 2023 | by

    Like many fourth-year students, Ava Robitaille is excited to see what the future holds after graduation.

    Her vision will soon be a little clearer thanks to a valuable experiential learning opportunity in the world of professional theatre production.

    The Dramatic Arts (DART) student has been selected for an internship at the Shaw Festival for the 2023 season, which will allow her to dive deeper into directing and add to her growing list of skills.

    During the eight-week internship, which began May 2, Robitaille will learn how the Shaw season runs by working behind the scenes on a number of shows and performances.

    She is particularly excited about the opportunity to work with women directors.

    “The Shaw has a really wonderful set of female directors in this season, and I cannot express how important this is to me,” Robitaille says. “I really want to learn about the experiences of those women who have been involved in the industry for an extended period of time.”

    Having worked as a director and associate director in many DART productions, Robitaille is grateful for all the feedback from instructors throughout her time at Brock. She plans to take those remarks and hone in on developing her skills through this opportunity.

    “The biggest thing I want to focus on is learning how I use my directing voice in a room,” she says. “As I’ve been developing as a director through Brock and in DART, my No. 1 feedback has been ‘you’ve got it technically, but you need to bring yourself into the work.’”

    Robitaille recognizes the Shaw internship’s potential to impact her future in the industry. She says it’s a great opportunity for her to get to know some of the individuals involved in the profession, and provides her with a foot in the door with a local, but well-known, production company.

    “This really is the cherry on top of my whole experience with Brock,” she says while reflecting on her final days as a Brock student.

    Robitaille feels the confidence and skills she developed during her time at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts were crucial in preparing her for the internship.

    “What I learned at DART through my four years was incredible,” she says. “From not knowing where I was going in my first year to slowly figuring it out and being given opportunities like this, this is just everything I could have asked for.”


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    Categories: Current Students, News, Shaw Intern Blog, Uncategorised

  • Dramatic Arts students bring one-act visions to life

    Eight Brock students will debut their directing skills this weekend as the Dramatic Arts (DART) One Acts Festival returns to the stage.

    The 2023 One Acts Festival entitled ‘where are we now?’ runs in two parts from Friday, May 26 until Sunday, May 28 at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre at 15 Artists’ Common in downtown St. Catharines.

    The program features a collection of eight short plays presented in two parts. Each one-act play is directed by a third-year Dramatic Arts student. As part of Directing II (DART 3P54), students had the opportunity to work with a design and production team, and a company of student actors to bring their vision to life.

    The One Acts Festival provides Dramatic Arts students hands-on experience to explore their creative voice and develop skills as theatre artists. For many students, this is their first chance to direct a full play from preparation to production and performance.

    This is the first year the festival will be hosted in the spring. Admission is pay-what-you-can at the door. Full program details can be found below and on the DART Current Season page.

    Program details:

    Part A – Friday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May at 2 p.m.

    Fifteen Minute Minimum by Roberto F. Ciccotelli, Directed by Hayley Bando

    Trial of a Ladies Man by Sally Clark, Directed by Meg Dobson

    The Yellow Wallpaper by Jeff G. Rach, Directed by Abby Malcolm

    Video by Yvette Nolan, Directed by Benoit St-Aubin

    Part B – Saturday, May 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday May 28 2 p.m.

    Hold the Phone by John Cook, Directed by Michael Naszados

    Excerpts from Daniel MacIvor’s ‘Here Lies Henry’ by Daniel MacIvor, Adapted/Directed by Zakk Milne

    Made for a Woman by Alan Ball, Directed by Laura Maieron

    Excerpts from Rosamund Small’s ‘Vitals’ by Rosamund Small, Adapted/Directed by Hayley King

     

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Performance Season, Plays, Uncategorised

  • IBPOC Critics Lab introduced to diversify criticism industry

    Jay Emmanuel as Shiva with the company of Why Not Theatre’s production of Mahabharata that played at the Shaw Festival in March. Photo by David Cooper.


    From the spectacular recent staging of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata at the Shaw Festival, to upcoming productions of Indigenous playwright Frances Koncan’s Women of the Fur Trade at the Stratford Festival and the world premiere re-imagining of Scott Joplin’s lost opera Treemonisha in this summer’s Luminato Festival, work by artists of colour in the Canadian performing arts is thriving.

    Lacking on the scene, however, are critics from diverse backgrounds to respond to these and other productions.

    A new initiative co-organized by Dramatic Arts Adjunct Professor Karen Fricker intends to fill this gap. The IBPOC Critics Lab is an initiative of Intermission magazine, where Fricker is editorial advisor, and the Stratford Festival, in association with the Honduran theatre critic Jose Solís, who piloted this model of training in the US.

    The Critics Lab is a space for Indigenous, Black and People of Colour to explore and develop theatre criticism skills. Eight emerging critics will participate in the Lab, which includes six sessions on Zoom and a face-to-face residential session at the 2023 Stratford Festival. Solís is developing the curriculum and will teach alongside Canadian critics and editors of colour including Glenn Sumi and Joshua Chong.

    “Opening up criticism to those who might not have thought there was a place for them in the field is very important to me and others in the field. It’s very exciting to bring Jose Solís’s pioneering work in this area to Canada for the first time,” said Fricker, who is co-organizing the lab with the Stratford Festival’s publicity director Ann Swerdfager, a former journalist.

    The program is open to Canadian residents who have not yet written but wish to pursue theatre criticism or those who already have some experience in the field. Participants will have the opportunity to explore criticism through writing as well as less traditional methods such as social media, podcasts, and more.

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Performance Season, Plays, Shaw Intern Blog, Uncategorised, Visiting Artists