Future students

  • Joining us for your first year of studies? Interested in a DART minor or elective?

    Welcome to Brock University for September 2020!

    The Chair of the Department of Dramatic Arts, Dr. David Fancy, welcomes you!
    Watch the brief video (also posted on the MIWSFPA YouTube channel.)

    Minor in Dramatic Arts!

    Students in other disciplines may obtain a Minor in Dramatic Arts by successfully completing the following courses with a minimum 60 percent overall average.  You begin with courses in Praxis (Introduction to Theatre and Performance, and Performance as Cultural Practice I), or Drama in Education and Applied Theatre, or Performance and Production and Design, and then select three credits from the entire catalog of DART courses.  Be sure to check for prerequisites!

    -DART 1P91 and 1P92, or DART 1P94 and 1P95, or DART 1P97 and 1P99

    -three DART credits

    If you are seeking information about the courses at Dramatic Arts during this
    autumn of the covid-19 pandemic, check out this google doc advising sheet.
    You do not require a google account to read the document.

    click on the image to open the google doc

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Future students, News, Uncategorised

  • DART 1F01: Acting for Non-Majors, now available ONLINE

    [including content from an article published in The Brock News on TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020 | by ]

    Enliven your TikTok feed, gain the confidence of your own creativity, study acting with the Department of Dramatic Arts!

    The switch to online learning is offering Brock University’s Dramatic Arts students new ways of exploring their craft.

    download 2 portrait posters in pdf

    “We’re making some exciting changes to DART 1F01: Acting for Non-Majors,” says Professor David Fancy. “We’re using this opportunity to build a course that we can also share with students who have to work remotely in the future.”

    The course, which Fancy describes as “extreme monologuing,” is designed to help students discover the underlying principles of acting. Students will explore the actor’s process, including awareness, stimulus, impulse, intention and action. Exercises will help students become aware of their ingrained habits and develop playfulness and vitality.

    “We’ve drawn on expertise from actor trainers around the globe,” says Fancy, who has been working on a series of videos featuring professional actors being led through drama exercises. The course consists of 24 modules involving video, reading, and writing.

    Performance submissions (in the form of three separate monologues throughout the course) will be made to the teaching team by video, and there are no specific class times. You can proceed at your own pace though the course during the month-long duration (July). The instructor will be available regularly by phone or video to provide assistance as necessary.

    The course is offered online, July 2-29, 2020.  Please register before July 1, 2020

    For more information: David Fancy dfancy@brocku.ca

    download 2 landscape posters in pdf

     

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, Future students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

  • Announcing DART 3P94: Theatre Criticism, an Online Intensive beginning June 2

    [edited on May 25 reflecting the continuing closure of theatre around the world and with content from an article published in The Brock News on TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020 | by ]

    DART 3P94: Theatre Criticism
    Online intensive, June 2-12, 2020

    DART 3P94: Theatre Criticism is a new course that introduces students to the practical craft of and the theoretical background to theatre criticism. The activity of the course is divided between seeing productions and writing reviews of them; workshopping these reviews with the instructor and classmates; editing the reviews towards assessed submission, and eventual possible publication on a dedicated course blogsite; reading and discussing relevant academic and journalistic articles about criticism; and learning about alternative, digital, performative, and visual forms of criticism.

    download the poster

    The instruction of this summertime intensive will be online, conducted using a combination of video conferencing, online chatrooms, animated Powerpoint lectures, and related formats. There will be designated course times during which students will be required to be virtually present; other activities during the two-week course will include reading/class preparation; writing and editing reviews and other forms of written response to theatre; creating digital critical responses using social media and other online platforms; participating in digital forums; and developing a summative criticism project. A final research paper about criticism will be due at the end of June.

    Students will be required to see a minimum of four theatre productions as part of the course. While Fricker had hoped to take students on field trips to see live theatre, the pandemic situation has meant that students will be exploring theatre through video.

    “There is an increasing amount of video-captured theatre performances available online, both through online subscriptions and packages that the Brock Library already holds, to theatres and festivals making some of their captured content available to the public,” says Fricker. It may be that a combination of live and recorded viewing is possible but all the performances will be viewed online.

    “One of the interesting wrinkles of critiquing such performances is that you’re not reviewing live theatre but rather a recording of live theatre, and so questions of camera angles, cuts and actors’ relationships to each other and the camera come into play.”

    This is an intensive course experience and prospective students are advised to be prepared to engage with it full-time during the two weeks of the course.

    Prerequisite(s) are DART 2P96 and 2Q92 (2F94) or permission of the department. Interested students are invited to write to the instructor, Prof. Karen Fricker (kfricker@brocku.ca), as she is willing to consider relevant course experiences from other programs than DART.

    Please register before May 1, 2020.

    Karen Fricker is an associate professor in Dramatic Arts at Brock, a theatre critic at the Toronto Star, and vice-president of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association.

    A PDF version of this page is available for download.

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, Future students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

  • Did you apply to study Dramatic Arts at Brock? We look forward to welcoming you in September!

    A scene from our recent production of Perdita, or The Winter’s Tale, showing Jasmine Case (l) as Perdita and Avery Delaney(r) as Florizel.

    Dear applicants!

    As part of Brock University’s ongoing efforts to protect the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and the community in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Department is cancelling the DART Invitational scheduled for May 2, 2020.

    We very much regret not spending a remarkable day of theatre making with you!

    If you are registered for the Invitational you are no longer required to come to campus on that day.  Refunds will be issued to all registered participants.

    In place of the DART Invitational we will be conducting online interviews.  This will require you to prepare some material in advance, answer questions from the two faculty interviewers, and will give you an opportunity to ask questions of us.

    Please read about this online interview, conducted using skype or a similar app, at this url:

    https://brocku.ca/miwsfpa/dramatic-arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/Alternate-Arrangement-2020.pdf

    Beginning next week, the Department will be contacting registered applicants to schedule an online interview.  We will provide you with a variety of dates and times to select from.  We hope to complete all of these interviews by May 2, 2020.

    We look forward to meeting you online and to welcoming you in our studios and theatre this coming September!

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    Categories: Announcements, Future students, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

  • Studio Taxi Theatre presents TomorrowLove, opening April 3 at the MIW Theatre

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This event has been cancelled as part of Brock University’s ongoing efforts to protect the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and the community in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    Have you ever wondered what would happen if someone decided to erase you from their memory completely? Would you use an app that could match you with your soulmate? What if you could communicate with the dead via video chat?

    Rosamund Small’s TomorrowLove is a collection of stories about love, sex, technology, and the future. Studio Taxi Theatre’s (DART 4F56 – Advanced Studies in Theatre) production features 9 of Small’s stories performed as an immersive experience around the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. The stories range from the poignant and comedic, to the dramatic and heartbreaking.

    Every audience member will see 4 stories as they travel through this experience, therefore, audiences are encouraged to see the show at least twice in order to catch as many stories as they can. The number of audience members is limited to 40 per show, split into 2 groups in order to allow for intimate audience/actor relationships, so it is recommended that audience members buy their tickets in advance and arrive early to choose their own adventure!

    Each location in the production is accessible and will have seating for audience members.
    If you anticipate extra assistance being needed, please contact studiotaxitheatre@gmail.com

    Content warning: contains scenes with sexual content, strong language, and references to sexual and physical violence.

    This is a presentation by the DART 4F56 (Advanced Studies in Theatre)/DART 4P97 (Collaborative Stage Production) graduating students’ ensemble for Spring 2020. All productions are created, produced and performed by DART students under the direction of Mike Griffin.

    Presented at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts.
    Purchase your tickets at https://brocku.universitytickets.com/.

    When:
    April 3, 2020 — 5:00 p.m.
    April 3, 2020 — 9 p.m.
    April 4, 2020 —1:00 p.m.
    April 4, 2020 —5:00 p.m.
    April 4, 2020 —9:00 p.m.

    Where: Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines

    Director: Mike Griffin
    Assistant Director: Josh Loewen
    Set Designer: Josh Loewen
    Props Designer/Set Decoration: Joanna Trann
    Costume Designer: Rachel Frederick
    Lighting Designer: Lauren Reid
    Sound Design: Taylor Bogaert
    Dramaturge: Alexandra Chubaty Boychuk
    Stage Manager: Shannon Fletcher
    Assistant Stage Manager: Jasmine Case
    Production Manager: Jordine De Guzman
    Head of Publicity: Shannon Fletcher

    Cast:

    Alexandra Chubaty Boychuk
    Emily Clegg
    Paige Hunt-Harman
    Samantha Rideout
    Beth Martin
    Frances Johnson

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

  • Dramatic Arts intern shares her experience at Shaw Festival

    Every year the Department of Dramatic Arts awards a two month internship at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-lake to one of our graduating students. Michelle Mohammed is the Department of Dramatic Arts’ 2018 Shaw Intern. In addition to sitting in on rehearsals of the Magician’s Nephew, Stage Kiss and their Secret Theatre, among others, Michelle will be apprentice assistant director to Peter Hinton in his direction of Oh What a Lovely War.

    Michelle has posted her vlog about her experience at the Shaw Festival on our YouTube channel:

    Hi Everyone! My name is Michelle Mohammed, and I am the 2018 Brock Intern at the Shaw Festival. I am assisting Peter Hinton on Oh What a Lovely War, and also getting to peek into several other rehearsal rooms, shows, and classes while I am here! Stay tuned for more “a week in my life” style vlogs.

    Visit our channel during the month of June for more stories about Michelle’s adventures at the Shaw Festival.

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    Categories: Current Students, Future students, In the Media, News

  • Brock hosts 28th annual national CITT/ICTS RENDEZ-VOUS

    The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts of Brock University and the Meridian Centre extend a generous warm welcome to our professional colleagues, researchers, producers, specialist manufacturers, distributors, technicians and students from across the country for the:

    CITT/ICTS 28TH RENDEZ-VOUS ANNUAL CONFERENCE & TRADE SHOW

    CITT/ICTS holds an annual RENDEZ-VOUS every mid-August.The conference offers three days of sessions, workshops, backstage tours, trade show, social events and networking opportunities. The location varies from year to year to allow members from different regions of Canada to more easily attend.

    The Meridian Centre is located adjacent to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts of Brock University

    CITT/ICTS RENDEZ-VOUS 2018
    Annual Conference & Trade Show
    in St Catharines, ON
    at the Meridian Centre and the
    Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts (MIWSFPA)

    August 15 – 18, 2018
    Opening night: Wednesday, August 15
    Pre-conference: Tuesday August 14 to Wednesday August 15

    #citticts @CITTICTS

    on Facebook: www.facebook.com/CITTICTS
    website: www.citt.org/annual_conference

    STUDENT VOLUNTEER PROGRAM!
    Get INVOLVED
    Be CONNECTED
    Live the EXPERIENCE

    CITT/ICTS Annual Conference and Trade Show Rendez-vous has been held for over 25 years. During that time, student volunteers have played a key role in guaranteeing its success. Whether they assist in mounting the trade show, setting up the social events, or helping out at the registration desk, the student volunteers contribute in making our annual event a tremendous hit!

    During the conference, student volunteers are assigned various task, which includes setting up and tearing down the Trade Show, troubleshooting technical problems such AV projectors, sound equipment, etc. helping out with hospitality, giving a hand at the registration desk, and more… !

    for more information about the Student Volunteer Program

    CONFERENCE LEARNING opportunities include:

    2-day ETC Ion Xe Console Training
    CITT/ICTS along with the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), have arranged with ETC to hold a 2-day Ion Xe console training course prior to the CITT/ICTS Annual Conference and Trade Show. ETC’s Ion Xe lighting console provides simple and approachable programming and control for conventional systems as well as fully integrated lighting rigs. Join us to learn more about the features and functions of this amazing control system.

    ERD Certified Pyrotechnics Safety and Legal Awareness Course
    CITT/ICTS and AirMagic Special Effects are partnering to present a ERD Certified Pyrotechnics Safety and Legal Awareness Course with Mark Fine prior to the CITT/ICTS Rendez-vous 2018. Completion of the Pyrotechnics Safety and Legal Awareness Course is mandatory prior to certification as Pyrotechnician – Fireworks/Operator by ERD.

    Foliage – Past and Present Painting Techniques
    Jenny Knott from Rosco and Wendy Waszut-Barrett from Historic Stage Services LLC are returning to Rendez-vous for a third workshop, Foliage: Past and Present Painting Techniques.
    Explore a variety of painting techniques for foliage painting. Learn how to use historic techniques for contemporary applications, as well as some short cuts to make your job easier.

    for more information, registration and schedules

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future students, Visiting Artists

  • New for 2018: the Marilyn I. Walker Textile Art Award

    Beginning in 2018 the Executive of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts will be awarding the Marilyn I. Walker Textile Art Award.

    This award will be made to an undergraduate student who is graduating from the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), Brock University; who is awarded, by vote of the Executive Committee of the MIWSPFA, the top prize for a piece of textile art produced and submitted by said student.

    As the award must be granted to a student for the purposes of his or her continuing education and or development, students must also submit an expression of their intention to continue this education and or development.

    For the purposes of this award, textile art is defined as a work of art that utilizes any and all forms of textiles, either natural or man-made, and in any form of original artistic expression.

    For the purposes of this award, continuing education or development is defined as any form of post graduate education and development which the student may wish to pursue whether at a college, university, by way of apprenticeship at a technical institute or at a research facility.

    For more information about Marilyn I. Walker see: brocku.ca/miwsfpa/marilyn-i-walker

    We thank Marilyn I. Walker and her estate for the legacy of her generosity.

    See the article about the first recipient of this award, Victoria Reid (Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Studio Art, With First-Class Standing, 2018).

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Future students, News

  • Breaking the Silence at In the Soil

    (Source: The Brock News | Wednesday, May 03, 2018 by Matthew Melnyk)

    Students from Stamford Collegiate took to the stage at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre to present their original play, Breaking the Silence, as part of In the Soil Arts Festival on Friday, April 27. The public performance was sponsored by Brock University. The play — based on the stories of British Home Children who were torn from their families and sent to Canada for a ‘better life’ — earned Stamford the top prize at this year’s National Theatre School Drama Festival. Friday’s performance featured a quilt made up of historic photos of British Home Children.

    Stamford Collegiate at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. Seen l to r: Colin Anthes, BA (Honours) Dramatic Arts and Psychology, Minor in Philosophy, 2014; MA Philosophy (Contemporary Continental Philosophy), 2016; Certificate in Public Law (in process) is an alumnus of Stamford Collegiate, an instructor at the Department of Dramatic Arts, Artistic Director of Essential Collective Theatre and founder of Twitches & Itches Theatre; Angela Menotti, program leader of Drama at Stamford Collegiate; and Ethan Yando, who has a placement at Stamford Collegiate as he completes his BA (Honours) Dramatic Arts, Minor in English Language and Literature, BEd Teacher Education – Intermediate Senior in 2018.

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    Categories: Events, Future students, News, Plays

  • Brock to host Heritage Fair Wednesday

    Giovann Contini was invited to tour the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts after selecting the school as the subject of his Heritage Fair project.

    Brock will open its doors to more than 100 young history enthusiasts this week.

    The University will host the annual Niagara Catholic Regional Heritage Fair on Wednesday, April 18, welcoming more than 100 elementary students to present their projects.

    Also known as the Historica Fairs Program, the educational fair encourages Niagara Catholic District School Board students in Grades 4 to 8 to develop awareness and interest in Canadian history. Students spend several weeks creating their history projects, which are then presented in class and showcased in their respective school’s gymnasium. The most promising projects then advance to the regional event, held at Brock.

    Students participating in Wednesday’s fair engage in a full day of learning, with morning workshops on Indigenous culture and an afternoon excursion to the Niagara Falls History Museum.

    When mulling over options for his project, Giovann Contini knew there was a building in downtown St. Catharines he was eager to feature — the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA).

    Heritage Fair project

    Grade 6 student Giovann Contini chose to do his Heritage Fair project on the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

    The Grade 6 student from St. Michael Catholic Elementary School in Niagara-on-the-Lake was drawn to the school because of his love for the arts.

    “At first, I was going to choose the topic of Canadian military weapons through the ages, but I realized I wasn’t as interested in that topic as I thought,” he said. “As I started to look into other topics, I got really excited about what the MIWSFPA was. Since it’s so new, I figured it would be a great opportunity to do something that no one else has done.”

    When Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts Joe Norris got news that Contini was presenting his project on the MIWSFPA, he invited him to the downtown campus for a private tour and interview session.

    “After the tour, I really felt like I would love to go to this school when I’m older. It just has so much to offer,” Contini said.

    Included in the project, to be showcased on Wednesday, are paintings created by Contini.

    He drew inspiration “from the sketches in the painting studio that the Brock students were working on,” he said. As his paintings progressed, he added colours to the black, grey and white background, “symbolizing how art brings colours into our lives and makes it more interesting.”

    The Heritage Fair runs from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Pond Inlet. This event is open to the public between 4:15 and 4:45 p.m.

    Five winners from regionals will advance to the Provincial Fair in Toronto in June.

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    Categories: Future students, News