“Return to the Nile: a newcomer’s journey” was performed this morning by a group of six students who have studied Applied Theatre. They teamed up with Dr. Yasmine Kandil to interview and engage with six immigrant and refugee participants from the Niagara Folk Arts Centre.
There are two more performances at the MIWSFPA this Friday and Saturday at 6 pm.
(Source: The St. Catharines Standard, Tuesday, April 25, 2017 | by Bob Tymczyszyn)
Niagara Falls is about to gain another escape room site, but this one comes with a twist.
In the basement of the Niagara Military Museum on Victoria Avenue, Brock University students are busy readying for live testing as they prepare for launch at the end of the summer.
Dramatic Arts Associate Professor Natalie Alvarez said the idea was just by chance. “I phoned the Niagara Military Museum just to investigate to see the possibility of taking my students through a tour, and through a conversation, I found out they were interested in developing escape rooms.”
“As a professor of dramatic arts it occurred to me that this was a very rare opportunity to have students in the department of dramatic arts collaborate with students in interactive arts and science bringing their two specializations together, skills in directing, scriptwriting, acting, props and set design with students that were refining their skills in interactive narrative, puzzle, and cipher building.”
Alvarez says the half-term course of 13 weeks is completely devoted to creating escape rooms designed to the site’s history.
The site was formed in 1911 as an armoury and used during the First World War then later used for social functions before becoming a museum.
She explained that one of the room designs is tapping into factual events that unfolded on the site.“And the cold war room is tapping into its latent cold war history,” said Alvarez.
“In a way, this is an escape room that isn’t just an escape room. It’s bridging other traditions of immersive performance and site-specific theatre, we’re straddling all those traditions and hence this collaboration of disciplines.”
Museum vice-president Berndt Meyer said this form of escape room is bringing history to a generation, through the subterfuge of play.
“There are a lot of static displays at every museum, but this one brings it into context,” he said.
“Because we have real stories that took place here. This place is full of history.”
Students in the control room monitored the progress of teams in the two rooms, and as the clocks ticked closer to the hour, they were hoping someone would find enough clues to set their way to freedom.
After several run-throughs, no one had yet escaped in the allotted time.
Tynan Manuel, one of the room designers, said it’s meant to be hard.
“Most of the time in escape rooms you go in, and you will fail.“
“Getting out is great, getting close is still a great feeling.”
—
(See the original article at the St. Catharines Standard to watch the featured video on the escape room!)
DART Alumnus Jeremy Ferdman performs in the Classic Theatre Project‘s latest production of Macbeth. From the CTP website:
Set against the backdrop of violent tribal conflicts, this re-imagined, gritty production of Macbeth features epic sword fights and modern stage technology. As hero becomes tyrant, Shakespeare’s masterful commentary on the corrupting nature of power poses the timeless and dangerous question:
‘Is he who desires ultimate power capable of being a just leader?’
Photo courtesy of thectp.ca
Jeremy Ferdman
(Macduff, Bleeding Saergent)
Jeremy Ferdman is an award-winning actor from Toronto. Beginning his career ‘belly dancing’ in a National Rogers commercial at 15, Jeremy trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting (NYC), Art of Acting Studio (LA), University of North Carolina and Brock University. He played the role of Marty Glickman in Focus Features’ Race, opposite Jason Sudeikis and Jeremy Irons, and recently wrapped the Dylan Thomas biopic, Dominion, with John Malkovich and Tony Hale, which Jeremy is Executive Producing with Film Colony (Hateful 8/Cider House Rules). Theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Georgia Shakespeare), Bad Jews (Theatre Calgary), Metamorphoses (Georgia Shakespeare), Soon (Young Storytellers Foundation), Waiting for Lefty (Off-Broadway/Harold Clurman Lab) and Revenger’s Tragedy (Kennedy Center). Television credits include Rookie Blue (ABC), Killer Kids (Lifetime), Unusual Suspects (Discovery), Warehouse 13 (NBC Universal) and Man Seeking Woman (FX). Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @jeremy_ferdman
alumni, Classical Theatre Project, Jeremy Ferdman, Macbeth, Macduff, Shakespeare, the Scottish play
Categories: Alumni, Announcements, News
Date/Time: April 28, 2017, 3 pm – 4:15 pm
Location: Plaza Rm. 410, Brock University
DART alumna Victoria Mountain will feature at the SHIFT Professional Development Conference for graduate students alongside VISA alumna Shauna Daley with their session, “ARTS AND CULTURE: CAREER CONVERSATIONS”. From the conference website: “A modern cultural worker can thrive in variety of careers in education, media and the arts. The reach and satisfaction of creative practice can be the cusp of personal freedom and a condition for seeking satisfying work. How do we negotiate and harness creative energies within professions that embrace those creative forces? Join our conversation!”
Victoria is a writer, performer, researcher and cultural manager residing in Toronto, Ontario. In addition to her Honours Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Brock University, she also holds a Master of Arts in Drama from the University of Toronto, and an Erasmus Mundus Master of International Performance Research from the Universities of Warwick, United Kingdom and Helsinki, Finland. Victoria currently works for the City of Brampton as the Manager of Culture with the Economic Development and Culture Division, leading the City through its first cultural master planning process.
The Department of Dramatic Arts is proud to announce that several DART graduates and one of our DART professors have been nominated for the Emerging Artist award at this year’s St. Catharines Arts Awards!
More information can be found at this news entry on the main MIWSFPA website. Congratulations, and good luck!
(Source: The Brock News, Thursday, April 13, 2017 | by Maryanne Firth)
Two new escape rooms carefully crafted by Brock University students are undergoing final testing while readying for their public debut.
Brock’s Dramatic Arts and Interactive Arts and Science students have been working since January to create the physical adventure games through a partnership with the Niagara Military Museum in Niagara Falls.
The interactive experience sees players locked in a series of rooms and challenged to solve puzzles in exchange for their freedom as they race against the clock.
Brock University Dramatic Arts and Interactive Arts and Science students have been working since January to create two escape rooms in the Niagara Military Museum in Niagara Falls.
A group of about 30 students worked at the Victoria Avenue museum throughout the winter term to develop each aspect of the rooms, from the costumes to the puzzles to the props and sets.
The building, which dates back to 1911 and was once used as an armoury, inspired the historical First World War and Cold War escape room themes.
The rooms are unique in that they include live actors who guide players through the narrative.
“That’s how students hope to differentiate their rooms within Niagara’s escape room market,” said Dramatic Arts Associate Professor Natalie Alvarez, who was the driving force behind the experiential education project.
“I’m really hoping this will be a niche for students.”
Students are now working to test the rooms and will be evaluated on their work during an upcoming live testing event on Tuesday, April 18.
In attendance to evaluate the rooms will be representatives from Casa Loma’s escape room team, Canadian author and historian Christian Cameron, curator Kathleen Powell and archivist Alicia Floyd of the St. Catharines Museum, and Brock University faculty.
The escape rooms are set to open to the public at the end of May at a cost of roughly $25 per person.
Brock University Dramatic Arts and Interactive Arts and Science students have been working since January to create two escape rooms in the Niagara Military Museum in Niagara Falls.
Proceeds will assist in the maintenance and continued operation of the museum.
“It’s meant to leave a lasting mark on Niagara tourism, helping to make the museum more sustainable,” Alvarez said, while expressing gratitude to museum operators Jim and Kathy Doherty for their ongoing support.
“It’s been really rewarding to see the students form what I hope will be a lasting relationship with the museum,” she said.
Students will have the opportunity to remain at the helm of the escape rooms going forward, first on a voluntary basis and then potentially in paid positions if the rooms become financially viable.
The museum’s partnership with Brock was made possible through a cultural development grant provided by the City of Niagara Falls, as well as a service-learning grant provided by the University.
Students who created the escape rooms will be doing a takeover of Brock’s Snapchat account on the afternoon of April 18 when the escape room testing takes place. To follow along and view behind-the-scenes footage, add brockuni to Snapchat.
The Department of Dramatic Arts has moved to our new location! We are part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts located at 15 Artists’ Common, adjacent to the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines. During the summer of 2015 we will preparing our new location for the very first classes to begin in September 2015. Please visit this page again to read about our excellent new facilities.
When we were located on the main campus at 500 Glenridge we had a variety of facilities including 3 stages and numerous workshops to allow students to work in all aspects of design, set building, wardrobe and rehearsal.
Students had access to the following facilities at Brock:
MEDIA RELEASE
David Fancy, a faculty member of the Department of Dramatic Arts at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, is no stranger to new ventures.
A veteran creator of new theatre productions that explore current events and engage the Niagara Region, he joined forces with former Cirque du Soleil performers Kosta Zakharenko and Christine Cadeau in 2010 to form Zacada Entertainment.
“We wanted to combine theatre and circus in new ways,” says Fancy, who’s equally comfortable in the classroom as in the rehearsal studio. “The fusion of genres really permits some unique opportunities for dynamic forms of contemporary expression,” he notes.
This year, the Zacada Entertainment crew will present a new Cirque Cabaret show, entitled Shotgun Wedding, at Niagara Falls’ 650-seat Greg Frewin Theatre.
Shotgun Wedding features the story of two star-crossed lovers forced to get married by their deeply religious parents. On their way to Niagara Falls for the ceremony they each secretly decide to have one last fling with the person of their dreams.
“The production deals with perennial concerns of love and relationships,” says Fancy, “but also shines a humorous and probing light on issues pertaining to Niagara, including migrant labour, tourism, and gambling.”
Zacada is particularly happy to be working with three recent graduates of Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) who will be taking up the acting and singing roles in Shotgun Wedding.
Mitchell Allanson, Marley Kajan, and Sean Rintoul have all finished their Honours Dramatic Arts degrees over the past three years, and have gone on to further training and professional creative opportunities around the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).
Kajan, a native of Welland, is pleased to be joining the company. “All three of us DART grads are super-happy to have been brought aboard to help bring this show to life,” she says.
“These kinds of opportunities for intensive professionalization are gold,” says Rintoul, a 2- year veteran of other Zacada productions.
Marly Kajan, DART Graduate
Recent Zacada show Fancy has written and directed that have toured Ontario include Circus Revolution, a story about Marxist clowns who escape a gulag by means of their circus prowess, and Circus Labyrinth, a piece that explores creative responses to contemporary forms of social control.
For its part, Shotgun Wedding features original Niagara-themed musical theatre numbers with support from a seven-piece band, as well as high-octane performances from over 10 cirque artists from Zacada Entertainment’s extensive pool of talent.Silks artists, contortionists, acrobats, and a host of other highly skilled cirque performances each grace the stage for every performance of Shotgun Wedding.
The production team for Shotgun Wedding is currently in high gear with rehearsals and development for the June 9th opening. The show will be performed sixty times over the course of the summer.
“We’re deeply excited about this new show,” says Vittoria Wikston, General Manager of the Greg Frewin Theatre, “Especially with how it offers national level talent and serves as a unique reflection of the many strengths and talents of our region.”
“We couldn’t be happier about having this exciting new addition to our roster of shows,” says master magician and theatre owner, Greg Frewin.
He adds, “It’s going to be an awesome summer.”
Website: shotgunwedding.ca
Brock Promotional code for 20% discount is ShotgunBrock
Christine Cadeau, circus, Cirque du Soleil, David Fancy, Greg Frewin, Greg Frewin Theatre, Kosta Zakharenko, Marley Kajan, media release, Mitchell Allanson, Sean Rintoul, Shotgun Wedding, Vittoria Wikston, Zacada Entertainment
Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Faculty & Instructors, Media Releases, News
Brock University
MEDIA RELEASE
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
905.688.5550, x4765
Moral decay exposed! Radium Girls on stage at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre
Radium Girls, by D.W. Gregory, is a chilling tale of unchecked corporate greed, market demand, and scientific ambition exceeding human empathy. This production runs March 3 – 11, 2017 in the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common.
Between 1918 and 1928 in Orange, New Jersey, towards the end of World War I, applying luminous paint to watches, clocks and military dials was thought of as a desirable occupation for young working-class American women. Their employer, United States Radium Corporation (U.S. Radium), lead them to believe that the paint was harmless, that it contained only minute quantities of radium, and besides, radium was good for your health. Across the country, patent medicines pushed radium as a cure for all ailments. So, the young women happily painted, often putting their paint-covered brushes into their mouths to create a finer point.
Within a year or so, an alarming number of women fell ill: their teeth were falling out, their jaws were rotting away, and cancer was rampant. U.S. Radium denied all liability, suppressed information that supported the women’s claim of negligence, and smeared their reputations to protect their bottom line.
In today’s political landscape, where dangers to human health are suppressed to protect corporate interests, this story of women labourers struggling to claim a voice in an unjust society is hauntingly appropriate.
Directed by Philip McKee and designed by Kelly Wolf, with music composed by Holger Schoorl, Radium Girls showcases the talents of students in the Department of Dramatic Arts undergraduate program. Performers include: Nikka Collison, Olivia De Sousa, Rebecca Downing, Ben Fallis, Sydney Fracolini, Bernadette Kahnert, Mackenzie Kerr, Adrian Marchesano, Samantha Mastrella, Elena Milenkovski, Michelle Mohammad, Sean Rashotte, Naomi Richardson, and Colin Williams.
Director Philip McKee stated, “Today, the excitement of innovation and the opportunity to make money results in ordinary workers around the world being exposed to deadly substances. This is especially true in the global south where the laws which protect labourers in more developed countries don’t apply. The protagonists of the play discover that laws cannot guarantee our safety or our guiltlessness, as there will always be ways in which laws can be manipulated or ignored. Radium Girls helps us to see that we are ultimately dependent on the ethics and good intentions of individuals to protect ourselves and others from harm.”
Radium Girls runs March 3, 4, 10, 11 at 7:30 pm; March 5 at 2 pm.; and March 10 at 11:30 am, and will be held in the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines.
Tickets are $18 Adults; $15 Students/Seniors; $10 Groups; $5 eyeGo high school program, and are available through the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre Box Office at 905.688.0722, or online, or via email: boxoffice@firstontariopac.ca
Such programs from the Department of Dramatic Arts (https://brocku.ca/miwsfpa/dramatic-arts) are an integral part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ mandate in building connections between the community and the breadth of talent and creativity at Brock University.
Parking is not available on-site, however, there are more than 1,000 spots available in nearby parking garages, surface lots, and on city streets within a five-minute walk to our address at 15 Artists’ Common. Visit http://www.stcatharines.ca/en/livein/ParkingLotsGarages.asp for a list of parking locations.
Media Day: Thursday, February 16 at 5:30 pm, held in the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines, ON.
-30-
For more information or to set up interviews contact:
Communications
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
T: 905.688.5550, x4765
C: 905.964.7646
E: miwsfpa@brocku.ca
W: http://brocku.ca/miwsfpa
View the video teaser for RADIUM GIRLS below:
View the TVCogeco feature for RADIUM GIRLS below:
(Source: The Brock News, Thursday, January 19, 2017 | by Alison Innes. Photo: “The Bacchae, a Twitches & Itches Theatre production, is hitting the stage at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre from Jan. 19 to 21. (Photo by David Vivian)”)
The worlds of ancient Athens and modern Niagara have come together in a theatrical production led in part by Brock alumni.
The Bacchae, a modern adaptation of a play originally performed in 405 BCE, is hitting the stage at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre from Jan. 19 to 21.
The Twitches & Itches Theatre production challenges ideas of identity and explores what happens when extreme left- and right-wing politics collide.
When the ensemble began working on the play in February 2015, they had no idea how timely it would be when presented on the eve of the presidential inauguration of 2017.
“We had no idea Brexit and Donald Trump’s rise to power were just around the corner,” said director Colin Bruce Anthes (BA ’14, MA ’16).
“The play was miles ahead of us. Many of the play’s original themes are shockingly reflected in our present society.”
The play engages with current social issues, as Dionysus, an androgynous foreigner, arrives in St. Cadmus and starts changing the entrenched norms. The conservative rule of King Pentheus is challenged by this new god of wine, theatre and ritual madness and the women who abandon the city core to follow him.
“Some of the dialogue looks like headlines stolen from today’s newspapers,” Anthes said.
“In our production, the priest of a new religion arrives as a David Bowie-esque glam-rock star, bursting through a city’s eternalized film-noir surface.”
Issues of identity are central to this play, as xenophobia, transphobia and intolerance of different body types are all challenged.
Brock student Iain Lidstone found playing the role of Dionysus both rewarding and exhausting.
“I am a trans man playing a gender-fluid character,” he said.
“On the one hand, I find utter relief and excitement that as a queer artist I get the opportunity to give a voice to queer identities on the stage.”
Lidstone’s own experiences informed the development of his character.
“My character’s gender-fluidity and effeminate nature means I am constantly challenging my own internalized transphobia and trans-masculine identity in order to authentically portray our ‘queerified’ image of Dionysus.”
Hayley Malouin (BA ’15) plays the role of Agave, mother to King Pentheus.
“As a fat actor I’ve seen my inordinately unfair share of motherly characters,” she said, while adding that her most recent role has been different.
“(Agave) is a person before she is a mother and this production pays particular attention to her journey as an intelligent, politically savvy, but ultimately oppressed agent.”
General manager Marcus Tuttle (BA ’15) describes the production as a play that “makes sense for St. Catharines.”
Niagara issues are woven throughout the play: the disappearing manufacturing economy and the experiences of migrant workers, as well as challenges faced by the LGBTQIA community.
Twitches & Itches Theatre is committed to developing local acting talent.
The group was founded by Anthes and Tom DiMartino in 2009 and moved to St. Catharines in 2013.
They have gradually built up a core ensemble of nine performers, eight of whom trained at Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.
This is the group’s sixth full production and their first independent production at the Performing Arts Centre.
Tickets are available on the FirstOntario Performing Art Centre’s website.
Brock students/alumni included in the production: Iain Lidstone, Hayley Malouin, Sean Rintoul, Kaitlin Race, Sean Aileen McClelland, Chelsea Wilson, Marcus Tuttle, Colin Bruce Anthes.
TVCogeco’s feature on The Bacchae: