News

• Dramatic Arts Professor directs Canadian premiere of a Benjamin Britten opera

  Tuesday, November 19, 2013 | By Brock University

  The 2013-2014 season of Toronto’s Voicebox/Opera in Concert showcases some ‘rarities of performance’ and features Gloriana by Benjamin Britten.

  The one-time concert performance at the Jane Mallet Theatre in Toronto is directed by Brock University Dramatic Arts Professor Virginia Reh.

  Gloriana was composed for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953 and VOICEBOX’s performance marks the 100Th Anniversary of the Composer’s birth.

  Queen Elizabeth I is approaching the end of her reign. Her affection for the impressive Earl of Essex is tested when he grows increasingly ambitious. Should she listen to the guidance of her advisors or be swayed by emotion? Moving from the pomp of state ceremony to the intimacy of the Queen’s private rooms, Gloriana depicts the public and private faces of the Virgin Queen, and the deterioration of her relationship with the impulsive Earl of Essex.

  The opera features 15 soloists. In this concert production 10 of the soloists will be coming out of the chorus. The production is in memory of Reh’s friend Stephen Ireland who passed away last October from complications arising from prostate cancer.  The production is sponsored by his foundation.

  Professor Reh will be directing the next Mainstage production of the Department of Dramatic Arts, Jehanne of the Witches, opening February 13, 2014.

  BENJAMIN BRITTEN
  GLORIANA

  Sunday, November 24, 2013 — 2:30pm
  IN english
  Jane Mallett Theatre (at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts) Sunday, November 24 @2:30 p.m.

  purchase tickets here

  Featuring
  Peter Tiefenbach, Music Director and Pianist
  Virginia Reh, Dramatic Advisor
  Robert Cooper, Chorus Director

  Betty Waynne Allison as Queen Elizabeth I
  Jennifer Sullivan as Penelope (Lady Rich)
  Adam Luther as Lord of Essex
  Dion Mazerrole as Cecil
  Jesse Clark as Lord Mountjoy
  Christina Campsall as Countess of Essex
  Marco Petracchi as Sir Walter Raleigh
  Domenico Sanfilippo as Henry Cuffe
  Fabian Arciniegas as The Recorder of Norwich
  Joshua Wales as The Spirit of the Masque
  Keenan Viau as The Master of Ceremonies
  Gregory Finney as Old Man
  Lise Maher as Page
  Jessika Monea as Lady in Waiting

  Tags: Benjamin Britten, Gloriana, Virginia Reh
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

• Dramatic Arts Professor gives plenary address “Performance and Its Genealogies of War” in Gothenburg, Sweden

  Wednesday, November 13, 2013 | By Brock University

  

  (Source: Skogen)

  Department of Dramatic Arts Professor Natalie Alvarez will be presenting her plenary address lecture “Performance and Its Genealogies of War” in the Seminar: CREATIVITY AND AUTHORSHIP IN WARFARE to be held November 27, 2013 at the Skogen performance space in Gothenburg, Sweden (Göteborgs Konsthall).

  Professor Alvarez moves through several sites of her field research at military bases in the US, Canada, and the UK to observe the ways in which the performance paradigm has been taken up by the military-industrial-academic complex as it attempts to advance training methodologies nimble enough to take on a new frontier of irregular and asymmetrical warfare. Each site raises a particular set of concerns that, when taken together, trace the genealogies of performance and war. In her studies of scenarios at an insurgent training camp for US Special Forces in Utah, USA, and mock Afghan villages at CFB Wainright, Canada, and the Stanford Training Area in England, Alvarez raises questions concerning how the affective entrainment of soldiers through large-scale immersive improvisations converges in unsettling ways with histories of performance theory. She examines the instrumental use of empathy in military strategy and queries how the immersion of soldiers in the mise en scène of an Afghan village designed to foster Cultural Intelligence (CQ)—positioned by military strategists as a “force multiplier”—prepares soldiers to engage in an irreconcilable paradox of punitive, yet culturally “sensitive,” militarism.

  Professor Alvarez is an associate professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University, Ontario, Canada, where she teaches in the Theatre Praxis concentration. She holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from the University of Toronto. In 2010, she received a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for her current book project on immersive simulations and intercultural performance in military training and dark tourism, which allowed her to conduct field research at military bases and tourist sites in Mexico, the US, Canada, and the UK. Her research on performance and simulation, performance theory, and contemporary experimental performance in the Americas has been published in a variety of periodicals, as well as national and international book collections. She is the editor of the first two collections on Latina/o-Canadian performance, which establish the field of Latina/o performance studies in Canada. She is the recipient of the 2013 Richard Plant Essay Prize and the Robert G. Lawrence emerging scholar prize, both by the Canadian Association of Theatre Research.

  The seminar is curated by Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt and Skogen. It is presented in collaboration with Göteborgs Konsthall and Glänta with support from Västra Götalandsregionen and Goethe-Institut Schweden.

  Tags: Creativity and Authorship in Warfare, Göteborgs Konsthall, Natalie Alvarez, Performance and Its Genealogies of War, Skogen, Sweden
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

• Teaching Opportunity: Assistant Professor – Drama in Education/Applied Theatre & Performance

  Tuesday, October 29, 2013 | By Brock University

  Full-time Teaching Opportunity in the Department of Dramatic Arts:
  Assistant Professor – Drama in Education/Applied Theatre and Performance

  The Department of Dramatic Arts in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University invites applications for a tenure-track appointment in Drama in Education/Applied Theatre and Performance at the rank of Assistant Professor starting July 1st, 2014. The position is subject to final budgetary approval.

  Qualifications

  The successful candidate must hold a PhD with an emphasis on process drama/participatory theatre and exhibit exemplary practice in the profession. Teaching experience in elementary/secondary schools is an asset. Applicants should be able to teach courses with mixed studio/lecture components as well as larger-scale survey courses and studio performance intensives.

  The successful candidate will teach a range of courses in drama in education, applied theatre, performance, movement, and praxis. The preferred individual will bring knowledge of a spectrum of teaching methodologies in diverse pedagogical situations and critical performance theory, as well as expertise in synthesizing these modes of knowledge. The individual will engage energetically with departmental production activity, specifically the conceptualization and realization of departmental main-stage events and/or outreach educational outcomes. Skills in a secondary area featuring interdisciplinary research and practice may also be of value. Administrative skills are a definite asset.

  The salary is competitive and commensurate with qualifications.

  Notes

  The Department of Dramatic Arts offers a BA Honours in Dramatic Arts. For Honours students, Concentrations are available in Drama in Education/Applied Theatre, Performance, Production and Design, and Theatre Praxis. The Department also offers a four-year (20 credit) BA with Major Dramatic Arts degree and a three-year BA Pass degree, as well as two concurrent BA (Honours)/BEd programs over five years. For more information, see  www.brocku.ca/dramatic_arts/

  Located at the center of Canada’s beautiful Niagara peninsula in St. Catharines, Ontario, we are a community of learners and researchers with a strong and expanding regional base, with excellent resources in cultural, social, and athletic enrichment. Canadian and American metropolitan centres are within easy distance.

  In the summer of 2015 the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, including the Department of Dramatic Arts, will move to its new comprehensive facility in downtown St. Catharines, adjacent to a new regional performing arts centre built by the City of St. Catharines.

  Applications will include a brief covering letter, a letter of intent (1200 words max.) and a current curriculum vitae including a teaching dossier and/or artistic/academic portfolio in a theatrical field (mask, movement, directing, publications etc.). A five-year research plan should indicate directions for the future. In addition, candidates will provide the names of three referees who will be contacted in the event of a short listing. Please address applications to:

  Professor David Vivian
  Chair, Department of Dramatic Arts
  Brock University
  St. Catharines ON L2S 3A1
  [email protected]

  The application deadline is December 10th, 2013. This position is subject to budgetary approval. More information on Brock University may be found on the University’s website: brocku.ca. Brock University is actively committed to diversity and the principles of Employment Equity and invites applications from all qualified candidates. Women, Aboriginal peoples, members of visible minorities, and people with disabilities are especially encouraged to apply and to voluntarily self identify as a member of a designated group as part of their application. Candidates who wish to have their application considered as a member of one or more designated groups should fill out the Self-Identification Form available at https://brocku.ca/hr-ehs/career-opportunities-2 and include the completed form with their application. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

  This posting can be found at
  www.brocku.ca/hr/careers/position_detail.php?id=1370

  Tags: Applied Theatre, careers, drama in education, job opportunities, Performance, teaching opportunity
  Categories: Announcements, News

• Arts Education Event: Gaza Mono-logues performed by visiting artists at the Department of Dramatic Arts

  Tuesday, October 01, 2013 | By Brock University

  The Department recently hosted a performance of the Gaza-Mono-logues by Iman Aoun, Artistic Director, and four of her students of the Ashtar Theatre Company for Productions and Training (Gaza) in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre at Brock University on the morning of Oct. 1, 2013.

  Brock Professors Carolee Mason and Glenys McQueen-Fuentes met Iman Aoun during the recent IDEA Conference in Paris (International Drama and Education Association, summer of 2013) where she spoke briefly of her work as Artistic Director of the Ashtar Theatre Company for Productions and Training. Her students had created personal responses to “living in war and under siege” which became their production called The Gaza Mono-logues. Ms. Aoun had sent the text out to friends around the world, which resulted in youth performances in various places around the globe in 18 different languages. She also spoke of 14 groups who performed in separate languages at the United Nations–once in Geneva, and once in New York.

  At the Paris conference we learned that Ms. Aoun and 4 of her actors; 2 men, 2 women, all between 19-24 years old, were coming to Canada in the fall of 2013. Theatre Director, Majdi Bou-Matar, of MTSpace in Kitchener, Ontario had invited her to participate in his IMPACT Festival and Conference held at the end of September, 2013. The company accepted the invitation to make a brief detour by Brock University as they proceed to performances in Oakville before the company of student actors returns home.

  Attended by approximately 200 DART students, faculty, and guests, including 50 students and faculty from Appleby College in Oakville.  The performance was followed by a brief Q&A in The Guernsey Market.

  For more information on the Gaza Mono-logues Project: Iman Aoun, Artistic Director, Ashtar Theatre, Ramallah – Palestine  www.thegazamonologues.com   www.facebook.com/Richard2Ashtar   www.facebook.com/pages/Ashtar-for-Theatre-Productions-and-Training

  Tags: Ashtar Theatre Company for Productions and Training, Iman Aoun, The Gaza-Mono-logues
  Categories: News, Visiting Artists

• Dramatic Arts Professor receives prestigious Richard Plant Award

  Friday, September 27, 2013 | By Brock University

  The Canadian Association for Theatre Research has, since its inception, been the principal catalyst for expansion of theatre research in Canada. The Association works to promote research and publication of the results of this research into Canadian theatre and drama. Every year, CATR announces the results of awards for innovative and forward thinking research into theatre and drama in Canada.

  Dr. Natalie Alvarez, associate professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University was recently awarded the Richard Plant Award by the Canadian Association for Theatre Research for her essay “Realisms of Redress: Alameda Theatre and the Formation of a Latina/o Canadian Theatre and Politics”. This essay, published in New Canadian Realisms: New Essays on Canadian Theatre edited by Roberta Baker and Kim Solga, digs deeply into the pressing practical and scholarly debates concerning racial embodiment on Canadian stages. It is grounded in a rich historical survey of policies, practices and theoretic debates on identity and casting that have shaped Canadian theatre practice. Her arguments draw from the perspective of a Latina/o Canadian theatre culture in formation, particularly as demonstrated by the distinctive casting practices of Toronto’s Alameda Theatre that seek a repressive realism. Professor Alvarez provocatively argues for the potential of an indexical realism to build the foundation for a more viable realism of redress.

  At the 2013 Congress, Alvarez’s two edited books on Latina/o Canadian theatre and performance Fronteras Viventes: Eight Latina/o Canadian Plays and Latina/o Canadian Theatre and Performance were launched at the annual Playwrights Canada Press luncheon. These books are the first collections on Latina/o Canadian theatre and performance and engage in a cross-border dialogue with prominent and emerging US and Canadian scholars who take a hemispheric perspective in their examinations of Canadian “Latinidad.”

  Professor Alvarez has been busy the last few years traveling for her Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded research project in performance studies which investigates live, immersive simulations in a variety of contexts. In her investigation into the emergence of “dark-tourism”, Alvarez has observed interactions between soldiers and Afgan actors in mock Afgan villages constructed for the final phase of intensive training. She also spent a week in the Utah mountains at an immersive “insurgent training camp” for US military and law enforcement personnel. She presented her research findings at the 2011 American Society of Theatre Research in Montreal in a working session on war and war-time performance. Prior to 2011, Alvarez’s proposal on the illegal border crossing reenactments for tourists in El Alberto, Mexico was selected for the American Society of Theatre Research’s opening plenary panel at the 2009 conference in Puerto Rico.

  The Department of Dramatic Arts congratulates Professor Alvarez for her award and looks forward to the new knowledge and experiences she will share with the students when she rejoins the department in July 2014.

  Tags: Canadian Theatre, Natalie Alvarez, The Canadian Association for Theatre Research
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

• Dramatic Arts Professor launches a new look at the Eurovision Song Contest

  Wednesday, September 25, 2013 | By Brock University

  

  Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics at the Eurovision Song Contest

  Professor Karen Fricker of Brock University’s Dramatic Arts Department has spent the last decade attending “Europe’s favourite TV show”, the Eurovision Song Contest.

  Professor Fricker, who lectures in the praxis concentration, spent a week last May in Malmö, Sweden where she launched her new co-edited book Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics at the Eurovision Song Contest at the centre of the annual pop song festival watched by over 170 million people all over the world.

  Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics at the Eurovision Song Contest argues that this popular music competition is a symbolic contact zone between European cultures: an arena for European identification in which both national solidarity and participation in a European identity are confirmed, and a site where cultural struggles over the meanings, frontiers and limits of Europe are enacted.

  With her new book, Karen has received much attention as a Eurovision media expert. She covered the contest as a journalist for the Irish Times and wrote a blog post this year for the Guardian about the U.K. and Eurovision.

  The Department of Dramatic Arts is celebrating the launch of Professor Fricker’s book on September 26th in TH 235 from 5:00pm – 6:00pm. Refreshments and musical entertainment will be provided, as well as a brief and entertaining introduction to all things Eurovision.

  Tags: Book launch, Eurovision, Karen Fricker
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

• Fabric sale to benefit scholarship fund, Aug. 23 and 24

  Wednesday, August 14, 2013 | By Brock University

  

  The Department of Dramatic Arts will be hosting a Fabic Sale. The fabrics are priced to sell. A grocery store bag full of smaller pieces – good for quilting – will go for $20. Bolt prices will run $2 to $10 a metre. The fabric sale happens Aug. 23 and 24 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day in Thistle 141.

  Sewers and crafters with their own stockpiles of materials are also welcome to offer up their wares for sale. Tables at the fabric sale can be rented for $30, with rental proceeds also going to the scholarship fund.

  Proceeds from the sale will go to the Marlene Moser Memorial Scholarship Fund, named for the former Dramatic Arts chair, who died of breast cancer in 2010.  The fund provides financial help to drama students.

  For more information or to inquire about renting a table, email Roberta at [email protected].

  See the story in the Brock News

  Tags: fabric sale, Marlene Moser Memorial Scholarship, Roberta Doylend, The Brock News
  Categories: Announcements, News

• Technical Theatre Job Opportunity in the Department of Dramatic Arts

  Monday, July 15, 2013 | By Brock University

  IATSE 01/2013 Theatre Technical Production Assistant, Department of Dramatic Arts (DART), Faculty of Humanities 

  (closes Friday, July 19, 2013)

  Reporting to the Production Manager and/or Technical Director, the Theatre Technical Production Assistant is responsible for providing the technical elements for departmental production and teaching, supporting teaching of technical production by instruction or lab demonstration, supervising and maintaining DART spaces, technical inventory and equipment, and coordinating and supervising students and hired technicians.

  for more information and to apply please please see this page for the posting

  download the posting in a PDF file

  Inquiries about the job opportunity may be sent to the Production Manager, Brian Cumberland [email protected]

  Inquiries about the Department and its programs may be sent to the Chair, Professor David Vivian [email protected]

  Tags: careers, job opportunities, theatre technical production assistant
  Categories: Announcements, News

• Dramatic Arts student adventuring at the Banff Centre

  Thursday, June 27, 2013 | By Brock University

  The Banff Center, located in the scenic Rocky Mountains of Alberta, is the largest arts and creativity incubator on the planet. Every year over 8000 artists, leaders, and researchers come from all over Canada and worldwide to participate in a large variety of arts programs. This year, a Dramatic Arts student, Gina Greco, is participating in a work study program as a wardrobe technician.

  Gina, a Dramatic Arts Student concentrating in Production and Design, has worked on a number of projects within the department. Focusing on aspects of costuming, she has worked on the One Acts Festival, the Fall 2012 Mainstage The Suicide – A Russian Comedy by Nikolai Erdman, directed by Gyllian Raby, Empty Box Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and the independent production Runner, written and directed by colleague and student in the Dramatic Arts program, Nicole Titus.

  

  Gina Greco at the Banff Centre

  Banff’s Theatre Arts Production, Design, and technology training programs have been running for more than 60 years. Participants are guided by many creative and design teams working simultaneously in opera, dance, theatre and interdisciplinary performance. With a combination of hands-on experiences and skill based training, the program seeks to inform and inspire the next generation of theatre makers and artists.

  Some projects Gina will be working on are preparing a costume set for the opera Marriage of Figaro, making alterations on the costumes of an opera arriving from England, as well as a professional dance show. She will be working along side three other work-study technicians as a cutter and a First Hand under the guidance of the Head of Wardrobe Patsy Thomas.

  “The most exciting thing is getting an opportunity to practise my craft in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s my first time out west and I couldn’t ask for a better reason to be here,” Gina exclaimed.

  “I think the biggest challenge will be adapting to working in a professional theatre environment, since I’ve never done something on this scale. But I’m totally up to that challenge!” she added.

  To follow Gina’s experiences as cutter and first hand at the Banff festival, check out her blog on Tumblr.

  Tags: Gina Greco, production and design, The Banff Centre
  Categories: Current Students, News

• Congratulations to 2013 SSHRC award recipient and Dramatic Arts graduate, Erica Charles

  Saturday, June 22, 2013 | By Brock University

  

  Erica Charles seen with her father at the recent Faculty of Humanities Convocation on June 11, 2013.

  Published on June 22 2013

  The Department extends its hearty congratulations to 2013 SSHRC award recipient and Dramatic Arts graduate, Erica Charles.  Erica was awarded the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Award: Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship — Master’s for her work “The voice in phenomenology and semiotic theory.”

  Erica is one of 31 Brock graduate students who received a share of $975,000 of funding under SSHRC’s Talent Program, designed to give master’s and doctoral students a boost.

  Most of these students, including Erica, received funding under SSHRC’s Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s category. The remainder had grants under two doctoral categories.

  “Graduate students are involved in outstanding research that matters in so many ways to people of all ages living in our closest neighbourhoods, in communities around Canada, and in the far reaches of the world,” says Mike Plyley, Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies.

  “We are very proud of the success of our students in these highly competitive awards. This is a measure of excellence and recognition of the scope and calibre of work that our students pursue as they create their distinct identities as the researchers, scholars, and leaders of tomorrow.”

  Erica was recently seen performing in An Acre of Time by Jason Sherman, Studio Theatre, and The Blue Room by David Hare, Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, both productions of the Department of Dramatic Arts of the Marilyn I Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University. She will be seen on the stages of the Toronto and Hamilton Fringe Festivals in Fulcrum Theatre’s production of HERE.  A multimedia dance-theatre piece from the company that won Best of Hamilton Fringe in 2012, HERE examines the notions of being stuck and learning when to say goodbye to something you love.

  View the complete list of grant recipients and their research.

  (With notes from: 31 Brock grad students receive SSHRC scholarships, posted by tmayer on Jun 18th, 2013.)

  Tags: alumni, DART grads, Erica Charles, Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, SSHRC award, The Brock News
  Categories: Alumni, News