News

  • DART student honoured in the Brock Leaders Citizenship Society: CIBC creates an award for student leadership

    Friday, January 13, 2012 | By

    President Jack Lightstone with Brian Glenney, general manager, Imperial Service and Small Business, CIBC (right) and Aurora Di Fruscia, Financial Planning Consultant, CIBC Private Wealth Management, Niagara, and member of the Brock University Board of Trustees (left) with members of the Brock Leaders Citizenship Society.

    President Jack Lightstone with Brian Glenney, general manager, Imperial Service and Small Business, CIBC (right) and Aurora Di Fruscia, Financial Planning Consultant, CIBC Private Wealth Management, Niagara, and member of the Brock University Board of Trustees (left) with members of the Brock Leaders Citizenship Society.

    CIBC has partnered with Brock to make an investment in the Campaign for a Bold New Brock that will help to support aspiring student leaders.
    The $375,000 gift to the University will create the CIBC Leaders Award for incoming Brock students who have achieved exceptional academic success and demonstrated outstanding leadership and community involvement.
    “This gift will help us achieve our goal of fostering the meaningful transformation of students, their communities and society at large,” President Jack Lightstone said.
    Recipients of this new award will also become members of the Brock Leaders Citizenship Society, which was launched in 2009. The society is a group of remarkable students recognized for a combination of high academic achievement and for personal leadership capabilities.
    DART second year student Colin Glavac (pictured, below) is a member of the Brock Leaders Citizenship Society. While at Brock, students like Colin continue to achieve academic success and develop their leadership abilities both inside and outside of the classroom.
    They are involved in numerous community initiatives such as raising funds for Brock’s Shinerama campaign to help fight cystic fibrosis, staging a Seniors’ Valentine’s Day Prom at the West Park Health Centre long-term care home in St. Catharines, and co-ordinating a charity ball hockey tournament for the Alzheimer Society Niagara Foundation.
    colin-and-jackAs an endowment, the funds provided by CIBC will support this award in perpetuity. The first presentation of the CIBC Leaders Award is expected to take place in the 2012-2013 academic year.

    Seen to the right of President Jack Lightstone is second year Department of Dramatic Arts student Colin Glavac.

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    Categories: Current Students, News

  • Auckland Adventures: Joe Norris

    Wednesday, December 21, 2011 | By

    Professor Joe Norris with Kakali Bhattacharya, Chair of the Outstanding Book Award Committee of the Qualitative Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association.

    Professor Joe Norris with Kakali Bhattacharya, Chair of the Outstanding Book Award Committee of the Qualitative Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association.

    In December 2011, Joe Norris spent two weeks in Auckland as a keynote for two separate conferences. During his stay, Joe presented a keynote paper on “Playbuilding as Research” at the 2nd Critical Studies in Drama in Education International Symposium at the University of Auckland. He also sat on a keynote panel during “Arts Based Research, Possibilities, Pedagogies, and Processes in Performance” during this time. He presented another keynote entitled “Reconceptualizing Self, Society and Narrative Constructions Through Critical Reflections on Personal and Cultural Narratives and Metaphors” which was presented at the “Evoking and Provoking Narrative and Metaphor in Education” symposium located also at the University of Auckland. He then provided a two-hour workshop called “Duoenthography: The Dialogic Meaning Making Through the Juxtaposition of Self with the Other” for all of his attendees.

    Joe Norris’ book, “Playbuilding as Qualitative Research: A Participatory Arts-based Approach” was selected as the winner of the American Educational Research Association’s Qualitative Research SIG’s 2011 Outstanding Book Award. This book not only met all the criteria for the award, it exceeded every criteria. Norris bridges arts-based research, qualitative inquiry, and playbuilding grounded in rich theories and created dialogue for various social justice issues. The committee members (Linda Evans, Allison Anders and Kakali Bhattacharya – see in the photo with Joe Norris) exclaimed not only about the accessibility, utility of this book, but the ways in which this book challenged their thinking, made them imagine how the audience participation might look like at the end of the scenes, and created the fertile ground for much needed dialoguing. The committee was honored and privileged to review the works of such great thinkers as Valerie Janesick, Kathryn Roulston and Norman Denzin, change agents, and activists in qualitative research and are delighted to present Joe Norris with this years’ Outstanding Book Award.
    Congratulations, Joe!

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    Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Department Professors Attend the ASTR 2011 Conference in Montreal

    Saturday, December 03, 2011 | By

    David Fancy, the department Chair of the Dramatic Arts Program at Brock University, recently participated in the American Society of Theatre Research 2011 Conference in Montreal, Canada. David was part of the Theatre and Migrant Worker Group and presented his research paper entitled “Affective Assemblages: Migrant Worker Theatre” during the symposium. David’s contribution and effort to this research was well received by the conference patrons. His recent work with neXt Company Theatre has provided a similar awareness of Migrant Worker issues for the surrounding St Catharines community. Congratulations on your success, David!

    For information on upcoming neXt Company Theatre projects please visit www.nextcompanytheatre.com

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    Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

  • COMMOTION AT THE COURTHOUSE: a three-year Partnership with Niagara Region Schools

    Thursday, November 24, 2011 | By

    Over the past three years, the COMMOTION partnership between six Niagara Region high schools, Carousel Players, the Department of Dramatic Arts of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University, and TALK Niagara (Teams of Adults Listening to Kids) has given 80 students an opportunity to create and perform six new plays.

    Each group of high school students creates a play at their school through a 12-week drama program and presents it at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre. Brock University Professor Gyllian Raby and Carousel’s Artistic Director Pablo Felices Luna lead the project with the support of Bonnie Prentice from TALK Niagara, an umbrella group of 15 community organizations dedicated to youth concerns.

    This month, 22 students from Governor Simcoe Secondary School and Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School are playing with different modes of creativity known as RSVP to build their characters, scenes and stories into two new plays. Blythe Barker, Jacqueline Costa, Caitlin English and Trevor Rotenberg, facilitators trained through Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts, have been working with students an estimated 240 hours at their schools since September 2011.

    Free performances of the plays written and performed by these students will be held at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre in St. Catharines on Thursday, December 8, 2011, at 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.; Friday, December 9, at 9:30 a.m.; and Saturday, December 10, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Reservations are required.  For the free tickets, call Carousel Players at 905.682.8326 x 26.

    “Now in the third year of COMMOTION, Pablo and I find it more invigorating than ever,” states Gyllian Raby. “Creating a show for this semi-professional production places enormous demands on these high school seniors, yet time after time they show themselves not only equal to the task but able to surprise everyone with their insights about, for example, the social pressures of the internet, abuses of authority, and balancing individual identity with relationships.”

    Co-leader Felices Luna adds, “COMMOTION takes the excellent work done by Niagara’s drama teachers to a new level outside the classroom. We’ve worked with 58 students from E.L.Crossley Secondary School, Eastdale Secondary School, Laura Secord Secondary School and St. Catharines Collegiate. We thank drama teachers Jennifer Benson, Tracy Garratt, Karen Hancock, Rassika Malhotra, Brenna McAllister and Tracy Thorpe for welcoming us into their schools, for actively fostering creativity in their students and for their passionate commitment to drama at their school. There are many other schools and teachers we hope to work with in the future.”

    The COMMOTION project is made possible by SSHRC: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Department of Dramatic Arts of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University, Carousel Players, TALK Niagara and approval from the District School Board of Niagara.

    For tickets contact: Jane Gardner, 905-682-8326 x23 or [email protected]

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    Categories: Alumni, Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • DART Alumnus on the stage of The Grand Theatre

    Sunday, November 06, 2011 | By

    Eric Frank (DART 2011) was recently seen on stage in a production of To Master the Art at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. It’s the story of Julia Child and the writing of her famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The play opens with Julia and her husband Paul’s arrival in France in 1948. Paul introduces her to fine French cuisine and she is completely smitten.

    Professor Virginia Reh, who directed Eric in two mainstage productions at Brock,  journeyed to London to see him in his professional debut and remarked, ‘In a production with 24 roles played by 10 actors, Eric proved a veritable chameleon, creating four very different vibrant characters. He was clearly comfortable in this professional milieu and his colleagues are enthusiastic about working with him.'”

    Break-a-leg, Eric!

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    Categories: Alumni, News

  • Guest Visit by Cheryl Lalonde of Toronto Dance Theatre

    Sunday, November 06, 2011 | By

    Published on November 06 2011

    Students in second year Stagecraft and third year Stage Management recently had the opportunity to hear Cheryl Lalonde, the production/stage manager of TDT, speak about the her career experiences and creative challenges in the mileu of Canadian contemporary dance.

    Lalonde began her career in the arts with Act IV Theatre at Adelaide Court. After two years backstage at Toronto Workshop Productions, her design debut was for the premiere production of Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters under mentor and director Larry Lewis. Splitting her time between design and stage management has allowed her to travel the world as well as collaborate with many companies, including: Desrosiers Dance Theatre, Danny Grossman Dance Company, Fujiwara Dance Inventions, Eclectic Theatre, Alberta Ballet, Dreamwalker Dance Company, Theatre Smith Gilmour, and Kaeja d’Dance. Ms. Lalonde has served on the faculty of Theatre Arts at The Banff Centre for eight summers, and recently participated in a panel of Canadian Stage Managers to establish a DACUM occupational analysis for Stage Management. 2011 marks Cheryl’s eleventh season with TDT.

    Later that evening Christopher House, Artistic Director for TDT, invited the public for in an informal discussion of The Visual Art of Dance at the Niagara Artists Centre. DART first year students had previously attended a special workshop on movement lead by instructors of the TDT School and will also attend the presentation of Severe Clear in late November at the David S. Howes Theatre of the Brock Centre for the Arts. Lighting Design for Severe Clear is conceived by DART alumnus, Roelof Peter Snippe.

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    Categories: Current Students, News, Visiting Artists

  • A truly exciting weekend for the Drama in Education /Applied Theatre concentration at the CODE Conference in Collingwood.

    Wednesday, November 02, 2011 | By

    Faculty and students of the Drama in Education /Applied Theatre concentration had a truly exciting weekend at the Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators Conference (CODE), which took place October 21-23, 2011 at Blue Mountain, Collingwood.

    Adrienne Smoke, a second year student in the Concentration in Theatre Praxis, attended the conference as an invited artist.  She and dub-poet Greg Frankson opened the Conference with a performance: she drummed them in–thus beginning the conference–followed by a dance, and then provided a drum accompaniment to Greg’s poem performance.  She also gave a workshop for teachers, some of whom presented an excerpt of a Shawl Dance as part of the final evenings’ performance.

    Alex Kazam, a third year DART student was the conference MC, wandering magician, “gentil animateur” and overall conference figure, “Jack-out-of-the-box” (the theme was on REACH–beyond the classroom, with a visual of getting out of a box…).

    Part-time faculty Suzanne Burchell and Helen Zdriluk participated with projects in the 4-hour poster presentation on community-school outreach projects, which was followed by later, in-depth discussion sessions.  Part-time faculty Carolee Mason and full-time faculty Glenys McQueen Fuentes both delivered workshops to teachers.  Helen Zdriluk convened and organized a group of 10 DIE/AT students as very well-appreciated conference volunteers.

    Congratulations for a successful weekend at CODE!

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    Categories: News

  • DART students attend Stratford Shakespeare Academy

    Wednesday, September 28, 2011 | By

    Stratford Shakespeare Academy.
    DART Students Josh Davidson and Emma Bulpin engage in valued ‘Art Talk’ between classes!

    Every summer students of the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) attend the annual Stratford Shakespeare Academy for a three week intensive two-course experience. The courses present an opportunity to study Shakespeare through the lenses of both performance and structured analytical criticism with some of Ontario’s leading university professors and Stratford professional coaches. During the typical 7.5 hour day students observe and enquire of the talent of working actors, trainers and directors while experiencing first-hand the programming of one of Canada’s most triumphant theatre Festivals.

    Josh Davidson, a fourth year performing arts student at DART, describes this opportunity as “…an experience unlike any other. During my traditional school experience, I never had the opportunity to embody Shakespeare, or any stylized theatrical form, quite like this course offered. My fellow students and I are always asked to focus on a multiplicity of various forms, in relationship to different classes during the school year. The Stratford Shakespeare Academy offers you the opportunity to study Shakespeare, and only Shakespeare, for a three week period. The benefit of this intensive class structure was invaluable.”

    The course encouraged students to formulate opinions and discussions in response to the four Shakespearean plays presented during the 2011 Stratford season. Davidson says “having the ability to witness professional Shakespeare productions, while in the midst of studying Shakespeare, was helpful and inspirational.” Acting students train to develop a personal artistic palette, molded and shaped with specific skill sets, knowledge and vocabulary. He continues, “Observing Shakespearean acting professionals “live” allowed me to reflect upon what my artistic palette already consists of and helped identify the areas needing more time and improvement.”

    Complementing the coursework is the opportunity for theatre students from the sponsoring universities – Guelph, Windsor, Queens and Waterloo – to meet and share their learning experiences. Josh asserts “the other side of this adventure was found in the social environment. We were able to share experiences, class work, opinions, and beliefs with other students who have been trained in different forms, theories and techniques from our own. This made for some great art-talk! I brought what Brock had to offer, and they brought what their own school offered. This intermingling between schools sparked new friendships, new artistic discoveries and made the course experience very rewarding as a student and actor.”

    Josh concluded, “I would encourage any high-school student with performance interests to attend Brock University for these types of remarkable course experiences. The benefit of this intensive class structure is invaluable… I don’t think anyone could walk away from this experience without finding something to enrich their studies, while also helping to form the work they create in the future.”

    In September these fourth year students return to DART, fresh with the legacy of these formative course experiences.  Working together with their newly tuned artistic palettes, they will create provocative and innovative theatrical performance for the Brock community.

    Students interested in more information about the Stratford Shakespeare Academy should contact the Department at [email protected]

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    Categories: Alumni, Current Students, News

  • Hot off the presses: the DART Newsletter for 2011-12

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 | By

    dart_newsletter_2011_thThe Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) Newsletter for 2011-12 is now available for download.
    Contents include information about the programs and Concentrations, annual production and presentation activity, special invited guests, faculty and staff, alumni accomplishments, student awards and bursaries, the Invitational process, and DART at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals.

    Paper copies are available upon request from [email protected]

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    Categories: Future students, News

  • Mainstream’s Summer Drama Program at DART

    Sunday, August 28, 2011 | By

    A week long intensive introducing adults with developmental disabilities to the world of drama was held at Brock University this summer. During the morning sessions, participants were led by local theatre practitioners in various aspects of drama (i.e. Voice, Movement, Improvisation, etc.) The afternoon sessions focused on the creation of short performances which opened for the public on Friday July 29th, 2011 at 1pm.

    Mainstream was founded in 1984 and continues to be a strong presence in Niagara, operating various programs to support adults with a developmental disability. Mainstream’s mission is to ‘improve the quality of life for people with a developmental disability by providing a supportive environment that strives to empower individuals with necessary skills and confidence for lifelong learning and growth.”

    www.mainstreamservices.com

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    Categories: News

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