News

An Acre of Time by Jason Sherman (DART 4F56)

Monday, March 11, 2013 | By mbalsom

April 11, 12 & 13, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.
A government land surveyor (Julia) uncovers the history of an acre of land near the Ottawa River, a barren rectangle that contains the memories of all who passed through it, from the last native hunter to the first white settler. Somehow, the layers of loss, land and remembrance enable Julia to grasp what she needs in order to let go.
Location: Room ST107 (Studio Theatre) Schmon Tower, Brock Campus
Admission: Donations accepted

This is part of the Industrial Fabric 3 program. (Click the link for more information.)

BROCK UNIVERSITY
MEDIA RELEASE
April 2, 2013
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
905.688.5550 x4765

An Acre of Time by Jason Sherman, presented on stage at the Studio Theatre, Brock University Inspired by the book of the same title by Phil Jenkins.
Graduating Dramatic Arts students enrolled in Advanced Studies in Theatre (DART 4F56) at Brock University, will perform An Acre of Time by Canadian award-winning playwright Jason Sherman, held at the Studio Theatre at Brock University, from April 11 – 13, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

An Acre of Time tells the story of government land surveyor (Julia) who uncovers the history of an acre of land on the LeBreton Flats near the Ottawa River. This barren rectangle contains the memories of all who passed through it, from the last native hunter to the first white settler. Somehow, the layers of loss, land and remembrance enable Julia to grasp what she needs in order to let go.
The LeBreton Flats is a blank urban space that has been in limbo for decades. In 1962, the government expropriated it and knocked down its community. The Flats represent not only a government’s abdication of responsibility, but also an emotional void that can only be filled by recognizing and honouring the ghosts who still live there.

Julia, played in different time periods by three actors: Kaitlin Race, Cassandra van Wyck, and Olivia Jackson, learns that there are different kinds of mapping processes, and that the most important survey brings our own lives to light. Julia’s government work crew colleagues, played by Kanthan Annalingam, Karyn Lorence, Shauna James and Emma Strong, become guides on Julia’s journey as she encounters the ghosts of Samuel de Champlain, played by Erica Charles, and surveyor John Stegmann, played by Jessi Robinson. The speculator John LeBreton is played by Stephanie Neale. Tom, a first nations artist played by James Lowe, conjures the spirit of Constant Penency, an Algonquin hunter who has joined the spirit of Julia’s daughter, Louise, played by Grace Ruppenthal. Evan Mulroney plays Bill, Julia’s husband who lost their daughter Louise to a river drowning.

The set, lighting and video design, by Dylan O’Connor, James McCoy and Nathan Heuchan, is a meditation on mapping and memory that pulls the layers of story into a unified whole with props and costumes designed by Jo Pacinda and John McGowan. The production, in its complex entirety, is stage managed by Kate Hardy and directed by professor Gyllian Raby.

An Acre of Time performances run: Thursday, April 11, Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13, 2013, at 7:30 p.m., and will be held at the Studio Theatre (Rm. ST107) Schmon Tower, Brock University. Admission is by donation.

For more information about this production, e-mail dramatic.arts@brocku.ca

Such productions from the Department of 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 creative talent that defines our academic programs at Brock University.
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Tags: An Acre of Time, DART 4F56, Jason Sherman
Categories: Events, Media Releases, Plays
Khalida: a play for the Arab Spring, opens in St. Catharines at the Sullivan-Mahoney Theatre

Thursday, February 28, 2013 | By Brock University

By Dr. Karen Fricker and staff

The story told in Khalida, a new theatre production playing this week in St Catharines, might at first glance seem somewhat removed from the experience of many Canadians. Subtitled ‘a play for the Arab Spring’, it takes the form of the confession and testimony of Said, a man on the run from his native Middle Eastern country, which has become a battle zone.

But the play’s origins couldn’t be more local: it springs from the friendship between author/director David Fancy, Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts at Brock, and the Iraqi actor Addil Hussain, who received a BA in Dramatic Arts degree from Brock in 2006.

‘Addil was Saddam Hussein’s favourite actor,’ Fancy explains. ‘He fled Iraq during the first Gulf War and, after living as a refugee in Jordan for six or seven years, finally ended up in Canada. He did a degree in the Drama in Education and Society stream at Brock and became a Canadian citizen’. Audiences might remember Hussain’s performances in two of the three plays performed in An Arabian Trilogy, a departmental Mainstage production in 2006. In the third play he performed the role of the father in Leila Tatadaffah Bil Rasass. Mun Youaniquha? (By the Warmth of the Bullet that Kills) set in modern-day Baghdad and written by another Brock graduate Abbas Aldilami.

Fancy says he wrote the play ‘for the express purpose of continuing a conversation with Addil, having witnessed the challenges that he experienced as an individual and as an artist finding a voice as a new Canadian.’ The play is being produced by neXt Company Theatre, of which Fancy is co-artistic director.

While his friendship with Hussain offers fascinating insight into Khalida’s origins, Fancy believes an appreciation of the production does not rely on this backstory. ‘This is about a person somewhere in the world who has experienced difficulty and is using creativity to frame that and move beyond it,’ he explains.

The role of Said is being played by Toronto-based actor Jason Jazrawy, whose father is from Iraq. Jazrawy calls Said ‘an Arabic Everyman who whom all ethnicities can relate’ and says he welcomes the opportunity to ‘portray an Arab as a positive role model for a change,’ having found himself often cast as a terrorist jihadi because of his heritage.

Alongside Khalida, neXt Company Theatre has facilitated a community engagement project, The Arab Spring Monologues, which features 9-10 Niagarans, including four Brock students and recent graduates, writing about how the Arab Spring connects with their own experience or with the region.

Students from across the DART concentrations – Applied Theatre and Drama in Education, Theatre Praxis, Performance, and Production and Design – will be attending the production. The production presents an excellent model for the Brock students’ creative investigations in writing and dramaturgy, performance, and production, as well as personal and social identities and citizenship, remarks the Chair or the Department, David Vivian.

As for Addil Hussain, he returned to the Middle East in 2010, and is now working as an actor in Baghdad. Despite being half a world away, this production of Khalida is very much on his radar. Via Facebook, he sent this message to Fancy and his collaborators: ‘Khalida was just a wish, and an idea, then became reality… I’m fully confident that Khalida is in great hands, hands with a great level of professionalism. Break a leg!’
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Khalida plays at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre from 26 February-2 March. Tickets are available here. The Arab Spring Monologues play 5-7 pm on Saturday, March 2 at Robertson Hall, 85 Church Street, St. Catharines. Admission free; groups are requested to contact the company in advance here.

Tags: Addil Hussain, David Fancy, Karen Fricker, Khalida, The Arab Spring
Categories: Alumni, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News, Plays
DART Professor at 2013 Congress in Victoria, British Columbia

Friday, February 15, 2013 | By Brock University

Associate Professor Natalie Alvarez will be serving on the Program Committee for the Canadian Association for Theatre Research’s (CATR) 2013 meeting at Congress 2013 of the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2014 DART will be hosting the annual meeting of the CATR as part of the complete Congress event to be held at the St. Catharines campus.

In addition to participating in a seminar on performance studies and sport, her two edited books on Latina/o Canadian theatre and performance will be launched during a conference lunch in Victoria.

Tags: Canadian Association for Theatre Research, CATR, Natalie Alvarez
Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News
The Walker Cultural Leader Series: Daniel Levinson, leading movement and stage fighting expert to present a Movement and Stage Combat Intensive program

Tuesday, February 12, 2013 | By mbalsom

Daniel Levinson

BROCK UNIVERSITY
MEDIA RELEASE

February 12, 2013
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
905.688.5550 x4765

New Walker series opens doors for arts students and the public

A major series of cultural events, workshops and performances being launched this fall by Brock University will provide new learning experiences for students, and in many cases will also be open to the public.

The Walker Cultural Leader Series will see leading artists, performers and academics convene more than a dozen events in disciplines ranging from animation to classical music and theatrical performance. The events will take place on campus as well as in the community.

Presented by Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), the series opens Oct. 16-19 with workshops, studio visits and performances by Sobey Award-winning performer and animator Daniel Barrow.

The series will also feature presentations by Joan Watson, principal horn of the Canadian Opera Company; performer and author Stephen Nachmanovitch; acclaimed Canadian pianist Robert Silverman; and Daniel Levinson, an expert in movement and stage combat.

The new series is being funded thanks to the Marilyn I. Walker Fund, an endowed fund created in 2008, when Marilyn Walker donated $15 million to Brock’s school of fine and performing arts.

Derek Knight, director of the Walker School, said the main objective of the series is to engage students, but pointed out many sessions are open to the community.

“The new series is committed to inviting varied and interesting guest speakers,” said Knight. “It will be engaging, lively and erudite. These sessions celebrate professional achievement, artistic endeavour and the indelible role of culture in our society.”

Douglas Kneale, Dean of Humanities at the University, said the initiative is another step forward for Brock on the academic, cultural and community fronts.

“Thanks to the generosity of Marilyn I. Walker, we are able to offer students unique interactions with creative leaders in the fine and performing arts, and also extend to the community educational and cultural opportunities that will be enormously enriching.”

The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts is comprised of the departments of Dramatic Arts, Music, Visual Arts, and the Centre for Studies in Arts & Culture.

For more info and follow-up interviews: Marie Balsom, Communications, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University, 905-688-5550 x4765; mbalsom@brocku.ca

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Tags: Daniel Levinson, media release, movement, stage combat, stage fighting, Walker Cultural Leader Series
Categories: Media Releases, News
The Blue Room

Saturday, January 26, 2013 | By mbalsom

By David Hare, freely adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde

Director: Virginia Reh
Scenographer: David Vivian
Lighting Design: Ken Garrett
Assistant Director: Jessi Robinson

February 14, 15 & 16, 2013: 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Matinee: February 15, 2013: 1pm – 3 pm

Directed by Professor Virginia Reh, The Blue Room is David Hare’s 1998 adaptation of Schnitzler’s Reigen (La Ronde), first produced in 1921. The plot is a “sexual daisychain”: the Girl couples with the Cab Driver, then the Cab Driver with the Au Pair, etc. Each time the new participant in one scene moves on to the next scene and so on, until in the final scene the Girl returns and encounters the Aristocrat. The play looks at casual sexual encounters as a (mostly) unsatisfactory substitute for human connection. This is a universal and timeless quest. The play is an important exploration with diverse current points-of-view: as each character has encounters with two different partners, the play explores the shifting status relationships (both social and personal). The relational dynamics of the play have interesting correspondences to explorations on social media.

Tickets: Adults $15.00, Students/Seniors $12.00, Groups $10.00, eyeGo $5.00. H.S.T. extra.

Theme-oriented and moderated workshops will be available. DART 3F93: Social Issues Theatre for Community Development, taught by Professor Joe Norris, will employ Process Drama and Applied Theatre techniques to explore themes that underlie the Blue Room. Scenes will be created that delve into issue of identity, innocence, risks, thresholds, secrets, awkwardness, beliefs, mores, taboos, exploitation and power. With a participatory dimension cast and audience will enter into conversations to explore the issues further.

Please contact us for more information.

THE BLUE ROOM: A Primer
is available for review before you come to see the production

low res 709kb
high res 2139 kb
print res 3690 kb

Media:

Interactive Arts and Science program student Patrick Gagliardi has put together a sultry trailer for the show.

from COGECO TV, Published on Feb 8, 2013: The Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University are hoping to spice up your Valentines Day with their new production “The Blue Room’.

In the buff with Brock’s Blue Room:
A fun full-first-page-of-the-section article about our upcoming mainstage in the city paper – another great reason to study dramatic arts at Brock University. Come see the play and discover what its really all about.

See the article about the show in The Brock Press, the independent student newspaper.

Tags: Arthur Schnitzler, David Hare, La Ronde, Mainstage, plays, The Blue Room
Categories: Events, Plays
Dramatic arts prof interviewed on national radio

Monday, January 21, 2013 | By Brock University

Karen Fricker, assistant professor of Dramatic Arts, was inteviewed on CBC Radio’s Q Monday morning.

(Source: The Brock News, Monday, January 21, 2013 | by Tiffany Mayer)

A Brock University dramatic arts professor was interviewed on national radio about the current state of affairs of entertainment giant Cirque du Soleil.

Karen Fricker was a guest Monday on CBC Radio’s Q, a daily arts and culture magazine. The assistant professor talked about the implications of Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil’s recent announcement that it was laying off 400 people.

“This is significant because Cirque du Soleil is a very strong brand and usually the coverage around it is positive,” Fricker said.

The segment of the show, hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, looked at whether the company was in crisis and if the layoffs meant the end of a Canadian success story made world famous for its performances that incorporate gravity-defying acrobatics and stunning choreography.

From Fricker’s perspective, Cirque du Soleil isn’t going anywhere but it has grown at an unsustainable rate.

The company has even admitted to not having appropriate control over its spending.

“That’s an important admission,” Fricker said. “They’re making money but they’re spending too much and (cutting jobs) is a line in the sand, a signal their practices need to change .”

Fricker was joined by J. Kelly Nestruck, a theatre critic for the Globe and Mail, on the show.

The segment will air again Monday night on CBC Radio One at 10 p.m. and can be heard online or as a podcast.

Tags: CBC Radio, CBC Radio Q, Cirque du Soleil, J. Kelly Nestruck, Karen Fricker, The Brock News
Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News
The Suicide – A Russian Comedy

Sunday, October 07, 2012 | By mbalsom
November 8-10, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Student Matinee: November 09 at 11:30 AM

A Russian Comedy by Nikolai Erdman
Adapted by: Gyllian Raby and Anna MacAlpine
Director: Gyllian Raby
Russian Consultant: Larisa Brodsky
Set Design: Nigel Scott
Costume Design: Roberta Doylend
Lighting Design: Ken Garrett
Assistant Director: Dylan Sylvester
Assistant Designer and Poster Design: Stephanie Baxter
Music Director: Anna MacAlpine
Movement: Trevor Copp, with Rachel Romanowski

A classic comedy that satirizes the New society which was developing in Russia under Lenin’s New Economic Policy of 1924 – a program that many communists considered to be a step backwards for communism. A fast moving, unpretentious examination of hubris and lifestyle and its expression in style: physical poise, dress and drawl. An examination of conformity. The play is ultimately very homely in its definition of human happiness with the physicalized characters, balancing serious satire and comedy.

Themes: big items in the human condition: love, ego, appetite, meaning of life and social convention.

There is NO mature language or sexual content and the violence is “keystone cops” – this show is fine for youth.

High-School teachers should read this letter about the Matinee performance opportunity (PDF, 247 KB)
A Study Guide is available for review, prepared by Gyllian Raby and Anna MacAlpine.

A copy of this special new adaptation of the script is available for download here. (PDF, 120kb)

The Suicide, By Nicolai Erdman
Adapted by Gyllian Raby and Anna MacAlpine
Thanks to Larisa Brodsky.
Royalty free with permission, 2012.
Gyllian Raby
Department of Dramatic Arts
Brock University
graby@brocku.ca

Photos:

Director Gyllian Raby and Set Designer Nigel Scott present the concept of the set design for this innovative new production of The Suicide, seen below:
Production images below courtesy of Naturally in Niagara. Click the link to see more of their images from our media call.
Tags: Mainstage, Nikolai Erdman, The Suicide - A Russian Comedy
Categories: Events, Plays
Brock actress scores top honour at Spanish international film festival

Friday, October 05, 2012 | By Brock University

Katie Coseni with her Silver Shell Award for best actress from the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain

(Source: The Brock News, Friday, October 5, 2012)

It was a callback Katie Coseni won’t soon forget.

The second-year dramatic arts student had just returned from six days at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain, where the film in which she plays one of the lead roles, Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, was given the red carpet treatment.

It was her second stop on the international film festival circuit, after the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September.

She was alone in her room when she got the call.

“I looked at the number and it was from France,” says Coseni. “I was like that’s really weird, why is someone from France calling me?”

It was one of the producers from the film on the other end of the line notifying her that the festival wanted her to come back so that she could accept her award.

I was like, what award?” Coseni remembers.

The award in question was the Silver Shell for Best Actress.

“I made her repeat it six times because I thought she was joking,” says Coseni. “It was really incredible.”

Coseni was given the honour along with Spanish actor Marcarena García for her turn in Blancanieves, a silent black-and-white reinterpretation of Snow White set in 1920s Spain.

“It’s kind of like ‘did that actually happen?’” says Coseni about receiving the award. “I still can’t believe it.”

“I see the box that the award came in on my desk and I forget what it is for a second, and then I remember ‘Oh yeah, I got this really awesome prestigious award,’” she says. “It’s just incredible.”

Created in 1953, this year is the 60th anniversary of the San Sebastián International Film Festival, one of the most important cinema festivals in the world.

“San Sebastien was just a whole otherworldly experience,” says Coseni. “It was all just a huge whirlwind.”

“I would wake up in the morning and then I would go to hair and make-up and then I’d go to a photo shoot and then a press conference and then interviews and then I’d have an hour for lunch, and then I’d have to go get ready for the red carpet, and then I’d have to do this and this and this,” she says. “But it was really fun.”

above, Katie Coseni in the film Foxfire

When asked about her future in acting in light of her recent accolades, the first-time film actor is looking to take advantage of her recent success.

“I’m taking steps now towards getting agents,” she says. “Hopefully that will lead to more auditions because I really do want to do this for as long as I can because I love it.”

After a busy few months of publicizing Foxfire, Coseni is ready to switch gears and get back to her studies.

“For right now, it’s just school and trying to get back to normal,” she says.

A film still from the movie Foxfire featuring Brock-student Katie Coseni (right)

But that all depends on what you consider normal. Coseni received her callback on a Friday morning, hopped on a plane later that night, arrived in Spain Saturday night one hour before she was to receive the Silver Shell at the awards gala, woke up Sunday morning to fly back home, arrived home Sunday night and was back in class Monday morning.

“It feels like it happened so long ago, it’s really weird,” she says laughing. “It took like a day or so getting back to my regular sleeping pattern. It feels like I just got back from summer vacation.”

Foxfire is slated for theatrical release in France in January 2013 and plans are in the works for a Canadian release in Spring 2013.

Tags: Best Actress Award, Blancanieves, film acting, Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, Katie Coseni, San Sebastián International Film Festival, Silver Shell, The Brock News
Categories: Current Students, News
Brock student hits the international red carpet

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 | By Brock University

Coseni on the red carpet at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

DART student Katie Coseni was recently featured in an article in The Brock News:

“Katie Coseni’s first experience at the Toronto International Film Festival was not typical.

Rather than chasing celebrities for autographs and crowding the edges of red carpets in hopes of catching a glimpse of movie stars, the second-year dramatic arts student found herself on the red carpet soaking up the limelight.

Coseni plays one of the lead roles in the film Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, which premiered at this year’s festival on Sept. 10.”

The article continues: “. . . . Coseni’s long journey to the red carpet in Toronto all started when she responded to an open casting call in 2010.

“A friend and I went to a drama camp when I was in middle school,” she says. “I guess we stayed on their mailing list and they sent out a flyer about this audition.”

. . . Coseni credits her fellow students and professors in the dramatic arts program at Brock for being extremely supportive of her foray into film. Students would share their notes with her when she missed classes and professors were accommodating when it came to handing in assignments.

“Because I was going to school for drama and I was missing school because of a movie, they understood,” she said. “It’s a very supportive and friendly environment.””

From the article by Jeffrey Sinibaldi in the Brock News. Read more of the article here.

congratulations to Katie!

Tags: Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, Katie Coseni, The Brock News, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival
Categories: Current Students, News
Design instructor in the Department of Dramatic Arts receives notice in the Globe and Mail

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 | By Brock University

Christine Horne and Susan Coyne in Between The Sheets. (John Lauener, from the Globe and Mail, link to source adjacent)

Kelly Wolf, sessional instructor for DART 1P97 Introduction to Stagecraft, Production and Design and DART 3F61 Design: Theatrical Design, recently designed the world premiere at Nightwood Theatre in Toronto, Between the Sheets. This “short, sharp new play” is noticed for its brilliant and heart-pounding performance.

Nightwood describes the play: “What begins as an ordinary parent teacher interview unravels into a gripping and raw confrontation between two women on the brink of disaster. One woman is fighting to protect her family. The other is fighting for the family she always wanted. With razor sharp intensity, Mand has crafted a rollercoaster ride of high stakes drama.”

Globe Critic Martin Morrow congratulates Kelly for “the perfect character-defining costumes and … the set, an exact replica of an elementary-school classroom.” Her design proposes a scenographic space that gives the feeling of a “boxing ring in director Kelly Thornton’s tightly coiled staging.”

The Globe concludes their notice with “If you handed out report cards for shows, Between the Sheets would get straight As.”

Congratulations to Kelly!

for the full review please see the article in the Globe and Mail.

information about the season at Nightwood Theatre may be found here.

Tags: Between the Sheets, Kelly Wolf, Martin Morrow, Nightwood Theatre, production and design, The Globe and Mail
Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News