Internationally renowned New York City director and playwright Richard Maxwell of the New York City Players recently Skype chatted with students of DART 4F90 Critical Theory and Practice about his touring production of “Ads” and responded to questions of liveness, performer presence, and commodity culture.
DART 4F90, New York City Players, Richard Maxwell
Categories: News, Visiting Artists
On January 26 and 27, 2012, Fujimoto Takakyuki – pioneer of stage design with LED lighting – visited the Department of Dramatic Arts to give a demonstration and creative workshop with this innovative technology.
Fujimoto has created a unique staging method using LED light systems and installations to manipulate all colours of the spectrum. His aim is to create new “circuits” to connect directly to the audience with no less strength than the connection created by the stage performer communicating directly to the audience in a live stage experience. He is principle designer for the Japanese performance group Dumb Type. Independently his work True, created with Tsuyoshi Shirai (AbsT/BANETO) and Takao Kawaguchi (Dumb Type) has been touring since 2007. He has worked with Ryoji Ikeda on the videomusic concert series “formula”, with Hong Kong choreographer Daniel Yeung, Vietnam-French choreographer Ea Sola, Singapore’s video artist Choy Ka Fai, on the installation/concert path with the guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi and singer UA, and with dance company Monochrome Circus. He recently designed for Kyoto Noh Theatre’s 2011 production.
Fujimoto was hosted in Canada by Across Oceans and artistic director Maxine Heppner, a Toronto-based organization that produces international arts platforms in Canada and worldwide, with acclaimed performing, visual and literary artists, and develops interactions created specially for specific environments and communities. Programming includes live performance, 2-D and 3-D art exhibits, film/video screenings, public forums, advanced training and research. Fujimoto’s recent collaboration with Across Oceans my heart is a spoon was well-received by Toronto critics and audiences.
Fujimoto shared his creative approach in technology with approximately 15 students and professionals. A selection of videos from the workshop can be found on YouTube.
Fujimoto Takakyuki, production and design
Categories: News, Visiting Artists
Kasey Dunn in Phèdre. Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre. 2011.
Kasey Dunn (DART 2011), has been awarded the prestigious scholarship for the 2012-2013 Erasmus Mundus M.A. in International Performance Research programme. Upon completion, Kasey will receive three M.A.s from programs of study at University of Amsterdam, University of Warwick, and the University of Arts in Belgrade. The scholarship has a value of 36,000 euro. (CAD $47, 500)
Kasey was previously awarded the Brock University Leaders Award, the Brock University President’s Award, the national Canadian Millennium Excellence Award, J.F. Harding Prize in Theatre, the Jane Forrest Prize in Drama, and the Gertrude Milner Award in Drama. She completed an outstanding Fourth Year Honours Thesis project on theories of cognition and performance, with Professors Natalie Alvarez (Dramatic Arts) and Sid Segalowitz (Psychology) as supervisors. Kasey established the Lyndesfarne Theatre Projects Young Company in St. Catharines. In 2011 Kasey performed the lead role in the DART production of Racine’s Phèdre, pictured to the right.
Kasey is following in the footsteps of Victoria Mountain (DART 2007) as the second DART graduate to receive this prestigious scholarship.
Erasmus Mundus M.A., Kasey Dunn
Categories: Alumni, News
Theatre Beyond Words – object-based theatre and full-body mask
Looking for a unique Spring/Summer course? sign-up for a three week-long intensive Introduction to Physical Theatre taught by the resident theatre company of Brock University, Theatre Beyond Words, during the Spring session of 2012.
DART 2F04: Physical Theatre – Education through Collective Creation
Students will explore a wide range of physical theatre styles (mask, mime, pantomime, graphics, theatrical clown, and commedia dell’arte) by recreating a series of scenes from professional repertoire using masks, puppets, costumes and sets from international touring theatre ensemble and Brock Resident Theatre Company, Theatre Beyond Words. This is a 3-week intensive, full-credit course, running 6 hours per day, 5 days per week. There will be a final performance for invited friends, family and staff at the end of the 3 three weeks. As this is a practicum course, attendance at all classes is mandatory.
More information about this full-credit course may be found here. Enrollment is limited to 20 students. Don’t delay!
Applicants without previous theatre training at Brock University may enrol with permission of the instructor.
for more information contact dramatic.arts@brocku.ca
Here are some examples of the masks and object-based theatre used by Theatre Beyond Words:
And here’s a trailer for their current show on tour, created and performed by Brock students:
Always loved the musical RENT!? Brock Musical Theatre’s finest performers presented a fun-filled show that opened February 2nd for four performances only.
RENT showcased the performing and producing talents of students in the Department of Dramatic Arts and the entire University community. The show was directed by Jessi Robinson with musical direction by Krystyna MacKay and choreography by Sarah Waller. Music was performed by local band Xprime.
Brock Musical Theatre is a university club with 19 cast members, as well as numerous production and volunteer crew members from several academic programs. BMT has been presenting music theatre to the Brock University community since 2005, showcasing such popular shows as Jesus Christ Superstar, Footloose, and Urinetown. Brock Musical Theatre president Karyn Lorence thanks the Brock University Student Union for their support of this production and BMT.
BMT, Brock Musical Theatre, musical theatre, RENT
Categories: Events, Plays
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.
As 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.
Written by Judith Thompson
Directed by Danielle Wilson
Designed by David Vivian
Lion in the Streets is a beautiful nightmare.
– Danielle Wilson, director
February 16, 2012 – 7:30 pm
February 17, 2012 – matinee 11:30 am AND 7:30 pm
February 18, 2012 – 7:30 pm
Adult $15 : Students/Seniors $12 : eyeGO $5 : Group Rates $10
Buy tickets at arts.brocku.ca
All DART Students receive ONE free ticket.
Lion in the Streets is a play in which the obsessions of the characters erupt forth in heightened, surreal and imagistic language. The young protagonist, a Portuguese immigrant to Toronto named Isobel, is a ghost in a purgatorial condition. She deftly moves in and out of critical, extreme moments in each of the characters lives while searching for the man who killed her seventeen years prior. Twentieth century music underscores the critical moments in these characters’ lives animated with contemporary movement inspired by dance company La La La Human Steps. This unique mixture complements and elucidates surreal moments while revealing Thompson’s brilliant, sparkling humor. The production embodies our contemporary quest for faith, truth, and a ‘state of grace’ while contending with the absurdity of daily life.
Lion in the Streets is written by award-winning Canadian Playwright Judith Thompson. Premiered at the Tarragon Theatre in 1990 the play won the Chalmers Outstanding New Play Award in 1991. Thompson’s plays embrace subconscious elements of human experience not often seen on stage, capturing audience’s attention across the country. Canadian theatre companies regularly perform her work, such as Soulpepper’s 2011 production of White Biting Dog at the Young Center in Toronto.Lion in the Streets continues to be one of Thompson’s most known and most popular plays. High School students will be confronted with daring subject matter which could provide context and relevance to their lives. The play explores themes of repressed violence and sexuality, the search for identity and the powerful nature of love and forgiveness. While the subject matter is dark, Thompson has crafted this exquisitely surreal play with moments of humor, hope and redemption or what she calls “moments of grace”.
Contemporary movement will be choreographed by Gerald Trentham, Artistic Director of Toronto’s Pounds Per Square Inch Performance company. Our production will showcase 8 second to fourth year Brock students, playing a total of 29 roles, with additional assistance from students studying the areas of production, stagecraft, design and directing.
With this production both Director Danielle Wilson and scenographer David Vivian look forward to honoring the wit and intelligence of our departed colleague, Dr Marlene Moser, a leading scholar of the oeuvre of Judith Thompson. Moser’s published thesis entitled “Postmodern Feminist Readings of Identity in selected works of Judith Thompson, Margaret Hollingsworth and Patricia Gruben” (Ph.D. Thesis, 1998. Graduate Center for Study of Drama University of Toronto) and the article “Identities of Ambivalence: Judith Thompson’s Perfect Pie” (Theatre Research in Canada, Volume 27 Number 1/ Spring 2006), explore themes of gender, narrative, identification of the subject and patriarchal abuse, dwelling upon their relationship to the stage, the language and how the audience will perceive them.
High School Teachers and Educators: please read this letter for detailed information about the production, curriculum ties, and student matinee booking.
Lion in the Streets: A Study Guide, is an introduction to our production, prepared by our Dramaturge and Third Year DART student, Erica Charles. Included are: 1) Collaboration, 2) Play Synopsis, 3) The Playwright: Judith Thompson, 4) Director’s Notes, 5) Designer’s Notes, 6) Isobel and her Lion, 7) Symbolism, 8) Images, 9) An Interview with Judith Thompson by Eleanor Wachtel, 10) Additional References, 11) List of Figures, 12) Endnotes and Bibliography.
Download your PDF copy of Lion in the Streets: A Study Guide
(PDF, 8.7 MB, remotely hosted)
Download a copy of the poster (PDF, 1 MB)
Buy tickets at arts.brocku.ca
“Dramatic Arts play explores the death of a young girl” – see the article in The Brock News
Danielle Wilson, David Vivian, Judith Thompson, Lion in the Streets, Mainstage, plays
Categories: Events, Plays
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!
Commotioneers From Laura Secord Secondary School created and performed “On the Line”, a play about violence on and off the internet. Photo: Ron Gonzalez, David Chanthilath, Sarah Lundrigan-Randall, Matt Willms, Nathan Hammerling, Alexandra Li Tomulescu, Danielle Lauzon, Lianna Wouda, Jenna Ahle, Tannar Smith, James Thompson and Tanisha Medford
Commotion is a tri-generational program that trains emerging Brock Graduates to create theatre and work with high school students in the surrounding community. The program is run by Gyllian Raby, a Brock professor and Pablo Felices Luna, the artistic director for Carousel Players youth theatre in St Catharines. In reaching out to the local youth, this program is a vital resource to identifying and teaching the relationship between the creative process and group dynamics for Brock’s emerging artists.
Twice a week, for a twelve week period, the students engage in high-octane, personal and inventive processes that lead towards devising a one-act play for public presentation. The groups alernate their creative strategies between four compass points of resource exploration, scored improvisation, evaluation of cultural assumptions and participation with their surrounding community. Community members from cross-disciplinary backgrounds provided feedback to the students and attempt to illuminate the expressive voice of the group presentation as a whole. As a crucial aspect to the program, this process aims to unfold the interests and concerns that are the common denominator of the group, rather than those proposed by external media.
The presentations were held at the Courthouse Theatre in St Catharines between December 8th and 10th and were a great success!
Gyllian comments, “In the last two weeks of the program, the COMMOTION team helps the groups ‘weave’ their material into a one-act plays and rehearse for the production. The fact that the play script arrives so late can be nerve-wracking, but the final production is made possible by the trust the participants develop in their work and in one another, as well as the professional artistic support by Carousel Players. The young people we have worked with have taught us a great deal about collaborative processes, ownership and creative practice. They have inspired us.”
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.
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