Articles tagged with: DART 4F56

  • Awkward and Uncomfortable

    Three interlocking stories explore how to survive the turbulence that washes over us when we question fundamental aspects of our identities. Is it better to find the answers to our secrets or to leave them locked away? And where is that elusive happy ending?

    More details:

    The Department of Dramatic Arts’ fourth-year production brings “Awkward and Uncomfortable” to a whole new level!

    An original performance by the fourth-year Devised Theatre class (DART 4F56) will be held on April 16, 17, and 18, 2015 at 7:30 pm, in the Studio Theatre (ST107) at Brock University.

    It is awkward and uncomfortable, but you’ll always have to deal with the two per cent of negative extremists.  If you’re an artist or you buck the trend of mainstream culture you’ll always be shouting out from the margins! How does one keep going when the struggle always comes looking for us? Answers are explored through spoken word, choreography and scenes that explore trust, relationships, and self-acceptance. Do we continue relationships when trust is unclear? Do we follow our future when those around us do not believe in it?

    Tracy is a construction worker who’s just been accepted by the guys, but it all falls apart. Diane and her partner have struggled to be accepted as a lesbian couple, and won, but suddenly her relationship seems empty. Carl has successfully completed his gender transition but his past comes back to bite him in a lawsuit that has unexpected consequences. This production by graduating students of Dramatic Arts’ devising class offers superhero guidance for the survival of the quirkiest at the Droopy Vine bar where all are welcome.

    Set designer Alanna Stewart has created a playful space inspired by Brazilian Favelas that displays the distressed urban world though graffiti and bright colours, a giant community piecing together against all odds. Costume designer Gina Greco, positions the characters as parts of the urban hierarchy through a clash of modern Toronto Queen West and Church Wellesley style, in order to present a beautiful slum, haute, and fantasy world.

    Professor and director Gyllian Raby guided the creative process drawing on her experience of creating new plays with One Yellow Rabbit and the RSVP process. Ensemble members include: Amanda McDonnell; Nick Leno; Kendra Neaves; Hayley Malouin;  Misha Harding; Michael Caccamo; Chloe Coyle;  Bri Lidstone; Nicola Franco; Rachel Romanoski; Katie Coseni;  Sean Rintoul; Marie Barros;  Emily Ferrier;  Maggi Robertson and Kate Croome.

    The DART 4F56 class is one where students work together collectively. Students use the knowledge they have accumulated throughout their four years of the Dramatic Arts program to create, build, and produce a collaborative piece that embraces the physical expressivity of Grotowski and LeCoq, action study from Stanislavsky, the performance clarity of Brechtian theories, and the work in voice, speech and spontaneity that grounds research and critical theory in human relations. A good theatre process takes awkward and uncomfortable to a whole new level!

    FOR TICKET RESERVATIONS: awkwardanduncomfortable@gmail.com
    Location: Room ST107 (Studio Theatre), Schmon Tower, Brock Campus.
    Admission: Donations accepted

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    Categories: Events, Plays

  • FRAGMENTOS

    April 11, & 12, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
    Matinee: Saturday, April 12th – 2pm

    It’s 1938 and in the fractured world left behind The Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War seizes the hopes and fears of the world as people unite and divide over the threat of Fascism. In Canada it is declared a crime to volunteer to fight in Spain, yet 1,546 Canadians make the illegal journey to fight for Democracy in the hopes of creating a better world. Fragmentos follows the journeys of 18 Canadians and Spaniards as they pursue their beliefs in the possibilities of a new life.

    Written by the students of DART 4F56, this ensemble production explores the creation of actor-created theatre incorporating circus, song, movement, dance and visual media.

    Location: Room ST107 (Studio Theatre), Schmon Tower, Brock Campus
    Admission: Donations Accepted

    This presentation is the culmination of 6-months of play development and rehearsal by our graduating Performance, and Production & Design Concentrations students
    Admission is first-come, first-seated.

    For more information: dramatic@brocku.ca or x5255

    Let us know you’re coming by joining our Facebook event.

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

    anacreoftimeApril 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.
    -30-

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  • Shadows of a Toymaker

    A new play starts April 11 in ST 103 “Black” at Brock University. The graduating students of DART 4F56 present the outcome of their year-long exploration in collective creation.

    April 11, 2012 – 7:00pm
    April 12, 2012 – 7:00pm
    April 13, 2012 – 7:00pm

    Shadows of a Toymaker is written and created by the graduating students of the Department of Dramatic Arts, Brock University, inspired by the gothic stories of writers Edgar Allen Poe and Angela Carter.  This play explores the fictitious lives of the toymaker Mattel and his family, exposing their bizarre methods of survival as they confront the monsters lurking in the darkness within themselves and each other. Come join the madness as we search for the light!

    This is the story of a house on a hill,
    A house full of secrets sure to make your blood chill.
    Nobody knows of what’s taken place,
    In this house full of misfits all fallen from grace.
    So take a peek inside these walls,
    As the door swings open and the curtain falls.
    For they are not enough to hide,
    All of the madness that takes place inside…

    Gather round everyone and open your ears,
    I will tell you a story to quiet your fears.
    We live in a world of darkness and sorrow,
    But we have to believe in a brighter tomorrow.
    Yes, there are monsters that live on this earth,
    There were monsters before that had given them birth.
    There have always been evils to put us to test,
    But there have always been people to put them to rest…

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