Articles tagged with: In the Soil

  • Much work to be done on live theatre’s road to recovery, says Brock prof

    Brock Dramatic Arts graduate Amanda McDonnell (BA ’15), who is part of the front of house team at the Shaw Festival, welcomed audiences back this summer. Photo credit: Michelle Mohammed. 

    THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2021 | by 

    After 17 months, the live theatrical experience is slowly making its return — but not without challenges ahead, says Brock theatre expert Karen Fricker.

    “Amidst the adversity that live performing arts have been faced with through the pandemic, a wonderful thing has happened this summer: the return of live theatrical performance, because it has been able to be outside,” says the Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Officer in Dramatic Arts (DART), who is an expert in theatre criticism, theatre theory and contemporary theatre.

    The Shaw and Stratford Festivals, two of Ontario’s most celebrated repertory companies, have been staging performances outdoors under canopies (tents with no walls) with mandatory masks for audiences in addition to capacity limits in accordance with provincial guidance. Both festivals are taking audience, artist and staff safety seriously, with COVID-19 protocols in place, says Fricker, who is also a theatre critic for the Toronto Star, writing about performances in the city as well as the Shaw and Stratford Festivals each summer.

    Although these outdoor performances do not come close to hosting the usual number of spectators, Fricker says this is a “big step in the right direction.”

    “Artists are being paid and creativity is happening,” she says, adding that while “innovative digital work has been heroic during the pandemic, experiencing live performances in a shared space is a joyous return.”

    Brock’s Dramatic Arts Department engages with the Shaw Festival in numerous ways, including the annual DART/Shaw internship and course-based experiences with Shaw artists and arts workers. A number of DART students and graduates work at the festival in front of house, producing and administration, and creative capacities.

    Seeing some of those familiar faces at Shaw this summer has been a particular highlight, Fricker says.

    While outdoor performances are a step in the right direction, Fricker says there is still more work to do. There will be limited live, in-person programming in the performing arts sector this fall, mainly due to unclear guidance from the provincial government around reopening, she says.

    In the early summer, the performing arts industry lobbied the government to address live performances in the official stages of reopening. Now that the performing arts have been included, companies have been able to plan. However, “you can’t just lift a theatre production off in a few weeks; you need a runway,” Fricker says.

    Colleen Smith, Executive Director of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (PAC) adjacent to Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, says the team at the PAC has experienced these challenges first-hand.

    “Never did any of us whose lives revolve around bringing together artists and audiences believe that we would witness the end of the age-old adage, ‘the show must go on,’” she says. “In fact, the show stopped for months at a time. It’s been an unbelievable period of disruption, heartache and loss of purpose for so many artists and arts workers.”

    Smith says that “buoyed by our partners at the City of St. Catharines and Brock University, as well as the support from our Board of Directors, we have used the first half of 2021 to develop a three-year recovery strategy that will place the PAC firmly within our community as a centre for creative and artistic experiences and learning.”

    The PAC is planning a gradual return, starting with the annual Celebration of Nations gathering, which will be in a hybrid format in September.

    Among the local theatre organizations taking important steps to make innovative work and engage the public in Niagara safely is the young people’s theatre company Carousel Players, which is focusing on new play development in August and September.

    “We are experimenting with a range of forms, including clown, puppetry and mask,” says Artistic Director and Brock graduate Monica Dufault (MA ’11). “We want to offer new pieces that are dynamic and theatrically alive when we meet our audiences again.”

    The company will present an outdoor performance, The Giant Puppet Party, for Culture Days in October, a new digital play for ages 12 to 17 called Meet Chloe starting in November, and a school touring production of The Velveteen Rabbit for ages four to seven in March 2022.

    Suitcase in Point, another St. Catharines-based theatre company, recently announced the launch of a reimagined In the Soil Arts Festival running Friday, Aug. 27 to Saturday, Sept. 25. The festival includes opportunities to see live, original theatre, new music, comedy acts, installations and participatory workshops. All-inclusive festival passes are available for purchase online.

    DART graduate Deanna Jones (BA ’02), the Artistic Director of Suitcase in Point and In the Soil, says the limits of the last 17 months have been a “unique test on our arts organization and the arts community at large.”

    “We knew this 13th edition of our annual In the Soil Arts Festival would be different, and we were determined to find inspired ways to get off of our screens and offer artists and audiences safe ways to connect — in person.”

    During In the Soil, artists from Essential Collective Theatre will be set up on James and St. Paul Street interviewing community members about their pandemic experiences. Working on this initiative are DART graduates Jordine de Guzman (BA ’20), Kristina Ojaperv (BA ’19) and Ren Reid (BA ’20). The project will culminate in the Pandemic Stories Project, a new play to be read at St. Catharines’ Culture Days in early October.

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Performance Season, Plays, Shaw Intern Blog, Uncategorised

  • Breaking the Silence at In the Soil

    (Source: The Brock News | Wednesday, May 03, 2018 by Matthew Melnyk)

    Students from Stamford Collegiate took to the stage at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre to present their original play, Breaking the Silence, as part of In the Soil Arts Festival on Friday, April 27. The public performance was sponsored by Brock University. The play — based on the stories of British Home Children who were torn from their families and sent to Canada for a ‘better life’ — earned Stamford the top prize at this year’s National Theatre School Drama Festival. Friday’s performance featured a quilt made up of historic photos of British Home Children.

    Stamford Collegiate at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. Seen l to r: Colin Anthes, BA (Honours) Dramatic Arts and Psychology, Minor in Philosophy, 2014; MA Philosophy (Contemporary Continental Philosophy), 2016; Certificate in Public Law (in process) is an alumnus of Stamford Collegiate, an instructor at the Department of Dramatic Arts, Artistic Director of Essential Collective Theatre and founder of Twitches & Itches Theatre; Angela Menotti, program leader of Drama at Stamford Collegiate; and Ethan Yando, who has a placement at Stamford Collegiate as he completes his BA (Honours) Dramatic Arts, Minor in English Language and Literature, BEd Teacher Education – Intermediate Senior in 2018.

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    Categories: Events, Future students, News, Plays

  • Dramatic Arts is Digging In The Soil

    Brock students, staff, alumni and volunteers brought downtown St. Catharines to life April 25-27, 2014 as the In The Soil festival once again took over the core for a weekend of creative arts, entertainment and more.

    The three-day multidisciplinary arts fest, now in its sixth year, kicked off Friday at 5 p.m. with a performance by the Woodshed Orchestra at the Festival Hub on St. Paul St. between James and Carlisle Streets, closed off to vehicle traffic.

    The annual showcase for Niagara’s budding creative arts scene expected to draw more than 400 artists and 5,000 attendees to the city for the three-day weekend festival.

    Check out the 2014 festival’s promo video here.

    “With more than 140 acts, artisans and installations to check out, this is truly a festival that celebrates and highlights the arts in Niagara and beyond,” says Sara Palmieri, Committee Chair for In The Soil.

    This year’s festival also included a 50-foot-high ferris wheel right on St. Paul St. – a first for the City of St. Catharines. Thrill–seekers caught glimpses of the adjacent Academic and Cultural Arts Centre and future home of Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts , both under construction for their 2015 opening.

    Other festival highlights included musical performances by Canadian hip-hop artist Buck 65; Billy Martin, drummer with the New York City-based jazz-funk trio Medeski Martin & Wood; and St. Catharines-based group Creature Speak.

    There was also live theatre and comedy such as Paper Song by Concrete Theatre group; The Dirty Cabaret III by St. Catharines theatre company Suitcase in Point; and The Al Borland Band or Tool Time Take Two by local artist Danny Fast.

    Not to mention art and photography installations around downtown like Adam CK Vollick’s Frame of Reference and a Vendor Bender marketplace, both at the Festival Hub. Just to name a few of the many things to see and do.

    Check out the full schedule at inthesoil.on.ca

    DART alumni and students involved with In the Soil in 2014 include Colin Bruce Anthes, Genevieve Bain, Stephanie Baxter, Brent Cairns, Edwin Conroy Jr., Miles Coverdale, Dawn Crysler, Brian Foster, Collin Glavac, Geoffrey Heaney, Nathan Heuchan, Saide Isaak, Deanna Jones, Katelyn Lander, Nicholas Leno, Bri Lidstone, Anna MacAlpine, Nathan Tanner MacDonald, Karen McDonald, Hayley Malouin, Dylan Mawson, Tanisha Minson, Erica Nauta, Kendra Neaves, Natasha Pedros,  Jonathan Phillips, Caitlin Popek, Rachel Romanoski, Marcus Schwan, Nicole Titus, Annie Wilson, among others.  Three new plays written by DART alumni and students were premiered: a-PIE-calypso NOW!!! by Geoffrey Heaney and Nathan Tanner Mac Donald, Onceadapted for the stage by Colin Bruce Anthes, and The After Year by Anna MacAlpine and Tanisha Minson.

    Dramatic Arts Students Hayley Malouin and Nick Leno blogged about the In the Soil Festival in a variety of formats (features, interviews, reviews, etc). You can find their posts at the DARTcritics blog http://dartcritics.com/ Be certain to check out their sign-off at dartcritics.com/2014/05/01/thats-a-wrap/

    In The Soil is produced by Suitcase in Point Theatre Company – whose artistic director Deanna Jones and general manager Annie Wilson are both alumnae of Brock’s dramatic arts program – with many community partners, sponsors and funders from all levels of government.

    Including content by Jeff Sinibaldi published in the article “Brock well represented at In The Soil downtown arts festival” by The Brock News.

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    Categories: Alumni, Current Students, News

  • Graduates of the Department of Dramatic Arts are on the boards again and this time they are playing IN THE SOIL.

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    The Clockmaker by Stephen Massicotte

    April 27 @ 8:00pm and April 28 @ 2:00pm
    Sullivan Mahoney  Courthouse Theatre 101 King Street,  St Catharines

    Tickets: $10 at the door
    Festival pass: $25 through inthesoil.on.ca

    Nathan Tanner MacDonald – Director
    Geoffrey Heaney – Performer
    Dylan Mawson – Performer
    Michael Pearson – Performer
    Caitlin Popek – Performer
    Kate Hardy – Stage Manager
    Finn Archinuk – Designer

    Nathan Tanner Mac Donald – a resident of the St Catharines and recent graduate of the Department of Dramatic Arts – has brought together a company of DART students to present The Clockmaker by Stephen Massicotte.  A metaphysical rollercoaster, The Clockmaker may seem like little more than a love story set inside a murder-mystery-to-be, but it just might end up exposing the very truth of existence itself. The show will be performed April 27 @ 8:00pm and April 28 @ 2:00pm at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre in downtown St Catharines.

    Nathan recently performed in the 2011 STRUTT wearable art show and this past summer he wrote and directed Circus, which played at Factory Theatre in the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival. Nathan’s company includes graduates and Geoffrey Heaney, Dylan Mawson, Michael Pearson, Caitlin Popek as Performers, current student Kate Hardy as Stage Manager and graduate Finn Archinuk as the Designer.

    In the Soil Arts Festival brings Niagara artists from a range of disciplines together to provide unique audience experiences. The festival nurtures the creation of new work, showcases talent, encourages innovation, offers learning opportunities for youth and provides intimate and uncommon platforms for audiences to experience work by contemporary performing and literary artists, musicians and media artists. In the Soil is Niagara’s homegrown arts festival and is working to make a Niagara that is self-determining and culturally distinct.

    for more information see the IN THE SOIL website.

    Break-a-leg, Nathan, Caitlin, Dylan, Finn, Geoffrey, Kate and Michael!

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    Categories: Alumni, Current Students, Events, News, Plays

  • In the Soil: Niagara’s Homegrown Arts Festival 2010

    in-the-soil_logo_tag-web225

    DART students, graduates, and faculty participated in the second annual In the Soil: Niagara’s Homegrown Arts Festival. The festival featured 70 events in 11 venues in St. Catharines and area.

    Click on the logo for more information.

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