The Gathering Project Launches the 2014/2015 Theatre Season @ York

On Tuesday, September 15th, the Acting Conservatory, Devised Theatre, and MFA Theatre students came together in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre to perform the 27th annual Gathering Project. Rehearsals for this performance take place during the first week of classes, and the show only runs for one night. What is the Gathering Project?

Critically Kinaesthetic: Performing Bodied of Political Engagement

Critically Kinaesthetic: Performing Bodies of Political Engagement is the third annual York University Theatre & Performance Studies Graduate Student Symposium, in collaboration with the Graduate Programs in Dance and Dance Studies. This interdisciplinary symposium, running April 15–16, 2014, examines the body as both expressive, and generative, of political meaning. The symposium is presented in collaboration with the Performance Studies (Canada) Speaker Series, through which we welcome Erin Manning as keynote speaker with her talk on “Choreographing the Political”.

This Week: Scenes by Design 2014

Scenes by Design is showing this week in the Joseph G. Green Theatre in the Centre for Film and Theatre, with its opening on Weds. April 2nd at 11:30 a.m., and running as a gallery from April 2 – 5. See the work of Production and Design students from this year’s Theatre@York Season, and work from their classes in costuming, scene painting, life drawing, set, lighting and costume design.

Devised Theatre Festival 2014

The 4th year Devised Theatre class has been working all year to bring you 3 exceptional, completely devised theatrical pieces, in March 2014. The class of 30 has been split up into 3 theatre companies working towards creating their own individual show for the DTF. A 4th group, called the Meta Group, will be focusing on areas of Production, Hair and Makeup, Fundraising and Publicity, as well as providing fresh opinions to the companies, becoming an “outside eye”. The 3 companies are the afterimage collective, Theatre P.O.V, and Theatre Orenda.

For more information, see the DTF page.

Professor Peter McKinnon Awarded Golden Pen Award by USITT

The U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology has just announced that Peter McKinnon’s book World Scenography 1975-1990 has won the Golden Pen Award for 2013 as the most significant book on stage design and technology in the world last year. The award will be presented to him and his co-editor, Eric Fielding, in Fort Worth, Texas in March. And volume II will come out late this summer.

On Stage: The Stronger Variations

Director/creator and part-time faculty member Allyson McMackon (MFA Acting 1992), artistic director of Theatre Rusticle, revisits her crucially acclaimed and dynamically imaginative work. The Stronger Variations is an icily whimsical show inspired by August Strindberg’s 1888 playette, The Stronger. Following the musical structure of a “theme and variation,” the show offers viewpoints on what happens when a husband or wife meets their partner’s mistress or lover one Christmas Eve. Previews November 10 & 11, with evening shows Tues – Saturday Nov 12 – 16 at 7:30 p.m., and matinées Weds. Nov. 13 & Fri. Nov. 15 at 1:00 p.m. Box Office or call 416-736-5888.

York – Canadian Stage collaboration on Shakespeare in High Park a Huge Success

Featuring the work of our MFA in Stage Direction in collaboration with Canadian Stage students, Macbeth and The Taming of the Shrew drew all-time high record numbers of attendees. “We were doubly thrilled to share the directorial talents of Ker Wells and Ted Witzel” said Matthew Jocelyn, artistic & general director, Canadian Stage. Also, this week brings two new students to the program, Estelle Shook, former artistic director of Caravan Farm Theatre in BC, and Matjash Mrozewski, an internationally acclaimed ballet choreographer. For more on this story, see Canadian Stage’s Press Release.

Macbeth and Taming of the Shrew Now Playing in High Park

MFA directors Ted Witzel and Ker Wells have been busy at the High Park amphitheatre staging their productions of Shakespeare’s classic plays, which are a Canadian Stage production in collaboration with the Department of Theatre in the Faculty of Fine Arts. Macbeth opened July 3, while The Taming of the Shrew opened July 16. Shakespeare in the Park runs to September 1, with shows nightly at 8 pm. This pay-what-you-can event is one of Toronto’s favourite traditions. Read more about Canadian Stage’s Shakespeare in High Park. See our Macbeth or Taming of the Shrew a Image Galleries
on Flickr.