Spotlight on Faculty: Professor Emeritus Don Rubin

January 15, 2014

Spotlight on Faculty: Professor Emeritus Don Rubin

By Yvonne Maendel
Don RubinDon Rubin

Don Rubin is a professor, critic, Canadian theatre historian, and editor. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rubin began his artistic journey at the famous High School of Performing Arts  (the inspiration for the film and TV series, Fame.) He began working as a theatre critic at the age of 16 for Show Business Newspaper and later Backstage Magazine in New York City. After university and graduate work, he became a journalist and arts critic with the New Haven (Connecticut) Register. He came to Canada in 1968 to become a theatre critic for the Toronto Star and CBC radio . That same year, he started teaching at York and helped write the initial curriculum for the about to be born Department of Theatre.

A Chair of the Department for three years (the first faculty member to complete a full term in that office), he later co-founded York’s MA and PhD programs in Theatre Studies. Along the way he helped create the York Theatre Journal, which later became the quarterly Canadian Theatre Review, edited an international theatre encyclopedia and put together a standard text in the field called Canadian Theatre History: Selected Readings (used in York’s THEA 3200 course).

Outside of York, Rubin is the President of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association  and a member of the executive Board of the Unesco-affiliated International Association of Theatre Critics. He is an active member of the Editorial Board of a new webjournal, Critical Stages, and has lectured in more than two dozen countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.  In the following interview Rubin discusses his recent work, including issues such as the changing nature of theatre criticism, his recent controversial conference on the Shakespeare Authorship Question, and reveals some of his personal heroes in the areas of playwriting and theatre criticism. The interview was done in November 2013.

What is a typical year for you? Teaching. Travelling? Writing?

There is no typical year. They are all so different. But with that said, 2013 I guess is typical in many ways.  The core is here at York, teaching courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Usually it’s two courses on Canadian theatre history – my central area of research. Then it’s a choice between courses on criticism or African Drama or on Shakespeare: The Authorship Question, a more recent research interest.  This year I taught the Shakespeare course as part of my loading.

I also wrote a lot last winter.  I have been taking the winter term off to write, something I am continuing to do. In May, my wife (York poet, theatre critic and Creative Writing Prof. Patricia Keeney) and I were invited to teach at Ain Shams University in Cairo, one of Egypt’s oldest and largest universities. York has had an exchange program with Ain Shams for several years and one or two of their grad students have come here annually and studied in Theatre or English. We’d been invited to go to Ain Shams several times and it just worked out for May. I taught Contemporary Canadian Theatre and Criticism, and my wife gave poetry readings in Cairo and several lectures on teaching creative writing (not done in Egypt) and women in literature.

How did you find Egypt politically at that time?

We found the country in a tremendously polarized state—about a third of the people hated the government, about a third of the people loved the government and the other third were waiting to see how things would turn out, ready to move with the tide. So wherever you went, whoever you spoke to, the conversation was about the government. It was clear something was going to blow up, and about two weeks after we came home, boom, it blew up. We were not surprised but we were disappointed at the timing. We were in the process of proposing a university-wide student and faculty exchange with Ain Shams, but with another revolution going on – and it’s still going on — that had to be postponed.  We’re hoping though that an opportunity will present itself in the not-too-distant future to reopen it all.

Do you still work as a critic?

In a general sense, yes. I do a lot of freelance writing and I also serve as the President of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association, a national association that deals with issues relating to criticism. The reality of being a critic has changed a lot.  When I began, there were hundreds of people in the English-speaking world able to make livings as critics.  But no more. In Canada, there are only about six or eight people who make their livings today as full-time critics. Many teach to survive or do freelance work. Then there are the dozens and dozens who just put out their opinions in the blogosphere. Some have credentials but many don’t. Are they all critics? The CTCA has been monitoring this issue through public and private debates. It’s certainly not just a Canadian issue. The International Association of Theatre Critics, a Unesco-related agency, has also been involved in these changes and other professional issues. As the Canadian President I am a member of the IATC’s Executive and represent Canada at the international meetings. This year I have been to IATC meetings in Romania and Sweden. IATC also publishes a free webjournal (well worth looking at online)  called Critical Stages. I’m on the Editorial Board for that as well. So the CTCA and the IATC keep me fairly busy and travelling a lot.

Can you speak a bit about your Shakespeare Conference? It was controversial.

Absolutely.  In October, I chaired an international conference supported by York and the University of Guelph on what is called the Shakespeare Authorship Question. Who really wrote the plays? Could the name Shakespeare have been a pseudonym? We thought we were just doing an academic conference and no one would pay attention. But the Globe and Mail said that we as academics had no right to ask such questions and attacked the conference and everyone connected with it.  My co-key organizer at Guelph was Sky Gilbert, the man who started Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. He too was attacked in these articles. We had over a hundred scholars in from all over the world to give papers on the subject and to participate in the discussions. Most were sophisticated people making sophisticated scholarly enquiries. Many of them were quite shocked by the Globe’s attacks. One of the attacks even began on the paper’s front page. That was unfortunate in one way but such publicity was far from bad for an academic conference. Most such events are totally ignored.  The tone of the attacks though was unfortunate.  It suggested that the academy should not deal with such a question. I guess no one told me that certain issues were officially off-limits to scholars. There seems to be real terror for many people in this one. What if it turns out that the man from Stratford was not the real author? I find it odd that so many people in English departments just want to put their heads in the ground on the subject, make believe the questions don’t exist or attack those asking the questions instead of entering into real debate. Even some of our so-called Shakespeare experts from York’s own English Department attacked us. But I was very proud of the fact that both the Theatre Department and York’s English Department actually made financial contributions to the conference. And it was a success in the end despite the rants in the Globe.

Why are you not supposed to speak about it?

It’s like discussing religion for some people.  You’re not supposed to question someone’s faith.  But in the academic world you can question facts and that’s the area that is being examined. For example, is there a paper trail showing that the man from Stratford was a writer? And the more you dig, the more you realize that there is no such trail. Apparently he never wrote a letter or even owned a book. That’s odd. The fact is that the man from Stratford was essentially a businessman, a producer in today’s sense. He was probably the front man for whoever did write the plays and he obviously made a lot of money on fronting for those plays. In fact, he never claimed to have written them nor did any of his descendants. I’ve done a course at York twice now on this subject.  I present evidence and let the students make up their own minds. This year, 90 per cent of the class chose someone else as the author.

Is there significant evidence of non-authorship?

A huge amount. I can’t speak about much of it here but let me tell you that York just purchased a film, done for PBS by two filmmakers in the States called, Last Will and Testament. It’s an absolutely brilliant film on this question. We premiered it at the conference. If you see this film, at the very least, at the end of it, you will say, “I have doubt.”  It’s available to view through York’s Sound and Moving Image library.

How did you go from wanting to be an actor to being an academic?

That’s always baffled me too. I started my life wanting to go into the theatre but I found ultimately that I enjoyed writing about the theatre more than I enjoyed actually performing. I got into criticism for a New York trade publication when I was 16, and I’ve been writing professionally about the theatre ever since.  That’s over 50 years. I started as a professional critic in New Haven, where a lot of new plays tried out before going on to Broadway. I enjoyed daily criticism.

How did you wind up in Canada?

As a grad student, my interest was in the new regional theatre system that was evolving across North America. On a number of occasions at conferences on this subject, I met a strange but wonderful man who was also interested in the same idea. His name was Nathan Cohen and he was the theatre critic for the Toronto Star. On a couple of occasions after a meeting he said to me, “There is a lot of theatre activity in Toronto these days, why don’t you come to Toronto and be my back up”? And at one point I finally said “Okay”.  At the same time York was just setting up its Theatre Department. The first person hired was Joe Green, and Joe was looking for people to teach certain courses the following year. In this case, Joe wanted the best theatre critic in the country – so he went to Nathan Cohen. Cohen told him, though, “I am not a teacher, I’m not a professor, I’m not a scholar, but I have this young guy named Rubin, whose done graduate work and some teaching. If you hire him I’ll come in and do some guest lectures”  So Joe hired me, and Nathan came in and did a number of lectures. He was a fascinating but really idiosyncratic speaker.  He’d often end his lectures with something totally outrageous.  Then lots of hands would go up, and he would say, “well I can’t stay around so Don will answer your questions.” A real learning experience for me as a teacher. I learned how to dance really quickly.

Who are your favourite playwrights?

The great modernists  — Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov. I love the very early plays of Ibsen and the very late plays of Ibsen. He was experimenting with form then. He was writing dreams, feelings, ideas. He wrote a ten-act play at one point called Emperor and Galilean.  He knew it would be totally impossible to put on. Peer Gynt and Brand are also huge that way. They are sister plays. Why did he write such long plays. Well he believed they would never be staged, so he just wrote and wrote and it didn’t matter how crazy they got. I love those plays as I love his very late plays like Hedda Gabler and When We Dead Awaken. Recently I saw a production in Europe of Hedda Gabler with five actresses playing Hedda simultaneously. Each Hedda had yards of hair trailing across the stage, tangling, twisting, moving. It was quite brilliant.

I also love a lot of the writing of Strindberg, plays like The Stronger and Miss Julie. I find his work fascinating.  His late work went totally away from Naturalism into a kind of Expressionism. My ultimate favourite play, however, is Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, a play usually butchered in production. I am not sure why but people seem to think that doing a Chekhov play or even seeing a Chekhov has to be like doing penance for a sin. “I  have to suffer and I am going to be in pain.” That’s not Chekhov. He created a whole new form of theatre—tragi-comedy. And the tragedy only works when you are laughing just as the comedy only works when you are crying.  It’s a doubleness and very hard to achieve in production. If people start out by saying, “This is a tragedy”, as Stanislavski himself did, the comedy won’t ever come through and there is a huge amount of it in Chekhov, especially in Cherry Orchard. If the production only exists on one level. It’s difficult to sit through. Chekhov was basically a very optimistic man, and he actually made a lot of money early in his life sending jokes into the Russian equivalent of Playboy magazine. I love The Cherry Orchard but, as I’ve suggested, it’s a play I usually dread seeing because that balance between comedy and tragedy is rarely there. I’ve seen some great productions of it, but I have seen many more terrible productions of it.

Any favourite Canadian playwrights?

I think one of the most under recognized playwrights in this country is Michael Cook. He’s a Newfoundland writer of extraordinary grace and power. He’s written in a variety of styles from one-person plays to sweeping epics that only the Stratford Festival could do. I believe that his work will be found again and that it will be produced widely. I also think a lot of George Ryga’s work. He wrote more than a dozen plays. Many have been almost totally ignored. They need to be rediscovered. In more contemporary terms, I like a lot of the work that Judith Thompson has done, particularly her early work. Some of Morris Panych’s work is quite brilliant as is a lot of Daniel Macivor’s work. In Quebec I find the work of Wajdi Mouwad really powerful.

Who were your models as a critic?

There are two—Eric Bentley and Robert Brustein. Both spent most of their careers moving between the academic world and professional criticism. Bentley taught at Columbia mostly; Brustein at Yale and Harvard. Bentley’s writing helped define modern drama. He was the one who first anthologized so much of what we think of today as the modern canon—Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Pirandello, Brecht.  He was also the person who first translated Brecht into English, who promoted Brecht in the English-speaking world. He was also a working critic early on. His writings on the nature of criticism really inspired me. He’s in his 90s now and he is still fighting.

Robert Brustein was a more direct inspiration for me. When I was a theatre critic in New Haven, Brustein was Dean of the Yale Drama School. I got to know him fairly well and he got to know my writing and he commented positively on it. That really helped me grow as a critic. I also watched him turn a rather moribund theatre department at Yale back into a world level theatre school. Under Brustein, it became a professional conservatory inside a university. They did some amazing work. He kept the same model when he moved to Harvard. The conservatory there is connected to Brustein’s company, the American Repertory Theatre (ART).  He was also critic for The New Republic magazine  in the States, and through his critical writing he helped redefine the American theatre and set an extraordinarily high standard for theatre criticism. He is also one of the great stylists as a critic and one of the great theatre thinkers, especially in the realms of modern theatre, and the relationship between theatre and society.

When you began your career here at York in the late ‘60s, did you ever envisage being here for five decades?

Not at all. I envisaged being in academe more like five years. When I started here in 1968, I was young and brash, determined to change the world. I really thought I would be here for a few years and then head back to the profession as a writer and critic.  But what York wanted back then was people who were actually working in the profession as their core faculty in each area. It was a very accommodating place and I was very excited by what I saw in those first years. Early on, the department encouraged several of us to start our own outlet for theatre criticism so that kept me around. We called it the York Theatre Journal  and it continued for about 15 years. The Scott Library has the whole run.  It contains some amazing stuff including interviews with people who were around here as visitors—Richard Schechner, Jan Kott,  Martin Esslin, Jerzy Grotowski, Arnold Wesker, George Ryga, Michael Cook. YTJ was the basis for the quarterly journal, Canadian Theatre Review, which was started in 1974 by myself and Ross Stuart. The opportunity to publish a journal for the profession kept me around even longer. And suddenly I sort of evolved into an academic. No one was more surprised than me about that. No one is more surprised than I am that I wound up being here as long as I have. I tell people who ask that I have been here since the beginning of time. But I have always loved the interaction with the students and the opportunities that the department gave me to write, to edit, to speak about the theatre in this country and around the world. It has been a wonderful and satisfying career for me. But York is changing and the department is changing and I know that it is time for me to move on to other things

Like what?

I do a lot of guest lectures at other universities.  I enjoy that.  The day that Fall classes end, for example, I am getting on a plane and going to Prague to lecture at Charles University  for two weeks. I am teaching in a graduate course they are doing there on Canadian theatre history. I am also supposed to lecture for the Czech association of theatre critics on the changing nature of theatre criticism as we move into the blogosphere and give another lecture for the Czech theatre research society on the World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre, a six volume series I did for Unesco here at York between 1985 and 2000. I will be discussing changes in research methodologies and the like. My wife will  also be giving some readings for their English Department.

Any new writing projects?

A few. I am putting together a volume of my collected essays on the Canadian theatre. I’ve been asked to do a memoir of my life in world theatre. I have a book of essays that I want to put together on Canadian playwrights like George Ryga, Michael Cook and Beverley Simons.  I am also working on a history of theatre criticism. I probably have more projects than years left to complete them, but I am going to give it a shot. I retire in two years. I’ll have even more time then.  At the moment, with all the teaching, my years are fairly crowded and a bit too busy sometimes.

Spotlight on Alumni: Coyote Collective

January 13, 2014

Spotlight on Alumni: Coyote Collective

Coyote Collective’s Like a Generation Coyote Collective’s Like a Generation

We are Susannah Mackay (SM), Eric Welch (EW), Blue Bigwood-Mallin (BBM), and Max Tepper (MT) of Coyote Collective. Coyote Collective was formed in 2012 by some upstart now-graduates of the Acting Conservatory and Creative Ensemble streams of York University’s Theatre Program.

Since its inception, Coyote Collective has become known for interweaving physical theatre with acerbic black comedy and clear narrative story-telling. Coyote’s flagship production Like A Generation [IndieGoGo Trailer] combined the pressing social disparity and restlessness of urban youth with TV cotton-candy entertainment, and led to a sold-out run. Since then, Coyote has gone on to create works with established Canadian creation company Clay & Paper Theatre, and interned with Canadian Theatre superstars VideoCabaret.

Up next, Coyote Collective is working on the premier of a new work: Labour, which runs from February 5th – 9th, 2014 at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. Labour will excavate the lives and working conditions of young, warehouse day-labourers as they try to control a life that seems to offer them no choices but to work as hard and as much as possible.

What was the most valuable thing you learned while studying in Theatre at York?

SM –  I believe the most valuable thing that I learned at York was to listen. Before studying at York and beyond, I was eager to fill space, silence and stillness with anything. I was constantly dispersing and expending energy. But my time at York taught me to listen; to my peers, to myself, to my teachers. It was a valuable lesson that I am still learning in full.

Labour Poster Coyote Collective’s Labour

If you had the chance to go back and visit your younger self as you were beginning at York, what advice would you give yourself?

MT – First, do the work that is asked of you by your professors, but remember who you are as you develop as an artist. Remembering that is what will make your craft special and unique.

BBM –  I went into York with the hopes of being an actor for film and TV. However I found a love for directing and writing, as well as acting and was exposed to so many facets of the art form that I didn’t know existed. What surprises me most about myself was the radical change of my goals and how much happier I became with the work. I went into York in the mindset that working in theatre was only a stepping stone to becoming recognized and I left with a thousand questions and a profound love for the work itself.

Did connections, friendships, relationships you made at York help you afterward?

MT – Absolutely. I was in the conservatory program, but my friendship with those in the creative ensemble and production program allowed me the confidence to create my own work, to study new ways to develop my craft. Also the faculty! Eric Armstrong has always been a strong and reliable resource. I have always been able to turn to him for audition advice, including practice for a ‘deaf voice’ that was needed for a Canadian Stage audition. Gwen Dobie was the faculty supervisor for Coyote’s first presentation of work (which we did before graduating and thus needed a faculty supervisor.) and she was a great person to talk to before and after we moved down to Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace.

EW –  It’s our friendship that has brought us together and that keeps us working with each other.  There are days where it allows us to attack the work with vigour and camaraderie that is unique and powerful.  In that regard it can make this work easier.  However, if you are going to be working in this social setting you have to be able to juggle the friendship with the professionalism that is required to do the work.  Keeping this balance comes with ease most days, but every once in a while you need to hash things out with fisticuffs.

What was one thing you enjoyed about York that was outside of the Theatre?

SM –  I took an amazing course outside of my major, called Topographies of the Human Imagination. It was a course focused on fantasy in literature, both ancient and contemporary and was taught by a professor and teaching assistants that were truly passionate. Neither my time in tutorial nor lecture was what stimulated me the most, but it was the amazing pieces of fiction that I was exposed to. So many of the books, short stories and poems that are now favourites of mine were introduced to me in this class.

Can you tell us a story of a moment where your training at York was clearly useful?

Coyote Collective Coyote Collective

EW –  Grant writing.  Theatre Management is an invaluable class because of this.  Every student in the theatre program should take it.  Peter McKinnon gives you a crash course, but if you want to crash with a grant it’s best to do it in school before it really counts.  Fellow theatre artists from different institutes frequently seem to be shocked that this is a part of our formal training, so don’t pass it by!  

SM – When our young company began planning the first steps toward our first professional production, (Like A Generation, 2013) the practical skills many of us learned in Theatre Management became incredibly useful and relevant. Knowing how to accurately create a budget or write a concise yet compelling artistic statement was integral to attracting the attention of audiences and those in the position to bestow money or press on your little project.

What did you NOT get taught at York that you wish you had been taught? 

SM –  I wish that there had been more of an emphasis on discipline and endurance. One of my most dedicated professors, Allyson MacMackon, provided my class a taste of the discipline and passion that is needed to sustain the long, slow process of creation. It requires a self-knowledge and discipline that is touched upon, but not reinforced in class.

BBM –  And discipline in pacing yourself. Upon my graduation, I pursued three shows that were all opened within weeks of each other. In my mind this was a good idea because I would get a sense for being a working actor and also get my name out there. In practice this was incredibly draining. You should pace yourself, get your life in order and only go after projects that you are passionate about so that you can give it your full attention and get the most of the experience.

MT – Theatre at York doesn’t teach you how to perform the sexual act of coitus with a prop on stage. In our previous show Like A Generation, a scene called for Eric to have sex with a television screen. It was a very bold choice that he and the director came to together, and they stood by it. I, however, always questioned the necessity of the scene. But more recently, I saw TheatreRun’s performance of The Double [NOW review] presented by Tarragon, in which the protagonist Golyadkin has sexual relations with his lover, who just so happens to be an up-right bass in the production. Seeing an established actor on a mainstage such as Tarragon embrace the hilarity and bravery of the sex-with-inanimate-object was inspiring, and that Eric’s performance with his television screen was just something that we had to learn how to do on your own.

Spotlight on Alumni: Claire Armstrong

December 30, 2013

Spotlight on Alumni: Claire Armstrong

Claire Armstrong Claire Armstrong

I am a graduate of the Creative Ensemble stream, which is now known as the Devised Theatre program.  Since graduating, some of the most exciting work I’ve done was with The Classical Theatre Project.  I was a company member for two years, playing lead roles in Shakespeare productions and performing for thousands of high school students.  It was invigorating to be a part of many students’ first live experience of Shakespeare.  Working with this company also helped me meet and work with a number of new artists and develop connections that are still very strong in my personal and artistic life.

I am currently working with the Red One Theatre Collective, a cutting-edge indie theatre company in Toronto.  The biggest project I’ve worked on since graduating would be my most recent one: I just finished producing and acting in a professional production of After Miss Julie, a play by Patrick Marber that I actually read in my final year at York.  When I read it, I told myself that one day I would produce it, and now 8 years later I finally did.  Self-producing is, I think, something that every artist should do at some point.  It is important to pick a project that you care about, and to work with artists that you respect and admire.  Self-producing requires an enormous amount of work, but it is also incredibly rewarding.  After your first time producing, you feel like you can take on anything.  It is also a great way to put yourself out there to the industry, and to show that you are serious about making theatre.

After Miss Julie, with Claire Armstrong Claire Armstrong in After Miss Julie

What was the most valuable thing you learned while studying in Theatre at York?

The most valuable skill I was taught was how to articulate my thoughts and critiques of theatre. As a student in the Devised Theatre stream, we were required to give feedback about our colleagues’ work.  Developing the skill of voicing concise, clear and useful criticism helped me to understand how I can continue to make my own work better and challenge myself to strive for more.

I would also say that a very important thing I learned was to play.  There is no such thing as perfection, and lots of the work you do will be a work-in-progress, constantly developing.  I enjoyed being able to try new things, some of which would be successful and some of which would fail.   I felt that I was in a safe, encouraging environment, and that was very valuable to me.

The company of After Miss Julie The company of After Miss Julie

What was the most challenging aspect or experience of training/studying at York?

Honestly, the most challenging thing was reminding myself to stay healthy and sleep enough.  This may sound like a no-brainer, but with the amount of creating, rehearsing, studying and writing papers that I was juggling, it is so important to treat my body well and sleep. 

What is your fondest memory of studying Theatre at York?

Spending time in the studios.  My friends and I loved to rent a studio for a couple of hours and just play around with things, whether it was movement, text, singing or physical theatre.  This is how we got a lot of our ideas for solo pieces or group projects, and where we had some of the most fun.

Do you have any advice or tips for York students just entering the dept.?

Allow yourself to be in development.  Try not to worry too much about what you will do when you get out, or how to get ahead of the game while you’re still in school.  Theatre school is a place to explore and grow without the pressures of auditions, agents, joe-jobs, and all the other things that will fill your plate later on.  Take advantage of free studio space and take every opportunity to try new things as an artist.  This is the place to try it, and it will help you understand more about what you’d like to explore when you graduate.  Enjoy this time!

Remember that you can always talk to your professors. They are here to help you and guide you, and they have a wealth of knowledge and experience.  Don’t be afraid to ask for advice or help.

Lastly: BE PROUD OF YOURSELF.  Sometimes the pressure of grades, evaluations, deadlines and meetings can be overwhelming, and while it’s important to always challenge yourself to do your very best, also take the time to recognize your hard work, and to be proud of it.

Do you have any advice or tips for York students just about to graduate? About to join the job market?

See theatre.  See as much of it as you can, both in the mainstream and indie scenes.  It will help you make connections and join a community.  It is about marketing and networking, but it’s just as much about having a community of artists that you respect and like spending time with.  People you want to create with.  This will help you feel confident about what you have to offer as an artist, and will also provide lots of opportunities to make your own work. Joining a studio or a workshop group is also a great way to become part of a community.

On a second note, remember that having other interests will help you continue to be the best artist you can be.  By that I mean: indulge your interests outside of theatre, learn about other things.  This will remind you of the other parts of yourself, and will make your work even more well-rounded.  Sometimes it can be easy to feel as if your whole life revolves around the industry.  Thinking constantly about your career can turn your life into a bit of a pressure-cooker, so allow yourself the space to decompress. 

A great way to do this is to travel.  Take trips, experience other cultures and places in the world.  Some of the most interesting work I have seen or created was inspired by experiences I’ve had outside of my life here in Toronto.

Did connections, friendships, relationships you made at York help you afterward?

Yes! It is so useful to stay in touch with the people you went to school with—they are your strongest link when you first graduate, and it makes the transition less daunting if you have friends and colleagues around you that are going through the same things.  I have worked with a number of Yorkies since graduating, and it is exciting and fulfilling to be creating with the people who knew me in my early years as an artist.

After Miss Julie from Red One Theatre Collective on Vimeo.

Spotlight on Alumni: Bryan Demore

November 8, 2013

Spotlight on Alumni: Bryan Demore

Bryan Demore Bryan Demore

After producing a successful run of Saved by Edward Bond at the 2011 Toronto Fringe, I was homesick for some elevation. I decided to move back to my home base of Vancouver to reconnect with my family and the arts community out there. The past couple of years have allowed me to travel to Central America, London, Paris and build a new network in Vancouver as I develop my production company, a lasting dose productions.

Bryan Demore in Just Living Bryan Demore in Just Living.

Recently I finished completing a short film called Just Living. This was based off of a poem by Patrick Lane (patricklane.ca) who is a writer I have admired, and he was gracious enough to grant us the rights to his work. It was an eye-opening experience as I was producing, co-directing, acting as co-lead, and loading a cube van of equipment every night. What I learned from previous experiences, producing fringe shows, hanging lights at York and classes with John Greyson, helped me wear a dozen hats on set.

Currently, I am in rehearsals for our production of Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh at Oz Studios (November 20-December 1). Tickets can be found here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/501525. York students can get in through Surprise Surprise vouchers.

Bryan Demore and in Disco Pigs Bryan Demore and Claire Burns in Disco Pigs.

What was your favourite place at York, and why?

I really dig the Joe Green. I think its my ideal size for a black box and reminds me a lot of the black boxes in the UK. Its very transformative and I have really fond memories of working on it as an usher in my first year, as well as doing Table Talk with Ross Manson and Marat Sade with Leah Cherniak. I think it is still a great canvas for young designers and creators to find new ways to allow a story to connect to an audience.

Bryan Demore in Smackhead Peter Bryan Demore in …Smackhead Peter

What did you do for the first summer out of the program?  

I was extremely lucky to get cast in a Summerworks show called The Sad and Cautionary Tale of Smackheaded Peter. Heather Davies (MFA 2009) cast me in the lead that had a lot of challenges thrown my way: surreal text, UK dialect, and working with a larger cast. She basically mentored me and gave me a boot camp in the real world of theatre after being fresh out of York. Her experience coming from the UK is incredible and I still pull nuggets of gold from a lot of the advice she gave me.

Did connections, friendships, relationships you made at York help you afterward?

Absolutely. I am in Toronto this month 'cause I have wanted to work with Matthew Thomas Walker (MFA 2009) for a couple of years. So those connections are what makes York a great place to study. Especially for the undergrad program. You are connected to a group of mentors to work with in the graduate program who have so much to share and to work with them after York is an incredible opportunity. The grads come in having careers, are developing work in the summer, and to connect with them is a bonus.

Do you have any advice or tips for York students just about to graduate or about to join the job market?

Learn how to hustle. If you still don't know how to find someone who is good at this aspect of the industry and learn the art of hustling. Waiting for jobs is just not an option: you need learn the business side and how to break through some doors. I think self-producing is a worthwhile venture if you are not booked and learning how to develop projects is a huge learning curve. Find some like-minded individuals and create something.

The development of technology right now is moving so fast and the resources to create art that can help fund, distribute your project independently is incredible. Take social media courses, learn graphic design and keep finding ways to manage your art in the most positive reinforcing way for your career.

Spotlight on Alumni: Owais Lightwala

October 30, 2013

Spotlight on Alumni: Owais Lightwala

Owais Lightwala Owais Lightwala

Owais Lightwala (BFA Theatre 2012) is Artistic Producer at Why Not Theatre, and has also worked as a technician, lighting designer, graphic designer, and sometimes as a Dora-nominated actor. He's done a lot and achieved a lot in his first year out of the program! He shares his point of view on opportunities for recent grads, and for new students to York, too.

Owais Lightwala at the opening for Dear Liar Owais Lightwala at the opening for Dear Liar

Right about the same time as I was finishing my last assignments at York in April 2012, I got involved as a producer on a fairly large international presentation by an independent theatre company called Why Not Theatre. Until that point, I had only ever produced a fringe show and mostly worked as a technician, lighting designer, graphic designer, and sometimes actor. The project involved two shows from India, one in English and one in Urdu, two major celebrities from Bollywood in the cast, and the opening of a brand new space in Regent Park, all on a shoestring independent budget. [see Mooney on Theatre's review of Dear Liar.—ed.] Leading that project, I basically got a 6 month intensive crash course in producing and ended up selling out both shows.

Since then, I've become the company's Artistic Producer, which translates to being the lead on the “business” side of operations, and I led the company's formal establishment as a non-profit organization, including a board of directors, applied (and successfully received 2 out of 3 levels) for operating funding and have been writing endless grants and budgets for our upcoming season of touring, presenting, producing and more.  As a result of my experiences in producing and marketing culture for the South Asian community, I also began working as a consultant for other organizations looking to reach a more diverse audience. Our clients so far include Small World Music (a world music presenter), Canadian Stage (one of Canada's largest theatre organizations), and Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (a Pan Asian film festival).

When I'm not working my primary job as a producer, I continue working and training as an artist, and earlier this year I assistant directed for Daniel Brooks on Race (Canadian Stage) and acted in a show by Jordan Tannahill called rihannaboi95 (for which I was nominated for a Dora). So it's been a busy year since getting out of school!

What was one thing you enjoyed about York that was outside of the Theatre?

I absolutely adored my philosophy electives. At one point I considered making it a minor, but it was too much more work (and crew takes a lot of time!) and would have meant I couldn't take other electives that I was interested in, like economics. In retrospect, a lot of “theatre school” felt like working in an apprenticeship program, whereas it was my electives that felt more like “university”, by which I mean the learning was much more academic and formal. The philosophy courses in particular really opened up my vision and horizons as an artist and as a person, and taught me how to (attempt to) be a rigorous and thorough thinker. I've had the privilege of working with quite a few people who I consider to be great thinkers, and the common thread amongst all of them is a highly developed ability to conceptualize and articulate complex ideas and arguments in a way that makes sense to anyone.

Do you have any advice or tips for York students just entering the dept.? 

I would repeat advice that was given to me when I started York, and that is be open to everything. Become Jim Carrey from that movie Yes Man, where he says Yes to every opportunity that comes his way. Whatever it is, however new, dive in and commit 100%. I had no idea what I wanted to do or be when I was starting out, and every great opportunity and gig that has come my way has been a direct result of me pursuing some other seemingly less glamorous opportunity. Yes, sometimes taking risks will mean falling flat on your face, but those experiences are just as important to your growth as the ones where you soar.

Do you have any advice or tips for York students just about to graduate? about to join the job market?

People like to hire people they know. I have yet to get a single gig, job or part because of a resume, application or auction. I worked my way into the right circles by showing up everywhere, and being the first to raise my hands whenever a volunteer was needed for anything. Ultimately, I want to hire the person who is most likely to show up and get the job done, and the easiest way to demonstrate that is by making a habit of asking to help and then showing up. This also ties in with the “yes man” attitude and not showing up with a narrow mind and closed definition of who you are and what you do. The hardest part is getting in the door, doing anything, and once you are in it is a lot easier to figure out what you want to do.

What did you learn at York that has been of greatest value?   

The importance of time management. And by time management I mean learning how to plan properly so that you have enough time to deliver on all your commitments (on schedule), eat properly, pay rent and get 8 hours of sleep. Full disclosure, I am still working on this one, but I learnt at York the hard limits of what my body is capable of. Working 3 different jobs, being in crew, and having a full course load is not something I would want to put myself through again, but it taught me the value of a healthy balanced lifestyle.

Spotlight on Alumni: Jillian Niedoba

October 29, 2013

Spotlight on Alumni: Jillian Niedoba

Jill NIedoba Jill Niedoba

Once upon a time, a former classmate and friend who will always remain dear to me had decided to lend his support one evening and came to see me in a show. When we met outside the theatre afterward, he joked that I needed to 'adjust' the part of my bio that stated that I was a “recent graduate” because it was no longer applicable. Whether it was wishful thinking or blatant denial of the passsing of time, I considered my friends' feedback. It had been three or four years since we finished our archetype showings that completed our training in the acting program, and when I think about it now, it was three or four years ago that I was in that show. This anecdote would place me as a 2006—and no longer recent—graduate of the acting program at York. It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that I am coming up on eight years of being out of school and into the professional world of performance. While I have been fortunate to work on stage, in productions around Toronto and in Montreal, to work on independent films and productions, and reap the monetary benefits of commercial work, I am still working on getting seen and heard. Every day.

Jill Niedoba in Dangerous Liaisons at the Segal Centre, Montreal Jill Niedoba in Dangerous Liaisons at the Segal Centre

Do you have any advice or tips for those about to graduate and enter the job market?

Continue to sell yourself in this market as yourself, not someone you think you should be – find strength and confidence recognizing your 'brand' and work with what you have. When you get your first paycheque, be smart! Pay off your student loan, put some aside in savings (preferably one you can not access) and INVEST in yourself – take those classes, update your demo and headshots, hire someone to help you shoot a scene – you are your own business. Try to say “yes” more often than “no” – even if you're not so keen on that early morning Hamburger Helper audition just do it and when you become the next best thing since Meryl Streep then you can turn it down.  

What was your fondest memory of studying at York?

Late night rehearsals—whether it was for independent pieces, fourth-year shows or Shakespeare projects, I always found there was something very special about the work being done at a later hour. You could rehearse and rehearse all afternoon having done the same thing, convinced your choices were accurate, and then, for some surprising reason, that last run-through at 10:30 at night would awaken an entirely new insight—a reminder to me of why I am here and why I love what I do. I loved experiencing this, and I loved seeing these moments happen to my classmates.

What surprised you most about your first month being in the theatre department?

Couple things that surprised me about my first month in the theatre department were #1: 3 days off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur [n.b. this practice ended in 2009—ed.] and #2: While every other faculty would remain closed for these holidays, WE would in fact be open and more than likely working on Origins [now known as The Gathering Project, this was a collective creation project that the Acting Area presented in the first weeks of classes]. Looking back, I have realized this is excellent preparatory training. Notably because there is never really enough time to put up a show in this country I'm sure, but more so in that it is reflective of the professional world: we work most holidays, have very long days, and disappear from our lives and loved ones regularly. I wouldn't change it for all the holidays and celebrations in the world that I know the rest of the world is enjoying.

What advice would you give yourself, if you were starting out at York this Fall?

I find i am still telling myself this but not quite as often—and that is to not be so hard on myself. Going back I would not be so disappointed for not having my craft figured out—I would forgive myself and find more reprieve in the unknown, as unsettling as that is, because that is where the actual learning occurs. I would relish in the process more and be less concerned about the product. I don't think there would be a point in obtaining a degree if I knew everything about it, so I think I would be a little more understanding of that.