playGround 2015 opens February 10th

York University’s 23rd Annual playGround Festival is well on its way to being one of the most exciting yet! The festival is spread out over four days (Tuesday, February 10^th – Friday, February 13^th), and is comprised of many short plays that are divided into two different series.

You may be wondering, “What could all of these little shows be about?” or “How can you tell an entire story in less than 15 minutes?” Well we’re here to help. Since the playground festival is all about short plays, we decided to give you some short summaries. Here are sentence long descriptions of what you can expect from each wonderful show.

Like a Bicycle

A piece in the style of Theatre of the Absurd that is inspired by post-9/11 terror and the anxiety that history will repeat itself.

SRY

A dance piece that explores and challenges gender stereotypes and society’s expectations of how a male or female should act.

Kitchen Light

A look at how memory can be warped and become reality, and how that affects the lives of three roommates.

Picture Identity

Picture Identity explores immigration, meanings of home, and passport/visa photo dimensions.

Picture Identity-ed

Picture Identity-ed is a humourous look at the process of putting together a show for playGround while exploring and analyzing the rehearsal process of Picture Identity.

Poetry Wars

Two men battle each other using avant-garde poetry from throughout history.

THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF LOVE, AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF ITS HYPOCRITICAL CONFUSION, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF A COMPLETE MANIAC WITH NO HEART AND A FEMALE DRAMATURG

An exploration of what it means to be in love or in a relationship in the 21st century. How do Tinder, online dating, and our busy lives change the value of love?

 Happiness

A man and woman keep each other at arm’s length to maintain the purity and mystery that their relationship once had, but remain stuck in a vicious cycle preventing them from being happy.

Maman Va Asal

Written partly in Farsi, this piece looks at the relationship of a mother and daughter who have just moved from Iran to Canada, and adjusting to this new country while still honouring their roots.

The Stage Manager’s Guide to Dating Assholes

A piece that attempts to give the often-overlooked stage manager a voice on stage, and that focuses particularly on how women in positions of power in the theatre can be taken advantage of.

Shit Show

A one-woman comedy using direct address and audience participation to open up dialogue about pooping- something that is natural and common to each and every living person, but which we are ashamed of and try to sweep under the cover.

These plays are all written, acted, designed, directed, and produced by York students. It is a true reflection of the theatre we make here at York University. With opportunities to see both matinee and evening shows, we highly recommend that you see both Series A and Series B.

The show will be playing in the Joseph G. Green Theatre in the CFT across from the Starbucks. Tickets are on sale now for $7! Please visit http://finearts.yorku.ca/perform/boxoffice to get yours now.

Oh What a Lovely War is back to work!

After a much needed winter break, the cast and crew of Theatre@York’s Oh What a Lovely War are back to work! We visited the shops, tech boxes, and rehearsal spaces to see them get back into the swing of things. Take a look!

The show will take place in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre, which York’s production students have worked hard to transform into a First World War factory. First developed at the Theatre Workshop in 1963, Joan Littlewood’s epic musical satire changed attitudes towards the First World War and redefined British Theatre

In its 2014-2015 season, Theatre@York explores the theme of violence; what is violence? And who defines it? In honor of the 100 year anniversary of World War I Theatre@York responds to this question with Joan Littlewood’s Oh What A Lovely War, directed by Master of Fine Arts(MFA) Directing student Autumn Smith and featuring the MFA Acting class. In Theatre@York’s adaptation Smith, inspired by the stories of her own family, takes an industrial look at war and places the play in a factory setting.

Joan Littlewood is praised as the “mother of modern theatre” and is the founder of the groundbreaking theatre company Theatre Workshop. She created politically charged works that explored issues of the working class. Through improvisation and research she and her collaborators created works that are simultaneously stimulating and entertaining. Oh What A Lovely War is her most famous and influential piece. It contrasts music hall songs with shocking statistics and images of the First World War to inform audiences of how horrible it really was.

Autumn Smith is a director, dramaturge and artist educator. For the past seven years she has been the Artistic Director of the Dora Award-winning company MacKenzieRo: The Irish Repertory Theatre Company of Canada. For MackenzieRo she co-created and directed Teacht I dTir: Voices from Ireland Park and The Rake’s Progress: Do You Know Where Tom Rakewell Is? Other MacKenzieRo credits include the Canadian premiere of The New Electric Ballroom and bedbound, which also toured to the world renowned Druid Theatre Company in Galway. Autumn has also worked with companies including the Shaw Festival (Riders to the Sea – workshop), Theatre 20 (Bloodless-workshop), Foundry Theatre (The Heretic) and Roseneath Theatre (Chatroom).

Following Oh What A Lovely War, Theatre@York’s season continues with the Canadian premiere of Venus by Suzan–Lori Parks directed by MFA student Jamie Robinson.  In addition to tthe season’s three mainstage shows, the Theatre@York season is full of workshop productions including the annual playGround Festival, showcasing York University’s talent outside of the classroom; the Devised Theatre Festival; as well as the exhibition Scenes by Design, where the backstage of the theatre is brought to the foreground. And, of course, all the Department of Theatre’s productions are acted, designed, built, and produced by the grad and undergrad students of the Department.

York University’s Department of Theatre is the largest and most comprehensive in Canada, combining in-depth academic studies and rigorous practical training in all aspects of theatre. Through courses, students deal with both the creative processes and the technical skills needed for their careers. Acting, directing and production/design are offered alongside performance studies in historical, social and cultural contexts, theatre criticism, and playwriting.

York University’s School of Art, Media, Performance & Design (formerly the Faculty of Fine Arts) is one of North America’s premier educational and research institutions for the arts, media, performance and design. In Canada, it is the largest, most comprehensive program of its kind, bringing together some 3,400 undergraduate and graduate students and 240 full-time and part-time faculty working at the leading edge of practice and scholarship.

Previews for Oh What A Lovely War are on January 18th and 19th and the opening is Tuesday, January 20th.  Evening performances are at 7:30pm and continue Wednesday, January 21st until Friday, January 23rd. Matinees will be at 1:00pm on Wednesday and Friday, with a closing matinee on Saturday, January 24th at 2:00pm.

Preview tickets are $7.00 and regular tickets are $17.00. Discounts are available for students and seniors of $12.00 and groups of 10 people or more can purchase tickets for the price of $10.00. Tickets may be purchased online at http://theatre.finearts.yorku.ca/performance/theatre-york/box-office/ or in person at the Box Office in the CIBC Lobby of the Accolade East Building on York’s Keele Campus at 4700 Keele Street.

Howard Barker’s The Ecstatic Bible directed by Matjash Mrozewski in ACE 207

The Ecstatic Bible by Howard Barker is an epic tale featuring over 65 characters who find themselves in extraordinary situations of extreme violence, horror and suffering, but also full of dark humour and comic absurdity. At the heart of the play is the story of a Priest’s painful, unrequited desire for a woman named Gollancz, who yields to everyone’s passion but his. Various complex subplots interweave around this central narrative.

Directed by Matjash Mrozewski, this production features the Fourth Year actors performing 8 of the 29 scenes from the original work.

The Ecstatic Bible will be running in Accolade East Room 207 from January 22nd – 24th. Showtimes will be at 7 PM, with one matinee performance on the 23rd at 2 PM.

Admission is FREE, and sign-up sheets can be found on the door.

Find out “Who is Ashley?” in the Ashley Plays on Sunday, October 26th

The Ashley Plays contributor and publicity crew member Andrew Murdoch fills us in on this annual site specific theatrical event at York…

Who is Ashley? You might have seen this question appear around the school, written hastily on your classroom’s chalk boards. Well, this question has inspired the development of the Ashley Plays written and performed by the fourth year Playwriting and New Dramaturgy class. This year is not the first year that this question is on our playwrights minds. The Ashley plays have been going on for many years at York university and every year, this question – Who is Ashley? – has been the basis. Even though each year has posed the same question, each year is completely different from the last.

The best way to understand what the Ashley Plays are really about and how they fit into what we do here in the Theatre Department at York University is to hear the class’s own explanations. 

What are the Ashley Plays?

They are a cycle of non linear, thematically linked, site-specific monodramas about a non gender-specific character named Ashley. The plays are located throughout the CFT [Center for Film and Theatre] — the audience moves in three pods from site to site, led by the producing dramaturgs who function as “pod wranglers”. The playwrights are given a list of five character traits to inspire their Ashley character. Not all traits need to be used, but none can be contradicted. Each Ashley is unique to the play/playwright.

What do the Ashley Plays mean to you?

They are an opportunity to show our class’s work to the general public, and to try out new ways of approaching our work. The plays are evolved within the supportive classroom environment, including peer input as well as direction from Judith and the dramaturgs, and then we are able to showcase the creative product for a general public audience.

What are the role of the dramaturgs?

Our job is to ensure that the voice of the playwright is realized organically, so it’s not our job to have a voice in the work but to enable the voice of the playwright in the work in ways that strengthen the piece. Each dramaturg works differently with each writer and each piece. We all have different styles, as do the playwrights, and so it really does come about differently each time.

What are the Steps involved?

We generated the Ashley characteristics as a class. The dramaturgs assigned each playwright a site as well as a specific focus at that site. The playwrights visited and explored their sites, and were inspired to create a piece connected to that site. The pieces were worked on in class and in individual dramaturgy meetings to evolve them from first draft through to performance ready. 

How does using site specificity affect the work?

The sites give the playwrights a specific place in which to anchor their piece, an environment that serves as part of the world of the play, and gives them a wealth of ideas to help develop the world. It also draws attention to the “why here, why now?” as it creates the need to be aware of surroundings in a way that makes the familiar unfamiliar, and the unfamiliar familiar.

Each site also creates the need to develop a whole world and piece that can be performed by a single speaker in a single place, that may or may not have public traffic during performance.

For the dramaturgs, the site specific challenge was an exercise in resourcefulness, creating routes, maps, and all sorts of considerations that wouldn’t otherwise be thought of during the creative process in non-site specific work.

What is something you have learnt through this process?

The playwrights have become very aware of their habits and how to overcome or use them when confined to a specific space. The process forces us to reconcile our usual aesthetics and try out new things into our work. Everyone had to find a specific way to include their focus as a way to inform the writing. It helps us identify our creative obsessions, as it finds its way into all work, regardless of place.

The Ashley Plays are being performed on Sunday October 26, 2014 at 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm. In front of the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre in the Centre for Film and Theatre, York University. Please be in attendance by 12:30 as there will be a brief introduction and assignment of “Pods”. There is no admission fees but donations to Oxfam will be accepted. 

Hamletmachine Mines Shakespeare to Explore Anarchy, Freedom, and Violence

Hamletmachine, directed by Paul Lampert, is Theatre @ York’s first mounted show of the 2014/15 season. The show is based off of Heiner Müller’s 1977 work Hamletmachine which is a postmodern drama that takes inspiration from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Müller’s Hamletmachine is a 9 page script that Paul and the fourth year acting conservatory students are turning into a full length show.

The piece is being created in rehearsal by the fourth year Acting Conservatory. Marcus Bernacci, one of the fourth year Acting Conservatory students, says that, “When we started, it was a gathering of raw materials; we all had written lots of personal pieces.”

This the show is turning into a vibrant theatrical piece that uses the text and characters of Hamlet as a foundation to explore issues arising from institutionalization and how it has affected people for the past few decades.

“We did research on major historical event of the past 50 years, all sorts of journaling about identity and about being an outsider. We interviewed our parents as well. We asked them about what their lives were like and major events in their lifetime, looked at wars, assassination, and drugs. The responses were interesting. And we’re looking at 9/11 as well, because that was a major zeitgeist for everyone in North America.”

The show also explores issues that are very personal to members of the conservatory as well. Issues of anarchy, freedom, violence, racism and otherness are just some of the themes being explored in the piece. As Marcus explains, “since it’s so autobiographical, I want to say that the actor is in their as well. And there are moments when we’re not saying the script and we’re, I don’t want to say breaking the fourth wall, but we’re breaking the world of the play.”

Hayley Pace is a fourth year devised theatre student who is the set designer for Hamletmachine. When designing her she had this idea of meta-theatre in mind. The set she developed is a classroom entrapped by three walls inside the Jospeh Green Theatre, a box inside of a box. “What really spoke the most was school and being in an institutional setting” states Hayley. “This is the first time we’re [us fourth years] leaving the institution. How you come back home and your parents are questioning where all these Idea are coming from, ‘I didn’t raise you that way, how come you’re so out spoken now?’ Because I’ve been on my own now and it’s now about what I want, and not what you want, and those are the issues present in Hamletmachine”

For her the process began several weeks before the first rehearsal. “I was designing for a piece that would be devised, so I had to make a space that could be worked on and devised on… Paul and I talked about the book I Am Hamlet, by Richard James, which talks about the character of Hamlet, the actor playing Hamlet and the director directing Hamlet. It really got me to look at Shakespeare in a different way, and also Harrold and The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson and the use of chalk, it’s a big thing in DT [Devised Theatre]”

Creating the piece has been, and continues to be a real journey for both Hayley and Marcus. For Hayley she says, “I’ve never seen something this big come from my head…12 foot walls are more daunting in real life. The fact that I saw an 8 foot door that could open, I was scared, it looks like a box but all these things open, that’s scary.”

Marcus states that for himself working on Hamletmachine continues to be an exciting experience, “Paul’s putting up a skeleton and were trying to find ways to fill it up, so we have some veins in their but were still like a fetus. It’s always growing and changing, and growing bigger”.

Hamletmachine’s first preview is on November 9th and the show closes on November 15th, 2014 in the Joseph G Green Studio Theatre in York University’s Center for Film and Theatre.  Tickets may be purchased online at http://finearts.yorku.ca/perform/boxoffice or in person at the Box Office.

Hamletmachine Build Begins!

The backstage crew of Hamletmachine takes its first week of production seriously. Carpentry, paint, and props crews have started work in the carp shop over in ACE.

Alex is a first year theatre student and she was assigned to paint crew. Tonight, her and her teammates’ major task is sanding the black boards, which serves as an important component to set designer Hayley Pace’s concept. Alex loves crew. Despite having asthma, she still aims to contribute as much to the show as possible. She suggests at the end, “I am kind of a princess, I learned that you just have to breathe and relax during crew and you cannot let problems frustrate you.”

Ellen, a second year production student, reveals in detail her work as an assistant head of props. This is her first time in a role that contains a lot of leadership. She admits it is a bit scary to lead and set an example for the first years, but she is guided by the faculty.

Ellen’s tasks of the day includes unbolting the drill press in order to realign “the machine” as well as reinforcing multiple chairs for the classroom setting. Her hard work is evident through the dirt on her jeans.

A lot has to be done for the upcoming week. A shopping trip is scheduled and the paint crew is still collecting 20,000 sheets of used paper. They have gathered recycled paper from York Federation of Students, the copy centre at York Lanes and Scott Library, and the theatre and film departments for misprints and past files and homework.

When asked, what is the most important lesson you learned so far in crew? Ellen answers, “patience is a virtue.”

Photos: Ran Zhu