Each month we shine our Spotlight on a faculty or staff member in the Dept of Theatre. This month, we’re focusing on Production Coordinator Christina Cicko.
1. Who are you?
Christina Cicko
I’m Christina Cicko (BFA, Theatre Design & Directing, University of Victoria 2000). I have worked in the arts professionally for close to twenty years, primarily as a Lighting Designer and Stage Manager. After graduating from my BFA in 2000, I learned very quickly that working in theatre often requires you to go where the work is. I took a deep breath and moved across the country from a suburb of Vancouver to the big city of Toronto to start my career. Despite this move, I went on to find opportunities primarily outside of the city as I started out, including positions as an Assistant Lighting Designer for the Dance Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts and with the Stratford festival at the Avon Theatre. I eventually found a home in sketch comedy and Improv at the Second City Toronto, where I worked for 9 years. In my time at Second City, I Stage Managed 5 mainstage reviews, designed numerous reviews for the Mainstage and Touring companies, and toured across Canada and the United States. Working in Improvised theatre allowed me to cultivate skill adapting to new and constantly changing work—even in the middle of a show—and creating live design.
I have since had the pleasure of working with many exciting theatres in Toronto including Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Canadian Stage Company, Native Earth, Soulpepper, Harold Green Jewish Theatre, Theatre Panik, and Aluna Theatre to name a few. In 2018, I taught Stage Management here at York University and served as a mentor for Theatre Ontario’s Youth Emergence 2.0 Program.
2. Tell us about a creative or research project that you have been immersed in recently.
I recently toured with Buddies In Bad Times Theatres’ Dora award winning production of Kiinalink: These Sharp Tools. I first joined the project for its premiere in 2017 and it will always hold a special place in my heart. There is something very meaningful about being part of a production as it is created. As a Stage Manager, promoting a safe space for artists to explore and create together is my priority and it was a privilege to support such a diverse group of storytellers in their collective process as they challenged views about our land, climate, and sexuality.
Since opening in 2017, I have toured with this critical production to the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver, Espace Libre in Montréal, Luminato Festival in Toronto, and The Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland.
3. What production or artist or scholar has had the most impact on you over the course of your career?
Early on in my career, I was fortunate enough to be mentored by two amazing Lighting Designers: Michael J Whitfield and Paul Mathieson. Michael influenced my understanding of the character of light and colour and how these facets of lighting design support and compliment a narrative. He taught me how to listen and see all of the artists in the room as well as the importance of great paperwork, professionalism, and humor. Paul instilled in me the notion of “thinking outside of the box” and using other artistic mediums to inform design. He introduced me to visual artists such as James Turrell and Edward Hopper, who utilize light to augment the emotions conveyed by their pieces. These artists have inspired many of my designs.
As a Stage Manager, the late Winston Morgan heavily influenced my approach to the rehearsal hall. My SM mentor, Crystal MacDonell further provided me with a master class in paperwork, technique, risk management, accountability, communication, and fun!
4. Is there an image or a quotation that inspires you?
“Light is not so much something that reveals, as it is itself the revelation.” – James Turrell
This month we’re shining our spotlight on Ian Garrett, from the Production/Design Area of the Department, who returned this year from his Sabbatical.
Ian Garrett
1. Who are you?
The phrase I have in one of my email signatures is “Performance Infrastructure Engineer”. I thought I was going to be an architect, but early in my career, spurred on by going to the Prague Quadrennial in 2003, I turned to scenography. For most of my freelance career I worked primarily as a lighting and media designer, with a decent amount of scenic design. I tend to have been a designer in a variety of devised contexts, spending 10 years as the resident designer for the Indy Convergence, a residency that is a bit of a new work incubator. This was typically balanced with arts administration work producing original work and working in communications and marketing. Basically I tried to do everything to support new performance work, but I’m not interested in performing myself. I also start to adapt a lot of the sustainable building training I had in Architecture school to my theatre practice around 2005. That turned in the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, a think tank I direct that does research and a variety of projects related to Sustainable Development and the Arts.
2. Tell us about a creative or research project that you have been immersed in recently.
One of my more active projects at the moment is a project called TrailOff. It’s a collaboration between Swim Pony Performing Arts in Philadelphia and my company Toasterlab. We’re developing immersive audio experiences for 10 sites along the circuit trail system surrounding Philadelphia with local writers. These will be experienced using a bespoke mobile application which uses information about your location, the time of day, the weather, etc. to responsively deliver the narratives as users walk the trails. That’s going to be launching in June. For me and Toasterlab it is part of our larger project in which we’re developing an open source platform for combining performance, location, and mixed reality content.
3. What production or artist or scholar has had the most impact on you over the course of your career?
There are a few people that have been instrumental in my career. Kevin and Trish Rigdon took me under their wings when I was still studying architecture and continue as mentor figures. They were the ones who spurred me on to attend the Prague Quadrennial originally, and this year I served as Curator for the US at the PQ with Kevin as the Artistic Director. Also Mark Ramont, a director who guided me a lot in my early career. Other key mentors have come from the producing side like Sixto Wagan, Carol Bixler, Leslie Tamaribuchi.
Ian Garrett at the Prague Quadrennial
There are a lot of influential artists out there that have also shaped my work. Dorita Hannah fits as both as scholar influencing my thinking about space and performance architecture, and as an artist her “Heart of the PQ” design was sort of the first time I really saw the possibilities of thinking about an expanded scenography and architecture practice. In grad school I was assistant producer on a Richard Foreman opera and got to spend hours with him talking about how he came to create work (I have an icon he gifted me in my office). Phil Soltanoff is a director I really like, and I often quote his show “An Evening with William Shatner*” (the asterisks is important, since William Shatner isn’t physically in the show). Also, Teresa J. May (not to be confused with the former UK PM) and Una Chaundhuri on their writing around EcoDramaturgy.
The list could keep going!
4. Is there an image or a quotation that inspires you?
A couple I keep close in mind:
“…And the important function of play is thus revealed: it permits us to gain, without any particular future application in mind, a holistic understanding of the world, which is both a complement of and a preparation for later analytical activities.”
– Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan
“The faculty of art is to change events; the faculty of science is to foresee them. The phenomena with which we deal are controlled by art; they are predicted by science.”
– Henry Thomas Buckle, The Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge,’, a discourse delivered at the Royal Institution (19 Mar 1858)
“I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.”
– Marshall McLuhan
There is a long one I use a lot from the Soltanoff show I mentioned, but It might be a little long to share.
5. What’s the first meaningful action you took after the start of your sabbatical?
Take my son to his first day of JK at his new school. Because of the remediation period after the strike ended (sorry to bring it up), my sabbatical started in September. I worked out my project schedule so that I wouldn’t be out of town for more than a week at a time, typically only ever once a month. But that meant I was home and could do drop-off and pick-up for my kids, and take on much of the household management for the year. It was a super special thing to be able to be available to my family while working on my sabbatical projects right from the start. My partner was still working full time at the time and it meant we didn’t have to figure out before and after school care and only see each other first thing in the morning and at dinner time.
6. What are some of the projects you undertook during your sabbatical?
One of my big projects was serving as the Curator for the US for the Prague Quadrennial, or the PQ. Its the largest gathering around performance design and space in the world, and as the name describes, it happens every four years in Prague. The curation started before my sabbatical, but there was an exhibition to build and content to collect. The exhibition was built at the University at Buffalo, which was convenient insofar as I could get there and back on the same day while it was being constructed. I also built the digital interface for the exhibition which is mirrored online (http://pq19.usitt.org/). There were 50 designers or design teams included in the national exhibitions, 22 of which who were featured in a podcast series and short videos I produced as well. I travelled to Prague for the PQ in June and brought a dozen York students will me. I also ran a workshop on the use of Mixed Reality with Site Specific performance, and led a program called Light Spot with my colleague Beth Kates. Light Spot was a space dedicated to conversations on lighting and media technology in performance.
I also completed a number of projects with my company Toasterlab. This evolved out of a project called Transmission which I produced for a premiere in Edinburgh in 2017 which had elements in The Edinburgh International Science Festival, the one-time FuturePlay festival as part of the Fringe, and then the Future of Storytelling Festival in New York. This work is on the use of mixed reality technology and site-specific live performance. One of the big projects for the company has been one called Groundworks, which is a collaboration with indigenous artists in Northern California about using traditional and contemporary Indigenous performance that has been geo-located to “re-story” the land.
We did a project in North York in Parkway Forest Park where we did a VR workshop for youth, a pop-up VR cinema, and built a web-app for exploring the park through VR films the participants created. (You can interact with the following 360° VR video by scrolling the image.)
I did a couple of projects with the choreographer Jane Gotch including a VR film in the TTC, and then another geolocated series of VR dance films along the streetcar in Kansas City. With Dopolavoroteatrale (aka DLT Experience) I produced a VR component to their immersive production The Stranger 2.0 and during this time we started TrailOff with Swim Pony in Philadelphia too. And I did do some more conventional theatre (sort of), lighting Remembering the Winnipeg General at the Owl’s Club with Zietpunk Theatre over the summer.
7. What insight or discovery did you make during your sabbatical?
I think one idea that has emerged for me is about the future of theatrical performance and emerging mixed reality technologies. I’ve found that one of the interesting barriers to this type of media adoption is that a lot of it has been created out of a cinematic practice, and that asks those that are used to working with framed camera-based forms to throw out a lot of technique. The camera might be technically similar but you can’t zoom… you move closer. You can’t pan… you turn your head. And I’ve found that this is actually more akin to theatrical staging, especially immersive performance.
Another thing that has become apparent is that in the realm of sustainable arts practice there is a hugh uptick in consideration. I was discussing with a colleague at Julie’s Bicycle who has also been thinking on this movement for over a decade and we noted how the field has grown incredibly in the last year even. Where we thought maybe we were losing touch with everything, we both sort of saw that it’s really that there was so much going on we couldn’t keep it all in mind at one time like we used to. And there are so many more people interested in this topic, our great existential crisis, that it’s become more hopeful than before.
8. How will you integrate what you learned/discovered during your sabbatical into your teaching?
I’m starting a new studio class in this Winter called EcoScenography. Part of this has been about bringing all of these ideas that I’ve been exploring together into something I can work on with students. This will integrate the work on site-specific performance, community based work, the integration of location-based technology, collaboration with indigenous communities, etc. I’ve wanted to do something like this since I came to York, but the teaching needs of the department and my loading didn’t allow for it until now. We’ve had some new faculty in Design and Production come on-board and so some of my classes that I taught before my sabbatical have moved to them. It’s always exciting and terrifying starting a class from scratch, but it’s looking like it’s going to be a great way to really bring all this work together and continue the available offerings on sustainability and performance, adding to my existing course which is more of a studies approach.
With all of the activity in the field, there is also a possibility that we might see a bit more in our Theatre@York season in the coming years to better integrate sustainable thinking and expanded performance practice. We’ll see how that shapes up, but my sabbatical has really energized me to advocate for thinking about the future of performance.
Currently I am a Sessional Assistant Professor in Performance Creation at York University, which is proving to be one of the most exciting and fulfilling roles of my life. However I am also an insatiably curious wanderer, a quality that has led me to playing lacrosse in Germany, climbing mountains in Sabah and writing for a fashion magazine in Cape Town. I train for multisport races in the summer and play pond hockey in the winter. I make my own pizza and pasta dough from scratch.
I have been working in theatre professionally since 2005, mostly in Toronto and mostly with the Kadozuke Kollektif, a performance company that I co-founded with Tatiana Jennings and a group of other misfits. We have produced a number of large-scale performance installations and site-specific performances. I have also facilitated youth arts programming in the public sector and co-ordinated a number of street art projects, which has allowed me to feel richly connected to my community.
2. Tell us about a creative or research project that you have been immersed in recently.
Currently I am finishing my PhD dissertation at York on battle rap in Toronto’s Hip Hop scene. It seems too good to be true, earning a degree by attending battle rap events and writing about them. I credit York’s graduate department in Theatre and Performance Studies for encouraging me to develop original research in an obscure but important corner of the artistic world.
I am also beginning to reimagine what devised theatre means to me after reconstructive hip surgery. Post-recovery, I have been on a journey to understand how my new body moves, what it is capable of, and reconciling with its inability to fit stereotypical tropes of strength and masculinity. In the studio this means experimenting with my new metallic joints, engaging with theories of disability, and playing with pain. My Devised Theatre students at York have been instrumental in helping me cultivate a training environment that experiments with adaptive physical practices, as we collectively work towards an understanding of our own unique bodies. Their trust and fearlessness is inspiring stuff.
Sean Robertson-Palmer in Sandman
3. What production or artist or scholar has had the most impact on you over the course of your career?
Narrowing this down is an impossible task, since I am a collector of heroes. I find people I admire and bother them until they teach me things. I am lucky to be guided through my PhD at York by two of my academic mentors, Dr. Mary Fogarty and Dr. Laura Levin, while also sharing space outside of York with heavy hitters of Hip Hop scholarship, including Dr. Murray Forman, Dr. Mark V. Campbell and Dr. Imani Kai Johnson. My editor at GQ Magazine, the incredibly dapper Nkosiyati Khumalo, was the first person to introduce me to the notion of a writer’s “voice”. In our short time together, he helped me cultivate my voice. Diana Belshaw, who ran Humber College’s theatre program while I was a student in the 2000’s, was the first educator that ever told me I was smart. Despite many stumbles, I try very hard to prove her right.
Early in my career, my artistic practice was greatly influenced by Ker Wells and Tatiana Jennings. Both mentored me during my time at Humber College and the latter became a life-long collaborator. The Toronto theatre scene is so stacked with talent that I seem to find a new hero every time I attend a show. Go watch theatre in Toronto and find your heroes! The great Hip hop producers of my youth such as DJ Premier, J Dilla and RZA continue to score my life and provoke creativity.
Sean Robertson Palmer in Desperate Tenderness
4. Is there an image or a quotation that inspires you?
When I need to be reminded that the world is beautiful, I search images of art by Swoon, Lady Pink, or Faith 47.
My 7-year old daughter leans over my shoulder as I try to answer this. “What kind of question is that!” she says. Quite right. She described me in her French class last year as drôle, gentil, intelligent, fort, and beau. It was for a Father’s Day card. And who am I to contradict her?
I can tell you this: I’m the dad/stepdad of two daughters, Nora (the 7-year-old) and Molly (13), and whoever I am features them close to the centre.
My name is David Jansen and I’m also a theatre artist: actor, director, teacher, and dramaturge. I’ve worked professionally for 30 years, mostly as an actor and mostly in Toronto, though I did spend several seasons at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, and with the Peter Hall Company in the U.K. I’ve performed in all kinds of productions from the classics to new Canadian work in every kind of venue you can imagine. Some of those shows I’ve devised, too. Mostly notably Ubuntu, which premiered in 2009 but has had a healthy afterlife touring across Canada ever since. And I’ve acted for television—though theatre is my real vocation.
Ubuntu, Citadel Theatre, Edmonton: David Jansen, Tracey Power, Mbulelo Grootboom. (Photo: Ian Jackson, Epic Photography) 2017.
Over the last ten years I’ve widened the aperture of what I do to include directing, dramaturgy, and teaching. And I have embarked on a PhD. It’s given me the opportunity to work at places like the Tarragon Theatre, Thousand Island Playhouse, the Shaw Festival, Randolph College for the Performing Arts, George Brown Theatre School, Ryerson University, the University of Toronto, and now York. And the result has been an intellectual and artistic reformation.
All of this work has intensified my desire to create, to think, to love, to encounter the world as deeply, sensitively, and robustly as I can. The art I create, the way I teach, is also necessarily political though I’m always exploring the forms they take.
Co-directing Attempts on her Life with Jennifer Tarver at Ryerson University. (Also pictured: Virgilia Griffith) (Photo: Jennifer Tarver) 2010.
2. Tell us about a creative or research project that you have been immersed in recently.
I’m currently helping to devise three shows, each in a different stage of development. One explores, in a very personal way, creativity and its impediments; another takes as its inspiration the sculptures of Ron Mueck; and a third looks at the life and culture of ants!
As an actor I recently performed the role of Colonel Brandon in a new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.
But my most recent immersion was for a production of The Oresteia that I directed at Randolph College in Toronto. I was very proud of it. The students poured all of their artistic skill, intellect, and instinct into the show. Beyond realizing great performances (which they did), they reworked the text; designed and created their own costumes and props; composed and arranged original songs and score; choreographed fights; worked as production managers and assistant stage managers; and learned how to prepare stage blood. Lots of it! They worked as dramaturges and publicity managers. As a result, they understood the world of the play and its execution on a variety of levels, all of which fed back into their understanding of their characters, the narrative, and how the show related to our world. That show was fully theirs, which meant I’d done my job.
The Oresteia: Riel Reddick-Stevens; Mari Macdonald; Jaydon Yerex. (Photo: Alyssa Donahue) 2019.
The Oresteia: Riel Reddick-Stevens; Alison Dickson; William Millington. (Photo: Alyssa Donahue) 2019.
3. What production or artist or scholar has had the most impact on you over the course of your career?
There are too many influences to name here. Though I think of my high school theatre teacher Philip Stanbury, who gave us license to create our own work and run our own mini-theatre festival. We had keys to the space and permission to use it from early in the morning until early evening. In my professional life, I’d say Josephine Le Grice, Peter Hinton, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Daniel Brooks, Tom McCamus, Pia Kleber, Michael Haneke, Thomas Ostermeier, and Katie Mitchell all rank very high.
But perhaps Richard Rose has had the most impact over the course of my career. I saw productions he directed of Censored at St Paul’s Church and The Castle by Howard Barker at Toronto Free Theatre in the 1980s and I immediately sensed the intelligence, rigour and dynamism of his work. I remember calling him on a payphone and asking to audition for one of his Barker productions. I didn’t get the part but it began a conversation and collaboration that has taken me from the Stratford Young Company to the Tarragon Theatre, as an actor, assistant director, and, for a year, as Literary Coordinator. Over the decades, he has been inspirational, generous with his time and talent, and tirelessly supportive. Oh, and he is a York graduate.
4. Is there an image or a quotation that inspires you?
Stefan Stern (Photo: Arno Declair)
This is an image of Stefan Stern as Thomas Stockmann in the Schaubühne’s production of An Enemy of the People (2012), directed by Thomas Ostermeier. It inspires me because it’s beautiful, messy, funny, and dynamic. Like being caught between Jackson Pollack and his canvas. The production had all of those qualities, as well as being politically incisive and porous, offering a voice to its audience. These are all elements of the theatre I aspire to study and create.
I am Aaron Kelly (BFA, Theatre Technical Production & Design, 2000; MFA, Theatre, 2019). I was asked to write a profile of myself for the Theatre Department website so that you could get to know me. I was given four questions to inspire my writing. So, here it goes:
1. Who are you?
As I said, Aaron Kelly. I love my family (Evadne, Eagon, and Imogen, who is not named after the pop singer). I love canoeing in Algonquin Park. I am a teacher, lighting designer, and theatre manager. I am very excited to be joining the full-time faculty compliment in the Department of Theatre at York University. I have been working professionally in theatre production and design for 25 years. I have designed shows across North America, the South Pacific, and France. In addition to my design work, which primarily focused on dance, theatre, and event lighting, but has included set, projection and sound design, I have also worked extensively as a production manager and stage manager. For nine amazing years I was lucky to work fulltime for Factory Theatre in Toronto, Ontario. I was the Production Manager and Technical Director of the company and their theatre spaces. This allowed me to work with some of the most established theatre companies in the country and some of the most exciting and innovative companies forming in our communities. It was these experiences that led me to York to work with emerging theatre artist six years ago. I have spent the last six years supporting the student and department productions at York by working alongside the students in the Department of Theatre as a part-time faculty member and full-time staff. While I am constantly continuing to develop and create new art, I am also excited to be in a position to foster and encourage the next generation of theatre creators. I want to see these young artists reach into themselves and out to the world to make a difference.
2. Tell us about a creative or research project that you have been immersed in recently.
My most recent and encompassing theatrical project was the creation and performance of the exhibition Travels with My Family.Travels with My Family was an interactive art and photography experiment and exhibition in January of 2019. As part of my Master of Fine Arts degree at York University I designed, built, painted, and decorated a seedy motel room set. I then worked with actors to stage and develop narrative rich photographs. This was a huge project that spanned several years from the initial research through to designing and execution.
Travels with My Family, designed and conceived by Aaron Kelly
The full exhibition experience was an invitation to other potential creators to view the photographs. The invitation also included a request that they enter the world I created and use my set and the environment to tell their own stories and share them on social media using #motelkellyfornia. I welcomed over 1000 visitors to the motel which resulted in thousands of photographs, mini plays, and films generated by my guests and co-creators.
Throughout the creation and execution of Travels with My Family, I realized that I was creating more than an exhibit of photographs and scenographic design. In the spirit of my artistic career of collaboration, I was able to open a world to diverse artists to create and tell their own stories, which re-sculpted the intent and vision of my own creation. My co-creators (students, faculty, and the general public) redefined what it meant to be an audience and what it meant to participate in a performance. This was the most rewarding experience of this project.
3. What production or artist or scholar has had the most impact on you over the course of your career?
I first knew that I wanted a theatre career during high school, when I started working at The Second City. But I had always been interested in theatre and performance. I worked on and performed in student productions in elementary, junior, and high school. Most notably, in grade one I was a corn stalk in my school’s production of Wizard of Oz. At The Second City I became part of a team that was collectively creating theatre and comedy along with the audience for entertainment, but also social and political satire. I saw the power of theatre to make people laugh, think, and storm out of a room when pushed too hard. I knew that theatre could change people. It could introduce new ideas and new ways of thinking to audiences and it happened through a community, for a community. This was where I wanted to spend my life.
Travels with My Family
4. Is there an image or a quotation that inspires you?
The poster of a cat hanging from a tree limb and the caption saying, “hang in there.” Or, I once read a quote by photographer Andy Goldsworthy that said, “the difference between a theatre with and without an audience is enormous. There is a palpable, critical energy created by the presence of the audience.” I remember wondering, with my live performance brain, why is a photographer talking about theatre audiences? Then a switch flipped in my head, and I realized that every work that an artist creates performs, and without an audience it is meaningless. I was aware of my own importance as an audience and of my gratitude to an audience (of any size) of my own work. I don’t actually know if this is what Mr. Goldsworthy meant when he said this, but it is my wish that everyone creating (if they be audience, performer, sculptor, designer, photographer, or whatever) is open and gracious to the living relationship between those experiencing art happen. And, if at first you don’t get art, hang in there.
This article is the end of our series 50 Years of Disruption, in celebration of the Department of Theatre’s 50th Anniversary.
Each week for the past year, we’ve celebrated by asking 4 Questions of a range of alumni, across all our disciplines. We now have 54 (we can’t count!) accounts from our alumni, who together tell the story of our department, its history, the people within it, and the impact it’s had on our students over the past 50 years.
Highlights include Artistic Director of the National Arts Centre English Theatre and Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland Jillian Keiley; actor, fight director and sound designer Richard Lee; the clown duo of Morro and Jasp, Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee; Paul Halferty, a theatre historian and a queer theatre and performance studies scholar at University College Dublin; publicist for performing arts Sue Edworthy; Arts consultant and Founding Artistic Director of the du Maurier World Stage, Lilie Zendel; the multi-talented Luke Reece, who is a producer, playwright, poet and educator; Mary Spyrakis, who runs the prop shop for Canadian Stage; minister with the United Church of Canada, Foster Freed; innovative Broadway, Vegas, West End and Canadian theatre director Jim Millan; award-winning playwright Dave Deveau; South African Director and teacher Geoffrey Hyland; theatre, film, tv and voice actor Sean Baek; award-winning set and costume designer Gillian Gallow; Brussels Belgium-based film curator and arts journalist Chris Dupuis; founder of the Blyth Festival, James Roy; shoe craftsman for theatre, film, tv and circus, Jeff Churchill; and performance artist Shawna Dempsey.
Of course, we think ALL our Disruptors are worthy of a revisit; we hope you’ll explore the depth of material we’ve gathered to help tell the story of our last 50 years, as we look forward to the next 50!
This article is part of our series 50 Years of Disruption, in celebration of the Department of Theatre’s 50th Anniversary. In it, we’ll ask each participant four questions about themselves and their time at York.
1. Who are you?
Elise LaCroix
My name is Elise LaCroix (BA Theatre 2016), and I specialized in New Play Dramaturgy, Devised Theatre, and Directing in my time at York. I am currently a dramaturg and theatre academic, and have just recently completed an MA in Drama at the University of Alberta investigating intercultural new play dramaturgy relationships. Living in Edmonton, I am now furthering my practical dramaturgy skills as a Literary Intern with Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre. As well as this, I am continuing to freelance dramaturg individual projects both in Edmonton and Toronto, have recently started a position in patron services at the Citadel Theatre, and am working as the Editorial Assistant on Professor Judith Rudakoff’s upcoming book Performing #MeToo: How Not to Look Away.
As a theatre artist I am deeply passionate about the development of new Canadian stories and voices. As a theatre academic, I am obsessed with trying to understand the complexities of the collaborative relationships within which work is created. Through all of my work I am focused on identity and positionality within the creative process. Everyone speaks from somewhere. Everyone is uniquely affected by the presence of others, by the specific moment in time, by the room they are in, and by the language being spoken, in any creative process. How does all of this affect the artistic work that is eventually produced? How might understanding this better help us create more inclusive spaces for emerging creators?
2. What was your favourite moment during your time in the Theatre Department, and why?
My favourite moment during my time at York was the opening night of the 24th playGround Festival in 2016. I had the privilege that year of serving as Co-Artistic Director with the fabulous Megan Apa. It was an incredible moment sitting in the audience watching all the work that had been developed through a process that I had had the honour of facilitating. To see the growth of the work, the development of the artists onstage, and the artistry of the various creative teams was amazing. The opportunity to be able to work to create the best possible environment for the specific artists in that year’s festival, and to foster a creative community on that scale, solidified for me that what I want to do in theatre is to facilitate and make space for other creators.
3. What comment, quotation, statement, or action that a professor—or classmate—offered had the greatest impact on you?
Two professors at York told me something very similar, both of which have stayed with me and impacted how I think about myself in theatre and academia. In second year devised theatre I was speaking with my professor Magda Kazubowksi-Houston, essentially apologizing for my quiet and reserved nature in class, and promising that I would work harder to participate for the rest of the year. Magda asked me how productive I thought a group of collaborators would be if everyone was trying to take up all the air in the room. Obviously not very, I replied. She reassured me that the work I was doing, the quiet observation, the contemplative critical thinking, was just as important as the work of my louder peers.
My professor Judith Rudakoff, who I took the series of dramaturgy courses with, was equally as accepting of my reserved way of being in class. She accepted that my way of learning was to observe, and never doubted that I was engaged just because I was not participating loudly.
These two professors empowered me to find my own place in theatre, the place where I could be my very best self, instead of trying to push to be someone who I am not. Being given permission to be quiet I was able to hone my skills as an observer and listener, and find my passion for asking deep questions, which ultimately led me to pursue graduate studies after my time at York.
4. Is there a way you incorporate a particular aspect of your theatre training in your current work?
I absolutely incorporate my theatre training into my current work. Above all, one of the essential lessons that I have come away with from York is how to effectively communicate and collaborate with others in various situations. Arriving to the first day of devised theatre in second year, I could not even begin to imagine how challenging learning to work together as a class would prove to be. It was an incredibly steep learning curve. Every moment from then, through building dramaturgy relationships with my peers, to collaborating with my co-assistant directors in fourth year, was about learning to navigate productive collaboration. By no means do I think I have mastered this skill even now. However, the skills I did acquire were essential to my success navigating academic relationships in grad school, and continue to help my work as I develop new dramaturgy relationships, and work as part of the team at the Citadel Theatre.
This article is part of our series 50 Years of Disruption, in celebration of the Department of Theatre’s 50th Anniversary. In it, we’ll ask each participant four questions about themselves and their time at York.
Stéphanie Verge
1. Who are you?
The short version: Stéphanie Verge (B.A. Playwriting and New Play Dramaturgy, 2000) is an editor, journalist and writer based in Montréal.
There’s a bit more to it, of course. Currently, I am the co-editor-in-chief of LSTW, a bilingual magazine for queer women distributed in 10 countries, and the executive editor of the Canadian edition of Reader’s Digest. I spend my time assigning stories, doing research, working with writers, and editing copy.
Previously, I was an associate editor at Toronto Life, where I spearheaded the creation of the magazine’s Culture section, covered the Toronto International Film Festival, and won a National Magazine Award for my health feature about infectious diseases in Ontario hospitals.
As a freelancer, I have co-authored The Bar Chef: A Modern Approach to Cocktails (HarperCollins); done copy writing for the Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, and the National Music Centre in Calgary; and been published by the Globe and Mail, CBC Arts, Flare, enRoute and The Grid, among others. My culture-related interviews have focused largely on artists whose work deals with feminist issues. Some of my favourites: writers Alison Bechdel and Fran Lebowitz; contemporary artists Marina Abramović and Laurie Anderson; comedians Samantha Bee and Sandra Bernhard; musicians Tegan and Sara Quin; and filmmaker Deepa Mehta.
In my free time, I volunteer as a workshop leader for GRIS-Montréal, an organization that goes into schools and seniors’ residences to demystify LGBTQ+ realities; and as a “little sister” with Les Petits Frères, a non-profit that aims to reduce social isolation and loneliness in seniors.
I can say with confidence that my theatre training and my journalism training inform both my professional and volunteer lives on a daily basis.
2. What was your favourite moment during your time in the Theatre Department, and why?
I had many favourite moments—my four years at York changed the course of my life. But I do look back on first-year crew as a particularly wonderful experience. Going to classes all day and then working on shows at night was exhausting but impossibly fun. It’s rare that you get the chance to immerse yourself in so many aspects of a craft in such a short period. While I learned that I have very little skill for anything beyond writing, I had a great time figuring that out.
3. What comment, quotation, statement, or action that a professor—or classmate—offered had the greatest impact on you?
In one of my third-year directing classes, we had to put on a one-person show. At one point during my performance, I got choked up and barely made it through. Our instructor, Paul Lampert, later told me—I’m paraphrasing—that while it’s important to bring emotion to a performance, you can’t let it get away from you. Over the years, I have used variations on that piece of advice with writers (and with myself).
4. Is there a way you incorporate a particular aspect of your theatre training in your current work?
These days, I work with non-fiction writers rather than playwrights, but their needs are similar. I offer constructive feedback, assist with editing, research and fact-checking, and act as a sounding board, coach and cheerleader. All to say, my playwriting and new play dramaturgy training under Judith Rudakoff serves me each day.
I use principles picked up in acting classes each time I appear on TV and radio, participate in a panel discussion, or lead a workshop. I thank York for enabling me to trick people into believing I’m not nervous about public speaking!
This article is part of our series 50 Years of Disruption, in celebration of the Department of Theatre’s 50th Anniversary. In it, we’ll ask each participant four questions about themselves and their time at York.
Elizabeth Bradley
1. Who are you?
Elizabeth Bradley (BFA 1976). My major interests at York Theatre were directing and management. Currently I am an Arts Professor and former Chair of the Department of Drama at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Prior to my ten years here, I served as Head of the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University. When I left Canada I was CEO of the Hummingbird Centre (now Sony Centre part of Civic Theatres Toronto). For several years, I ran a commercial producing company. During the years in the United States I have maintained my ties with Canada through a stint teaching cultural leadership at the Banff Centre, participating in the artistic leadership team during Des McAnuff’s tenure as artistic director at Stratford, and working for NetGain Consultants on a study about possible futures for the City of Toronto owned theatres. In addition to my teaching at NYU, I am a Broadway League certified theater critic. I review Broadway alongside former New York Times critic Charles Isherwood for a new online site for original journalism about the theater called Broadway.News. And I teach internationally and coordinate a learning academy for high potential leaders who attend the congresses of the International Society of the Performing Arts. In summary, I identify as an educator, cultural consultant, international producer, critic and NYC based “den mother” mentor to visiting Canadian artists!
How I got where I am? Certainly, this was an unexpected, even maverick outcome. I have no idea. To quote Tom Stoppard in “Shakespeare In Love” — it’s a mystery!
2. What was your favourite moment during your time in the Theatre Department, and why?
Likely producing, directing and even acting in a radically cut version of Vanburgh’s The Relapse presented as an independent student production under the auspices of “Student Project Week” as it was then called. A close second would be working on the Burton performing arts series as student assistant — this was an invaluable introduction to global presenting.
3. What comment, quotation, statement, or action that a professor—or classmate—offered had the greatest impact on you?
The acting teacher Norman Welsh, who with the best of intentions, told me that if he ever started a theatre company he would want me to run it! I cut and ran from performance after the first semester of my sophomore year and saved myself much wasted time!
4. Is there a way you incorporate a particular aspect of your theatre training in your current work?
The emphasis on wide ranging cultural curiosity is a value which has stayed with me and which I strive to inculcate in all the students with whom I work. It is clear that my BFA from York Theatre has taken me very far and I am grateful.
This article is part of our series 50 Years of Disruption, in celebration of the Department of Theatre’s 50th Anniversary. In it, we’ll ask each participant four questions about themselves and their time at York.
Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee
1. Who are you?
Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee (BFA Theatre, Creative Ensemble 2005).
We are Co-Artistic Directors of U.N.I.T. Productions, and the performer/creators of the Dora Award and Canadian Comedy Award winning clown duo Morro and Jasp. With our director and dramaturge, Byron Laviolette, we have created, produced, and toured eleven shows including Morro and Jasp: Save The Date, Morro and Jasp in Stupefaction, Morro and Jasp: 9-5.
We have been playwrights in residence at Factory Theatre, and made two short films including Morro and Jasp: Behind the Nose, Rise and Shine, and a selection of web content. We are currently pitching our new television pilot, Morro and Jasp: The End is Nigh, have published a cookbook with Tightrope books, called Eat Your Heart Out with Morro and Jasp, and released a video game, Unscripted with Morro and Jasp.
In general clown is a tough sell. It’s not until people see our work that they really even understand what it is. As a result, we have had to learn to be self-motivators and very persistent in pursuing the work that we love and finding places for it to shine. As well as working together we also both work separately (believe it or not) as actors, educators, theatre/film makers, playwrights, and as therapeutic clowns.
The cookbook cover for “Eat Your Heart Out with Morro & Jasp”
2. What was your favourite moment during your time in the Theatre Department, and why?
Rehearsals. Every week we were making another new piece for Ensemble. The time we spent figuring it all out, negotiating ideas, sharing our skills and talents, managing creative conflict is irreplaceable. This is obviously a lot more than one moment, but it was a lot of what shaped us as creators. This could only work because of the guidance that we received from our Profs in class, but it gave us the time and freedom to put the techniques and theories that we were learning into practice.
A more specific moment was when we, with the help of Robert Fothergill, Peter McKinnon and Mark Wilson, produced Vacancy, our year-end show, downtown in a warehouse. After the first time we performed it Robert approached our class and told us that this must go on. It was one of the best learning experiences we had, and really bridged the gap between being in school and going out into the theatre world beyond York.
Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee clowning around in the dressing rooms at York.
3. What comment, quotation, statement, or action that a professor—or classmate—offered had the greatest impact on you?
A favourite comment from a teacher was when Mark Wilson told us that Vacancy (our forth year end project) was a failure—But a glorious one. He said this to us before we did the show because none of us knew if it was going to work. It taught us that it’s better to try to do something difficult and fail than do something easy, that taking the risk is important. Failure is beautiful. It’s also really hard. Every time it’s really hard. But it’s a huge part of pushing yourself as an artist and we celebrate it in all our work. It also demonstrated that no matter how far into your career you get every time you make a new piece of art you live on the edge of not knowing if its going to succeed. Now we know this is true.
Morro & Jasp take the cover of NOW weekly for the 30th anniversary of the Toronto Fringe Festival
4. Is there a way you incorporate a particular aspect of your theatre training in your current work?
Working collaboratively on a collective creation. In our program, we had to do this over and over and over again and now that is what we do! Over and over and over again! Also, learning how to write a grant application. We do this as much as we write shows
