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Playwright and filmmaker to discuss the themes of his work

fmaquito — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Indian playwright, director and filmmaker Mahesh Dattani will give an afternoon reading of two plays along with a discussion about the representation of gender hierarchies and sexualities in his work.

Dattani will read from his plays Seven Steps Around The Fire and Dance Like A Man An Friday, June 15, from 1 to 3pm, at 280A 91��ɫ Lanes, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Winner of India’s prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998 from India’s National Academy of Letters, Dattani is one of the country’s best-known playwrights.

Mahesh Dattani

He is also known for his directing work in the cinema, including films such as Mango Souffle, which won Best Motion Picture in 2003 at the Barcelona Film Festival, and Morning Raga, which took Best Artistic Contribution in 2004 at the Cairo Film Festival.

His plays are crafted gestures of dissent. His oeuvre has forged wide-ranging critiques of Indian heteronormativity, social institutions such as the family, as well as cultural rituals, including marriage, are interrogated and found wanting.

The event is hosted by the 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research, 91��ɫ’s departments of English and Theatre, and the Sexuality Studies Program at 91��ɫ.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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91��ɫ artists offer fresh take on Dido and Aeneas

fmaquito — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Established and emerging artists in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts bring their collective talents to a riveting new production of a baroque classic: Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. This epic story of love and betrayal plays out at the Sandra Faire & Ivan Fecan Theatre on 91��ɫ’s Keele campus for two performances only, March 1 and 2.

Lead artists Joseph Farahat and Charlotte Gagnon

Based on a chapter from The Aeneid, penned by the Roman poet Virgil in the first century BC, Dido and Aeneas recounts the tragic tale of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and the Trojan hero Aeneas. Dido loses her heart to the fierce, handsome warrior Aeneas after he is shipwrecked on her shores, only to be devastated when he abandons her to continue his quest to find Rome.

This story of doomed love has resounded through two millennia. 91��ɫ’s production, a collaboration between faculty and students from the departments of Music, Theatre and Dance, is a strikingly contemporary but timeless re-imagining. Thirty performers play the characters as well as the place, forming a living set on an otherwise empty stage.

“T�󾱲� Dido project is the realization of a dream I’ve had since I joined 91��ɫ,” said Professor Catherine Robbin (left), who heads 91��ɫ’s classical vocal music program. “There’s so much talent and expertise in our performance programs, and it’s a joy to bring it together in an opera production. The experience of combining our creative energies is tremendously exciting and rewarding, both for the students involved and for those of us who teach and work professionally in the field.”

An internationally renowned mezzo soprano, Robbin fills the dual roles of music director and producer for the production. She is no stranger to Dido and Aeneas, having sung the title role in the 1982 Stratford Festival production, which earned her critical accolades as “a voice which is unquestionably the greatest, in its range, that Canada has produced in several decades” (The Globe and Mail). Her discography features many baroque composers, including Purcell, Handel and Vivaldi, in collaborations with leading conductors such as Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock and John Eliot Gardiner.

Presiding over the orchestra pit for 91��ɫ’s Dido and Aeneas is Robbin’s Music Department colleague, award-winning choral conductor and composer Professor Stephanie Martin (above). Martin, who serves as music director for the historic Church of St. Mary Magdalene and conductor of Toronto’s Pax Christi Chorale, directs the 16- member 91��ɫ Baroque Ensemble.

The stage director is theatre Professor Gwen Dobie (left), who brings extensive directing credits in contemporary opera and theatre to the table. Dobie‘s most recent productions include ��ǳپ��ܱ� and Sound in Silence for her company, Out of the Box Productions; the Canadian premiere of the Danish opera On this Planet by Anders Nordendoft; and the world premiere of the opera Eyes on the Mountain by Canadian composer Christopher Donison.

Susan Lee (BFA ’90, MFA ’10), an alumna and current faculty member in 91��ɫ’s Department of Dance, brings her long-standing interest in interdisciplinary collaboration to Dido and Aeneas. In a performance career spanning two decades and three continents, Lee has originated roles in almost 50 world premieres by some of Canada’s most highly acclaimed choreographers. Her own choreography has been described as “… a tour de force of magic and mystery” (The Globe and Mail). She brings that magic to bear on this production, contributing original choreography to the work.

Starring in the role of Dido is fourth-year music major Charlotte Gagnon. Gagnon recently won first prize at the Newmarket Voice Festival Senior Scholarship Competition, as well as two awards for opera performance and the prize for outstanding performing ability and career potential in classical singing. She also placed second in her class at the 2011 National Association of Teachers of Singing Ontario chapter competition.

First-year music student Joseph Farahat sings the role of Aeneas. Both young artists are studying with eminent soprano Norma Burrowes in 91��ɫ’s classical vocal performance program.

In total, the cast for Dido and Aeneas features 21 singers, four actors and five dancers. Not only performers, they also play an active role on the production side. Dressed all in white, they have designed their own costumes based on their personae in Purcell’s opera – or in the case of the non-speaking roles, inspired by characters drawn from the classical literature of five centuries, who were betrayed or betrayers in their time.

Eschewing a physical set, Professor Elizabeth Asselstine, chair of the Department of Theatre, and Professor William Mackwood, who teaches design and production in the Department of Dance, have created elaborate lighting and projection designs for the show. Working with a technical team of four theatre students, they paint the white-costumed canvas of the performers with evocative colour and special effects.

Tickets are $17, or $12 for students and seniors. For tickets, contact the Box Office at 416-736-5888.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Playwright and director to discuss his work tomorrow

fmaquito — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Alistair Newton, a Toronto-based playwright and director of theatre and opera, will digitally screen some of his work and engage in a discussion and Q&A tomorrow with film Professor Marie Rickard, the master of 91��ɫ’s Winters College.

The event, Queering Theatre in Toronto, will take place Thursday, from 2 to 4pm, in Winters Senior Common Room, 021 Winters College, Keele campus.

Newton, recently appointed a Winters College Fellow, is the founding artistic director of Ecce Homo Theatre. His newest musical, , is scheduled to run from Jan. 5 to 15, as part of the 2012 Next Stage Theatre Festival at the Factory Theatre in Toronto.

Written and directed by Newton, Loving the Stranger or How to Recognize an Invert, introduces the audience to Montreal’s Peter Flinsch, a theatre designer, visual artist and gay survivor of Nazi Germany, who was arrested in 1942 for kissing a friend at a Luftwaffe Christmas party. It takes in everything from the cabarets of 1920s Berlin and the battle over gay marriage to the office of the prime minister, and is billed as a provocative expressionist cabaret.

His previous work includes three consecutive productions for the SummerWorks Theatre Festival in which he was playwright and director of The Pastor Phelps Project: a fundamentalist cabaret, The Ecstasy of Mother Teresa or Agnes Bojaxhiu Superstar and Loving the Stranger or How to Recognize an Invert. Newton’s work has also been performed at the Rhubarb Festival – Leni Riefenstahl vs. the 20th Century – and the Victoria Fringe Festival – Woyzeck Songspiel.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Playwright and director to discuss his work tomorrow appeared first on Research & Innovation.