Titled Breath is Alive, the film’s intent is to capture the essence of Smukler’s work by following him into the studio as he teaches young artists who are discovering their vocal potential and established actors as they hone and rejuvenate their process. Interviews with 91��ɫ students and alumni, professional colleagues and others who have worked with Smukler will flesh out the story, providing a glimpse into the delicate, intricate process of vocal practice.

David Smukler

As co-producers and directors, Nelles and Paetz bring firsthand experience studying under Smukler to their research-creation project. Both have worked as voice coaches and professional actors, applying and sharing the skills they learned with Smukler both behind the scenes and in the spotlight.

“While David shows no signs of slowing down, he is a senior practitioner and we feel it’s crucial to capture his work now, while it continues to be vital and energetic,” said Nelles, who is currently pursuing doctoral studies in theatre at 91��ɫ. “Watching David work with actors can be as transformative as the work itself. In the company of his energy, you’re reminded of the innocence of creativity and the sheer joy of discovery.”

L.J. Nelles

Before he began teaching at 91��ɫ in 1980, Smukler served as voice coach for the Royal Court Theatre, English Opera Group and Royal Opera, Covent Garden in the UK and held appointments as head of voice at the Toneelschool, Amsterdam, the Department of Drama at Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburg, and Ontario’s Stratford Shakespearean Festival. He joined the full-time faculty in 91��ɫ’s Department of Theatre in 1984, serving three stints as acting area coordinator over the next two decades. He developed a strong voice and speech training component and played a pivotal role in founding the MFA program in Acting, the only program of its kind in Canada. Since his retirement in 2004, he has continued to teach in 91��ɫ’s Graduate Program in Theatre, overseeing the Graduate Diploma in Voice Teaching which he established in 2001.

“David was at the forefront of a kind of actor training that was new to Canada when he first began coaching at Stratford and teaching here at 91��ɫ. His work with actors and directors in the Department of Theatre defined an approach to actor training that forms the heart of our program and has served our students well for more than 30 years,” said Eric Armstrong (MFA '94), who has followed in his mentor’s footsteps in both the professional and academic arena. A respected dialogue and dialect coach in his own right, Armstrong is professor of voice and acting at 91��ɫ, where he currently directs the Graduate Program in Theatre.

Hollywood star Rachel McAdams  (BFA '01), award-winning Shaw and Stratford Festival veteran Deborah Hay (BFA '95), and stage and screen actor Christine Horne (BFA '04) are among Smukler’s many former students at 91��ɫ who have gone on to remarkable performance careers. Other notable Canadian actors he has coached include Shawn Doyle (Desperate Housewives, The Eleventh Hour, 24) and Arsinée Khanjian (The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat, Sabah).

“David has a remarkable ability to challenge actors to go deep, to confront their personal demons in order to tap the well of their imagination,” said Armstrong.

In addition to his work at 91��ɫ, Smukler has given professional workshops across Canada for Equity Showcase Theatre and has coached voice and dialect for innumerable film and theatre productions. As director of training for in Vancouver, which he established more than 25 years ago, he has worked extensively with performers, directors and broadcasters in theatre, opera, film and television. He has recently returned to acting, in works ranging from Theatre Rusticle’s production of Peter and the Wolf to Wordsmyth Theatre’s staging of Chekhov’s The Seagull.

Smukler has been recognized by the international Voice and Speech Trainers Association as a Distinguished Member for his lifetime contributions to the field. His accolades include the 91��ɫ Faculty of Graduate Studies' Teaching Award, given in recognition of his contributions to the advancement of academic excellence and the quality of graduate teaching at 91��ɫ.

When completed, Breath is Alive will stand as a tribute to Smukler as artist and teacher, and a record of the development of his art form and a generation of theatre practitioners in a pivotal period in Canadian theatre history.

To help fund the film, Paetz and Nelles have turned to crowdsourcing. Their ‘indiegogo’ campaign has surpassed the initial goal of $5000 needed to kick-start the project and cover basic production costs. Now they are seeking additional support to expand the scope of the film with more footage and interviews, and for post-production.

To make a contribution, visit the today, or e-mail ljnelles@yorku.ca.

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

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The AGYU invites you to "surge out there" as it joins with Raqs Media Collective: technological poets for an India in transition, to present their newest exhibit  Surjection.

Of the current generation of Indian artists, the from New Delhi (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta) are among the best known and most widely exposed in the west – and certainly the most media conscious. Having started as documentary filmmakers, over the past 20 years they have evolved a sophisticated, and sometimes performative, practice that combines film, media, audio and text, all of which draw upon philosophy and political theory, in installations of an unresolved poetics.

Right: Members of the Raqs Media Collective, from left, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Jeebesh Bagchi and Monica Narula

The Raqs Media Collective exhibition, Surjection, opens with a free public reception tonight, from 6 to 9pm at the Art Gallery of 91��ɫ. The artists will be at the reception.

The collective describes their AGYU exhibition this way: “Raqs Media Collective delights in transposing the plenitude of the incalculable onto the fabric of the ordinary. By counting to infinity, sensing animation in stillness and speaking in the language of silence, Raqs will breathe numbers, figures, proverbs and stories into the galleries of the Art Gallery of 91��ɫ.”

In this exhibition of entirely new work, the artists start with traces that are minimal but that contain great amplitude within them, such as the palm print of Raj Konai – the ancestral trace (from 1859) of the entire history of forensic identification – that hovers over the exhibition. Now animated, this image of a counting hand initiates a series of moves that the viewer animates through the exhibition. At the same time, the viewer witnesses other evolutions in video projection where stillness itself slowly is animated. Surjection begins outside, in AGYU Vitrines and occupies both galleries.

The elements of the exhibition are in a surjective relationship to each other. “Surjection” is a mathematical concept devised by the Bourbaki Group, whereby the elements of one set are applied, transposed, or mapped onto those of another set. Surjection continues until Sunday, Dec. 4.  

Surject yourself onto the Performance Bus

It’s an entirely different experience of numbers and letters on the Bingo Dilemma Bus. The game starts tonight at 6pm sharp when the Performance Bus departs the Ontario College of Art & Design University campus at 100 McCaul St.. Riders gather the clues to the game on the way to the Raqs Media Collective exhibition opening at the AGYU. Artist and game host Oliver Husain will be on the bus calling out the game clues. Performance Bus returns downtown at 9pm.

Math too tough for you? Go back to school with AGYU @ Art Toronto

The AGYU tricks or treats fair patrons with one of its specially commissioned installations featuring Toronto novelist Derek McCormack and Toronto artist Ian Phillips. The haunted schoolhouse is the outcome of an  four-year project supported by the AGYU of H.A.M.S. (Holiday Arts Mail-Order School), which is a correspondence course (for the 1936-1937 school year) devoted to the holiday arts. Hallowe’enologists will be on hand to take your questions and offer demonstrations. Alumni are welcome.  

Virtually AGYU

The surjective relations continue online with the  as independent Toronto curator Su-Ying Lee visits the studio of New 91��ɫ-based artist Alexandre Singh, whom she met in Paris this past summer while travelling in Europe. on her travels through Europe.  

Writing from the ash-filled Grimsvötn sky, Toronto artist counts down the rest of her days in Iceland as she writes about contemporary art and generous helpings of never-ending splendour, mind-blowing sunsets, migratory birds, half-shorn sheep, geothermal pools and more. 

For more information, visit the AGYU website.

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

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