Shakespeare: The Authorship Question, a day-long conference exploring those questions, will take place Saturday, April 7, starting at 11am, at the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre, 139 Centre for Film & Theatre, Keele campus. The conference is open to the public. Tickets cost $30, which will include a light lunch. Reservations must be made, but one can pay at the door.

Over the last century-and-a-half numerous scholars, artists and those who are simply curious have looked at the issue and have suggested quite publicly that the Bard of Avon may not be who we have long thought he was. Those doubters have included Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Henry James, Orson Welles, Helen Keller and, more recently, major artists such as Mark Rylance, first artistic director of the rebuilt Globe Theatre, actor Jeremy Irons and Sir Derek Jacobi. Even a judge from the United States Supreme Court – after hearing the arguments in a legal framework – said there were certainly grounds for reasonable doubt.

In recent years, dozens of books have been published interrogating these and related questions arguing for and against everyone from the standard candidate – the actor-manager from Stratford-upon-Avon William Shaksper (that is indeed how he generally spelled his name) – to  Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (the current most favoured candidate) to Italian-born and English-raised lexicographer John Florio. Sony Pictures’ recent film, Anonymous, has now drawn the wider public into the discussion.

The conference’s keynote speaker, Mark Anderson (left), author of the critically-acclaimed volume , has his own opinion on Shakespeare’s identity. Anderson will delve into the subject with his talk, "The Bard's New Clothes: Shakespeare's Autobiography and Why the Authorship Controversy Matters".

Professor Don Rubin (right), founding director of the MA and PhD programs in Theatre Studies and series editor of Routledge’s six-volume World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre, will deliver opening remarks. Rubin, president of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association, is currently directing a fourth-year seminar at 91ŃÇÉ« on the authorship question.

Montreal actor Keir Cutler will then give a one-hour performance based on Mark Twain’s comic examination of the question, is Shakespeare dead? Cutler has performed the show all across North America.

In the afternoon, there will be a 90-minute panel debate on who wrote Shakespeare’s work, chaired by Rubin with panellists Anderson, Cutler, Italian-born scholar and editor Lamberto Tassinari of Montreal (a major proponent of John Florio), 91ŃÇɫ’s own Canada Research Chair in Theatre – Professor Christopher Innes of the Department of English (arguing for William of Stratford), David Prosser, communications director and former literary manager of the  Stratford Festival, and Michel Vais, editor of the Quebec theatre journal Jeu. There will also be a Q&A session with the audience.

The event is sponsored by the 91ŃÇÉ« Department of Theatre in association with 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, Winters College, Stong College, the Division of Humanities and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Research Fund.

For more information, to register or to support this event, contact Don Rubin at drubin@yorku.ca, or Tasha Gallant, part of the conference’s publicity committee, at Tash89@yorku.ca.

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The event, Queering Theatre in Toronto, will take place Thursday, Jan 5, 2012, from 2 to 4pm in Winters Senior Common Room, 021 Winters College, Keele campus.

Right: Marie Rickard

Newton, a recently appointed Winters College Fellow, is the founding artistic director of Ecce Homo Theatre. His newest musical, , is scheduled to run from Jan. 5 to 15, 2012, 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.

“The goal of my work is to balance politics and entertainment, to combine dance, music, text and design into a total theatrical experience in the hopes of challenging my audience intellectually and emotionally,” says Newton.

“I agree with Schiller's notion of the stage as a moral institution and I endeavor to create work on big themes for troubled times. My output as a playwright and director with Ecce Homo Theatre seeks to achieve intimacy through artifice using a queer aesthetic as a tool for destabilization, to draw attention to hypocrisy and deflate the un-ironic. As one of my former teachers, Charles Marowitz, once said, “Laughter can be a hammer-stroke in the hands of deft satirists.”

Newton is a contributor to the forthcoming collection, TRANS(per)FORMING Nina Arsenault: An Unreasonable Body of Work (Intellect Ltd.), edited by 91ŃÇÉ« theatre Professor Judith Rudakoff.

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.

In addition, Newton was a participant in the inaugural presentation of The Ark at The National Arts Centre English Theatre in 2006, and is a past member of the BASH! Emerging Artist Program at the Canadian Stage Company, the Ante Chamber Creator’s Unit with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and the Director’s Lab of the Lincoln Center Theater.

He has also served as apprentice director for the Ensemble Studio of the Canadian Opera Company for its 2009-2010 season, where he directed a production of Pergolisi’s La Serva Padonra. Newton’s recent work includes a stint as director/dramaturge for Bella: The Color of Love with Teresa Tova and Mary Kerr at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. It was a commission for the 2011 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

The show is being supported by the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Next Stage Theatre Festival and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

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

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The next instalment of the series will be delivered by , a professor in 91ŃÇÉ«'s Faculty of Environmental Studies and . The lecture will take place Monday, March 21, in 001 Vanier College from 6 to 7pm.

Sandilands is the author of numerous publications in environmental literature, history and cultural studies, including writings on national parts, queer and feminist ecologies, ecocriticism and environmental public cultures.

Sandilands' lecture, titled "A State of Nature? National Parks and Canadian National Identity", places a different kind of lens on Canada's national parks. Anyone who has ever visited one and wondered why there are so many rules, trails and signs in the "wilderness" should consider coming to this free public lecture.

Above: Cate Sandilands and the unnatural signage in the Bruce Peninsula National Park

"Canadian national parks are often referred to as 'national treasures', part of a public understanding of heritage that view them as a sort of repository of the essence of Canada. In this view, parks 'preserve' a nature that is the origin of the nation, a key part of our collective identity as Canadians," says Sandilands.

"In fact, national parks are deeply political creations. They 'organize' nature in specific ways, and have served a variety of economic and other agendas since the first Canadian national park – Rocky Mountains Park, now Banff – was established in 1887," she says.

"This presentation will consider the politics of national parks over the last 125 years, with a particular focus on the dynamics of 'national natures' as they are a part of different economic, political and ideological trajectories for Canadian identity," says Sandilands. "Thinking about parks solely as sites of preservation obscures a far more interesting history."

The Canada Like You’ve Never Heard it Before Lecture Series series showcases the breadth and depth of Canadian scholarship and research at 91ŃÇÉ«. The series was organized by Jon Sufrin, coordinator of the Canadian Studies Program. This academic year, several senior faculty and two Canada Research Chairs have delivered presentations.

Sponsors of the series include: the Dean's Office, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; Stong College; Vanier College; Winters College; New College; Calumet College; Founders College; Students for Canadian Studies; and the Canadian Studies Program.

For upcoming lectures and speaker bios, visit the Canada Like You’ve Never Heard it Before Lecture Series website.

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

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Hosted by the (IRIS) in collaboration with the Ecologically Conscious Organization and Schulich Net Impact clubs, the evening will feature an Old to Gold fashion show that features designs created by 91ŃÇÉ« students that use pre-loved clothing. Also featured in the fashion show are creations made from vintage clothing from Pre-loved, a fashion boutique located in downtown Toronto.

As part of the evening, (left), president & chief strategy officer at EC3, will deliver a special lecture on sustainability. Bowerbank is a respected authority on green buildings, sustainable development, industrial design and low-carbon economics. He regularly draws from his diverse background in efforts to engage industry leaders and support new business strategies in response to current energy and environmental issues. Bowerbank was the executive director of the World Green Building Council from 2007 to 2009.

The evening will conclude with a live music performance. The event is free and open to the community. The dress code is evening casual. As seating is limited, organizers request that those interested in attending this event should visit the website. RSVPs should be e-mailed to irisatyork@gmail.com. The menu will include vegetarian and vegan options in addition to traditional fare.

is an international event that asks individuals, families, businesses and public institutions, to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of March 26, from 8 to 9pm local time, to promote electricity conservation and lower carbon emissions.

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Podruchny’s talk, “Tough Bodies, Fast Dogs, Well-Dressed Wives: Measures of Manhood Among French-Canadian Voyageurs in the North American Fur Trade”, will take place tomorrow, from 2:30 to 4pm, at 010 Vanier College, Vanier Senior Common Room, Keele campus.

She will discuss French Canadian and MĂ©tis voyageurs working in the fur trade. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the voyageurs developed a range of masculine ideals that worked together to promote a particular trope of manhood among this workforce. Men were expected to perform near miraculous feats of labour by paddling continuously for weeks on end, barely stopping to sleep and eat, carrying impossibly heavy packs across slippery and steep portages, and shooting through dangerous rapids, says Podruchny.

They challenged each other to develop bodies that were as tough as possible through games of speed, endurance and strength. They distinguished categories within the workforce. Pork eaters were denigrated as lesser men; North men were considered to be tougher; Athabasca men the toughest, she says.

Tough man ideals included taking risks, being jovial and stoic in the face of hardship, and standing up to the dangers of the wild. Voyageurs also idealized largess, spending money on luxury goods, such as decorating their possessions, feasting and drinking, and wooing women with extravagant gifts. The range of these ideals created distinct values in fur trade and Métis communities that stood out sharply from their bosses, missionaries, and later white settlers who began to intrude in the northwest starting in the 1870s.

Podruchny work focuses on the history of French and indigenous contact in early Canada. She is the author of and co-editor of .

The 2010-2011 Canada: Like You’ve Never Heard It Before Speakers' Series features public lectures by prominent 91ŃÇÉ« Canadianists. Co-sponsored by the Canadian Studies Program and the Canadian Studies club, this interdisciplinary series demonstrates the breadth and depth of both Canadianist research at 91ŃÇÉ« and the work of outside authors.

This series is co-sponsored by Vanier College, Winters College, New College, Stong College, Calumet College and Founders College, as well as the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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