91亚色鈥檚 Graduate Program in Theatre - Stage Direction in Collaboration with Canadian Stage brings together one of Canada鈥檚 premier theatre schools and one of the country鈥檚 leading contemporary theatre companies to support the development of directorial talent for the national and international stage.
Integrating studio work at 91亚色 with involvement in artistic projects at Canadian Stage, this landmark program offers highly specialized, advanced training in large-scale theatre directing. It launched in fall 2011 with Ker Wells and Ted Witzel as the inaugural MFA students (see the YFile story).
Now 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Theatre and Canadian Stage are welcoming a second set of rising young directors into the collaborative program. Estelle Shook, former artistic director of British Columbia鈥檚 Caravan Farm Theatre, and Matjash Mrozewski, an internationally recognized choreographer based in Montreal who trained at Canada鈥檚 National Ballet School, were hand-picked from a group of stellar applicants from across the country.
Estelle Shook
鈥淭he process of selecting our new participants for the program was lengthy and very challenging,鈥 said Professor Eric Armstrong, MFA program director in Theatre. 鈥淎fter submitting a portfolio and application, as well as a Skype interview with the panel, the top five candidates were brought to Canadian Stage to direct professional actors, to observe and critique a show in the Bluma Appel Theatre, and to participate in a seminar. It was really difficult making our final choices, as all the candidates were so strong. We couldn鈥檛 be prouder of our two new Canadian Stage directing students.鈥
In addition to working with faculty members in 91亚色鈥檚 Graduate Program in Theatre, Shook and Mrozewski will be mentored at Canadian Stage by veteran directors Peter Hinton (National Arts Centre, Shaw Festival, Stratford Shakespeare Festival) and Chris Abraham (Stratford Festival, Crow鈥檚 Theatre), and will have the opportunity to collaborate with Artistic & General Director Matthew Jocelyn. Their work with Canadian Stage will be supported by Birgit Schreyer Duarte, the company鈥檚 artistic and dramaturgical consultant for programming and coordination of the MFA program.
Shook and Mrozewski bring extensive professional experience to their graduate studies at 91亚色.
With Caravan, Shook produced, developed and directed more than 30 outdoor productions set in all areas of the company鈥檚 80-acre property, from fields and pines to barns and riding rings. Highlights include The Ballad of Weedy Peetstraw, billed as a 鈥渂luegrass opera鈥 based on Goethe鈥檚 Faust, written by Peter Anderson and John Millard, and Shakespeare鈥檚 Macbeth and King Lear, both of which employed the famous Caravan Clydesdale horses as stage machinery. Joining 91亚色鈥檚 MFA program marks a return to Canadian Stage for Shook, as she directed the company鈥檚 2011 Shakespeare in High Park production, The Winter鈥檚 Tale.
In 2001, after a remarkable performance career with The National Ballet of Canada, Le Ballet du Grand Theatre de Gen猫ve and Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Mrozewski chose to dedicate himself to choreography. Since then, he has created works for many renowned dance companies including the Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Ballet (Covent Garden), Royal Danish Ballet, Australian Ballet, Houston Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and National Ballet of Canada. He also choreographed two original Canadian musicals, Mimi, or A Poisoner's Comedy (Tarragon Theatre, Toronto) and The Bricklin at Theatre New Brunswick/Fredericton Playhouse) for director Alisa Palmer, and two films by Canadian director Moze Mossanen.
Matjash Mrozewski
The duo will build on these successes as they move into the MFA program, set to blaze new trails in the wake of their predecessors, Ted Witzel and Ker Wells, who have just completed their degrees.
Hot on the heels of their hugely successful Canadian Stage directorial debuts of The Taming of The Shrew and Macbeth, which ran in repertory to record audiences this summer for Shakespeare in High Park, Witzel and Wells are directing Canadian Stage鈥檚 season openers at the Berkeley Street Theatre. The newly minted graduates are each helming a play by Sarah Berthiaume, a rising star of Quebecois theatre.
The Flood Thereafter, directed by Wells, and the English-language premiere of Yukonstyle, directed by Witzel, are being presented for the first time in English outside of Quebec in partnership with Hopscotch Collective and 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Theatre.
The Flood Thereafter, opening Sept. 26 and running to Oct. 6, is part portrait of small-town Canada and part timeless fable. Every day, 22-year-old June does an abrupt strip show in the gritty Emotions bar, with all the men of the town watching and weeping. June鈥檚 relationship to the men stretches back to the sirens who ensnared the mariners of ancient Greece. But when a young stranger arrives in town, the tide begins to turn.
Yukonstyle, playing Oct. 13 to 27, follows three unlikely roommates as they endure the harsh Whitehorse winter as the 2007 Robert Pickton murder trial plays out on TV. One of them, a young Aboriginal man, confronts the mystery of his missing mother鈥檚 identity.
For more information and tickets to both productions, visit the website.