People who have mostly known only poverty and suffering have now found new hope, a sense of joy and a stronger community thanks to a recent University of Victoria Applied Theatre field school in India.
UVic faculty member and director Fran Gebhard remembers New York City in 1978—the Ramones were rocking CBGB’s club in the Village and the flower-power generation was on its way out, being pushed to the past by a new punk attitude. New York was changing—and it was one amazing summer.
Not many of us get to bring our spouses to work, but for two UVic theatre alumni, acting together makes their careers more rewarding.
The buildings may have been repaired, but two key segments of the population in the southeastern coastal region of India are still struggling to overcome the effects of the 2006 tsunami: seniors and rural youth. Now, a new UVic field school hopes to bring a sense of joy to these marginalized people by creating India’s first intergenerational theatre company.
A group of 14 University of Victoria theatre artists will depart Monday for the southeast coast of India to help launch the country’s first intergenerational theatre company. UVic PhD candidate Matthew Gusul, with 13 students from UVic’s Department …
Few students would be proud of being called a scam artist, but theatre grad Max Johnson is—just note the alternate spelling. Johnson, who has been working for local professional theatrical company Theatre SKAM since 2011 (associates are charmingly dubbed “SKAM artists”), is graduating this June with a double major in writing and theatre. And the practical experience he learned at Phoenix Theatre has made him a valued member of SKAM’s team.
Kevin Kerr is coming full circle. Back in 2002, the noted playwright received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Unity (1918). Now a professor in the Department of Writing, Kerr is directing his first show for the Phoenix Theatre this month—and it’s Unity (1918), a play that is regularly studied in first-year theatre classes. More significantly, it’s the first time he’s ever directed it.
On Feb. 1 the Department of Theatre opened its doors to a record crowd of high school students at the annual “I Want To Be in Theatre!” open house. Over 80 attendees were treated to a rehearsal scene of the Phoenix Theatre’s upcoming production of Picnic (Feb. 13-22), introduced by director Peter McGuire and his cast and crew. McGuire speaks at a free pre-show lecture on Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. about the play and the joy of working with students.
In January, theatre historian Dr. Jennifer Wise’s play The Girl Rabbi of the Golden West was announced the winner of the 2013 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition by the Miles Nadal Centre in Toronto. Her play depicts the amazing true story of how, in 1895, in Victoria, Miss Ray Frank became the first woman to serve as rabbi for an orthodox synagogue throughout the High Holidays.
