The Devised Theatre Festival premieres four riveting new collaborative productions — each conceived, created, produced and performed by fourth-year students in Devised Theatre in the Department of Theatre’s Performance Creation & Research program.
The playbill features an original musical about student and thespian life; an immersive physical theatre work about night terrors; a comedic cabaret about issues faced by Millennials; and a gripping interactive piece set in a circus that explores spectacle and loneliness under the big top.
Each show is presented by a production company formed by a student ensemble within Devised Theatre. Festival production managers are Kait Gallant and Shannon Farrell.
The Devised Theatre Festival runs in two series, each presenting a double bill:
SERIES A
Cast! The Musical – Pretendtious Theatre
REM – SomatiKs Theatre
Performances
Mon. March 20 – 7:30pm (preview)
Wed. March 22 – 3:30pm
Thur. March 23 – 7:30pm
Fri. March 24 – 7:30pm
Sat. Mar. 25 – 1:30pm
SERIES B
Jennaration Y – NonCents Theatre
Inverted Spotlight – typo theatr
Performances
Tues. March 21 – 7:30pm (preview)
Wed. March 22 – 7:30pm
Fri. March 24 – 3:30pm
Sat. March 25 – 7:30pm
Sun. March 26 – 1:30pm
For full details about the shows, the production companies, the artists, and blog posts, visit the Devised Theatre Festival website.
Venue
The first show in each series takes place in Room 209, Accolade East Building. The audience then moves next door to Room 207 for the second show in the series.
Admission is by donation at the door (cash only).
Suggested donation: previews $5 | regular performances $7
Seating is limited. Sign up online to reserve your spot!
The Devised Theatre Festival premieres three collaborative productions — each conceived, created, produced and performed by fourth-year students in Devised Theatre in the Department of Theatre’s Performance Creation & Research program.
Through physical storytelling, Peeled explores the painful yet liberating path of accepting loss. New members of a grief meeting reconcile with the changes in their lives. Journey with them to trace their roots, accept their present, and reclaim their future.
Metanoia follows four people’s participation in a YouTube interview series prompting them to contemplate their achievements, regrets, and fears about the future. Through abstract physical explorations, Metanoia examines what incites people to change and how we grapple with it.
In 2026, 5 explorers aboard the EVREN were sent out to discover what lies within a black hole. 70 years of secrecy later, the NARSA Space Agency will now release the findings of the EVREN mission to the general public.
Performances
(please note: In light of the CUPE 3903 contract workers’ strike the performance schedule has been adjusted. The Devised Theatre Festival respects CUPE 3903’s decision to go on strike, and the following schedule will be in effect if the strike continues through March 12-17, 2018.)
Mon, March 12 – 7.00 PM: Peeled – Metanoia – E V R E N
Tues, March 13 – 7.00 PM: Peeled – E V R E N
Wed, March 14 – 7.00 PM: E V R E N – Metanoia
Thu, March 15 – 7.00 PM: Metanoia – Peeled
Fri, March 16 – 7.00 PM: Metanoia – E V R E N – Peeled
Sat, March 17 – 7.00 PM: Peeled – Metanoia – E V R E N
For full details about the shows, the production companies, the artists, and blog posts, visit the Devised Theatre Festival website.
Venue
The first show in each evening takes place in Room 209, Accolade East Building. The audience then moves next door to Room 207 for the second show in the series.
Admission is by donation at the door (cash only).
Suggested donation: previews $5 | regular performances $7
Seating is limited. Sign up online to reserve your spot!
“Worlds of Exile,” Theatre @ York’s 2017-18 season, culminates in Christopher Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage, an epic story in an intimate and innovative new production directed by acclaimed director, dramaturg and playwright Peter Hinton.
Shadowed by war, Dido, Queen of Carthage is the original tragic love story with its hero Aeneas, the exiled prince of Troy, compelled by Fate to leave his beloved Dido, Queen of Carthage to fulfil a political destiny. Aeneas, the son of Venus, is one of the Trojans who escapes from the city after it is destroyed. In his exile he seeks refuge in Carthage. Learning of Aeneas’ experience and loss, Dido falls in love with him, only to be forsaken shortly after. Torn between her personal abandonment and national sacrifice, Dido performs an ultimate act of resistance.
Dido, Queen of Carthage is Marlowe’s first play, written when he was just 19 and still a student at Cambridge. Inspired by the fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid, the story of Dido and Aeneas has stimulated artists for two millennia; from Ovid to Henry Purcell to modern-day science-fiction like Battlestar Galactica, with its exiled travellers seeking a prophesied new home. It isn’t hard to see the story’s appeal.
Performance Schedule: March 18 to 23 at 7:30pm
Box Office Information: Tickets are available online or over the phone 416-736-5888
Previews: $7.00 March 18 & 19
Relaxed Performance: $5.00
Thursday March 22 7:30pm
All Other Performances:
Tickets: $20.00
Student/Senior $12.00
(Group price applies when all group tickets are purchased at once for a single performance. Not available online, please phone or visit the box office)
50 years since its founding, Theatre @ York opens the 2018-2019 season with the premiere of rochdale, a new play by David Yee under the direction of Nina Lee Aquino, featuring the fourth-year acting ensemble.
Opened in 1968, Rochdale College was an experiment in student-run alternative education and co-operative living. The project ultimately failed when it could not cover its financing and neighbours complained that it had become a haven for drugs and crime.
“We are delighted to open our season with a new Canadian play that embraces the same spirit of experimentation and social advocacy that guided the founding of the Department of Theatre at York 50 years ago,” commented department chair Marlis Schweitzer. David Yee and Nina Lee Aquino have collaborated on a play that not only gives voice to the youth, energy, and passion of the 1960s but also resonates with students today. We are incredibly fortunate to have such Canadian innovators kick off this season, as we reflect on the past 50 years and look ahead to the future.”
David Yee is a Canadian actor, playwright and the artistic director of fu-Gen Theatre Company. His play carried away on the crest of a wave won the 2015 Governor General Award.
Nina Lee Aquino is an award-winning director and dramaturge, and the Artistic Director of Factory Theatre. She is committed to the development of new works, and to the manifestation of interculturalism in theatre.
Performance Schedule:
7:30 p.m. on November 17, 19-23
1:00 p.m. on November 21 & 23
2 p.m. on November 24
Tickets $7- 20
Online Box Office or call 416-736-5888
We are excited to bring you a new tradition to celebrate the end of a semester, and another year. The first ever “Winters Frolic” at Winters College, with a theme of “Havana Nights”! A formal dinner party event where Cuban-inspired dinner and drinks will be served along with exciting performances by both musicians and dancers. We will be raffling away fantastic prizes, with all proceeds going towards our Winters College student scholarships and funds. Follow us on Instagram: @WintersCollege for a sneak peek of the big day and the prizes we will be raffling off!
Theatre @ York presents Middletown by Will Eno, featuring the acting students in the MFA program and directed by the esteemed Jackie Maxwell.
Lives of the inhabitants of Middletown transect in an emotional journey that takes them from the local library to outer space and beyond. The moving and funny play emerges as a meditation on loneliness, birth, death, and the anxieties of our contemporary lives.
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, January 24 7:30pm Opening
Friday, January 25 2pm & 7:30pm
Saturday, January 26, 2pm
Showcase your films at the Winters College Film Screening! Whether it’s a finished or in-the-works project, we’d love for you to share it. All short documentary, fictions and/or experimental films are welcome to be submitted – 15 minutes max. Please upload your work to Google Drive and share it with winterscollege67@gmail.com.
Stressed out? Come and hang out with us and our furry friends from Hands on Exotic for a fun and stress relieving time!
Our March edition of Winter’s cafe is here!
Drop in for hot cocoa, snacks. Come hang out and feel the Winters love!
The Devised Theatre Festival premieres four riveting new collaborative productions — each conceived, created, produced and performed by fourth-year students in Devised Theatre in the Department of Theatre’s Performance Creation & Research program.
Each show is presented by a production company formed by a student ensemble within Devised Theatre.
The four shows are dead skin, a grotesque and physical exploration of the darkness within by Four Eyes Collective; #Filters, which challenges the way we connect on a daily basis by Transcendence Theatre; Refraction, a supernatural thriller where a woman is confronted by her past by Catapulse Collective; and After George, a revealing drama which plays out inside a high school anniversary reunion by Atomic Oddity Productions.
The Devised Theatre Festival runs in two series, each presenting a double bill:
Mon March 11 – 7.30 PM: PREVIEWS/INVITED DRESS Series A: dead skin – #Filters
Tues March 12 – 7.30 PM: PREVIEW/INVITED DRESS Series B: Refraction – After George
Wed March 13 – 7.30 PM: OPENING Series A: dead skin – #Filters
Thu March 14 – 7.30 PM: OPENING Series B: Refraction – After George
Fri March 15 – 4:00 PM: Matinee Series A: dead skin – #Filters
Fri March 15 – 8:00 PM: Series B: Refraction – After George
Sat March 16 – 3:00 PM: CLOSING Matinee Series B: Refraction – After George
Sat March 16 – 7:30 PM: CLOSING Series A: dead skin – #Filters
Venue: Begin in the Festival Lounge space in Accolade East Building room 209 to sign in, shows will take place in ACE 207.
Admission: Pay What You Can. Suggested $10.
For full details about the shows, the production companies, the artists, and blog posts, visit the Devised Theatre Festival website.
Theatre @ York presents Orlando by Sarah Ruhl, directed by MFA candidate Lindsay Bell and The Balcony by Jean Genet, directed by MFA candidate Margaret Legere. The two shows will be performed in repertory and feature the MFA and fourth-year actors.
Orlando is a dramatic adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s feminist classic by contemporary playwright Sarah Ruhl. It investigates the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history.
The Balcony uses the setting of an unnamed city and a distant background of a revolution and counterrevolution to explore strains of power in a society. The play compelling examines the delicate equilibrium of reality and illusion.
Performance Schedule:
Orlando
Sunday, March 24 at 7:30pm (Preview)
Tuesday, March 26 at 7:30pm (Opening)
Wednesday, March 27 at 1:00pm
Friday, March 29 at 7:30pm
Saturday, March 30 at 1:00pm
The Balcony
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm (Preview)
Wednesday, March 27 at 7:30pm (Opening)
Thursday, March 28 at 7:30pm
Friday, March 29 at 1:00pm
Saturday, March 30 at 7:30pm
Tickets $7- 20
Buy online or call 416-736-5888
IPHIGENIA 2.0
Presented by MFA Directing Candidates, Mandy Roveda and Philip Geller, featuring the 3rd year acting conservatory, Iphigenia 2.0 by Charles Mee is a modern reimagining of the Greek tragedy, Iphigenia in Aulis. Stuck in between a hastily prepared, royal wedding and an army on the verge of war, Iphigenia weathers a storm of deception before finally taking her destiny into her own hands. This show tests the strength of loyalty and duty to family, friends, and country in an unsparing environment.
SHOW TIMES:
October 31 – 7:00 PM
November 1 – 2:00 PM | 7:00 PM
November 2 – 7:00 PM
LOCATION:
CFT 139: Centre for Film and Theatre
Admission is free. Signup sheet is posted outside the studio door.
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) is a beloved feminist revisioning of two of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays, Othello and Romeo & Juliet. Written by Canadian playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald, the play explores the hypothetical question: what if Shakespeare’s tragedies were actually intended to be comedies? To learn the answer to this question, please join us November 16-23 in the Joseph G. Green Theatre to find out.
Performance Schedule:
Sat, Nov. 16 (preview 1) @ 7:30 pm
Sun. Nov. 17 (preview 2) @ 7:30 pm
Tues. Nov. 19 (Opening) @ 7:30 pm
Wed. Nov. 20 @ 1:00 pm
Wed. Nov. 20 (Relaxed Performance) @ 7:30 pm –Plan your visit
Thurs. Nov. 21@ 7:30 pm
Fri. Nov. 22 @ 1:00 pm
Fri. Nov. 22 @ 7:30pm
Sat. Nov. 23 @ 2:00 pm
Tickets $7- 20
Online Box Office or call 416-736-5888
Devised Theatre Festival 2020
March 10 – 14, 2020
The Devised Theatre Festival premieres three captivating new productions, each conceived, created, produced, and performed by fourth year Devised Theatre students in the Performance, Creation, and Research stream in York University’s Theatre program.
This year, the theme for the Devised Theatre Festival is: Escapism in the age of the Experience Culture, wherein we ask questions about how we try to escape, why we might feel the need to escape, and why this desire to escape may be problematic.
The three shows featured in this year’s festival are: Auto-nomy, a seductive physical theatre piece about companion robots who gain sentience, by The Vector Regime; Five, an intermedial physical theatre piece about four young women who are trapped inside a video game, by Mind Yo’ Business Productions; and Goodnight, Sunny, a magic realism piece about two siblings, Jonathan and Jamie, who go on one final adventure with their imaginary friend, Sunny.
Each show is presented by a production company formed by a student ensemble within Devised Theatre.
The Devised Theatre Festival runs in two series, each presenting a double bill:
Tuesday, March 10th: Company A: The Vector Regime (7:00pm) | Company B: Mind Yo’ Business Productions (8:30pm)
Wednesday, March 11th: Company B: Mind Yo’ Business Productions (7:00pm) | Company C: Triptych Theatre Collective (8:30pm)
Thursday, March 12th: Company C: Triptych Theatre Collective (7:00pm) | Company A: The Vector Regime (8:30pm)
Friday, March 13th: Company C: Triptych Theatre Collective (3:00pm) | Company A: The Vector Regime (4:30pm) | Company B: Mind Yo’ Business Productions (6pm)
Saturday, March 14th: Company B: Mind Yo’ Business Productions (3:00pm) | Company A: The Vector Regime (4:30pm) | Company C: Triptych Theatre Collective (6pm)
Venue: 207 Accolade East Building | York University Keele Campus
Admission: Pay What You Can. Suggested $10 (cash only please)
For full details about the shows, the production companies, the artists, and blog posts, visit the Devised Theatre Festival website.
Theatre @ York presents Elizabeth Rex by Timothy Findley directed by ted witzel
Timothy Findley’s Elizabeth Rex shares Good Night Desdemona’s interest in the Shakespearean canon.
Here, Findley imagines an intimate meeting between a group of players and Queen Elizabeth I, who has ordered a command performance of Much Ado About Nothing as she awaits the execution of a former lover, the Earl of Essex. With wit and poetry, Findley explores the entanglement of love, desire, and gender identity.
Performance Schedule:
Tuesday March 17th at 7:30 p.m. (Preview)
Wednesday March 18th at 1:00 p.m. (Preview)
Wednesday March 18th at 7:30 p.m. (Opening)
Thursday March 19 at 7:30 p.m. (Relaxed Performance)
Friday March 20th at 1:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Saturday March 21st at 2:00 p.m.
Saturday March 21st @ 7:30 p.m. (Closing)
Box Office Information
Previews: $7.00
All Other Performances:
Tickets: $20.00
Student: $12.00
Senior: $12.00
Groups of 10 or more: $10.00
(Group price applies when all group tickets are purchased at once for a single performance. Not available online, please phone or visit the box office)
Buy online or call 416-736-5888
Relaxed Performance: Thursday, March 19th at 7:30pm
A Relaxed performance is intended specifically to be sensitive to and accepting of audience members who may benefit from a more relaxed environment. The performance is designed to reduce anxiety and provide a safe, enjoyable experience, taking into account variable sensory, communication or learning needs and abilities. This means that there is a more casual-than-usual approach to front-of-house etiquette and we ask audience members to be aware of people’s needs to move or make involuntary noise.
