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
Come to the Absinthe Pub & Coffee Shop and get to know your Head of Winters College, John Mayberry, over some tasty nachos – on us! Enjoy an evening of nachos, trivia and good conversations.
We’re bringing Central Perk to you! Enjoy a tasty beverage, something sweet and a few performances at this semester’s first Winters Café.
Winters Café is a cozy environment where you can chill out and listen to a variety of performers: musicians, comedians, playwrights, poets – you name it! Board games and good fun is also encouraged.
Interested in performing? Sign up here!
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.
Our February edition of Winters Cafe will be extra sweet! Drop in for hot cocoa, snacks and Valentine’s crafts. Come hang out and feel the Winters love! Interested in performing? Sign up here: https://ampd.apps01.yorku.ca/machform/view.php?id=71929
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
“Dispatches from Inside the Newsroom Revolutions in Journalism and Our Changing World”
Anna Maria Tremonti is the host of CBC Radio One’s flagship network morning news program, The Current, where she has devoted hours of coverage and questions to issues that range from world politics, to social and demographic shifts to economics. For this memorial lecture, she will draw on her extensive experience as a reporter, a correspondent, and a host to examine the dynamic changes and challenges facing the field of journalism.
Admission is free; all welcome.
The Wendy Michener Lecture, named in commemoration of the Canadian arts critic and journalist, was established at York University in 1986 to provide a forum for discussion of vital issues and developments in culture and the arts.
Catch a rising wave of electrifying film talent!
Now in its 17th year, CineSiege presents a collection of short films – riveting fiction, cutting-edge alternative works and provocative documentaries – selected by leading lights of Canadian film and media culture.
The films selected for CineSiege 2019 were chosen from a shortlist, culled from 186 productions made last year.
The nominees were reviewed by five jurors: Maya Bankovici, Franci Duran, Stuart Hands, Adina Pintilie and Ravi Srinivasan.
Jurors will be in attendance at CineSiege to introduce the winning films and explain why they were selected.
CineSiege is made possible through the generous support of
After Party
Immediately following screening (approx. 10:30pm)
The Monarch Tavern
12 Clinton St, Toronto, ON M6J 2N8
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
The Wendy Michener Memorial Lecture presents Wafaa Bilal (Performing Change)
Wafaa Bilal will discuss specific bodies of work including Domestic Tension (aka Shoot an Iraqi), The Things I Could Tell…, and his most recent project 168:01, elaborating on the evolution of his work and reflecting on his personal experiences living in both the conflict zone of Iraq and the comfort zone of the United States. Bilal’s work explores both the trauma of conflicts and post-conflict relationships through social engagement.
His dynamic, participatory work blends technology and performance to engage viewers in dialogue and places him in the role of the artist as platform initiator, helping to shift and change the distribution channels in the media. The controversial aspects of his work spark deeper conversation and provoke passive viewers to take an active stance with regard to social justice and their own personal/political realities
Location: Tribute Communities Recital Hall
Time: 12:00-2:00pm
Admission is free; all welcome.
The Wendy Michener Lecture, named in commemoration of the Canadian arts critic and journalist, was established at York University in 1986 to provide a forum for discussion of vital issues and developments in culture and the arts.
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.
Belly Dance as Mindful Movement for Stress Reduction
This movement-based workshop utilizes belly dance vocabulary designed for self-soothing. Learn movements that support the reduction of stress and anxiety symptoms. Participants will leave with applications on how stress responses can be experiences on a spectrum from hyper-arousal (feelings of overstimulation) to hypo-arousal (feelings associated with low-energy or burnout). Belly dance used as mindfulness offers gentle wavey movement designed to down-regulate physical stress responses. This workshop also combines more energizing vocabulary through shimmying and shaking as well as core engagement to support up-regulation of the nervous system, based on internal rhythm and percussion.
About the Facilitator :
Shaila is completing her Masters in Dance at York University. She concurrently training as a Dance Movement Therapist through the National Centre for Dance Therapy in Montreal. Her work focuses on belly dance practices that use sensuality as a healing tool within dance interventions. Her movement offerings look at building resiliency, decoupling stress responses and promoting body positivity. Shaila provides a unique framework that maps belly dance vocabulary for nervous-system regulation. Shaila has been an active member of the Toronto belly dancing community for over a decade, both as a performer and instructor. She currently works as a Health Educator and Training Specialist and enjoys offering students training on mental health and well-being.
Hollywood Old and New: ReDesigns for Student Engagement in eLearning with Gillian Helfield & Dan Becker
Thursday, March 12
12:00 – 1:30 PM
AMPD Faculty Lounge (GCFA 214)
Free
RSVP
Join us for this lunchtime talk about the evolution of “Hollywood Old and New”, a fully online class that offers students an understanding of Hollywood film genres from a historical and social perspective. In this talk, the presenters will discuss their pedagogical strategies for the new course redesign to facilitate student engagement in a large format class. This course is offered by the Department Cinema and Media Arts in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design.
Gillian Helfield lectures at York University, in Cinema and Media Studies in AMPD, Humanities in LAPS, and Canadian Studies at Glendon College. Though she has specialized in Canadian and Quebec Cinemas, other areas of academic interest include Genre Studies, Cultural Studies, Women’s Cinema, National Cinemas, Diasporic and Exilic Cinemas, Middle Eastern Cinemas, and Rural Cinemas. In 2006, her book Representing the Rural: Space Place and Identity, in Films About the Land, was published by Wayne State University Press.
In collaboration with AMPD, Gillian has developed and redesigned two large-enrolment online film courses, which have earned recognition from international eLearning associations (IELA) and the Teaching Commons at York University (York’s nomination for the STLHE Brightspace /D2L Innovation Award). In 2017, she received the AMPD eLearning Teaching Award.
Dan Becker is the Educational Designer and Developer for the Faculty of Education. He works extensively with instructors to operationalize educational theory and current research within courses that utilize technology. Dan develops learning experiences that engage students, build communities of inquiry and employ meaningful assessment strategies, while avoiding excessive effort on the part of the instructor. His approach of simplicity and depth has produced a variety of courses that are enjoyed by instructors and students alike.
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.
