• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The Douglas College Departments of Theatre and Stagecraft & Event Technology recognize and acknowledge the QayQayt (Kee-Kite) First Nation, as well as all Coast Salish Peoples, on whose traditional and unceded territories we live, learn, play, and do our work. further As an institution, Douglas College opposes all acts of racism and stands with Black, Indigenous and people of colour to actively combat systemic bias in our communities. The Departments of Theatre and Stagecraft & Event Technology present M E R E M O R T A L S a n d O t h e r s Plays by D A V I D I V E S March 16 - 18, 2021 Streaming Live from the Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre Direction Kathleen Duborg Set Design Craig Alfredson Costume Design Alaia Hamer Lighting Design Gerald King The use of cameras or recording devices in the theatre is strictly prohibited. Please disengage all mobile phones and other devices that may interrupt the performance with light and sound. W E L C O M E T O T H E 2 0 2 0 / 2 0 2 1 S E A S O N “Nobody understands nothing no more.” Thus spake Christina Drayton, Katherine Hepburn’s character in 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, echoing the words of her black housekeeper of twenty-two years, Tillie (Isabelle Sanford), as the liberal family grappled with the reality of an interracial marriage. These words have been haunting me for the better part of a year and they have become my constant refrain. There are so many things I don’t understand and I don’t know. One of the things I don’t know is if someone will accuse me of being culturally inappropriate for speaking those words, tinted with a black vernacular. Never have so many individual versions of our human identity (racial, gender, religious, sexual) surged to the surface with so much determination to be heard and seen. We are caught in the swirls of multiple emotional and intellectual turns, sharpened to a deadly point by a pandemic that forces us to be physically apart, as well. Artists and educators are struggling to find the centre of the tempest, intimidated by the thought that the wrong word, image, or tone might blow us away, but also called to make vital changes. The task is daunting and potentially paralysing. It leaves me wondering, do I really know what I think I know? The legitimate anger and frustration of marginalized communities, abandoned and abused, has underscored how much we still don’t understand about one another, and about ourselves. We are exhorted to “listen” but that’s only a small first step. The hard work begins when we risk doing. At its best, theatre is an exploration of the unknown. When something doesn’t work, we turn it over and over until we find the thing that does. But nothing gets done until we make a choice to do something, listen for the response to our action, learn something new from it, and then do again. Do more. Do better. We can’t do it for selfish reasons; selfish never works. We do it because we need one another; a need which may be construed as selfish, but the kind of selfish wherein we “give a little, take a little.”* We have found ways to work, live and play, à la distance, away from one another, feeling the loss of presence and yet, somehow still present. As much as I yearn to be crammed into a lobby shoulder-to-shoulder with my community, to negotiate the narrow row to my seat, past knobbly knees and draped coats, to breathe in the hush of three hundred souls the moment before curtain (when that moment comes again, I suspect there will be tears), I am grateful for the organization, the optimism, and the determination of colleagues and students as we hold one another, not closely, but up. We continue to find ways to do the thing we love. On behalf of the Departments of Theatre and Stagecraft & Event Technology, Thrasso Petras *Hill, Billy, lyricist. “Glory of Love” (1936). Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, sung by Jacqueline Fontaine and chorus, directed by Stanley Kramer, Columbia Pictures, 1967. P L A Y W R I G H T D A V I D I V E S David Ives is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist who is perhaps best known for his comic one-act plays. In 1997 the New York Times referred to him as the "maestro of the short form". Ives has also written dramatic plays, narrative stories and screenplays, has adapted French 17th and 18th-century classical comedies, and adapted thirty-three musicals for New York City's Encores! Series. D I R E C T O R’ S N O T E S How lucky we are to have been able to delve into this play, beginning by Zoom in early January, then given huge spaces to work safely, at a distance. There we discovered so much more about performance, human behaviour, and the journey that rehearsals take us on to unlock, illuminate, and fill up a play—or in this case, six plays. These playlets by David Ives seemed perfect to me for the times we’re in, and an antidote of sorts. The theatrical and philosophical influences of a world turned upside down and inside out abound: Samuel Beckett, Christopher Durang, Edward Albee, Tom Stoppard, the styles of Monty Python, vaudeville, The Marx Brothers, and Carol Burnett and company. But perhaps the most significant lineage played upon which seems startlingly immediate to our Covid times, is the idea and angst described by Martin Esslin when he coined the term, Theatre of the Absurd. Esslin deeply investigated dramatists and plays which are inhabited by characters who are “…lost and floating in an incomprehensible universe.” Often too, as Estragon and Vladimir in Beckett’s masterpiece, Waiting for Godot, these characters are entirely reliant and stuck solidly together in an altogether alien and hopeful/less cycle. Sound familiar? I’m so grateful to be able to share the work during these times with such dedicated students and faculty, with wonderful designers and staff who are with us every step of the way. I hope, from wherever you watch—your sofa, maybe, or your desk, your kitchen table, in Yellowknife, Barcelona, or Ladner, drinking a Bud, a Perrier, or a kombucha—that you can find a kernel of delight or, maybe a giggle of recognition, or better yet a belly laugh, at how crazy this world can be. ~ Kathleen Duborg A C T I N G E N S E M B L E A N D Y N I E Sure thing: Bill Mere Mortals: Charlie G R A C E A L L A R D Sure Thing: Betty Variations on the Death of Trotsky: Ramona S H A E L Y N N E B A R B E R The Philadelphia: Alice English Made Simple: Jill EVE JACKSON Words, Words, Words: Kaftka Variations on the Death of Trotsky: Mrs. Trotsky A C T I N G E N S E M B L E J O S E P H H A R T O N O Sure Thing: Waiter Mere Mortals: Joe The Philadelphia: Waiter J U S T I N M A L H I The Philadelphia: Mark Mere Mortals: Frank J O H N M c C A L L U M Words, Words, Words: Swift Variations on the Death of Trotsky: Trotsky JACOB TONG Words, Words, Words: Milton English Made Simple: Jack D I R E C T I O N K A T H L E E N D U B O R G Kathleen is a director, actor, producer, educator and co- artistic director of Dirt Road Theatre. At Douglas College she has directed The Ovid by Ted Hughes, adapted by Simon Reade and Tim Supple, Concord Floral by Jordan Tannahill and Bard of the Bronx by John Patrick Shanley. Recent directing projects include Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, The Beaux’ Stratagem by George Farquhar, adapted by Ken Ludwig, The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh, The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, Komagata Maru by Sharon Pollock, Mrs. Singh and Me by Munish Sharma (Pick of the Fringe) and the plays Iceland (Jessie nomination best director), Greenland, Faroe Islands and Ostrich (premiere), all written by Nicolas Billon. Artistic collaborations on Small Stages Canada (MagNorth-Ottawa) and Indian Acts (Talking Stick- Vancouver) have enhanced her investigations into physical behaviour and embodiment between actors, dancers, text, design and audiences. Kathleen is also an award-winning actor working in theatre, film, television, voice-over and new play development throughout the country. Recent film credits include Nancy Drew, The Good Doctor, The Killing, The 100, Travelers, Picture Perfect and Supernatural. As a producer, she created ReelFast: The 48 Hour Movie Making Festival and The Cold Reading Series which endeavoured to connect writers and actors of the film and theatre communities. She is an adjunct professor teaching acting at the University of British Columbia and a senior instructor at The Vancouver Film School. A S S I S T A N T T O T H E D I R E C T O R D A V I D H O L L I N S H E A D David Hollinshead is a 2012 graduate of the Theatre program. Growing up, he found himself in football and theatre and continues to pursue those passions. After graduating, David continued to act and play quarterback for the Valley Huskers in the CJFL before becoming head football coach at West Vancouver Secondary School.

Load more

  25

Copy Link