York University Fine Arts Festival Celebrates
State-of-the-Art Accolade Project with
Theatre @ York’s Not Wanted on the Voyage
Richard Rose and D.D. Kugler adaptation of acclaimed novel by Timothy Findley
TORONTO, March 8, 2006 – York University and its Faculty of Fine Arts celebrate the official opening of The Accolade Project, York’s outstanding new teaching, exhibition and performance complex, with a week-long Fine Arts Festival running March 20-26.
The Department of Theatre’s contribution to the festival is a production of Not Wanted on the Voyage, adapted for the stage by Richard Rose and D.D. Kugler from the acclaimed novel by Canadian literary icon Timothy Findley. Directed by Vikki Anderson, Theatre @ York’s production of Findley’s bold reinvention of the story of Noah’s Ark previews from March 19, opens Tuesday, March 21 and runs to March 25 at Burton Auditorium.
Findley’s fantastical fable subjects the surviving boatload of human and animal life to the regime of a reckless and tyrannical patriarch. Meanwhile below decks, abetted by Mottyl the Cat, a seven-foot-tall rebel angel named Lucy and a choir of singing sheep, Noah's wife struggles heroically to preserve some humane values and the most vulnerable of the endangered species. This intensely theatrical parable evokes the peril of our solitary planet adrift in the eternal silence of infinite space.
With his novel Not Wanted on the Voyage, Findley spun a tale of the apotheosis of patriarchy, spurred perhaps by God’s ominous promise to Noah that “the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth.” Indisputably one of Canada’s leading literary lights, the author of several other novels and three plays (including Elizabeth Rex, produced recently at Stratford and in London), Findley died in 2002.
Adaptors Rose (artistic director, Tarragon Theatre) and Kugler (former artistic director of Edmonton's Northern Light Theatre) – both alumni of York’s theatre department - have collaborated on several refashionings for the stage of earlier literary works. Together they created the play Newhouse, combining Don Juan and Oedipus Rex, and a performable version of Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter. The first workshopping of their adaptation of Not Wanted on the Voyage took place at the National Theatre School in 1991; it was co-produced by Canstage, the Manitoba Theatre Centre and Rose’s own company at the time, Necessary Angel Theatre Company, in 1992.
Not Wanted on the Voyage is directed by Toronto’s award-winning triple threat: director, designer and producer Vikki Anderson, the founding artistic director of DVxT Theatre Company. Anderson, whose directorial credits include DVxT’s critically-acclaimed Happy Days (with Soulpepper), Mosley and Me (with CanStage) and The Dollhouse, directs a talented young cast drawn from York’s Acting Conservatory. In the key roles of Noah, Mrs. Noyes and Mottyl the Cat are Ryan Syminton, Jill Niedoba and Kate Barry. All production elements are designed and realized by undergraduate theatre students. Set design is by Megan Paquette, costumes by Sharon Hann, lighting by Wendy Liebner and sound design by Michael Cuttini.
Theatre @ York has been entertaining audiences for more than 30 years. Each year, the company mounts a challenging season of plays drawn from the contemporary and classical repertoire, featuring some of Canada's most promising stage talent.
For a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the theatre production process, visitors are invited to drop into Scenes by Design, an exhibition of stage production and design, on view from March 22 to 24 in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre in the Centre for Film and Theatre. The exhibition features original costumes, props, scenic art, stage drawings and maquettes as well as set, costume, lighting and sound designs, all created by students in the theatre department’s production program.
York’s theatre program has long been a springboard for some of Canada’s finest theatre artists. Alumni include screen and stage actors Rachel McAdams, Shawn Doyle, Tara Rosling, Melody Johnson and Tamara Bernier; directors Jillian Keiley, Jim Millan and Soheil Parsa; playwrights Djanet Sears, Sky Gilbert, Diane Flacks and Ian Ferguson; and designers Charlotte Dean and Deeter Schurig.
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The Accolade Project, to be officially launched at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 20, is a visionary initiative that offers Canada’s future artists, scholars and educators a striking new home in which to learn, create and innovate. This $107.5 million, 358,000 sq. ft. expansion project, designed by leading architectural firms Zeidler Partnership and B+H Architects, provides state-of-the-art teaching, exhibition and performance facilities in two new buildings – Accolade East and Accolade West – framing the existing fine arts complex at the heart of York University’s Keele campus. Flagship facilities include a 325-seat proscenium theatre, 325-seat recital hall with integrated recording studio, 500-seat cinema/lecture hall, two art galleries, and dozens of cutting-edge classrooms, labs and studios The Accolade Project reflects York’s stature as a rising cultural powerhouse and partner in Toronto’s cultural renaissance.
The Faculty of Fine Arts at York University is one of North America's leading and largest educational institutions for the fine arts. A vibrant community of more than 3,000 students and 250 faculty working at the leading edge of fine arts practice and scholarship, it offers academic studies and professional training at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in all the fine arts: dance, design, film, music, theatre, visual arts, as well as interdisciplinary cultural studies.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 190,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 22 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
York University and its Faculty of Fine Arts present the Fine Arts Festival running March 20-26
Theatre @ York presents Not Wanted on the Voyage
Based on the novel by Timothy Findley
Adapted for the stage by Richard Rose and D.D. Kugler
Directed by Vikki Anderson
Previews March 19 & 20, Opens March 21 and Runs to March 25
Performances: nightly at 7:30pm, matinees March 22 and 24 at 1:00pm
Admission: Previews - Sun PWYC, Mon $5
Regular run - $12 / students & seniors $8 / group rate $5
Burton Auditorium, York University, 4700 Keele St. Toronto
Scenes by Design exhibition runs March 22-24
10:00am-6:00pm (March 22 from 11:30am)
Admission free
Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre, Centre for Film and Theatre, York University
Information & Fine Arts Festival Box Office: 416-736-5888
Fine Arts Festival: www.yorku.ca/finearts/festival
The Accolade Project: www.yorku.ca/accolade
