Fine Arts Festival Celebrates
THEATRE
Les Belles-Soeurs and the Canadian Premiere of The Grapes of Wrath
running in Repertory March 18 – 31, 2007
TORONTO, March 08, 2007 --York University’s Faculty of Fine Arts celebrates its resident talent and the next wave of outstanding young visual artists, filmmakers and performers with the York Fine Arts Festival, featuring more than 40 public events packed into a three-week period running March 9 – April 1, 2007. All the fine arts are represented: dance, design, film, music, theatre, visual arts and interdisciplinary fine arts cultural studies. Events take place at York’s Keele campus.
Theatre @ York, the production company of York University's Theatre Department, 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 the festival, Theatre @ York is mounting two acclaimed plays: Michel Tremblay's Quebecois stage classic, Les Belles-Soeurs, translated by John Van Burek and Bill Glassco and directed by Miroslaw Polatynski, and the Canadian premiere of Frank Galati’s1990 dramatization of John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic, The Grapes of Wrath, directed by Glen Gaston. The productions, presenting two very different takes on the lives of the working class, run in repertory from March 18 to March 30.
Set in an impoverished Montreal neighbourhood in the late 1960s, Les Belles-Soeurs centres on Germaine Lauzon, who has won a million Gold Star stamps and invites her sisters and neighbours to help her stick them into booklets, to be exchanged for various goods. Sisterhood is stressed to the limit in this landmark play about the fallout in an extended family of working-class women.
The Grapes of Wrath is a searing depiction of the desperate struggle for physical and moral survival of a family of dispossessed Oklahoma sharecroppers caught up in the desperate westward trek in search of work and a better life in California during the “Dirty Thirties”. Galati’s powerful stage adaptation of Steinbeck’s literary masterpiece won the 1990 Tony Award and Outer Critics Circle Award.
Polatynski and Gaston are both professional actors and directors who are currently pursuing graduate studies in theatre at York.
Polatynski trained as an actor in Poland and Germany. Winner of a 2003 Actor’s Prize for his work in Incorrigibles by J. Slowacki and a three-time nominee for the Gold Mask actor’s award, he has appeared in leading roles in more than 70 productions throughout Poland, in London, England, the Czech Republic and Germany. He served as assistant director on many of these productions. Directing credits include Maria Stuart, Anthony and Cleopatra, Liola, Love for Love and The Invaluable Ridiculous Ones.
Gaston has appeared in theatres across the country, most recently with Hamilton’s Theatre Aquarius (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible) and Toronto’s Soulpepper (Don Carlos). In his work on stage, television, film and radio, he has performed with such Canadian luminaries as Fiona Reid, Brent Carver and Sean Cullen. Originally from Alberta, he began his career as a member of Robin Phillips’ acting company at the Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, where he appeared in more than 20 productions and served as assistant director. He co-founded The Rough Theatre, Edmonton’s political theatre touring company. Directing credits include The Marriage of Bette and Boo, The Importance of Being Earnest, As You Like It, The Wild Guys and Little Women.
Theatre @ York’s productions of Les Belles-Soeurs and The Grapes of Wrath showcase the talents of students in all areas and levels of York's theatre program. The casts are drawn from the fourth-year acting program well as the graduate acting program.
Both productions have been designed and built by undergrad students. Les Belles-Soeurs features set designs by Cristina Reale, costumes by Melissa Bergeron, lighting design by recent York graduate Wendy Liebner and original music composed by York music student Katy Dosman. The Grapes of Wrath was designed by Joanna Yu (sets), Jessica Sisson (costumes) and Glen Smith (lighting), with musical direction and composition by music student Patrick Cotter.
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, Tamara Bernier, Patrick Galligan, Tara Rosling and Melody Johnson; directors Jillian Keiley, Richard Rose, Jim Millan and Soheil Parsa; playwrights Djanet Sears, Sky Gilbert, Diane Flacks and Sally Clark; and stage designers Charlotte Dean and Deeter Schurig.
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Complementing Les Belles-Soeurs and The Grapes of Wrath is Scenes by Design, an exhibition of stage production and design running March 28-31. The show features original costumes, props, scenic art, stage drawings and maquettes, plus set, costume, lighting and sound designs created by students in the production program of the Department of Theatre.
The Faculty of Fine Arts, York University presents the
York Fine Arts Festival March 9 - April 1, 2007
Events take place at York’s Keele campus, 4700 Keele St., Toronto
Les Belles-Soeurs and Grapes of Wrath run in rep from March 18-31 in the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre, Accolade East Building.
Admission is $15, students & seniors $10, previews $5 and PWYC
BOX OFFICE & INFORMATION: 416.736.5888
Performance Schedule:
Les Belles-Soeurs Previews: Mar. 18 & 19 at 7pm; Opening Night: Tues Mar. 20 at 7pm;
Runs Mar. 23, 28, 29 at 7pm; Matinees Mar. 23, 24 & 28 at 1pm
The Grapes of Wrath Previews: Mar. 21 at 1pm & 7pm; Opening Night: Thurs. Mar. 22 at 7pm;
Runs Mar. 24, 26, 27, 30, 31 at 7pm; Matinees: Mar. 21 & 30 at 1pm.
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Scenes by Design runs Wed. March 28-Sat. Mar. 31 at the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre, Centre for Film and Theatre.
Hours: Wed 11:30-5pm, Thurs & Fri 10am-5pm, Sat. 11am-3pm
FREE
For a detailed York Fine Arts Festival schedule visit
www.yorku.ca/finearts/festival
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York Fine Arts Festival: Meet the arts in the heart of the GTA
The Faculty of Fine Arts at York University is spotlighting its resident talent in a three-week festival packed with more than 40 exciting and entertaining events. Running March 9 to April 1, the York Fine Arts Festival features exhibitions, theatre and dance productions, film screenings, multimedia shows, and a wide variety of classical, jazz and world music concerts. Events take place in state-of-the-art facilities at York University’s Keele campus. Join us for this showcase celebrating the next wave of outstanding young talent in the visual and performing arts.
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The Faculty of Fine Arts at York University is one of North America’s leading and largest centres for fine arts education. A vibrant community of some 3,200 students and 280 faculty working at the leading edge of fine arts practice and scholarship, it offers academic studies and professional training in dance, design, film, music, theatre and visual arts as well as interdisciplinary cultural studies in the fine arts. For more than 35 years, York Fine Arts has been a premier launching pad for outstanding young talent and a major contributor to the arts and cultural scene in Toronto, Canada and beyond.
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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 11 faculties and 23 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.
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Media Refer: Dianne Weinrib/Amy Stewart, DW Communications,
416-703-5479 dw@dwcommunications.net
