A Collaborative Interdisciplinary Performance

MARCH 20-26, 2016

... it is possible to carry our past
And move forward
Transformed

About

This production of The Birds is a creative collaboration between theatre, dance, digital media and music students together with faculty members and guest artists in York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design. AMPD’s rising young talent is engaged in all aspects of the show, from concept to execution -- on stage, backstage and behind the scenes. Students are mentored in designing and producing the play, choreographing, performing and directing, stage management and audience development. In bringing The Birds to life, AMPD’s emerging and established artists join forces to create a ground-breaking production of a seminal work of Canadian and Aboriginal theatre.

 

The Play


The Birds by Yvette Nolan is a powerful adaptation of one of western theatre's earliest comedies: the classical Greek play by Aristophanes.

Nolan re-situates the birds in the play to Turtle Island (North America), recasting the two humans who visit the land of the birds as colonizers-come-lately, intent on remaking this Indigenous paradise in their own image. This comic fable brings a 21st century audience inside an Indigenous subjectivity, underscoring the striking realities underlying Indigenous and settler relationships.

In using Nolan's adaptation, York University theatre professor and director Michael Greyeyes placed an Indigenous source work before four departments in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, and invited each to respond and create.

Susan Lee, an independent dance artist and educator in York’s Department of Dance, has choreographed an original concert dance work that anchors the first act, while giving shape to the historical backstory hinted at in Nolan's text. The Digital Media Program and artists from the Department of Music, in collaboration with the dance and theatre departments, built and augmented further responses through a series of interstitial performance and media works that connect Lee's first act choreography with the staging of Nolan's text that is the focus of the evening's second act.

Theatre @ York's production of The Birds is a story of women. By interweaving the Roman poet Ovid's tale of Philomela and Procne as the backstory to the Nightingale in the play, Nolan places a tragic past at the heart of this comedy. Indigenous artists often create from such histories, imagining brighter futures, and this interdisciplinary performance leads numerous constituencies – students and faculty, Aboriginal and Settler – into potent engagement with Indigenous histories, creation protocols, and the work of one of Canada's most prolific and relevant Aboriginal artists.

 

The Playwright


Yvette Nolan - Playwright

Yvette Nolan is a First Nations playwright, director, dramaturg and author. From 2003 to 2011, she served as artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada’s oldest professional Aboriginal theatre. She is currently an artistic associate with Toronto’s Signal Theatre, and serves on the boards of the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance and Word on the Street Saskatoon. Her plays include Blade, Job’s Wife, Annie Mae’s Movement, Scattering Jake, from thine eyes, Ham and the Ram, The Unplugging and The Birds, a modern adaptation of Aristophanes’ comedy, recast as a tale of Indigenous and settler relationships on Turtle Island. She is the author of Medicine Shows, a book about Indigenous theatre in Canada (Playwrights Canada Press, 2015) and the editor of Beyond the Pale: Dramatic Writing from First Nations Writers and Writers of Colour, and of Refractions: Solo, with Donna-Michelle St Bernard. Her directing credits include Salt Baby (Globe Theatre), Justice, Café Daughter (Gwaandak Theatre), Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, A Very Polite Genocide, Death of a Chief, The Unnatural and Accidental Women, Annie Mae’s Movement (Native Earth Performing Arts), The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Western Canada Theatre Company/National Arts Centre), The Only Good Indian..., The Triple Truth (Turtle Gals). In January 2016, she directed students in York University's 4th year Acting Conservatory in a Theatre @ York production of Daniel David Moses' Brébeuf’s Ghost.

 

Oh Raven You must unlearn these things
That man has taught you

The Creative Team

 

Your actions affect us all
Those here and those who come after

The Cast

Meghan Maguire

STAGE MANAGER – Meghan Maguire

Meghan Maguire is a fourth-year student in the BFA program in Theatre Production. Her recent credits include Heart of Steele, Sextape Project, Schema: An Installation, 35mm: A Musical Exhibition, Separate Beds, and The Last 5 Years.

 

Actors


The actors in The Birds are BFA students in the Department of Theatre's 4th Year Acting Conservatory.

Cate D’Angelo

TRICKSTER
Cate D’Angelo

Marisa Boudreault

TRICKSTER
Marisa Boudreault

Terra Nitkin

TRICKSTER
Terrah Nitkin

Chelsea Russel

PHILOMELA/ SWALLOW/
TRICKSTER
Chelsea Russell

Nadine Bhabha

PROCNE/ NIGHTINGALE
Nadine Bhabha

Ben Siapas

TEREUS/HOOPOE
Ben Siapas

Raechel Fisher

SANDPIPER
Raechel Fisher

Cassidy Furman

RAVEN -
Cassidy Furman

Larissa Currie

EAGLE
Larissa Currie

Michael Pintucci

THE SOLDIER/
THE SURVEYOR
Michael Pintucci

Joel Edminston

THE PRIEST/
THE POET
Joel Edmiston

Alex Allen

THE AGENT/
THE LAWYER
Alex Alan

Kyle McWatters

JACK
Kyle McWatters

Ken Northfield

GULLIVER
Ken Northfield

York Dance Ensemble


The York Dance Ensemble is the resident company of York University’s Department of Dance. The YDE integrates choreography, performance, music and stage design to give upper-year undergraduates pre-professional performance and production experience. Now in its 28th season, the YDE has premiered dozens of works by leading Canadian and international choreographers and has launched the careers of many outstanding dance artists.

The dancers in The Birds are third and fourth-year students in the Choreography/Performance stream of the BFA program in Dance who are members of the York Dance Ensemble. They collaborated with Susan Lee, the YDE’s current artistic coordinator, to create the choreography for The Birds.

Robyn Bedford

ROBIN
Robyn Bedford

Madison Burgess

HARD HEAD DUCK
Madison Burgess

Natalie Giankoulas

BARN OWL
Natalie Giankoulas

Kezia Alexis Kelson

EASTERN TOWHEE
Kezia-Alexis Kelson

Shaelynn Lobbezoo

REDHEAD DUCK
Shaelynn Lobbezoo

Christina Logan

SNOWY OWL
Christina Logan

Amanda Marrone

MALLARD HEN DUCK
Amanda Marrone

Josh Murphy

DUCK
Josh Murphy

Emily Rapley

AVOCET
Emily Rapley

Paige Sayles

NORTHERN OWL
Paige Sayles

Kierra Shaw

CEDAR WAXWING
Kiera Shaw

Dakota Stevenson

NORTHERN SHRIKE
Dakota Stevenson

Julianna Velocci

LOON
Julianna Velocci

Teodora Vukosavljevic

RED-TAILED HAWK
Teodora Vukosavljevic

Musicians


The music heard in The Birds is performed by undergraduate BFA students in York University’s Department of Music. Third-year music major, composer and performer Christopher Cerpnjak served as conductor for the band.

Christopher Cerpnjak - classical guitar

Jessica Kanowitz - flute, piccolo

Keiran Maraj – digital music

Mark McGugan - electronics, orchestral percussion

Daniel Sheahan - orchestral percussion

Pat Sloan – jazz guitar

Yeganeh Sotudehnia - violin

Stephen Sparling - vibraphone

Denise Wright - violin

Darya Zonoozi - cello

 

We left the cities to men
Who resolutely choose empire over the health
And well-being of their own

The land cannot be owned
The walls must come down

Location

Sandra Faire & Ivan Fecan Theatre
Accolade East Building

York University
4700 Keele St. Toronto

Visit Google Maps

 

 

Recommended Campus Entrance: York Blvd from Keele Street
Closest Parking: Student Services Parking Garage (Building #84 on campus map)
Theatre Location: Accolade East Building (Building #92 on campus map)
Box Office Location: Accolade East Building, adjacent to the theatre in the main lobby

 

We cannot forget our history
It is a part of us

Buy Tickets

Sunday, March 20 (Preview)

7:30pm

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Monday, March 21 (Opening Night)

7:30pm

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Tuesday, March 22

7:30pm

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Wednesday, March 23

1:00pm

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Wednesday, March 23

7:30pm

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Thursday, March 24

7:30pm

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Saturday, March 26

2:00pm

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For further assistance, contact the box office: 416-736-5888 or boxoffice@yorku.ca

 

#ampdbirds

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