The Ghost Sonata by August Strindberg Cast (in order of appearance) The Old Man Dream Figure 1 Dream Figure 2 Dream Figure 3 Johnansson The Student The ‘Colonel’s Daughter’ The Mummy/The Colonel The Milkmaid/Bengtsson The Dark Lady
Ian Leung * Bailey MacPhee Tori Switzer Janelle Jorde Laura Raboud Richard Lam Sereana Malani Marie Nychka * Mari Chartier Melissa Thingelstad
Creative Team Director Set, Lighting, and Projection Designers Costume Designer Composer
Jessica Carmichael † LLARS Design David Lovett Richard Lam
Movement sequences devised by Jessica Carmichael, implemented by the Company, with choreography by Marie Nychka. Stage Management Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager
Gil Miciak Jessica Parr
* Appear courtesy of Canadian Actors’ Equity † In partial fulfillment of her MFA Directing thesis There will be no intermission. Rights for this production are courtesy of Samuel French, Inc.
Contents 4 Chair’s Welcome • 6 Production Team • 8 Drama News • 12 - 13 Photos 14, 16, 17 Director’s Notes • 20 Staff / Front of House • 22 Donors
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Chair’s Welcome
The Timms Centre is Drama’s laboratory. It is a focus for faculty research, an important teaching tool, and an avenue of connection to the university and the city. The Studio season features six unique live theatre experiences created by a diverse ensemble of talented artists. It is dedicated to entertainment, engagement, education, experimentation, and oh, yes, excellence. For Drama’s talented faculty and a roster of seasoned visiting artists, the season offers the opportunity to work with large casts, a state of the art theatre, a large stage, and innovative technology. This season we premiere a new play from our third playwright in residence, Greg MacArthur. The Missionary Position has been written specifically for the 2013 graduating BFA acting class whose work is featured in this season. The multilayered production design which includes live action video, media projections, and many kinds of water imagery is being created by Lee Livingstone and Robert Shannon. Sandra Nicholls, who is both a respected local actor and one of Drama’s favourite acting teachers, directs Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo. Guido Tondino designs lights and costumes for this production. One of the joys of directing at Studio is the support offered from our team of expert voice coaches: David Ley, Betty Moulton, and their MFA Theatre Voice Pedagogy students, as well as gifted movement coaches: Marie Nychka and Lin Snelling. U of A Studio Theatre also functions as a teaching space featuring the 2013 BFA Acting class ensemble in four shows over the year. These productions represent the culmination of their training. Students from the technical, stage management and theatre design programs work on all six plays, taking advantage of the exceptional teaching opportunities the season provides. Studio Theatre is a developing ground for the Department’s MFA students and serves to introduce them to the larger Edmonton community. The season is bookended with shows directed by the MFA directing candidates: Jessica Carmichael opens the season with her production of Strindberg’s enigmatic play, The Ghost Sonata; Simon Bloom directs The Last Days of Judas Iscariot in May. Nathan Brown will design all three elements of Saint Joan as his MFA Design thesis. Studio Theatre engages the most significant theatre artists in the country to teach and direct our students. This season, we are thrilled to have Shaw Festival regular, Micheline Chevrier directing Shaw’s Saint Joan. Local director Trevor Schmidt joins us at the helm of The Memorandum. These guest directors enhance the education of our students and connect us to the larger theatre community in Edmonton and Canada. This unique mix of professionals, faculty, and students are part of what makes any season of Studio special. This year we have six provocative plays in the hands of all these talented people creating the challenge and sensory pleasure of live theatre. Kathleen Weiss Artistic Director of U of A Studio Theatre Chair, Department of Drama, University of Alberta 4
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C o N t e M P o R A R Y C A N A D I A N D A N C e
2012&2013
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Production Team
Production Manager: Technical Director: Assistant Production Manager: Production Administrative Assistant:
Gerry van Hezewyk Larry Clark JoAnna Black Jonathan Durynek
Wardrobe Manager: Cutter/Seamstress: Stitchers:
Joanna Johnston Ann Salmonson Kathleen Mulder Avishta Lena Seeras Karen Swiderski Michelle Warren
Head Scenic/Stage Carpenter: Scenic Carpenters:
Darrell Cooksey Barbara Hagensen Andre Lavoie Ivan Siemens
Head Scenic Artist: Properties Master: Properties Assistants:
Devin Lavigne Jane Kline Teri Grant Sheena Haug
Lighting Supervisor: Lighting Technicians: Audio Supervisor:
Mel Geary Jeff Osterlin Matthew Skopyk
Running Crew: Lighting Operator: Audio Operator: Video Operator: Carpenters:
Julie Ferguson Joel Adria Jonathan Reid Victoria Krawchuk Finn McConnell Audra Stevenson
Advisors, Coaches & Consultants: Directing Advisor Stage Management Advisor Vocal Coach Dramaturg
Kathleen Weiss Kerry Johnson Shannon Boyle Joshua Wickard
Thanks: Don Mackenzie 6
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Drama News
U of A Studio Theatre announces programming changes to 2012-13 season line-up Micheline Chevrier will replace Miles Potter as the Mary Mooney Distinguished Visiting Artist in 2013. Chevrier will direct George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan instead of the previously programmed Richard II, running March 28 to April 6, 2013 at the Timms Centre for the Arts. “This programming change was a well-examined decision made in response to scheduling conflicts,” explained Kathleen Weiss, Department of Drama Chair and Artistic Director of U of A Studio Theatre. “I am thrilled we are able to engage Micheline Chevrier, a vastly experienced Canadian theatre professional, to join us this season.” For more than 30 years, Micheline Chevrier has worked across Canada as a director, artistic director and dramaturg. As a director, she has worked in a variety of professional theatres ranging from large festivals to creation-based companies, and from major regional theatres to theatre for young audiences. The play Saint Joan is a great political classic in the theatrical canon, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. It will challenge our students and our audiences in the best way. 2012 Hnatyshyn Foundation Grant BFA Acting student, Edmund Stapleton, was selected to receive the 2012 Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant ($10,000) for acting (English theatre). Members of the jury included Marti Maraden, former Artistic Director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre, Vanessa Porteous, Artistic Director of Alberta Theatre Projects, and Robert Metcalfe, Artistic Director of Prairie Theatre Exchange.
Up Next
U of A Studio Theatre: The Memorandum by Vaclav Havel November 1 to 10, 2012 / Preview October 31 / Matinee November 8 An Insider’s Memo on Vaclav Havel A pre-show panel discussion on the work, times and politics of Vaclav Havel, presented by the Department of Drama and the Wirth Institute, Wednesday, November 7, 2013 at 6 pm to 7 pm in the lobby of the Timms Centre for the Arts.
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OPEN HOUSE 2012 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20 BUTTERDOME
EVER WONDERED WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE A UALBERTA DRAMA STUDENT? Attend our Drama demonstrations during Open House and learn about: > Stage combat choreography > Monologue performances > Set models and costume sketches > Plus, tour our world-class theatre facilities!
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER ONLINE AT WWW.DRAMA.UALBERTA.CA 9
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Stunning Snap Shots from our 2011-12 Season 1
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7 8 1. Doubt A Parable: Valerie Planche and Doug Mertz 2. Doubt A Parable: Valerie Planche and Nicola Elbro 3. Yellow Moon: Company of Yellow Moon 4. Yellow Moon: Sereana Malani and Tristan Mi 5. Fuddy Meers: Laura Metcalfe and Perry Gratton 6. Medea: Jessica Carmichael 7. Medea: Ben Dextraze and Jessica Carmichael 8. Medea: Medea Variations 9. Cymbeline: Brent Gill and Alyson Dicey 10. Whisper: Company of Whisper All photos by Ed Ellis
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Director’s Notes
It is 100 years since August Strindberg’s death, and the Swedish dramatist is just as fascinating and controversial now as he was then. Directors and playwrights as diverse as Eugene O’Neill, Antonin Artaud, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Lepage, Caryl Churchill and Katie Mitchell have all been captivated by Strindberg. American playwright Eugene O’Neill said Strindberg inspired him to write for the stage, calling Strindberg: “the most modern of moderns, the greatest interpreter in the theatre of the characteristic spiritual conflicts which constitute the drama--the blood!--of our lives today.” Famed Swedish theatre director and filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, who directed The Ghost Sonata four times over several decades, remarked that Strindberg’s plays have “suggestions that strike us, powerfully and disturbingly, far deeper than reason and analysis.” Despite high praise by such renowned artists, many of Strindberg’s works are considered deeply problematic. His post-inferno plays in particular (Strindberg referred to the time when he felt he was going mad as the inferno period) have been considered unperformable. The Ghost Sonata, written in 1907, is one such play from this time, and the challenges in directing it is that the text demands the utmost devotion to free imagination and mood, and yet it is overshadowed by his notorious misogyny. In directing The Ghost Sonata, it was my intention to grapple with these issues, while exploring the recurring theme of the antithesis between being and seeming that resonated with me from my initial reading of the play. With The Ghost Sonata, the first piece of the puzzle is not so much about sharing a literal story, but rather exploring theme. In the title of the play, Sonata reflects Strindberg’s commitment to the marriage of music and meaning in drama. The Ghost Sonata is classified as one of his four chamber plays. Like music, the chamber plays were thematically rather than structurally driven. At a time when Strindberg was losing faith in the theatre, a young actor and director August Falck persuaded him to fulfill his life-long dream of opening his own theatre. He created the chamber plays specifically for this theatre. Born in 1907, the Intimate Theatre was to be “the home of the art of suggestion, to open up a perspective for the imagination and so make the spectator participate in the dramatic process.” What I love about their endeavor, despite the theatre ultimately failing, was that the imagination was to be celebrated and provoked. The Ghost Sonata is a play of deep provocation, chiefly concerned with the ways in which illusions exist in our world and how they come to be broken. Part of the provocation in The Ghost Sonata is that while the form of chamber plays resonate within the script, the piece is reminiscent of Strindberg’s other experiment in theatrical form: that of dream plays. Many Strindbergian schol14
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Director’s Notes continued ars take note of the fact that while Strindberg was writing The Ghost Sonata, a production of his A Dream Play (written in 1901) was being staged in Sweden. He would often stop into the rehearsals after his long days of writing. It is widely believed that The Ghost Sonata is both dream and chamber play. This poses certain challenges. In his preface to A Dream Play Strindberg revealed his intention for capturing the mutability of dreams on stage: “a blend of memories, experiences, pure inventions, absurdities, and improvisations’, in which the ‘characters split, double, redouble, evaporate, condense, fragment, cohere…[where] time and space do not exist, events are disconnected and illogical, anything can happen, everything is possible and plausible.” The Ghost Sonata is akin to dream plays in that many characters and images appear and disappear, and motivations are often unclear. Ingmar Bergman contended that the whole of The Ghost Sonata “is dream […] growing more and more grotesque as the action develops.” Through the dream form Strindberg found a way to reveal that life exists in unreality, where people pop up and disappear in our lives at times. We and they change on a dime; consequently, contradictions abound all around us in nature and humanity. With The Ghost Sonata, Strindberg noted that the play was a testament to his “firm conviction that we live in a world of folly and delusion (illusion), from which we must struggle to free ourselves.” The challenge in approaching this idea is that it lives loosely in time and space, brought out through symbolism, buried in characters that come out of the shadows for moments and disappear again, throughout the play. Bergman alerted his company during rehearsals for his 1973 production of The Ghost Sonata to “never underestimate the audience’s sensitivity.” In working on this production, I held this piece of advice close. Developing my own sensitivity to you, to the actors, to the design team and production crew was my utmost concern. The draw in directing this piece was the challenge of expanding the definition of sensitivity through the demands of this piece in its complexity. And just to make things more complicated, as if this wasn’t enough, Strindberg’s personal relationships with women is another challenge inherent in his work. It has been said that some of the torment from his three failed marriages influenced the stories and characters he created. Many scholars (feminists among them) say that it is too simple to dismiss the man as a woman-hater in order to explain this aspect of his work. The issue is obviously far more complex. Yet one of the main conflicts that recur again and again in all his plays is the relationship between men and women; where the women are depicted as lying, power-hungry, selfish creatures, incapable of unconditional love. 16
Director’s Notes continued It has been suggested that in his final plays he was finally attempting to tap into his feminine side, due to his deep loneliness and his realization that life was full of delusion/illusion. Near the end of The Ghost Sonata, the Student asks “why should the most beautiful flowers be the most poisonous?” It is the problem of the idealization of life, the attempt to hold onto innocence and purity, which Strindberg unveils. In my re-imagined version of the play, I highlight these issues by expanding the role of The Dark Lady (who originally appears in scene one only to deliver two simple lines). I have deliberately cast females in male roles, in order to demonstrate the idealization and the constriction of women. At the heart of the play for me is how holding on to paradise, innocence and youth as an ideal to maintain in one’s life can only bring about pain. For Strindberg freedom and peace was in realizing that everything ends, everything changes, everything is imperfect, and full of contradiction. It is my hope that we illuminate some of these troubled thoughts about humanity’s existence for you now. Jessica Carmichael This Playbill is Published By © 2012 Postvue Publishing All Rights Reserved, Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without the written consent of the publisher.
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Alberta Aboriginal Arts Presents In Association with
Workshop West Theatre
AGOKWE By Waawaate Fobister
Catalyst Theatre
8529 Gateway Blvd. Edm.
Oct 30 - Nov 11 2012
730 pm nightly, 2pm matinees Sat/Sun Nov 2 SOLD OUT for UofA Two Spirit Conf!
For Info & Tickets: 780-477-5955 ext. 301 tickets@workshopwest.org www.AlbertaAboriginalArts.com 2012-2013 national tour: Edmonton, Whitehorse, Saskatoon, Toronto, & Vancouver
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no l i m i t s ! b uy & us e as m a n y a s y o u wa nt A flexible pass of three tickets to redeem in any combination at any of the six Studio Theatre shows. Get yours at the Timms Box Office and all SU Info Link booths on campus located in hUB, SUB and caB.
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Administrative Staff
Kathleen Weiss: Chair, Department of Drama Julie Brown: Assistant Chair Administration David Prestley: Theatre Administrator/Events Coordinator Jonathan Durynek: Box Office Coordinator/Events Assistant Ruth Vander Woude: Graduate Advisor/Administrator Connie Golden: Undergraduate Advisor Susan Reynolds: Accounting Assistant Helen Baggaley: Administrative Assistant With assistance from Faculty of Arts staff: Salena Kitteringham: Fine Arts Communications Associate Joanna Manchur: Fine Arts Recruitment Coordinator
Production Staff
Gerry van Hezewyk: Production Manager / Administrative Professional Officer Larry Clark: Technical Director, Timms Centre for the Arts Darrell Cooksey: Head Carpenter Jonathan Durynek: Production Manager Assistant Mel Geary: Lighting Supervisor Joanna Johnston: Costume Manager Jane Kline: Property Master Don MacKenzie: Technical Director, Fine Arts Building Ann Salmonson: Cutter Matthew Skopyk: Second Playing Space Technician / Sound Supervisor Karen Swiderski: Costumer, Fine Arts Building
Front of House
Staff: Bonita Akai, Danielle Dugan, Peter Fernandes, Al Gadowsky, Becky Gormley, Caitlin Gormley, Tasreen Hudson, Marie-Andrée Lachapelle, Laura Norton, Emily Paulsen, Andrew Shum, Faye Stollery, Jane Toogood Volunteers: Debbie Beaver, JoAnna Black, Susan Box, Patricia Cerda, Franco Correa, Jonathan Durynek, Mary and Gene Ewanyzhyn, Ron Gleason, Sydney Gross, Darcy Hoover-Correa, Paula Humby, Marie-Andrée Lachapelle, Don Lavigne, Sareeta Lopez, Tom and Gillian McGovern, Sereana Malani, Marlene Marlj, Laura Metcalf, Jennifer Morely, Alice Petruk, Nicole Powell, David Prestley, Joyanne Rudiak, Michelle Stannard, Clio Unger, Jane Voloboeva, Erinn Webb, Anisa Youseffi, Danoush Youssefi. 20
Donors
Heartfelt thanks to the individuals, foundations and organizations listed below for recognizing the importance of the arts and directly investing in the Department of Drama’s innovation and leadership within theatre training and performance. A round of applause to our supporters. Baha Abu-Laban Mark & Nancy Heule Peter & Ella May Apedaile Steven Hilton Glen Armstrong Li Hou Dorothy Ayer Paul & Sylva Jelen Lisa Baer Margaret Keene Joan Baird Margaret Kelly Roderick Banks Patricia Langan David Barnet Sheila Leigh Bill & Carole Barton Larry & Nicole Mallet Karin Basaraba Peggy Marko Jim & Barb Beck Kim McCaw & Linda Huffman Lindsay Bell Bob McColl Doreen Betke Sandra Lee McFadyen William & Kathleen Betteridge Gordon & Norma McIntosh Julia Boberg Marjorie McIntryre Donna Bornhuse Rod McLeod Richard Bowes Rod Morgan Edward Brado Betty Moulton Angela Breadner Robin Nichol David Brindley & Denise Audrey O’Brien Hemmings Dale Olausen Julie Brown Esther Ondrack Adolf Buse Ronald Pollock Nancy Cheng Vanessa Porteous Rachel Christopher Leigh Rivenbark Brent Christopherson Bente Roed Penny Coates Helen Rosta Faye Cohen Ken & Joan Roy David Cormack Valerie Sarty Lesley Cormack Alan Sather Daniel Cunningham Peter & Olga Savaryn AnneMarie Decore Alison Scott-Prelorentzos Brian J. Deedrick Jan Selman W. Gifford Edmonds A. Shanley Bunny Ferguson Philip Silver Shirley Gifford O. Francis Sitwell Sheila Gooding Betty-Lou Sloan Melvina Gowda Dale Springer Mary Griffiths Brian Sproule Kelly Handerek Allan Stichbury Bohdan & Elaine Harawsymiw Rita Taylor Murray & Pauline Hawkins Isobel Thomas Christopher Head Mel W. Tuck Stephen Heatley Thomas Usher
Gilda Valli Henriette van Hees Doug Warren Alan & Loraine Welch Deborah Yee John Young Anonymous Anonymous Anonymous Alberta Foundation for the Arts Classique Décor Ltd. Dyer Financial Strategies Edmonton Community Foundation IATSE Local 210 St. Peter’s Anglican Church ACW In Kind David Adam Erica Boetcher Jill Concannon Pamela Constable Campbell Davies Estate of Pro Rhey Mond Depro (c/o The Estate House) Ester Fraga Mel Geary Ron Lavoie Ann Malyj Joanna Manchur Kathleen Mulder David Plach David Plach Margaret Pointer-Willms David Prestley Ella Reidt A. Thomas Michelle Warren Donna R. Zuk
The list includes those who donated to various Drama funds from May 17, 2011 – August 17, 2012. List compiled May 1, 2012. Apologies for inadvertent omissions or errors. Contact 780.492.2271 for changes.
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