Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Colours In The Storm, November 29 – December 8, 2012, Theatre Sheridan

Theatre Sheridan Productions

Colours in the Storm is the musical by Jim Betts about the life – and mysterious death – of one of Canada’s best loved painters, Tom Thomson. Thomson’s landscapes of Algonquin Park - including "The West Wind", "The Jack Pine" and "Northern River" - are among the most famous paintings ever done in Canada. But Thomson is perhaps as famous for the controversy of his death as he is for the strength of his paintings. He died in mysterious circumstances in the waters of Canoe Lake, and in the 75 years since his death there has been endless speculation about …

Spring Awakening, November 27 – December 8, 2012, Theatre Sheridan

Theatre Sheridan Productions

This haunting and provocative rock-musical is a powerful celebration of youth and rebellion in a daring fusion of morality, sexuality, and rock & roll. Winner of 8 TONY Awards, including Best Musical, Spring Awakening celebrates the unforgettable journey from youth to adulthood with a power, poignancy, and passion that you will never forget.

Director: Greg Peterson

Choreographer: Robin Calvert

Musical Director: Michael Barber

Central Park Tango, April 12 – 21, 2012, Theatre Sheridan

Theatre Sheridan Productions

Central Park Tango is based on the real life story of Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins from the Central Park Zoo who wish to have a family of their own. In this new musical we learn how Roy and Silo meet. We see how their relationship grows and how the penguin community around them challenges and reacts to their union. A penguin musical about the modern day family.

This work was developed as part of the Canadian Music Theatre Project.

Book by Robert Gontier. Music by Nicky Phillips. Lyrics by Robert Gontier & Nicky Phillips.

Director: Jim Betts …

Sweeney Todd, April 10 – 21, 2012, Theatre Sheridan

Theatre Sheridan Productions

After fifteen years of exile, Benjamin Barker returns home as Sweeney Todd and resumes his barber trade. Sweeney Todd tries to revenge the loss of his wife and child by a corrupt judge with no success and instead becomes a mass murderer. Sweeney Todd is aided by a Mrs. Lovett who turns a tidy profit out of baking meat pies out of Todd’s victims.

Sweeney Todd is a pitch-black Victorian era comedy that earned Stephen Sondheim the 1979 Tony Award for Best Musical Features Music and Lyrics and is based on Christopher Bond’s 1973, “Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of …

Oklahoma!, February 14 – 25, 2012, Theatre Sheridan

Theatre Sheridan Productions

This masterful first collaboration between Broadway luminaries Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, is considered the forerunner of Broadway’s Golden Age and with very good reason! Its sensational score is filled with songs that have become popular standards. Its simple character-based story about Laurey Williams’ dilemma choosing who will accompany her to the box social – the braggart cowboy Curly McLain or the compulsive farmhand Jud Fry – still compels contemporary audiences with its wholesome down-home feel-good humour. Set in 1906, against the backdrop of Indian Territory emerging as the state of Oklahoma, this glorious musical will inevitably have theatre …

Performing Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years: An Exercise In Communication On Stage And Off, David Z. Sucharski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Communication, in its most basic sense, is foundational for any personal, human interaction and relationship. As theatre artists, we are charged with communicating complex story lines, conceptual ideas, and emotion to an audience. Sound communication is paramount to every aspect of a musical production, be it communication between actors/characters, actor and director, amongst the production team, and arguable the most important, between the actors and the audience. My years of education as a Masters in Fine Arts candidate in Musical Theatre have been spent polishing my ability to communicate physical and emotional choices with greater accuracy, depth, and truth. By …

Acts Of Recognition: Gesture And National Identity In Agnes De Mille's 'Civil War Ballet', Ryan Donovan

Graduate Student Publications and Research

Through both her dances and writings Agnes de Mille explored what it means to be American. I argue that, in addition to the explicitly America-themed material de Mille chose, her choreography performs national identity through its use of gesture – informed by de Mille’s interest in folk dance and the collective unconscious. When looking at much of de Mille’s choreography, one is visually struck by its Americanness. It is this act of recognition that begins this enquiry: how does one see de Mille’s choreography and recognize its intrinsic Americanness? How did de Mille’s choreographic process allow for the expression of …