Me, circa 1984
Coming up with shows and dance routines
with my father and little sister was my
first foray into performance. Because my
father was “artsy” and my mother the
opposite (she’s a banker), she was our
audience. Because I grew in a small town
(~4000 people), there was no organized
drama programs for kids. Besides playing
Mama Bear in my kindergarten
production of Goldilocks & The Three
Bears, it wasn’t until high school that I had
any even remotely formal theatre
training.
Budgell Family Dance-Off, circa 1989
1975: Western Regional College opens.
1979: Western Regional College officially
named Sir Wilfred Grenfell College.
1988 Classes begin in Fine Arts Building for
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre and Visual
Arts).
1988: First productions by theatre dept - The
Collected Works of Billy The Kid and
Twelfth Night
During the 1975-76 academic year,
Grenfell College looked very
different than it does today. The
one-building campus – now the ivyclad Arts and Science Building –
housed the 400 students who
registered for first- and second-year
courses in arts, science and
education and now houses 1,350
students, with four academic
buildings, a Student Centre and
eight chalet apartment buildings.
Grenfell now offers 16 distinct
Memorial degree programs in arts,
fine arts, nursing, resource
management and science.
Sir Wilfred Grenfell College (2001-2002)
1949: The Newfoundland House of Assembly
enacted legislation elevating Memorial University
College to university status as Memorial University
of Newfoundland. The first-year enrolment stood at
a modest 307, but by 1961 enrolment was 1,400,
and in 2000 the total enrolment was 15,830, the
highest in Atlantic Canada.
1961: MUN moved to the present Elizabeth
Avenue campus.
1965: Introduction of doctoral degree in English
1925: Memorial University College
opened its doors on the old Parade
grounds in St. John's to a total student
body of 55. The college was
established as a memorial to the
Newfoundlanders who had lost their
lives on active service during the First
World War; it was later rededicated to
also encompass those lost in the
Second World War.
1967: Introduction of specialization in Theatre and
Drama within the English department. Richard
Buehler instrumental.
2000: Introduction of Performance and
Communications Media Diploma
Memorial University of Newfoundland (History)
Alumni: Each year, the graduating class
numbers in excess of 2,000 students, bringing
the total number of alumni to 60,000.
Faculty and Staff: The university employs 950
full-time faculty (and 850 sessional instructors)
and 2,300 administrative and support staff,
plus 2,000 students in part-time jobs.
Campuses: Main campus and Marine Institute
(MI), St. John's; Sir Wilfred Grenfell College,
Corner Brook; Harlow, England
Facts and figures
Students: Memorial is the largest
university in the region, with 17,500
students engaged in full and part-time
studies at under-graduate and graduate
levels.
Programs: Undergraduate and graduate
degrees, as well as diplomas and certificate
programs are offered through our faculties
(Arts, Business, Education, Engineering,
Medicine and Science) and schools (Graduate
Studies, Music, Nursing, Pharmacy, Human
Kinetics and Recreation and Social Work).
Memorial University of Newfoundland (Today)
Denyse Lynde
MA, PhD (UofT)
Modern Canadian
Drama
Contemporary British
Drama
Drama 1580-1642
Shakespeare:
Tragedies &
Romances
Danielle Irvine
Jamie
Skidmore
BAH (Queens),
MA, PhD (UofT)
English 3351:
The Physical
Stage
English 4400:
Producing the
Play
NTS (Directing)
* Winner John Hirsch
Prize, 2000
English 3350: Theatre
Techniques
Andy Jones
Actor, comedian, Newfoundland icon.
Andy taught a hybrid course on both
English 4401: Directing physical/comedy acting and how to really
produce a play in St. John’s. Our class
mounted Pilk’s Madhouse by Henry Pilk
(Ken Campbell). This was the beginning
of my ongoing working relationship with
Andy.
MUN Professors & Courses
Jordan Harvey as
Woyzeck & Adam
Clarke as the
Captain
In 2006, my Producing the
Play class, under the name
“Stage Monkey Productions”
mounted a strange and
wonderful psychadelic
production of Georg Buchner’s
Woyzeck. I was the lighting
designer/tech and had a lot of
fun playing with colour and
gobos and effects. The set
consisted of 12-foot tall
mushrooms made of wood and
foam (that had spots that
opened as windows); the
doctor was on stilts with a
kaleidoscope stethoscope and
the music was a compilation of
90s electronica. Directed by
Jamie Skidmore.
Pivotal Productions: Woyzeck (2006)
Pivotal Productions: Pilk’s Madhouse (2007)
Pivotal Productions: Pilk’s Madhouse (2007)
When I was 13, I saw a production of Daniel
MacIvor’s, This is a Play, at the Newfoundland
provincial high school drama festival. I
remember very vividly saying to my drama
teacher at the time that if I ever directed a play,
it would be this one. When I took over as
president of the MUN Drama Society in 2007, I
very quickly decided that this was at least one
of the plays we would be producing that school
year. It was the first play I ever directed and it
was equally challenging and rewarding, but the
13-year-old me felt really accomplished.
Pivotal Productions: This is a Play (2008)
Pivotal Productions: This is a Play (2008)
Kaleidography:
Since their inception, Artistic Fraud of
Newfoundland has been developing a
mathematically based choreography and
directing system in order to produce very
specific movement and sound instances
on stage, like symphonic music but
created with an actor’s speaking voice,
natural movement, technical elements
and blocking. They call this device
Kaleidography, if for no other reason
than to avoid continuously repeating the
preceding long-winded sentence.
Jillian Keiley
Robert Chafe
Kaleidography involves the pre-rehearsal
charting of instances on stage. This
charting, depending upon the show in
question, and the nature of the instances
being charted (i.e. text, blocking, or
gesture), can be accomplished in many
forms including, but not limited to, music
notation, flow charts, grid diagrams, and
music bar and beat breakdowns.
Influences: Artistic Fraud