by John Threlfall | Oct 20, 2016 | Alumni, Events, Theatre, Writing
After years of success on the Fringe Festival circuit and touring around the world, alumnus TJ Dawe brings his one of his earlier, and now published plays, back to the Phoenix stage as part of the Alumni Festival. The Slipknot runs 8pm daily to Saturday, Oct 22, with a 7pm pre-show lecture on Oct 21 and an additional 2pm matinee on Oct 22. Get tickets here.
Stellar Phoenix grad TJ Dawe
The Slipknot has been described as hilarious, hypnotizing and hard. Dawe literally “slips” between three monologues — based on three horrible jobs he has done in his life — never skipping a beat, with a total of 14,000 words following a rapid fire rhythm. Stepping seamlessly from one story to the next, he chronicles his time as a stock boy in a drugstore, the inexperienced driver of a massive bin hauler, and a berated customer service person at Canada Post. Since The Slipknot was written in 2001, it has become Dawe’s most performed (and purchased) play. “Ironically, The Slipknot has actually made me enough money to get out of the world of horrible jobs,” he says.
Nothing is too personal for Dawe to share with the audience — from relationships and recreational Gravol use to Santa Claus and why you should never put meat in the mail — but although he brings his personal history to the stage (and lets us laugh at his mistakes), the life lessons are always greater than just his experience, and audiences walk away with insights about their own lives.
Many things have changed in Dawe’s life since he wrote The Slipknot: he now has 14 solo, autobiographical shows which he tours around the world to great acclaim, earning himself such titles as “Fringe Veteran” and “King of the Monologue”.
Yet Dawe is not only a performer and writer but also an in-demand director. For example, he directed all of Charles Ross’ (BFA’ 98) one-man shows (which were presented at the Phoenix just the last week); Ross and Dawe were close friends during their time at UVic, proving the amazing friendships you make at university can stay with you for life — and, in this case, develop into life-long artistic collaborators.
Over the years he has worked with many artists as a director, including a number of Phoenix grads. Most recently, he directed alumna Nicolle Natrass‘ (BFA ’91) play Mamahood: Turn and Face the Strange at Vancouver’s Firehall Theatre. He is also the director of playwright, author and Phoenix alum Mark Leiren-Young‘s (BFA’85) Never Shoot a Stampede Queen, based on the Leacock Award-winning novel; that solo play also featured Phoenix grad Zach Stephenson (BFA’03). Recently he co-created PostSecret: The Show, a stage production based on the popular blog site PostSecret.com (which was also turned into a book and Smithsonian exhibitions), where people can anonymously share personal stories that they would never speak aloud. The presentation featured other Phoenix alumni Ming Hudson (BFA’07) and Sam S Mullins (BFA’08).
The play that has brought Dawe the most fame, however, is a two-hander called Toothpaste and Cigars, which was co-written with alumnus Mike Rinaldi (BFA’ 96) and toured in 2003. At the time, the pair could never have dreamed that this quirky modern-day love story would become a Hollywood movie starring famous Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan ultimately titled The F Word (no, the “f” actually stands for “friend”). Read the full story on the movie here. Since it has garnered excellent reviews, fandom from 20-somethings around the world, and won the 2014 Canadian Screen Award for Adapted Screenplay.
Dawe is looking forward to interacting with the students when he’s back on campus. When asked what lessons he would to pass on to current theatre students, Dawe offered some great advice to pass on:
- A great deal of learning is done by osmosis. See lots of theatre: Fringe shows, Belfry shows, Inconnu shows, Langham shows. “It will hugely enrich your understanding of what to do, what not to do, what kind of theatre you like, etcetera,” he says. “The more theatre you see, the better you’ll be oriented to what kind of theatre you’d like to be a part of. “
- Take advantage of the free art on campus. Free concerts in the music department, art shows in the visual arts building, readings in the writing department. “It’ll feed your artistic soul,” says Dawe.
- The friendships you make at school can turn into artistic partnerships in the professional world. The friendships you make in the department, the creative jamming that happens with people you click with — that’s part of your education too. A big one. TJ is still creating with friends he met at the Phoenix, which “grew very organically out of how much they enjoyed hanging out and jamming on ideas and making each other laugh.”
- Don’t be discouraged. Rejection doesn’t mean you don’t have talent, it doesn’t mean you don’t have what it takes to make it. There are many projects that you create from the ground up. Put on a SATCo show. Organize a poetry slam or open mic or improv night or sketch show or cabaret. Make your own work.
“I’ve built a career out of original, self-created theatre, something I first did in the classrooms and rehearsal spaces in this building,” he says. “Self-created theatre has gained much more of a foothold in the last 20 years. In my student days it barely existed. Now it’s thriving . . . maybe some of the students are going through what I did as an undergrad. Maybe I’ll light the fire for one or two of them. Maybe you’ll be seeing them here in 20 years.”
—Adrienne Holierhoek
Coming up next at the Alumni Festival:
• Shannan Calcutt‘s Burnt Tongue (October 25-29) see this Cirque du Soleil artist take a break from Las Vegas’ Zumanity as she brings her alter-ego clown, Izzy, back to the Phoenix in this quirky solo show about a clown who’s eager to find love — so eager she shows up to her first blind date wearing a wedding dress!
Box Office now open for all Alumni Festival tickets. Call 250-721-8000.
by John Threlfall | Oct 11, 2016 | Alumni, Events, Theatre
Back in 2001, Charles Ross wrote his own ticket to travel the world. Since then, he has created two more — he just calls them blockbuster one-man shows.
Charles Ross, one man who does it all
A hilarious homage to the original three Lucasfilm movies, Ross’ One-Man Star Wars Trilogy has been performed on almost every continent around the globe — including London’s West End, New York City’s Off-Broadway and Australia’s Sydney Opera House. Ross has even performed for George Lucas himself at a Lucasfilm Star Wars convention. Fresh back from an 18-city UK tour (including a month-long run at the famous Edinburgh Fringe), Ross is one of three artists invited to perform at the Phoenix Theatre’s 50th Anniversary Alumni Festival.
While Ross says it’s an honour to be asked to perform back at the Phoenix, he laughs that he almost didn’t get into the theatre program. In this recent interview with the Times Colonist he explains how he moved from Nelson to Victoria before learning that the program was already full. “I was devastated,” he said — so devastated that he went to the department to plead his case. “Yes, I’m going to make an ass of myself. But I’m going to do it anyway…. I told them: ‘Oh God please, if something comes up, can you give me a bit more consideration? I’m an idiot. I’ve already moved down here.’” After a “completely bummed out” summer on the wait list, he learned only two weeks before classes that he was accepted.
Ross and a rather shaggy fan
Ross will perform his one-man trilogy of trilogies from October 11-17 at the Phoenix: Lord of the Rings (Oct. 11-13), Star Wars Trilogy (Oct. 14 -15), and Dark Knight: A Batman Parody (Oct. 16-17). Get tickets here. While on campus, he’ll also be talking to the next generation of Theatre students via workshops and classroom visits.
The origin story of the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy also has ties to the Theatre department. Ross was playing Frisbee with then-classmate TJ Dawe (who will also be part of the Alumni Festival) when the idea of reenacting the Star Wars movies was proposed. Both had a love for the original three movies; they sat down to write the play and soon began rehearsing it, with Dawe directing.
Over the past 15 years, the play has only improved, thanks to Ross’ lightning-fast character changes. With a quick turn or a side-step, he slips easily from the voices of Luke and Princess Leia, to Yoda, Chewbacca or the animated beeps of R2D2. Throw in all the sound effects — which he creates himself — and suddenly the stage transforms into a galaxy far, far away. “To my mind, there was nothing more absurd than seeing a man on stage wearing black clothing trying to be everything out of Star Wars. It’s like watching an eight-year-old child, except it’s a fully grown man,” said Ross when interviewed by the UK news site BigIssue.com.
Ross with Sir Ian McKellen
Two years later he started on his next challenge, one that he still finds his most exhausting show to perform — the One-Man Lord of the Rings Trilogy. This play follows the original JRR Tolkien books with Frodo Baggins and friends as they carry the one ring across Middle-earth to confront orcs, goblins, wraiths, and Sauron’s other forces of evil. “The hardest part is falling a lot on my arms, shoulders and knees,” Ross told BigIssue. “Lord of the Rings has a lot more falling and a lot more brutal, violent death, creatures and orcs, and it’s very fast.” The show also led to Ross meeting Sir Ian McKellen in person.
Most recently Ross has channeled his love of superheroes into his newest one-man show, the One-Man Dark Knight: A Batman Parody. Again working with TJ Dawe as a director, Ross also consulted with another Phoenix alumni who is a Batman aficionado, Ian Case (currently the Director of UVic’s Farquhar Auditorium). The play follows the major plot developments across Christopher Nolan’s trilogy of movies, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.
“Today, being a nerd is a good thing,” says Ross.
—Adrienne Holierhoek
Coming up next at the Alumni Festival:
• TJ Dawe‘s The Slipknot (October 18-22) is a coming-of-age tale about working in lousy jobs. Hysterical yet heartbreaking, he shares his observations and life’s lessons from his experiences. The acclaimed writer/director/actor regularly performs his 14 autobiographical solo shows around the world, and his play Toothpaste & Cigars (written with theatre alumnus Mike Rinaldi), inspired the Daniel Radcliffe movie The F Word.
• Shannan Calcutt‘s Burnt Tongue (October 25-29) see this Cirque du Soleil artist take a break from Las Vegas’ Zumanity as she brings her alter-ego clown, Izzy, back to the Phoenix in this quirky solo show about a clown who’s eager to find love — so eager she shows up to her first blind date wearing a wedding dress!
Box Office now open for all Alumni Festival tickets. Call 250-721-8000. Subscription packages for 3 shows, 4 shows – or all 8 shows! – start at only $39.
by John Threlfall | Sep 30, 2016 | Events, Undergraduate, Writing
We may be living in the 21st century, but that doesn’t mean we’ve achieved gender equality in Canada. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of journalism, as Vivian Smith well knows.
The 2016 Southam Lecturer for the Department of Writing, Smith is drawing from her own research on how women’s careers in print journalism are limited by its deeply gendered culture. As well as currently teaching in the Writing department, Smith will be giving a free public talk titled “Minding My Own Business: A Reporter’s Inquiries into Gender and Journalism,” starting at 7:30pm on Tuesday, October 4 in room A240 of UVic’s Human & Social Development building.
2016 Southam Lecturer Vivian Smith
A Canadian journalist and author, Smith has been a reporter, editor and manager at The Globe and Mail, a columnist for the Times Colonist and an editor of Boulevard magazine. She has taught journalism at four Canadian universities, freelanced for national publications and provides media training for professionals and academics.
Her book, Outsiders Still: Why Women Journalists Love – and Leave – Their Newspaper Careers, was published in 2015 by the University of Toronto Press. Her talk will consider who defines the news and how their decisions reinforce – and increasingly resist –.stereotypes that limit us all.
No stranger to the university environment, when Smith spoke to about 100 journalism students at Ryerson University in October 2015, she felt that the large number of women pursuing journalism degrees today could well make the difference to future workplace environments.
“When I was doing this, [I was] one woman [at a table with] seven or eight men and it was all very interesting to them, but not that important,” Smith told the class, as reported in this article. “So keeping up the conversation with your numbers, with your mass, is really important . . . . Just your sheer numbers mean that you’re going to have more influence in newsrooms.”
For Outsiders Still, Smith interviewed 27 women journalists from five different Canadian newspapers; ranging in age from mid-20s to early 60s, these journalists shared common experiences and discussed how—or if—times had changed.
“The main satisfaction these women got from their work as journalists—whether they were a columnist or a managing editor or a reporter—was they were voices for the voiceless,” Smith told the Ryerson class. “The role of being a social advocate was really important to them, rather than ‘just reporting the news.’”
As noted in this Globe and Mail review of Outsiders Still, Halifax Chronicle Herald reporter Patricia Brooks Arenburg told Smith “she remembers feeling like ‘garbage’ when she found out she was being paid less than men who had been hired after her. Margo Goodhand, editor of the Edmonton Journal, recalls being turned down twice for a city editor position because she was, according to one manager, ‘too nice.’ She told Smith that, traditionally, ‘it’s looked on as weak if you ask people’s opinion, like, ‘You don’t know your own opinion?’'”
Smith’s Southam lecture will offer a mix of personal experience, research findings and, no doubt, some of what she’s hearing from the students taking her current Writing elective on Gender & Journalism.
Smith is the 10th person to hold the prestigious Southam lectureship, following the likes of Jo-Ann Roberts (CBC’s All Points West), acclaimed Indigenous author Richard Wagamese, journalist Terry Glavin, sports writer Tom Hawthorn, satirist Mark Leiren-Young, and journalists Sandra Martin (Globe and Mail) and Charles Campbell (Georgia Straight). The annual Harvey Stevenson Southam Lectureship – named after UVic alumnus Harvey Southam – is made possible by a gift from one of the country’s leading publishing families.
by John Threlfall | Sep 29, 2016 | Alumni, Art History & Visual Studies, Events
What kind of agent does it take to infiltrate a gang of international art thieves capable of pulling off a museum heist involving car bombs and getaway speedboats? Just ask former FBI art crime special agent Robert K. Wittman.
Robert K. Wittman
“We did an undercover operation in Copenhagen in Denmark, where we recovered the most valuable piece—it was a [1630] Rembrandt self-portrait stolen in the armed robbery, valued at $35 million,” Wittman told the local Times Colonist in this September 29 article. Calling it “a very well-thought-out crime,” Wittman says the thieves also nabbed a pair of Renoir paintings before zooming off in a speedboat—that’s when Swedish authorities called in the FBI art-crimes unit.
Going undercover, Wittman was able to set up a buy and meet the thieves in a Copenhagen hotel room with $250,000 US, which he traded for the Rembrandt. Once he had the famous painting in hand, Wittman signalled a Danish SWAT team to move in.
“It’s always dangerous,” he says. “You’re dealing with people who are criminals. They’re doing criminal enterprises: armed robberies, bank robberies. They’re stealing cars, they’re selling drugs and weapons. And they happen to do art theft, too . . . . What I always say is, they’re better criminals than they are businessmen.”
Listen to more of his riveting stories on this Sept 30 interview with CFAX radio (skip ahead to the 11:34am mark).
Dubbed “the most famous art detective in the world” by The London Times, Wittman is a former FBI special agent who has recovered millions of dollars worth of stolen art and cultural property during his 20-year career — including paintings by Rembrandt, Goya, Norman Rockwell, and one of the original 14 copies of the U.S. Bill of Rights. He was instrumental in the creation of the FBI’s rapid deployment Art Crime Team, and has since instructed international police and museums in investigation, recovery and security techniques.
Now the New York Times bestselling author of Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures, Wittman will deliver a free public lecture at 7pm Tuesday, October 4, in Room B150 of the Bob Wright Centre. He will be speaking about his career and signing both Priceless and his latest book, The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich. His lecture, “Saving $300 Million in Art and Antiquities: True Tales from the FBI’s Real Indiana Jones,” will also feature art history & visual studies alumna Alison Ross, the owner, appraiser and auctioneer at Kilshaw’s.
Wittman’s appearance on campus is part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for the Department of Art History & Visual Studies. For 50 years now, AHVS (formerly named the History in Art department) has been researching, teaching and championing the importance of visual culture in society. From art forms both ancient and modern, the role of art history has only become more important as we shift to an increasingly visually based world.
“Robert Wittman is the ideal choice for our 50th anniversary event,” says department chair Dr. Erin Campbell. “He demonstrates the impact art history can have on the world, and his participation in two of our classes during his visit is typical of the kind of exciting, expert-based, hands-on learning that happens in AHVS.”
In addition to his lecture, Wittman will also spend a number of days on campus, where he will engage with AHVS students — notably in the new elective Art Crimes: Fakes, Forgeries and Fraud with Dr. Carolyn Butler-Palmer.
Don’t miss this chance to hear from the “FBI’s Real Indiana Jones” in what’s guaranteed to be a fantastic event!
by John Threlfall | Sep 22, 2016 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, indigenous, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing
Fine Arts is proud to kick off its new Orion Series on Indigeneity and the Arts with a public presentation by acclaimed filmmaker, author & composer Jeff Barnaby.
Jeff Barnaby
While at UVic, Barnaby will be hosting a free screening some of his short films starting at 7pm Monday, Sept 26, in UVic’s David Lam Auditorium (MacLaurin A144), and will host a discussion and Q&A afterwards. He will also be making some classroom visits while on campus, talking with Fine Arts students in our various departments.
A Mi’gmaq member from Listuguj, Quebec, Barnaby was educated at Concordia University, and is best known for his 2013 feature film, Rhymes for Young Ghouls, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. Barnaby’s first short film, From Cherry English (2005), won 2 Golden Sheaf awards (Yorkton) and played in dozens of festivals including Sundance, Tribecca, Fantasia, the Vancouver International Film Fest and the Atlantic International Film Fest; he has also created such acclaimed short films as The Colony (2007) and File Under Miscellaneous (2010).
He has been nominated for a Genie Award, won several other major awards and was named Best Director of a Canadian Film by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle in 2014. In 2015, Barnaby was one of four Indigenous directors invited to participate in the NFB documentary Souvenir. Watch his interview with George Stromboulopoulus here.
A scene from Jeff Barnaby’s 2013 film, Rhymes for Young Ghouls
The Orion Indigeneity Series is an important addition to our existing Orion Lecture series, which offers our students the opportunity to engage with numerous visiting professional artists each academic year. Fine Arts has a tradition of collaborating with indigenous artists, communities and scholars, and has been actively engaged in integrating culturally sensitive methodologies in our teaching, research and creative activity.
But the Orion Indigeneity Series is also our first phase of responding to the TRC recommendations and the UVic Indigenous Plan in meaningful and compelling ways, while simultaneously raising awareness of Indigenous cultural creativity for the UVic and wider community.
Jeff Barnaby is only the latest example of the people and projects we have been involved with in all five of our departments (Writing, Theatre, Art History & Visual Studies, Visual Arts, and the School of Music). Over the past few years, we’ve been working with the likes of artists Rebecca Belmore, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Nicholas Galanin, Rande Cook and Jackson 2Bears in the Audain Professor of Contemporary Arts of the Pacific Northwest, hosting writers like Richard Wagamese and alumni Richard Van Camp, Eden Robinson and Philip Kevin Paul, holding workshops on indigenizing music education, using intergenerational applied theatre techniques to preserve the languages of the Hul’q’umi’num’ Treaty Group, and creating dynamic exhibits with Williams Legacy chair Dr. Carolyn Butler Palmer and guest artists Peter Morin and current Visual Arts MFA candidate Hjalmer Wenstob.
You can read more about Fine Arts and Indigeneity here.
Many things have changed in Dawe’s life since he wrote The Slipknot: he now has 14 solo, autobiographical shows which he tours around the world to great acclaim, earning himself such titles as “Fringe Veteran” and “King of the Monologue”.
The play that has brought Dawe the most fame, however, is a two-hander called Toothpaste and Cigars, which was co-written with alumnus Mike Rinaldi (BFA’ 96) and toured in 2003. At the time, the pair could never have dreamed that this quirky modern-day love story would become a Hollywood movie starring famous Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan ultimately titled The F Word (no, the “f” actually stands for “friend”). Read the full story on the movie here. Since it has garnered excellent reviews, fandom from 20-somethings around the world, and won the 2014 Canadian Screen Award for Adapted Screenplay.
