Event Archives

DalOpera's Cinderella & The Box Office

Nov. 28-30 | 7:30PM 
Dec. 1 | 2:00pm
Sir James Dunn Theatre, Dalhousie Arts Centre 
$20/$15 tickets: dal.ca/artscentre box office fees will apply
Part of the See-More series, sponsored by Canadian Student Living

What happens to Cinderella after midnight? Come find out but first, make a stop at the Box Office! 
From a customer service nightmare at a box office to what happens to Cinderella before and after the stroke of midnight, DalOpera’s 2024 Fall stage production is poised to draw you into these two powerful stories both composed by women. Let the students at DalOpera transport you into these two romantic, clever, comical and magical worlds. The production also utilizes the talents of our costume studies and stage design and technical theatre students in a truly collaborative creation.

Directed by Robyn Cathcart, with music direction by Cindy Townsend, the Fountain School proudly announces our 2024 double-bill Opera production featuring a talented ensemble of voice students.  The Box Office features Karina Matys and Naomi Sney as the attendant with Sophia Maskine and Emma Thorton-Ockrant as the customer. Cinderella features Karina Matys and Emma Thorton-Ockrant as Cendrillon, Sophia Maskine and Naomi Sney as The Fairy Godmother, Elizabeth Ruxton as Conte Barigoule, Ella Howard as Prince Charmamant, Kathrine Alexander and Raphaelia Bokolas as Amelinde, Victoria Dubois and Sarah MacInnis as Maguelonne, Corinne James and Jonathon Kean as Baron De Pictordu. Our chorus also includes Caralina Knights, Hannah Kroesbergen and Euan Lynch. The production also features Tara Scott as lead performance pianist.

Others on the creative team include Choreographer Véronique MacKenzie, Set Designer Katrin Whitehead, Costume Designer Diego Cavedon Dias and Lighting Designer Bruce MacLennan.

Our students in Dalhousie’s Stage Design and Technical Theatre and Costume Studies programs further support the production, including Assistant Director Liam Oko, Stage Manager Lauren Zemmelink and Assistant Stage Managers Naomi Dansie and Jessie Sanders.

Set in and inspired by the Canadian Opera Company ticket sales box office, Canadian composer Bekah Simms' The Box Office uses musical gestures of chromaticism and tritone leaps to highlight the uneasiness of a conversation between a very tired box office attendant and her insufferable customer. This short but poignant conversation is humorously and cleverly depicted in Canadian Michael Albano’s libretto.

Pauline Viardot’s setting of Cendrillon (Cinderella) is true to the original fairy tale; however Viardot takes a more lighthearted approach to the tale compared to other operatic versions of this enchanting story. Keen ears might hear references to themes used in Rossini’s and Massenet’s versions.

DalOpera offers a rare undergraduate experience in opera education. As a voice student, in each year of your degree you'll participate in a fully staged production with costumes, sets, lighting and with live music. Under the guidance of faculty, you'll work with your fellow students and future contemporaries from the Costume Studies and Stage Design programs for a fully immersive experience.

DalTheatre's Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play

Oct. 16 - 18 | 7:30pm
Oct. 19 2:00 & 7:30pm
David Mack. Murray Theatre | Dal Arts Centre
$15.00 & 20.00, additional box office fees will apply

Tickets @ Dal Arts Centre Box Office 902-494-3820, or 1-800-874-1669

The “nuclear family” gets redefined in this apocalyptic comedy. Where do we find light in a world gone dark?

How do stories grow? Where are the mhyths born? At the end of the world, a group of survivors will search for purpose amongst the fallout by turning to the greatest saga of all time: The Simpsons. Spanning 80 strange and dangerous years, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play shows us how stories evolve and mutate along with humanity, and how our collective instinct is to hunt for laughter, even at the end of the world.

Directed by The Villains Theatre Artistic Director, Dan Bray, the Fountain School of Performing Arts was the first production of the 2024-2025 theatre season featuring a talented ensemble of 4th year acting program students including Emily Ayer as Maria/Nelson, Meagan Benwell as Marge, John Black as Matt/Moe, Lorenzo Castro as Mr. Burns, Kathrine Currie as Quincy/Lisa, Maude McInnis as Edna Krabappel, Bailey Nash as Jenny/Scratchy, Liam Oko as Homer, Mae Rafuse as Flanders, Kaitlyn Thompkins as Bart, Christian Vallis as Sam/Itchy, and Jake Wilke as Gibson. The production also features musicians Angela Chu (piano) and August Van Meekeren (percussion).

In addition to Dan Bray, the creative team includes Assistant Director August Van Meekeren, award-winning Set and Costume Designer Sean Mulcahy, Choreographer Véronique MacKenzie, Lighting Designer Thunder Defayette (third-year Stage Design  & Technical Theatre), and Sound Designer Brianne Smith-Vetter (second-year Stage Design & Technical Theatre).

The production is further supported by the students in the Stage Design and Technical Theatre and Costume Studies programs, including stage manager Veronica Jollymore, and Assistant Stage Managers Kathleen Burke and Cadence Cook.

Written by Anne Washburn in 2012 Mr. Burns is a pitch-black ensemble comedy that explores the anxiety that comes with living through any given apocalypse. This surprising text gives the students unique opportunities to explore multiple theatre styles while creating one cohesive and expensive work. The play is at once haunting and uplifting cumulating in an epic musical tragedy that will forever change the way we interact with Matt Growing's immortal family. In a world plunged Into darkness where can light be found? Who will be remembered? Who gets the final laugh?

Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play

By Anne Washburn

SVOBODA VISITS HALIFAX (AGAIN)

An exhibit of theatre scenographer Josef Svoboda maquettes, models and photographs.

Opening reception Sept. 12 | 7:30pm

Exhibit runs Sept. 12 - Oct. 20
Catherine Steele Atrium of the Fountain School of Performing Arts
1385 Seymour St. Halifax N.S.

When scenographer Josef Svoboda visited Halifax 50 years ago, he left a treasure trove of models, crates, and photographs…come and see them (again)!

Scenography encompasses all aspects of design in a performance. The Fountain School owns 6 original Joseph Svoboda models and dozens of framed images of various productions he designed between 1958 and 1973. These were exhibited in the Dalhousie Arts Centre in 1974, with Svoboda in attendance.

50 years later, his work will come to life again in Halifax but this time just down the block at our beautiful new Fountain School of Performing Arts building’s Cathrine Steele Atrium.

In a unique partnership, Dalhousie’s School of Architecture faculty Peter Henry will curate the exhibit and design new exhibit displays.  They’ll be built by senior architecture students in the Dal Arts Centre workshop and supervised by Fountain School faculty Torin Buzin.

The evening will also feature live performances by Fountain School faculty and students, inspired by well-known operas Svoboda designed for.

Arguably Josef Svoboda was the most influential scenographer of his time. Working from behind the Iron Curtain, he designed and produced numerous plays, ballets, and operas whose innovative use of space and technology has been highly influential to designers, even today.

His lighting innovations led to a shift in the perception of light on stage internationally. Many of the productions he collaborated on transcended traditional theatre and foreshadowed contemporary multimedia artistic forms.

Without the collaboration and encouragement of the Fountain School’s Dr. Jure Gantar and Torin Buzek and Dalhousie’s School of Architecture’s James Forren and Emanuel Jannasch, this exhibition/celebration would not be possible.

It represents the work of Adjunct Professor/Architect Peter Henry, Theatre Arts Instructor Torin Buzek, and Dal Architecture FreeLAB students: Sophie Fitzgerald, Zamani Millar, Thomas Emerson, Ryan Torosantucci, Jamie Spidell, Camila Lima, Haley White and James Smith.

We would also like to acknowledge the invaluable role Professor Emeritus Peter Perina has played in preserving Svoboda’s models and photos which make this exhibit possible. Professor Perina arranged Svoboda’s visit in 1974 and was instrumental in taking care of the collection for many decades.

This exciting collaboration is made possible by the Traves Performance Excellence Fund.