Me, circa 1984

Budgell Family Dance-Off, circa 1989

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.

Sir Wilfred Grenfell College (2001-2002)

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 andTwelfth Night

During the 1975-76 academic year, Grenfell College looked very different than it does today. The one-building campus – now the ivy-clad 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.

Memorial University of Newfoundland (History)

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.

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

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 (Today)

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.

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

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).

MUN Professors & Courses

Jamie SkidmoreBAH (Queens), MA, PhD (UofT)

English 3351: The Physical Stage

English 4400: Producing the Play

Danielle IrvineNTS (Directing)* Winner John Hirsch Prize, 2000

English 3350: Theatre Techniques

English 4401: Directing

Denyse LyndeMA, PhD (UofT)

Modern Canadian Drama Contemporary British DramaDrama 1580-1642Shakespeare: Tragedies & Romances

Andy JonesActor, comedian, Newfoundland icon. Andy taught a hybrid course on both 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.

Pivotal Productions: Woyzeck (2006)

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: Pilk’s Madhouse (2007)

Pivotal Productions: Pilk’s Madhouse (2007)

Pivotal Productions: This is a Play (2008)

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)

Influences: Artistic Fraud

Jillian Keiley

Robert Chafe

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.

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.