Theatre Production Track
Workshop A: 10:00-11:30am
Intro to Props: Making Something from Nothing (J/I/S)*
This workshop is limited to 20 participants. The spots will be available to the first 20 registrants for this track (make sure to register for a track using the Google Form emailed to you). If you are not one of the first 20 participants, you will need to select a different workshop for Workshop A, but you may join this track for Workshop B and C.
Workshop Description:
Explore the creative process of prop building during this hands-on workshop. Under the guidance of expert prop maker, Valerie Bonasso, participants will unleash their creativity with a simple project that can be taken right into the classroom. Using everyday office materials and basic art supplies, participants will learn to make fake food props from start to finish.
- Take home a completed project in one course.
- Develop skills that can easily be applied to other prop building challenges.
- Use everyday materials and found objects, reimagined into creative masterpieces.
University of Windsor, School of Performing Art - Valerie Bonasso
Valerie Bonasso is graduate of the University of Windsor School of Dramatic Art earning a Bachelor of Arts. She has also recently earned an MBA from the Odette School of Business which included an internship at the Cirque du Soleil International Headquarters in Montreal. Valerie was a founding Artistic Partner with Breathe Art Theatre Project, a critically acclaimed cross-border theatre company. Directing credits for Breathe Art: True West and Hedwig and The Angry Inch; for Korda Artistic Productions: She Kills Monsters. She has worked professionally as a Stage & Production Manager and was also the Crew Supervisor for The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor – working with such acts as Billy Joel & Celine Dion. Valerie is currently the Props Master and Stage Management Mentor for University Players as well as the resident Stage Manager for the St Clair College Music Theatre Program.
Workshop B: 12:30-2pm
Stage Management 101 (I/S)
Workshop Description: In this interactive session participants will get hands-on experience in the foundations of stage management. Through a combination of whole and small group activities participants will build a deep understanding of stage management principles and how these skills can be transferred to their pedagogical practices. Key takeaways will be: script analysis, blocking and notation, determining technical requirements and the key role of stage management in the production process. The featured conventions of this session will focus on developing and improving your students’ stage management skills to support their classroom and school production initiatives.
Cheri-Anne Byrne
Cheri-Anne Byrne is an Ontario Secondary Drama and Dance educator with 17 years of classroom experience and the current treasurer of the Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators. Her teaching practice is anchored in infusing anti-oppressive and anti-colonial approaches to breakdown bias and barriers in educational spaces. She graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours degree in drama and obtained her BEd from Ottawa University. Cheri-Anne has facilitated professional development in Alglonquin-Lakeshore, Hamilton-Wentworth and Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. Currently she is an consultant in Indigenous Education with a focus on supporting Indigenous Youth in DPCDSB.
Matt Byrne
Matthew Byrne is the President and Founder of Byrne Production Services. He is an executive producer, event technology expert, entrepreneur and nerd.
His career started in the arts where he developed his love of performance and stage craft as a stage a manager, production manager, TD and producer. Eventually building a career in live event production for Conferences, Tradeshows and experiential marketing events.
Alongside a team of hard working professionals, he is on a mission to create more value through the production of events, meetings and conferences. Throughout his 25 year career, he has had the opportunity to work with some amazing teams to help create meaningful event designs, focusing on elevated production value. With a strong belief that any event needs the right people, right technology and the right process, he has spent the last 5 years of his career designing the Production Framework™, a detailed process to help elevate the production value of every event he produces.
Workshop C: 2:15-3:45pm
Creative Costuming on a Shoestring Budget (I/S)*
This workshop is limited to 20 participants. The spots will be available to the first 20 registrants for this track (make sure to register for a track using the Google Form emailed to you). If you are not one of the first 20 participants, you will need to select a different workshop for Workshop D, but you may join this track for Workshop B and C.
Workshop Description:
Have you ever heard the saying “Good, fast, cheap… Pick two!”?
Costume budgets are rarely big enough to create everything we can imagine. And budgets – we usually think of money when we talk budgets – also must include time and labour. To design effective costumes for a production, a designer must have a handle on all three aspects of their budget. Any problem can be easily solved if you throw enough money at it. Most problems can be solved if you spend enough time working at it.
What do you do when you don’t have enough of either money or time?
What resources can you use to stretch your budgets?
Given limited resources, how can you achieve the greatest effect?
In this session, we will:
- assess the needs of a production
- organize the needs and wants into a form we can work with
- determine where to spend precious resources to get “the most bang for your buck”
- develop budget-friendly strategies for all the costumes such as:
- looking at existing garments for what they can become
- seeing potential in the outdated and ugly
- re-creating one historical silhouette from another
- share our past successes, resources, and ideas to use in future productions
Esther Van Eek
evaneek@uwindsor.ca
Esther Van Eek, a proud member of the Associated Designers of Canada, designs costumes, millinery, masks, and props in Canada and the USA. She holds a BFA in Visual Art and an MFA in Production Design from the George Washington University. An award-winning designer and educator, Van Eek teaches Intro to Theatre, Costume Design, Drawing for the Theatre, and Stage Make-up at the University of Windsor, and mentors up-and-coming designers. She collaborated with several costume designers to write The Art and Practice of Costume Design (Routledge, 2016).
Van Eek serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology and is the Vice-Commissioner of Design for USITT’s Costume Commission.
When not designing or teaching, Esther continues her artistic practice as a printmaker and painter.
Selected design credits include: Doubt (Post Productions), The Taming, Accomplice, Heroes, Parasite Drag (Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, MA); Tinker Bell, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Mr. Burns, Tartuffe (University Players).