Motyer-Fancy Theatre announced this year’s season last Monday. It will consist of ten productions and two touring performances.
“There are plenty of opportunities for actors, for puppeteers, for costume people, for sets, props, you name it. There’s lots of ways to get involved,” said professor Glen Nichols, director of drama.
The first show is Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, directed by Decima Mitchell. The play follows Hamlet’s minor characters as they take centre stage and become stars. Mitchell said, “It’s a comedy, but it’s also a deep, profound tragedy. And we know – it’s in the title: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.”
November kicks off with 1917: Mud, Mayhem and Miracles, the fourth chapter of the “Allisonians at War” project. Alex Fancy helms the project, which examines the local war effort during the Second World War. The script will be composed verbatim from letters and articles from the Argosy and other Sackville news publications. “Our goal is not to interpret, but to channel voices from 1917,” Fancy said.
The season’s third show is Paradoxes: The Life and Music of Fanny Hensel, presented in collaboration with the music department. Detailing the life of Fanny Hensel, nine of her compositions will be included. The performance also features the Elliott Chorale, vocal soloists, local pianists and a string quartet.
The first semester culminates in the Evening of One-Acts. Erik Garf will direct No Misstakes, a long-form improv show that will explore issues relevant to Canadian university students. Garf will “make [his] designers also improvise.” Justin Green will direct Ashley Nader’s The Love of Cheesecake, a loving comedy about a couple whose “relationship is going to hell.” Green added that “we’re going to be discussing gender and sexuality quite a bit.”
Second semester begins with REX!, a collectively-created piece devised by members of Tintamarre, Mt. A’s bilingual theatre company. Following Rex, a small-time bully aiming for the big time, Alex Fancy describes the show as a “collaborative, bilingual comedy on social issues for 2017-18.”
Onstage in March is Paul Downs Colaizzo’s Really Really. Director and Crake Fellow Samantha Wilson-Tyrell said, “It is a play about ‘Generation Me’: generation you.” The play explores privilege, ambition and class issues on a university campus.
In the winter One-Acts slot, we will see Jonathan Seinen’s Ice Land, a post-apocalyptic Canadian play that follows four people struggling to survive wasteland Saskatchewan. While only one play of the doubleheader is known, Nichols promised that “the other one will also be very exciting.”
The final show of the season is Tristan Grant’s adaptation of Mi’kmaq legend Argimou. “It’s kind of like Rush Hour. It’s sort of a buddy comedy,” Grant said of the plot. He also noted the show will allow audiences to “get in tune with oral tradition, with the stories of the Mi’kmaq people and the culture, and of the other native groups in the area too.”
In addition, Nichols announced two studio shows to be performed at Mt. A as part of Theatre New Brunswick’s return to touring. The Motyer-Fancy Theatre will host Ryan Griffiths’ Fortune of Wolves and Natalie Sappier’s Finding Wolastoq Voice. Nichols added that workshops and presentations will be scheduled around these performances.
With a season comprised of ten faculty- and student-led pieces, two touring productions, and multiple workshops and events, Motyer-Fancy will be a space to watch for the months to come.
