UNews - #uleth50years

Fiction at Fifty Competition Brings new Canadian content to U of L Stage

trevor.kenney — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 20:21:26 +0000

Three years in the making, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Department of Drama is proud to present the world premiere of When There’s Nothing Left to Burn, the winning play commissioned through the Fiction at Fifty playwright competition.

Actress Zoë Bracken in a scene from When There’s Nothing Left to Burn. PHOTO by Amanda Berg

Inspired by the Vancouver Arts Club Theatre Company’s Silver Commissions Project, alumnus Terry Whitehead (BA '94) suggested a similar idea to uLethbridge as a way to celebrate its 50th Anniversary in 2017, commissioning a new Canadian play to be produced on a university stage. With the support of the Department of Drama, Whitehead generously backed the Fiction at Fifty competition, providing prize money for three finalists and the grand prize winner, Sean Devine.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a Canadian university has ever launched a national competition to commission a new play,” says Whitehead. “I was overwhelmed by the response. It’s an extraordinary testament to the reputation of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and speaks well about the health of play writing in Canada.”

Beginning January 2014, the Department of Drama invited commissioning proposals for a new full-length play. By March 2014, Fiction at Fifty attracted more than 75 submissions from across the country, spanning 34 cities in eight provinces. Three finalists were selected in June 2014, each receiving a $2,000 commissioning contract to write a full-length draft play within the next 18 months. By December 2015, the jury had three brand new Canadian plays from which to choose.

“One of the great things about this contest is that the format enabled three plays to get initial funding,” says Whitehead. “It’s very rare that playwrights get a commission to go and write their works.”

PHOTO By Jaime Vedres

In January 2016, Sean Devine was announced as the winner, receiving an additional $2,000 commission to continue the development of his play When There’s Nothing Left to Burn. Almost two years later, the U of L is excited to produce the world premiere, hitting the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Theatre stage Nov. 7-11.

Devine is a playwright and theatre maker, as well as the artistic director of Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre. His first play Re:Union premiered in Vancouver in 2011, was published in 2013, had public readings in NYC, Chicago and Seattle, and was presented by the 2015 Magnetic North Theatre Festival. His second play Except in the Unlikely Event of War premiered in Vancouver in 2013. Devine has been the playwright-in-residence at Pi Theatre (Vancouver) and GCTC (Ottawa). His play Daisy premiered at Seattle's ACT Theatre in 2016, where it received a Gregory Award nomination for Best New Play, and a Broadway World Seattle Critic's Choice Award for Best New Play.

The jury, made up of U of L faculty members along with Rachel Ditor, literary manager of Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver, chose three finalists based on proposals that would appeal to and resonate with audiences in southern Alberta and beyond.

“The Arts Club is thrilled that the Silver Commissions Project was the inspiration behind the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Fiction at Fifty competition,” says Ditor. “It is an important initiative for Canadian audiences, artists, and students. A Canadian university offering professional playwrights the time, money and resources needed to create meaningful new works is rare and a gift to us all.”

PHOTO by Jaime Vedres

The winning play had subject matter, themes and acting opportunities to excite and inspire university students. In addition, it used a large cast, and more importantly, emphasized the ensemble as a whole rather than one or two lead characters, all qualities important for the educational experience of dramatic arts students at the university level.

The Fiction at Fifty competition was structured to incorporate special experiences for students. Throughout the year leading up to the premiere, director and Department of Drama faculty Gail Hanrahan initiated and facilitated the reading and workshopping of When There’s Nothing Left to Burn in her class, New Play Workshop. Devine visited the university twice and joined the cast via Skype.

“I welcome other ideas that are not my own,” says Devine. “The cast takes away a sense of ownership of the script and better chemistry.”

The final production is both a polished premiere and a unique opportunity for students, director and playwright to collaborate from page to stage.

When There’s Nothing Left to Burn stood out to the jury because of its dynamic story, insightful perspective and ambitious scope. The plot reveals citizens going about their day-to-day lives in the midst of a violent political conflict in an unnamed North American city. Inspired by a faraway revolution in Kiev in 2014, Devine explored the idea that a similar crisis could happen in Canada.

“The revolution seemed to be just one more in an unending stream of citizen-led revolutions and uprisings across the globe,” says Devine. “Perhaps I’m a pessimist, but I just can’t see this trend abating anytime soon. I wanted to create something that encapsulated all the divergent voices and faces of a city in the midst of a siege.”

When There’s Nothing Left to Burn will leave audiences considering how their lives would change if a bomb exploded on the bus they were taking to school or work. What if you were not allowed out of your house between sundown and sunrise? What if you were brought in for questioning because you wrote a song, or because you posted about what was happening in your city?

This play pushes boundaries of theatre, from its inception to final production, and the uLethbridge drama department proudly invites all audiences to attend.

Tickets are available at ulethbridge.ca/tickets, and through the Box Office at 403-329-2616.

Shine On U of L 50th Anniversary Fund created in support of student scholarships

trevor.kenney — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 18:06:01 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is excited to come together to celebrate all it has accomplished over the past 50 years, and, with a keen eye on the future, has established the Shine On: U of L 50th Anniversary Fund as a means to help the students of today become the leaders of tomorrow.

Created as a scholarship fund, all money raised for the Shine On: U of L 50th Anniversary Fund goes directly to support student scholarships, providing greater opportunities for student success.

“For some students, scholarships are the very reason they can continue their academic journeys. For others, scholarships allow them to focus on their studies rather than working part-time jobs,” says Chris Horbachewski, vice-president, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Advancement. “Scholarships help build confidence, they send a message to students that others believe in them enough to support their academic journeys.”

Blair Yoxall, a fourth-year English major, says that scholarship support has meant a world of difference in his studies.

“I have been extremely fortunate to receive many scholarships while at the U of L. These scholarships have truly given me the opportunity to focus on my schooling as my job so that I can devote more time to my studies and less time panicking about paying rent or school fees,” he says. “Scholarships have also made me so much more confident in my abilities and make me want to succeed for the donors who generously funded the scholarships I received.”

The Shine On: U of L 50th Anniversary Fund will launch at the kick-off event to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Founders’ Day Weekend. In addition to giving online, a 50 Hours of Giving campaign that begins at noon on Friday, January 13 will allow, for the first time ever, supporters of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to show their support through a text-to-give initiative.

“As we set the campaign in motion, the 50 Hours of Giving will allow everyone the opportunity to participate by texting their support,” says Barry Knapp, director of the Development Office in ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Advancement. “This gives everyone a chance to get involved and help support the Shine On fund and our students. Every donation to this fund will go directly to student scholarships, and it will be exciting to watch the support grow throughout the weekend as we track the texts and online gifts coming in.”

To participate in the 50 Hours of Giving event, text SHINEON plus your full name and email address to 45678 beginning at noon on Friday. Gifts can be made online over the course of the weekend as well at www.uleth.ca/giving/make-gift.

“Our connection to southern Albertans and the communities we serve is both unique and enduring,” adds Horbachewski. “We’re extremely grateful for the support the U of L has received over the years – these contributions have made a tangible impact on the lives of our students and the now more than 41,000 alumni who represent the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ throughout the world.”

Click here to see the impact scholarships have made on some of our students .

50th anniversary competition launched to design U of L official tartan

trevor.kenney — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 16:57:49 +0000

You may not remember Steve Firth (BA ’14) by name, but mention him as “the kilt guy” and virtually everyone knows just whom you are talking about.

Firth, a native of Scotland and then undergraduate student at the U of L, created the Kilt-Up 4 Cancer campaign in 2013 and spent two years wearing a kilt to class (and everywhere else) with the goal of raising awareness of male-specific cancers. Firth is still on campus, now as a graduate student in the Department of Philosophy, and he’s come up with a new scheme – one that promises to live on in perpetuity.

The Countdown to 50 Tartan Design Competition is open to all faculty, staff, students and alumni of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

Firth’s brainchild is a competition to design the official U of L tartan in celebration of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s 50th anniversary.

“I want it to be a fun competition – but it’s also important, because the registering of a tartan is a profound event that comes with 1,500 years of cultural significance,” says Firth. “It’s also a very celebratory event, so I hope people will get excited about it and we’ll come up with something that represents the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ well.”

The Countdown to 50 Tartan Design Competition is open to all faculty, staff, students and alumni of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. The winner of the competition will have created a lasting piece of U of L history, with the top student-submitted entry earning a $350 prize from the Students’ Union and the top faculty, staff or alumni entry picking up a $150 prize from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Alumni Association.

“We are looking to celebrate our 50th anniversary in a number of ways and this contest is unique in that it will create a lasting legacy, a piece of institutional history,” says Dr. Chris Hosgood, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and co-Chair of the 50th Anniversary Planning Committee.

The logistics of creating a tartan are really quite simple. Contestants need only access the Croft Weaver tartan design program and begin designing. The only caveats are that the design must contain the U of L colours royal blue and yellow, no more than seven colours can be used and the thread count of the final design must be between 250 and 320.

All submissions for the Countdown to 50 Tartan Design Competition must be received by midnight on June 1, 2016, after which a judging panel will be convened and a winner announced.

For all the details, including contest rules, check out this competition web page.

Wort Hannam eager to help ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ celebrate anniversary through song

trevor.kenney — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 19:15:47 +0000

For John Wort Hannam (BA/BEd ’96), writing a song for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s 50th anniversary is a process not unlike that of a miner panning for gold. He’s been sifting through the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Archives, looking at photos and reading old issues of The Meliorist. Words or phrases may strike him and he stores these nuggets, as he calls them, in the back of his mind where they percolate, bubble and simmer until the day Wort Hannam sits down to write.

“My songs sort of stew inside my head a long time and when I get to the process of actually getting out a pen and a piece of paper, a lot of my thoughts are quite formed,” he says. “Getting them down is making a record of something that I’ve created in my head. Then the word wrangling starts. At that point, the melody starts to come.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ chose John Wort Hannam to write the anniversary song not only because he’s an alumnus; he’s also a consummate storyteller and accomplished songwriter who can put the soul into a lyric.

The U of L, with the help of a donation from Terry Whitehead (BA ’94), commissioned Wort Hannam to write a song for its golden anniversary.

“I knew John from my time on campus and thought he was the perfect choice — I love his music.” says Whitehead. “I can’t think of anyone better suited to bring the spirit of our ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to words and music.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ chose Wort Hannam not only because he’s an alumnus; he’s also a consummate storyteller and accomplished songwriter who can put the soul into a song.

“I was thrilled, I jumped on it; there was no hesitation,” he says. “I feel the job in front of me is to create a type of a song that really captures why the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is a special place for people who have been there and experienced the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.”

Wort Hannam already has some nuggets stored away, but they’re not something he’s willing to share. However, he does say a few things about what the song won’t be, starting with it won’t be a chronological history of the U of L.

“I guarantee that I won’t say the word ‘Lethbridge’ in the song. And I won’t say ‘50.’ And the word ‘university’ will not be in the song because it’s more about trying to capture how we grow and become illuminated,” he says.

And as for what the song will be about, Wort Hannam offers only a teaser.

“The song will certainly rotate around the whole Fiat Lux motto because obviously there are so many visual things to play with when we’re talking about light. Light represents everything from enlightenment to hope. There are so many attributes you can play with as a songwriter with the theme of light,” he says.

Once the song has been finished, Wort Hannam will record it in the U of L’s digital audio arts studio, says Dr. Ed Jurkowski, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts. It will debut in 2017 and a video documentary about the creation of the song is also in the works.

“We’ve also talked about transcribing it for different media, maybe having a choral arrangement of the song, maybe a wind orchestra, maybe a small chamber orchestra version as well. But that will depend on the song itself,” says Jurkowski.

As an alumnus, Wort Hannam can identify with the ability of a university to enlighten. His first foray into post-secondary education didn’t go well. His high school study habit, which consisted of cramming the night before an exam, didn’t work at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and he was “booted out” after his first year. He then attended what was then Mount Royal College to learn some study skills and raise his GPA. In his class on contemporary native issues, one of the assigned readings was a paper by Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) ’72, LLD ’04).

“I found the paper really intriguing. I’ve always been interested in different cultures and I thought ‘If I’m going to learn about another culture, why not learn about a culture that originated in this land and predated European culture?” says Wort Hannam.

It wasn’t until he came to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge that he was ready to be a student. He met his future wife (Jennifer Burke, MSc ’06) in his first semester and joined the cross-country running team and the track team.

“They were definitely years that defined who I am today,” he says.

After graduating, Wort Hannam taught on the Blood Reserve for five-and-a-half years. At the time, he wasn’t writing songs or playing music and he didn’t own a guitar. All he had was a little dream about writing songs and performing them. Many people laughed when he quit his teaching job to write songs, except his parents, who “didn’t even blink” at his abrupt career change. They had left the United Kingdom for a fresh start in Canada when Wort Hannam was eight years old. As a result of watching them craft a new life for themselves and their family, Wort Hannam says he’s never been scared to try something new.

“I made myself a promise. I said ‘I’m going to sit downstairs and I’m literally going to spend my day learning the guitar and trying to write songs. At the end of whatever UI (Unemployment Insurance) gave me, 32 or 38 weeks, if I have enough songs together I’ll record them somehow,’” he says.

He had a stack of songs by the time his employment insurance benefits ran out, and, with the help of a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, he made a record. Things took off from there. He taught upgrading courses part-time and started playing a bit, until he eventually stopped teaching altogether and played a lot.

Now, at age 47 and the father of a four-year-old son, Wort Hannam has cut back from being on tour 250 days of the year to being on tour for about 70. While he has no regrets, he does admit to missing the freedom to write songs whenever the inspiration strikes him.

And that could mean audiences, near and far, have something extra special to look forward to in the future when all those nuggets he’s been storing over the last few years find their way into songs.

Community participation will be key to 50th anniversary celebration

trevor.kenney — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 21:11:51 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is southern Alberta’s university and as the U of L begins the planning process for its 50th anniversary celebrations in 2017, it is looking to the broader community to help plan the festivities.

“This really is about bringing the entire community together to celebrate,” says Dr. Christopher Hosgood, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and co-Chair of the 50th Anniversary Planning Committee. “This is an exciting time in the U of L’s history, to recognize where we’ve come from and, more importantly, to set a direction for our future.”

As the U of L’s 50th birthday approaches, planning for a year of celebrations and activities to mark this important occasion in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s history is well underway.

From small beginnings back in 1967, the U of L has grown into one of the country’s leading academic and research institutions. More than 650 students attended the first ever day of classes and this past fall, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ welcomed more than 8,400 students through the doors at campuses in Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton. This never would have been possible without the invaluable contributions of the community.

“Our university wouldn’t be here today without the persistence of a forward-thinking group of Lethbridge citizens who believed southern Alberta merited its own university,” says U of L President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mike Mahon. “We have continued to benefit from the incredible support of this community and we are excited to celebrate this milestone with individuals and organizations from across southern Alberta.”

As the U of L’s 50th birthday approaches, planning for a year of celebrations and activities to mark this important occasion in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s history is well underway.

The U of L’s Centre for Oral history and Tradition (COHT) is working on a 50 Voices project. This project will use audio clips and photographs from the First Generation Oral History Project, which included stories of those who shaped the U of L’s early years, and add new interviews to the mix.

“This project will help us sustain the U of L culture that celebrates both our origins and our destiny,” says Hosgood. “As our history becomes richer and deeper, celebrating the past so that we can learn for the future is a really important part of the venture.”

A special song has been commissioned from U of L alumnus John Wort Hannam (BA/BEd ’96) to commemorate a half-century of post-secondary learning at the U of L.

“Being an alumnus, it’s a great honour to be asked to write for something that I feel personally connected to,” says Wort Hannam. “It’s one thing to try and write something that celebrates the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s history and its first 50 years but what I’m going to try and do is create something that also looks forward to the next 50 years.”

Throughout the year, the U of L’s regular events, such as convocations, Abbondanza, the Donor Gala and Play Day, will also have a 50th anniversary feel to them, while the Fiction at Fifty-playwriting competition (conceived and funded by U of L alumnus Terry Whitehead (BA '94)) has been underway for some time.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is seeking input from the community for ideas and initiatives for the 50th anniversary celebrations. The public is invited to share these ideas at a special website, blogs.ulethbridge.ca/50-years/. People can also follow the planning process and join in the celebration throughout 2017 via social media, using the Twitter hashtag #uleth50years.

UNews - #uleth50years

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