Josh Doyle

“I think it’s really impressive. All these people have all these different skills and it just came together so beautifully,” said Miriam Sydney, sharing with the Ontarion her experience as part of this year’s Ensemble Project.

Miriam is part of the 2010 graduating class of theatre students, and as a part of that class, it was her responsibility to create an original, independent piece of theatre. This is a program where students take matters into their own hands, and the teachers hold their breath.

“The ensemble project really pushed everybody’s skills to their limits. Everyone was forced to take that step up,” Sydney explained.

The ensemble project has been a requirement of the graduating class for years. It calls for the involvement of everyone in the program, and students are responsible for everything, including writing the script – an interesting development all on its own.

Sydney was highly involved in the writing and explains the process: “We were given a text book basically, and from that we had to choose a piece which we would eventually adapt into a play. We had to come up with an idea, and then present that to our class.”

Sydney’s production was adapted from an essay called Marriage by Mona Caird, but many of the others including Sincerely Yours were adapted from short stories.

Writing the plays wasn’t the only obstacle these students faced in putting together a successful ensemble. Casting, directing, acting and every stage of production was completely up to them.

As is the case in any play, this was one of the most enjoyable parts of watching the performances that took place last Thursday to Saturday here on campus. Once again our theatre students proved themselves dedicated artists of the stage, delivering impressive performances all around.

In Sincerely Yours, Ryan Cotack held the audience in his hands as the wonderfully stubborn director Frances Grand. His agent Franky Fritz, played by Patrick Murphy, fenced with unconventional thinking, and the unrelenting reporter Andrew Cromwell played a cutthroat Hollywood agent. The darkness portrayed by Sydney’s four separate characters in Ball and Chain, including a frighteningly cynical mother, met with the childlike innocence of Jade MacInnes, the plays only personality with a positive view of marriage. Considering these characters were all created by students, it’s remarkable to see their knowledge of what the stage needs to come to life with such accuracy.

The incredible thing about ensemble is that it gives students the opportunity to dabble in every aspect of production, establishing themselves in the often unnoticed areas of theatre that go on backstage. The ensemble project is designed to give students hands on experience, and allow them to utilize the skills they’ve developed throughout their education.

“Everything you do in this past four years is just theory, theory, theory. This is practical. You had to take everything you learned, and use that knowledge to create this piece of theatre,” Sydney said.

While the ensemble project itself is nothing new, there were some changes made this year. Sydney and her crew welcomed those changes and accredited them with some of the success their team achieved with the project.

“They had different challenges in previous years. This year we were in small groups, but all the years before this ensemble has been 20 people together doing one play.” This new format gave ensemble a sort of festival quality, having six separate plays and three days of shows, allowing for a more in-depth look at the wealth of creativity that lies in our theatre program. Other project titles included A Penny for her Thoughts, (Spoiler Alert), Intertwined and Between the Walls. On a budget of $ 50 for each show, the project was a huge success, giving students a true-life experience of what it takes to make real theatre.

“I’m really proud of what we produced. It was a way for us to use all the skills we’ve learned in the last four years, and it created a real community feeling in our program,” said Sydney.

Sydney says the program encouraged everyone involved to contribute what they’ve learned to theatre culture in their own way; from the looks of things, the theatre of tomorrow is in good hands.

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