Romeo and Juliet on Dante Street

 

Romeo and Juliet on Dante Street took Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers to Montreal’s Little Italy. It was the latest original musical production by participants in Concordia’s Centre for the Arts in Human Development.

The musical played June 19 and 20 in the D.B. Clarke Theatre, and delighted groups of schoolchildren with its colour and music. The leads were played by adults with developmental disabilities. Production support was provided by students from two alternative high schools, as well as students in Concordia’s program of Creative Arts Therapies.

The Centre for the Arts in Human Development started in 1996 and still offers a program unique in Canada. Its mission is to promote the highest degree of personal development for special populations by offering therapies in drama, art, music, dance and movement in a university setting.

Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels

On June 18 to 21, Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels, an original play full of West African theatricality, was staged outdoors in the courtyard of the VA Building.

The play was written by Femi Osofisan, from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, who taught in the Theatre Department last term. The story, about four travelling minstrels who steal food offerings to the god Esu, asks how self can be defined in a shifting political climate. The audience was invited to participate by singing, dancing, and deciding the fate of the thieves.

The cast of 18 Concordia theatre students was supplemented by members of the Black Theatre Workshop’s Youthworks company, whose artistic director, Rachael Van Fossen, teaches in the Theatre Department.