AMPD News

We have a dynamic Theatre@York season planned.

The Ashley Plays are a series of short, original site-specific monodramas written and performed by the playwrights in THEA Playwriting & New Play Dramaturgy 4290. In collaboration with class dramaturgs and Course Director Judith Rudakoff, the playwrights create and evolve a play about a central character named “Ashley”. Each playwright has the artistic freedom to develop their own Ashley character. The playwrights are assigned a specific location (or site) in which their play takes place. Typically, the sites are located in the Centre for Film & Theatre, and on performance day, groups of audience members are led from site to site, to view the cycle of plays.

We spoke to Garrett Ryan, 4th year playwright, about The Ashley Plays, and his contributions.

An online exhibition featuring works out of York University’s Sensorium: Centre of Digital Arts and Technology will demonstrate the creative ways in which artists, researchers and Organized Research Units (ORUs) are adapting to limitations of COVID-19.

The School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) welcomes 10 new faculty members this fall: Mike Cadó, Bridget Cauthrey, Robyn Cumming, Michael Darroch, Gillian Helfield, Amy Hillis, Noam Lemish, Jamie Robinson, Gabriel (Gabi) Schaffzin and Jane Tingley.

I hope this message finds you and your families and communities in good health and spirits during the current circumstances. I know that the conditions necessitated by COVID-19 have lasted much longer than expected and I am grateful for your continued resilience and widespread generosity shown by people throughout AMPD over the past six months.

Pride Month 2020 will be remembered as a month of action. Without the big parade or shoulder-to-shoulder crowds on Church Street, we were forced to set aside the free swag, the "gay tourism" and the corporate sponsorships to reflect on why we celebrate Pride in the first place. We were reminded that it is a time to protest, to care for ourselves, care for those who live in the margins, and to make some noise. And looking back at this past year, it is clear that AMPD made a lot of noise.

Another school year has come to an end, which means it is time to celebrate and send-off our graduating class as they prepare themselves for the next stage of their careers.

These are truly extraordinary circumstances. In any other year, we would gather in the large Centre of Excellence at the Aviva Centre, surrounded by family and friends. There would be hugs, high fives, and photo opportunities. But even though the love cannot be shared in-person, we want the Class of 2020 to know that we hold them deeply in our hearts.

SSHRC Partnership Grant, just under $2.5 M, awarded to AMPD Professor Laura Levin