Prepare to enjoy a wide range of Shakespearean productions. You will be taken on a journey from tragedy to comedy and everything in between. You will see unorthodox productions as well as some names world renowned. Please turn off all cell phones and prepare for a theatrical journey of a life time!
A view of the inside page of the programme for the 1960 production of Othello presented by the University of Ottawa Drama Guild. As one can see this document provides an in depth look into the reasoning behind The Drama Guild’s decision to produce this title, as well as serve as a thanks to everyone who was involved in the staging of the production. An exciting point of discussion for this piece is that Alexander Trebek was at the time the President of the Drama Guild. This would have been Trebek’s last year of study at the University of Ottawa , Obtaining his degree in Philosophy from the university in 1961.
This asset provides the casting decisions of The Drama Guild 1960 production of Othello. This document shows insight into the production because it involves facts such as that the director decided to have 10 minute intermissions between each act of the play, thus inferring that the Guild possibly stages all five acts of the play text. It also informs the playgoer the settings in which the director chose to use in the production being partly in Venice and partly in Cyprus. This also shows that while not only being the President of the Drama Guild at the time of the plays production, Alexander Trebek was also Brabantio Desdemona’s father.
This is the Immediate Press release that the University of Ottawa issued to the press in order to have the press write about the production. The University of Ottawa wanted the press to know that they have Roland Hewgill in the title role because they feel as though it will bring more of a crowd to the production, rather than a student in the lead role. The document showcases the highlights of Hewgill’s career in order to inform the public just how lucky they were to have him in the headline role and to show just how superb he is and why people should come and see him.
This is a photo of the University of Ottawa Drama Guild production of Lear in 1977-78. This production was important to the school because they brought in an actor that was well known in the Canadian actor Roland Hewgill to play the role of Lear. This photo shows Hewgill present on the stage hunched beside an actress. This photo is an example of Hewgill in action being a very important man choosing to act in a student run production was an exciting opportunity for the University to up their box office sales.
This is a photo of the University of Ottawa Drama Guild production of Lear in 1977-78. This photo encompasses the stage presence that Roland Hewgill brought to his portrayal of Lear. Not only was he a well known Canadian actor, he was also not a student of the University of Ottawa. The University felt as though a character such as Lear could not be properly portrayed by a student actor, so they chose to have Hewgill tackle the roll. This photo showcases the simplistic set that makes a viewer that did not see the production first hand question the simplicity of the set. Since the lead was such a well known actor the set designer could have porously chosen to have a set with minimal distraction so that the audience could fully focus on the masterpiece at hand.
This document is a written review of the production of King Lear at The University of Ottawa in 1978. This article talks about the type of set that the director chose to use, which was “L” shaped stage, and transforming Academic Hall so superbly that it was not recognizable. The article goes on to explain how the addition of Roland Hewgill to the cast whom was a professional actor at the time in the Stratford Festivals. This could have been a ploy to attempt to have a higher grossing production because of the addition of a renowned actor in the world stage.
This is the press release for the Masters in Directing Students production of Alias and Dogg's Hamlet. This document eludes to the cost of viewing the production as well as the reason behind the staging.
This photo is the front cover of the programme handed out for the production of Alias and Dogg’s Hamlet in 1981 put on by Unicorn Theatre. Dogg’s Hamlet is an unorthodox reproduction of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. While not following the playtext of Hamlet itself it takes aspects of the play and weaves another story around the plot. This seems to be a short running play only having three days for viewing.
This photo is back side of the programme for Unicorn Theatres 1981 production of Alias and Dogg’s Hamlet. This explains that the Unicorn theatre company is the producing company of the students in the Honours Programme in directing. These directors would have been putting this show on as a project for their Masters thesis. This explains why the play only ran for three days, since the directors were students, they would not have been given a lot of funding. They were showing the play just be graded so the production level would not have been high. •Tibor Egervari was the chairman of the department of theatre at the time*
