Month: February 2012

Categories
News

Tuition protesters hit the books

CSU is organizing a sleep-in in the downtown campus library to protest and inform students about tuition hikes before the March 7 vote. Photo by Navneet Pall
CSU is organizing a sleep-in in the downtown campus library to protest and inform students about tuition hikes before the March 7 vote. Photo by Navneet Pall
Armed with sleeping bags, students protesting tuition increases woke up to day two of their occupation of Concordia’s downtown library this morning.

Roughly 40 people have set up camp in the J.W. McConnell Library Building to take part in the week-long event organized by the Concordia Student Union. Students plan on staying overnight in the building’s first floor atrium until Friday. By day, the CSU is using the space to hold workshops geared towards social activism.

“We pay to have our library open for 24 hours so we might as well take advantage of that,” said CSU VP external and event organizer Chad Walcott.

He said that the sleep-in was purposely timed to coincide with midterms to attract interest for their cause from the increased number of students circulating through the library.

The sleep-in doubles as an information campaign about university tuition hikes leading up to next week’s strike vote. On March 7, Concordia undergrads will vote on whether to join the more than 55,000 other post-secondary students already on unlimited strike in Quebec.

While the daytime activities are open to everyone, a Concordia ID card is required to sign up and spend the night. The university is accommodating the sleep-in, posting a press release alerting people to the protest on the Concordia Now website.

The university contacted the CSU about the sleep-in last week, according to Walcott. He said the occupation would have happened with or without the administration’s permission.

University spokesperson Chris Mota said their goal is to allow the sleep-in to take place as “safely and unobtrusively as possible.” Occupiers will have access to electricity and security will be present both during the day and overnight. Mota said that should any trouble arise, student leaders will be contacted to deal with the situation directly.

Walcott maintains that the protesters are “all adults who can govern themselves accordingly” and that people will respect the fact that they are in a library. Occupiers held a general assembly on Monday to set up ground rules for the following days.

Categories
Arts

Art Matters all over Montreal

After 12 years of growth, Concordia’s Art Matters festival has broken out of the hallways, past the downtown campus, and into galleries all over the city. Over 120 Montreal-based artists are going to be showing off their pieces during the two-week festival that kicks off this Friday.
The festival has now expanded to various boroughs and one of the first things the Art Matters team did for this year’s edition was secure venues. This led to the festival spreading out over St-Henri, downtown, the Plateau and the Mile End.
“We have an apartment gallery, and one show is happening in the back of a truck,” mentioned the festival’s outreach coordinator, Vivien Leung.
Not much is known about this event, called Vehicular Commodities, other than that the truck will appear, and that wine and cheese will be served when it does. Leung explained that artists “sometimes want to be a bit more down-low about [their project,] which is part of the whole feel of what they’re trying to create, so that’s why sometimes there’s less information.”
For the first time, Art Matters will have an open house weekend starting Friday, March 9. There will be events and artist talks all over the city. Leung said the idea for the open house is to encourage people to see multiple shows in one day. “Each show on top of the open house will have their own vernissage,” Leung added.
Another first for this year is a speaker series called Art of Survival, happening on Sunday, March 4. It will feature artists from different backgrounds talking about how to make it in the ever-changing art industry.
During its two week run, the festival will feature a variety of exhibits, such as My Pregnant Pre-Teen Birthday Vacation with Dad (curated by Nafisa Kaptownwala), a show about transitioning from one age group to another and how time can change our view of past experiences. Kaptownwala described her show as “art being able to encompass a moment visually.” She also said “I want the audience to feel like they’re walking into someone’s space, like they’re understanding their life […] but also just for people to relate.”
In another exhibit, an artist has contributed portraits of all the men she’s had relationships with in the past year—drawn in lipstick. It makes the show not only about memories, but according to Leung, “very tongue-in-cheek.”
A show called Three Times (3 X 7 X 52 X y), curated by Zoë Wonfor, will have free food every night. “[Wonfor] really wants to create this warm, almost dinner-table atmosphere,” Leung said,
Wonfor, who spent 18 hours looking through artwork before deciding what she wanted to include in Three Times, said, “I feel extremely fortunate to have selected the artists I have and couldn’t be happier with the ultimate direction of my show. […] I want people to come hungry, and to leave satiated.”
On March 11, in the Mile End, curator Aditi Ohri will take people through a series of artists talks and neighborhood tours in the exhibition walking tour, Ohri will take people through public and retail spaces in the area—such as vintage shops, cafés and bookstores.
The Art Matters festival seeks to give students the kind of real-world experience that they won’t get in a classroom—and it’s more than just fine arts students who have benefited. “We’ll sometimes call out, for instance, to the creative writing program which is part of Arts and Science. And one of our executives this year is a JMSB student. We’re not just fine arts,” said Leung.
Art Matters will kick everything off with an opening party at The Darling Foundry (745 Ottawa St.) on Friday, March 2. It’s open to everyone and will feature local bands, art installations and dancing under the glow of video projections.

Art Matters runs from March 2 to 16. Exhibitions are free. Opening night party is $6 in advance, and $10 at the door.For more information, visit http://artmattersfestival.org or @ArtMattersFest on Twitter.

Categories
News

ConU proposes plan to accept students’ preferred names

Among the first things Ben Boudreau did when he arrived at Concordia was go to the student centre to modify his original name on his student record.
Boudreau, a transgender student, was told he couldn’t change the information without first having his name changed legally, a process which can be both lengthy and expensive. He then teamed up with the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy and the Concordia Student Union to push for the right to use the name he identifies with, rather than the one he was born with.
On Feb. 15, Concordia issued a press release announcing that as of this fall, students would be allowed to use a preferred name on certain non-official documents such as class lists, and would also be permitted to use their legal initial rather than their full legal name on their ID cards. The proposition has been met with derision and disbelief from Boudreau, the student whose complaints brought about the university’s announcement.
He called the university’s proposal a “band-aid” solution, but said he does believe the administration is willing to effect significant change for its trans students.
“I’m angered by it, but I do think it’s great they’re doing something,” he said. “Hopefully with this information out in the public eye, it will change things.”
More specifically, Boudreau expressed concerns that with the current proposal, his name will remain unchanged on the MyConcordia portal, and the university could still end up sending letters to his home addressed to his legal name.
Until now, Ben has also had to email his professors to explain to them that the name on the class list is one he no longer identifies with. He said when professors failed to read his email, his choice at roll call was to either feign absence or be outed in class, an experience he described as horrible.
“You always have to clear out an excess amount of emotional space to see how people are going to react to it,” he said. “It hurts my chances of being seen as normal or potentially having friends throughout the rest of my degree.”
It remains unclear to Boudreau how effective the university’s new method of drafting class lists could prove to be in the classroom.
The university initially told The Concordian that the Ministry of Education requires them
to continue using the student’s legal name on official documents such as transcripts. The ministry, however, refuted this. They said while the university is required to submit information using legal names for the purposes of the ministry’s databases, the use of names on school documents is up to the university.
“When [a university] gives us the information, we really need to have their legal name,” said ministry spokesperson Esther Chouinard. “But it isn’t up to the ministry to decide
how they deal with student names within their organization.”
Other university policies, such as the use of the legal name on all official mail, and the tension which can arise during exam period when a person’s identity is checked against their ID, can negatively affect any transgender student at Concordia, explained Boudreau.
“It’s like asking someone to out their sexual orientation in order to go through school,” said Gabrielle Bouchard, the trans advocacy and peer support coordinator at the 2110 Centre. “Would we feel comfortable as a society if, to access your class, you have to say you’re gay or straight or kink? We’re asking trans students to show to the world over and over again that at one point in their lives they were stressed and unhappy [with their identity].”
Boudreau, along with members of the 2110 Centre and the CSU, plans to take the issue to Senate in the near future to advocate for more major changes to the university’s policies.

Categories
Opinions

Letter to the Editor

Will grad students strike?

Dear graduate students,

There are 56,000 students on strike in Quebec to defend accessible post-secondary education. Will graduate students at Concordia University join them? That’s up to you. On Tuesday, March 6, at noon in H-110 (the Hall building), the Graduate Students’ Association will hold a general assembly to vote on whether to join the student strike, and if so whether to join the CLASSE, a Quebec-wide student organization formed to coordinate the strike among different student unions. Information will also be available for international students and students who are not taking classes.
Many graduates are also organizing info sessions and strike votes at the departmental level. If you’d like to be one of them, contact info@gsaconcordia.ca.

Holly Nazar
VP external, GSA

Categories
News

Hall building escalators should be fully functional by September

Renovations are in the works at the Henry F. Hall building and escaltors are expected to be up and running by September. Photo by Navneet Pall.
Renovations are in the works at the Henry F. Hall building and escaltors are expected to be up and running by September. Photo by Navneet Pall.

The Henry F. Hall building is slated to be renovated and upgraded over the next few years, but the process is complex.
The dysfunctional escalators between the mezzanine and fifth floor are a continual source of frustration for Concordia students. The estimated completion date of the current renovations for the escalators between the lobby and fifth floor is September 2012, according to university spokesperson Chris Mota.
Timothy Lazier, a history and English specialization student, remarked that “how students see the building depends on what floor they are on and if they can actually get to it.”
Lazier said that he’s had classes scattered throughout the Hall building and noticed the difference on the newly redone floors.
“Up to the seventh floor, it’s really ugly but I have a bunch of classes on the renovated floors and they’re nice,” said Lazier. “It feels like you’re in a different building.”
The interior and exterior of the 12-floor, cube-shaped building is gradually deteriorating due to time, weather and general use. In 1998, the university started renovations to improve the overall state of the Hall building, but students like Cleo Donnelly are not impressed with the current structure. “I get that it’s old but there’s nothing overly special about it. They should just tear it
down and build a new one,” she said.
According to Martine Lehoux, the university’s director of facilities planning and development, Concordia will refurbish the untouched floors in the near future, but it can only be done when the floors are not occupied.
This explains why certain floors of the Hall building were revamped in the last decade while others have yet to undergo major repairs.
When they were once occupied by various science departments, the eighth, eleventh and twelfth floors were renovated when the Richard J. Renaud Science Pavillon at the Loyola campus opened in 2003. The western section of 7th floor was upgraded after the department of applied human sciences moved to the Loyola campus in 2005.
The escalators between the sixth and seventh floors have been working since last Thursday, according to Mota.
The university is scheduled to improve the amphitheatre on the ninth floor this summer and during 2013, upgrades are planned for the amphitheatre on the first floor and the western portion of the basement that belongs to the engineering department.
Projects awaiting funding approval include renovations for the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh floors of the Hall building for 2014 to 2015.

Categories
Opinions

Why is Quebec acting as if it has something to hide?

Graphic by Katie Brioux

Quebec has the highest high school dropout rate in Canada, but apparently we shouldn’t know or be concerned about it.

At least, that’s the message that the Ministry of Education is sending to the population by refusing to disclose the graduation data of hundreds of Quebec high schools to QMI Agency.

This data should be made public if we want something to be done to tackle the issue. According to QMI, the Cree School Board in northern Quebec recorded the highest dropout rate in the province in 2009-2010, with 90.1 per cent of students dropping out of high school.

Quebec Education Minister Line Beauchamp says that they will not release the data for “reasons of sensitivity” and students’ self-esteem. Is that really a valid reason? Absolutely not.

Theresa Bianco, undergraduate program director in Concordia’s department of psychology, believes that this reason is only a smokescreen.

“The ministry probably just wants to cover up how bad it is by not releasing the data,” she said. “They want to protect themselves.”

Hiding the dropout rate from the population won’t make it any lower. According to Statistics Canada, the dropout rate in Quebec between 2007 and 2010 was the highest in Canada at 11.7 per cent. The highest numbers were found in Quebec’s First Nations communities.

We must ask ourselves: Why is the dropout rate so high to begin with? In my opinion, the ministry wants to hide the numbers because it’s scared of the population’s reaction, fearing it would get criticized for not putting enough effort into reducing the dropout rate.

I think that the main reason for such a high rate is the lack of help given to students with learning disabilities. Teenagers who struggle to succeed in their classes are more likely to dropout of school when they turn 16, an age at which they are legally allowed to do so. If the government puts a stronger focus on helping students cope with their learning disabilities, the dropout rate would probably fall.

“There definitely is a lot more that can be done at a legislative level,” said Bianco. “Identifying the students at risk of dropping out and helping them succeed is one solution, because their schooling environment is definitely not suitable for their learning needs at the moment.”

Another reason is that there are no consequences for students who do not get a high school degree. Having the most basic level of education is not even a requirement to get certain jobs. However, if employers required that all their employees have a high school degree in order to get the most basic job, I’m sure that a lot more people would actually finish high school.

“Right now, there are no repercussions for students that drop out before they finish high school, with regards to jobs for example,” said Bianco. “But there should be, and I can’t stress enough how important I think it is to finish high school.”

Categories
News

15,000 march against tuition hikes

15,000 students protested against tuition hikes in downtown Montreal last Thursday, blocking traffic for more than four hours. Photo by Julien Apollon
15,000 students protested against tuition hikes in downtown Montreal last Thursday, blocking traffic for more than four hours. Photo by Julien Apollon

Quebec students opposed to the tuition hikes promised a strike every Thursday that would grow in intensity with each passing week. They lived up to that promise last week when they took to the streets of downtown Montreal and blocked the Jacques Cartier Bridge for almost an hour.
Approximately 15,000 students marched on Feb. 23 and blocked the traffic for more than four hours on major streets such as Ste-Catherine Street and René-Lévesque Boulevard.
When the protest officially ended around 4 p.m., a group of about 300 students left the pack shouting “To the bridge! To the bridge!” and headed toward the Jacques Cartier Bridge

where they blocked both the north and the south exits.
The protesters were met by Montreal riot police, an encounter that ended in a brief clash with some protesters being pepper-sprayed before they were pushed away from the bridge and back toward Place Émilie-Gamelin, next to Berri-UQAM metro station. The SPVM reported only one arrest.
“From now on, our demonstrations will crescendo,” said Simon Jalbert, a protester and a member of l`Association des étudiants en géographie de l’Université de Montréal. “It is important for us to keep the pressure going up against the Charest government.”
The move to block the bridge was not planned by the protest organizers from l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, who regretted that the actions of a small group attracted more attention than a peaceful and orderly march of 15,000 students.
“The protest ended before this group of students moved toward the bridge,” said ASSÉ spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. “It’s a shame this action caught so much attention.”
Nadeau-Dubois added however that he sympathized with people’s frustration toward the tuition hikes and found the action to block the bridge “understandable.”
Stopping traffic on one of Montreal’s busiest bridges during rush hour seems to have alienated the students’ cause for a part of the population, as many felt the action was inappropriate and unrelated to the protest.
“Obviously, taking such actions is going to put some people against us, but fortunately [the blocking] did not last too long,” added Jalbert. “This is just our way of warning the government that if they insist on passing the tuition hikes, we will make their lives harder.”
Concordia Student Union President Lex Gill also kept her distance with the action taken by the group of students.
“It’s a clear show that students are angry and are willing to go to considerable ends to show their frustration and make this a public issue,” said Gill. “But from my perspective, peaceful and non-disruptive actions like sleep-ins and information campaigns are the values that we should put forward as they are more productive ways of voicing our concerns.”
Nadeau-Dubois also added it was not student associations’ role to tell protesters what to do, and that the Liberal government should not be surprised to see more of these disturbances.
This Thursday’s demonstration will be held in Quebec City and student organizations already announced a massive protest set to take place in Montreal on March 22.
So far, more than 55,000 students across the province are reported to be on strike. Concordia students will vote on a general strike mandate on March 7.

Categories
Opinions

Big brother needs to stay out of our computers

The past few weeks have been filled with outrage over a proposed bill in the House of Commons. The Protecting Children From Internet Predators Act would give law enforcement agencies unprecedented access to the Internet usage of Canadians. Specifically, it would allow for the acquiring of logs on user activity, based on the IP address assigned by the Internet service provider at that time. These logs would be available without the need for a warrant. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews even went so far as to deal in absolutes: “You can either stand with us [the government] or with the child pornographers.”

I’m with the privacy advocates. Child pornography is a horrific crime, but violating standard civil liberties, such as the due process of getting a warrant, does not bode well for a free-minded society like Canada. After reading through the actual law, it is clear that the victims are being used as cover, essentially creating a license to snoop.

Besides, Mr. Toews has proved to the Canadian public how incompetent and hypocritical he is. When a Twitter account popped up, delivering juicy details of the Manitoba MP’s divorce (which were public record), he quickly proposed an investigation into the leak. Strange, coming from the man who wants us to give up a part of our right to privacy. When asked about some of the more draconian elements of the legislation, he admitted he did not even read the bill before introducing it. Really, and yet he is willing to risk his reputation, and more importantly, Canadian citizen rights, over its passing?

Margaret Wente pointed out perfectly in her column in The Globe and Mail that these are the same Conservatives who “whipped up moral panic over the gun registry and the long-form census…they told us our right to privacy was threatened by egregious intrusions from the state.”

There have been those who agree with Mr. Toews’ proposed legislation. Lorna Dueck, in a column for The Globe and Mail, stated that “if we don’t get this right, more children will be violated […] With this kind of cyber crime, surfing the Internet is akin to driving your car. The car is your private property and you know how to use it, but some people keep making the road dangerous […] that’s how police see access to your IP address―it will help them to identify lawbreakers.”

Asinine. Why don’t we extend the provisions to give the government access to every transaction we make? After all, by that logic, some people might be making dangerous purchases. Why not extend the reaches even further, requiring logs of citizens’ whereabouts, since some might potentially be breaking the law?

Violating civil liberties, such as warrant-less snooping, is never acceptable, even in the name of protecting children. The question is how do we, as Canadians, stop child predators while protecting our right to privacy? It is a hard question, one I do not have the answer to. Rest assured, however, that it is not by giving unfettered access to the logs. To me, treating your populace as criminals is a feeble response to the problem.

I’m sorry, Mr. Toews. I am not a pervert. If you want to see what I post on Reddit, what I share on Facebook, who I email in Gmail, and what I share in uTorrent, get a warrant. Otherwise, mind your own business.

As Rick Mercer, in his weekly rant on the Rick Mercer Report put it: “Vic, you can call us all the names you want. But that doesn’t change the fact we’re not going to let you peek. That doesn’t make us criminal. It makes us Canadian. It’s why we shut our blinds at night. The State has no business in the hard drives of the nation. You want a peek, Vic? Convince a judge. Get a warrant.”

Categories
Sports

Mighty Stingers looking to quash potential playoff upset

Concordia will face Laval in the opening round of the playoffs on Wednesday. Photo by Navneet Pall

Concordia wrapped up its season with two blowout wins on the weekend after falling out of the CIS top 10 for the first time since late November.

Concordia will face Laval in the opening round of the playoffs on Wednesday. Photo by Navneet Pall

The Stingers finished first in their conference with a 14-2 record, but suffered a loss to last place Bishop’s on Feb. 10, clearly weighing on the minds of those who vote for the top 10.

If Concordia is looking to send a message to the country, now is the time to do it. Feeling overlooked by the rest of the CIS, the Stingers will have a chance to prove themselves on a national stage—that is, if they can make it out of their conference.

The RSEQ playoffs begin Wednesday against Laval, with Concordia looking to return to the CIS national championship tournament for the second straight year.

Concordia has been dominant against the Quebec schools this year, but a streaking McGill team that seems to be peaking at the right time poses the greatest threat to the Stingers. Right now the teams seem to be on a collision course to meet in the RSEQ finals on Saturday.

However, with the RSEQ playoffs operating on a single-game elimination format, there is no room for error. Overlooking an opponent, like what happened a few weeks ago against Bishop’s, can send even the most talented teams home earlier than expected.

Concordia coach John Dore isn’t taking anything for granted. “At this stage it’s like starting a new season,” he said. “It’s basically a two-game season to see who makes it out of Quebec. I’m happy how we played to close out the season. We’ve approached things one game at a time all year and that’s not going to change.”

If Concordia were to make a return trip to nationals, it would certainly be an underdog in the tournament. Despite the intra-conference success, Concordia has yet to beat an out-of-conference opponent ranked in the CIS top 10. The road to a championship, barring a major upset, will also run through the Carleton Ravens, who completed their season with a perfect record.

Dore is refusing to look that far ahead though, saying his team’s focus is on Wednesday and nothing else.

This year’s playoffs will also be the final time guard Decee Krah and forward James Clark will step on a basketball court in Stingers uniforms. Both players are in their final year of eligibility and a championship would no doubt be the perfect way for them to end their tremendous collegiate careers.

The regular season is over. All of the practices, days at the gym and long bus rides amount to this. A series of do-or-die games for players to achieve the ultimate goal: winning the final game of the season.

And it all starts Wednesday.

Categories
News

Senate in brief

Filming Senate meetings
The issue of filming meetings is a hot topic at Concordia this year and there has been discussion about the possible benefits of broadcasting monthly Senate meetings. The CSU films its meetings live, and some senators feel that Senate should do the same. Others expressed concern at the last two meetings that filming will be distracting, and inhibit frank discussion. Advocates argue that meetings are already open to the public and media and that no harm would be inflicted if cameras were allowed inside the meeting room. A committee will be created to evaluate the challenges and feasibility of filming Senate, the composition of which will be determined by the steering committee.

Terms and proposed bylaw changes
At the Feb. 17 meeting, a series of bylaw changes were passed that will affect Senate’s composition. One of the major changes include increasing the number of voting members from 53 to 55 with two senators who are being appointed from the School of Extended Learning. This discussion also included the topic of terms of limits for senators. It was recommended that full-time faculty members serve on Senate for a maximum of two consecutive three-year terms. It was made clear that senators whose terms end in the summer of 2012 will be given the chance to retain their seats for one additional year.

International College name change
The Arts and Science Faculty Council’s recommendation to change the name of Loyola International College was approved. The change to Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability received mixed reception from senators. Those who either did not see the value of the change or thought the new name was overly specific brought up their concerns. The college offers minors in sustainability studies as well as in diversity and the contemporary world. Supporters of the change said that the new name will reflect the college more accurately and draw more interest from students. The motion will next be sent to the Board of Governors for final approval.

Categories
Sports

Playoffs a chance for Concordia to hit the refresh button

Kaylah Barrett battled injuries and still won RSEQ mvp. Photo by Navneet Pall

It was a tale of two seasons for the Concordia women’s basketball team. A 6-0 start was accompanied with a 2-8 finish, leaving the Stingers with an 8-8 record, and a second place finish in the RSEQ.

Kaylah Barrett battled injuries and still won RSEQ MVP. Photo by Navneet Pall

 

The second place finish means Concordia gets home court for at least the first round of the playoffs, a huge advantage seeing as  the  Stingers have not won a game on the road since a Jan. 20 victory in Ste-Foy against Laval. Likewise, Concordia will be facing the Bishop’s Gaiters who are 1-7 on the road this season but a solid home record carried them to a 7-9 season. Bishop’s lost both games they played in Concordia’s gym this season.

Many of the Stingers’ struggles can be attributed to nothing more than bad luck. The team was bitten by the injury bug coming out of the Christmas break. Natasha Raposo, one of the team’s best outside shooters, missed a significant chunk of time. Kaylah Barrett, who was recently named RSEQ player of the year, saw her production drop dramatically later in the season as she was forced to play through hand and back injuries.

Barrett sat out for Concordia’s final  game of the season hoping to rest up for the playoffs.

Concordia dropped its final two games of the year, a 44-42 home loss to UQAM, and a 16-point blowout loss against Laval on the road.

While no team wants to back in to the playoffs, the final two games meant very little in the standings as the Stingers were virtually locked in to second place, and it was more important for the team to rest some players.

The team’s struggles down the stretch would soon be forgotten if Concordia was able to win the conference and advance to the national championships in Calgary. However, an early exit on home court would be a disappointing end to a season that had began so promisingly and with high expectations.

Bishop’s has been a middle of the pack team for most of the season, but games between the Gaiters and the Stingers have been very close.

Save for a 71-40 blowout Stingers victory that snapped Concordia out of a five-game losing streak on Feb. 10, all the games between the two teams have been decided by four points or fewer.

Concordia is the more talented team, but a lot will depend on just how healthy Barrett actually is. The Stingers are the best team in the conference defensively, but have had spurts where they’ve shot the ball horrendously. If the shots aren’t falling on Tuesday night against Bishop’s, it could spell trouble for the Stingers.

However, if the offensive is clicking, the Stingers should be able to advance into the next round, and likely face top-seeded McGill. Concordia and McGill split the season series this year.

It has been a Jekyll and Hyde season for Concordia. The playoffs will provide the opportunity to see the team’s true identity.

 

The game is Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. at Loyola. 

Categories
Arts

Looks like rhino season has begun

Concordia’s Liberal Arts Theatre Society is putting on two productions this year taken from the theatre of the absurd, one from Samuel Beckett and one from Eugène Ionesco.
Play, written by Beckett in 1963, is a short one act show in which the three characters―a man and two women―are encased in funeral urns, with only their heads showing. One woman is the man’s wife and the other is his mistress and the plot centres on their obsession over the man’s affair.
However, the theatre society’s main attraction is Ionesco’s 1959 creation, Rhinoceros.
The play deals with the inhabitants of a small French town who, for unknown reasons, begin turning into rhinoceroses. Berenger, the play’s protagonist played by the alluring Steve Cutler, is the only one who seems to not be afflicted by this strange epidemic.
The themes in Rhinoceros revolve around the shift from a quaint society to a new fascist, industrialized world. The design of the play draws heavily from the Dadaist manifesto, which arrived during the First World War and ridiculed the modern world as meaningless. The propaganda generated by the war led people to question their own systems of morality and search for meaning in a world where the written word was not legitimized.
In both Ionesco’s and Beckett’s plays, words become distorted, ignored and are used to rationalize philosophical concepts which are completely irrational. This is the bizarre disorder in which the characters in Rhinoceros find themselves, and where the structure of the fascist regime offers a kind of simplicity in the characters’ quest for solace.
The play will feature visuals that amplify the chaos of this conventional society being overwhelmed by fascist values. Surrealist imagery will give way to a futurist art aesthetic, representing the power of the machine and the rapidly progressing industrial society. The sudden rhinoceros uprising reveals the ugliness of what has transpired.
Anthony Kennedy, the artistic director of the production, feels the play has benefited from its chosen venue. “Rather than performing our plays in a traditional theatre, we had our direction and design influenced from the ground up by the space we were working in,” he said. “Our brilliant designer Danielle Fagen chose Les Ateliers Jean-Brillant for its beautiful industrial aesthetic and rich history.”
This former rail warehouse has been re-appropriated into a gallery, an artist workshop and now a performance setting. “It’s been a great pleasure doing our own little part in the revitalization of this beautiful space,” said Kennedy.
The production will also be accompanied by an exhibition of art influenced by the plays. There will be 18 artists featured and the show is being curated by Katrina Caruso.

Rhinoceros and Play run from March 1 to 4 at Les Ateliers Jean-Brillant (3520 St-Jacques). Doors open at 7 p.m. for the exhibit; curtain at 8 p.m. Check out the Facebook event at http://on.fb.me/AvCmzq.

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