Monday, September 22, 2008

Latest Rex News


TrypTych, Canada’s Passionate Advocate of the Vocal Arts

presents

“A BOILER ROOM SUITE” on Friday, January 23, 2009 at 7.30 PM

and Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 7.30 PM

at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2737 Bayview Avenue

in Toronto, Ontario

Tickets $40/30



A FUNDRAISER FOR STREET HAVEN AT THE CROSSROADS

Housing and Social Services for Women



416 763 5066 info@tryptych.org



Edward Franko, Stage Director

William Shookhoff, Music Director

Vanessa Grant, Aggie Rose

Doug MacNaughton, Sprugg
Lenard Whiting, Pete

Sinfonia TrypTych



TrypTych, celebrating its 10th anniversary season, presents the Canadian opera A BOILER ROOM SUITE by Quenten Doolittle with libretto by Rex Deverell. This intimate gem of music theatre deals with two street people who have climbed into the boiler room of an abandoned hotel on the Prairies to seek refuge from winter and from the world, until it has turned more kind. This life-affirming work resonates more today as it did when it was written over 30 years ago.

BOILER ROOM SUITE stars Vanessa Grant (TrypTych, Opera in Concert), Doug MacNaughton (Canadian Opera Company, Pacific Opera, Opera Hamilton) and Lenard Whiting (Canadian Opera Company, Opera in Concert, Vancouver Opera), stage directed by TrypTych’s own Edward Franko (Opera Mississauga, Opera York) with music direction by William Shookhoff (Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables).

All proceeds from this production go to support Street Haven at the Crossroads ((http://www.streethaven.com/) which provides housing and social services for women. Their goal is to innovate and establish an integrated continuum of services which will improve the quality of life of women in need and bring creative solutions to their problems.



Latest Rita News

CENTENNIAL COLLEGE – Storyteller-in-Residence Appointed September 2008. .
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Rita Shelton Deverell
Storyteller-in-Residence Appointed

Rita Deverell, Storyteller-in-Residence

The Centre for Creative Communications is pleased to announce the appointment of producer, director and theatre artist Dr. Rita SheltonDeverell as its first Storyteller-in-Residence at the School of Communications, Media and Design at Centennial College.

Deverell will provide storytelling expertise to all programs at the School of Communications, Media and Design, located at The Centre for Creative Communications. She will be recognized with the world premiere screening of Not a Drop, her new one-hour docu-drama set in a fictionalized University Diversity Journalism Class, but based on real events, on:

Friday Dec. 5, 2008, at 11:30 a.m, at The Centre for Creative Communications
"Storytelling is the alpha and omega," Deverell says. "And I am pleased to find myself at the cross-section of communications, media and design worlds at Centennial College."

Commissioned by OMNI, Not a Drop will be broadcast on OMNI in 2oo9, the drama portions shot at Centennial College @Wallace Studios and the documentary portions shot on location at the Walpole Island First Nation. Not a Drop is about the aftermath of Katrina and disposable peoples in Canada.

Deverell got her start in television in 1972 when she helped to create a children’s program called All In a Tube on private TV stations. Since then, she's been an on-air journalist, a producer, a university professor, a social activist, a mentor and a visionary television pioneer. In 1974, she joined the CBC, eventually becoming a producer/host of Take 30 and CBC Access. In 1983, Rita joined the University of Regina's School of Journalism and Communications leaving in 1988 to become one of the founders of the world's first multi-faith broadcaster, Vision TV. From 2002-05 she was Director of News and Current Affairs at APTN, mentoring her Aboriginal successor.

Deverell has helped to advance the careers of visible minorities and Aboriginal people and is credited with influencing positively the portrayal of women onscreen. She was named to Maclean's Honour Roll of Outstanding Canadians, was the recipient of the Canadian Black Achievement Award, the Media Watch's Dodi Robb Award, was inducted into the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame, and in 2005 was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.

The Centre for Creative Communications is Canada's premiere school for Communications, Media and Design and offers forward-thinking and hands-on programs in Art + Design, Advertising + Public Relations, Integrated Media and Journalism + Publishing.

Media Contact: Paul Koidis, Manager, Communications, Marketing and Development pkoidis@centennialcollege.ca / 416.289.5000 ext. 8609

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

McNally Robinson Books
Rita Shelton Deverell with Femfest (Reading)
Thursday Oct 02 2008 7:00 pm, Winnipeg, Polo Park location, in the Events Alcove

Deverell will read from her plays McCarthy and the Old Woman and Smoked Glass Ceiling, as well as her essay Power Wrinkles. Deverell is a playwright, performer and filmmaker. On October 4th at 3pm, Deverell will present her docu-drama Not A Drop at Femfest. It follows a University class in Diversity Journalism from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to Aboriginal communities in Canada where there are severe water problems. Deverell's innovative journalism helped found Vision TV and brought her success as a television host and network executive. Deverell appears through the assistance of the Playwrights' Guild of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts.


Rita Shelton Deverell C.M., Ed.D. Rita's career in journalism has been one of pioneering innovation and creativity. With an unceasing drive for social justice, she is one of the first Black women in Canada to be a television host and a network executive. A founder of Vision TV, the world's first multi-faith network, she held several senior positions there as well as the network anchor job. From 2002 until 2005 she was head of News and Current Affairs at the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network mentoring her Aboriginal successor. In 2002 she was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame and in 2005 Deverell was appointed to the Order of Canada. In 2007 she became the first CanWest Global Fellow at the University of Western Ontario. In 2005 Rita was determined to return to her first profession, drama. She has written and performed two one-woman plays, Smoked Glass Ceiling (2005) and McCarthy and the Old Woman (2006). In 2007-08 her 6-part series of solo television dramas, Solo Flight, went to air on OMNI, SCN, and APTN. She is currently working on a television docu-drama, Not a Drop, is a member of the Playwright's Unit of Obsidian Theatre, and is developing a 2-act version of McCarthy and the Old Woman with the assistance of Nightwood Theatre.

FEMFEST runs September 26th to October 5th. Events take place at the Colin Jackson Studio Theatre, Prairie Theatre Exhange, 3rd Floor Portage Place Mall. For tickets and information contact Sarasvati Productions at 204.586.2236 | WWW.SARASVATI.CA.

Events with Rita Shelton Deverell:

3pm (TV Docu-Drama) Not a Drop Produced for OMNI/Rogers by Rita Shelton Deverell

4pm (Workshop) Low Budget Shorts facilitated by Rita Shelton Deverell, Presented by Film Training Manitoba