Greystone Theatre season ends with U of S drama professor’s last production before retirement
"It's about taking a journey into the unknown and it's a little bit what retirement is like," Dwayne Brenna says of Terra Nova.
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After 37 years as a professor in the University of Saskatchewan drama department, Dwayne Brenna retires in June.
Brenna has directed Greystone Theatre productions throughout the years since 1986. His last production with the theatre opened this week.
Terra Nova, a play by Ted Tally about the ill-fated South Pole expedition of Englishman Robert Falcon Scott in 1911-12, runs at the theatre March 23 to April 1. Tickets are available on the website.
Before opening night, Brenna chatted with the StarPhoenix about the play, teaching and his writing.
Q: What makes Terra Nova a good choice for your final project with Greystone Theatre?
A: I just fell in love with the story and with the characters. When you’re choosing a play, you often look at how language is used. Language is used so very, very well in this play.
When I chose it, I hadn’t decided yet on a retirement year. As it turns out by happenstance, I think it is a good retirement project for me, in that it really challenged me in some ways, which I like.
It’s about taking a journey into the unknown and it’s a little bit what retirement is like, I suppose. (Laughs.) I hope it’s a much better future for me than it was for Robert Falcon Scott.
Q: What have been some of your favourite moments with the U of S and Greystone Theatre?
A: As a young actor, going to the Edinburgh Fringe with the Greystone Theatre people — Kim Coates, Aaron Fry, Lisa Lancaster. We were in a play called Creeps, a little-known Canadian play at the time, which took the Edinburgh Fringe by storm. We won a Fringe First Award.
As head of the department (1999-2003 and 2006-10), we had revamped the entire curriculum and really made a strong program in acting and design. We introduced classes in movement and voice (and) we developed a theatre studies in London course, which has taken students to London off and on for the past 20 years to study theatre over there.
I’ve had the opportunity to work on some really lovely plays, too. Some of the highlights were Love of the Nightingale, Vernon God Little, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Seagull (one of the first plays I directed at Greystone Theatre) and also this play, Terra Nova.
Q: What have you learned from your students?
A: You learn a lot about the art form just by talking with them. They bring a lot of questions and you really have to forecast what those questions might be. You really have to know the subject matter inside out. So working with students has taught me the value of preparedness.
I’ve also watched them flourish in the theatre and have learned lessons from that about how careers are made and how many different routes into the theatre there are.
Q: What do you hope your students have learned from you?
A: A strong sense of the power of one’s own imagination and how that is actually the biggest muscle actors and designers and directors have to work with.
Q: You’re also a published author, with eight books and several short stories and stage plays. Have you got ideas for future publications?
A: Oh, I certainly do. That’s an area into which I’d really like to venture further. I started out, actually, as an English literature major and I have a master’s degree in English lit. I initially had dreams of becoming a writer and I’ve written throughout my career.
I have a forthcoming book — it should be out this spring — called Nights that Shook the Stage. It’s basically a theatre history text that deals with 40 different nights that really, well, shook the stage and in some cases, shook world history. It’s available for presale (at mcfarlandbooks.com).
I also have plans for another novel. It’s well underway and my hope is that it’s going to be a good one.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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