Inclusive storytelling in theatre gives all folks an opportunity to see themselves on stage
From a young age, many of us have been inspired seeing versions of ourselves — or versions of ourselves we aspired to be — in TV shows, movies, books and theatre. However, we may have also come to realise there were no versions of ourselves in the media we had as children.
Hartley Reed Schuyler, a transmasculine queer performance artist, who attended McMaster University for history, saw an opportunity to provide this inspiration to youth audiences through theatre.
He applied to Carousel Theatre for Young People in Vancouver, B.C. and he became an outreach coordinator for the production Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls by Dave Deveau.
In LGBG nine-year-old Fin comes out as a boy and we observe his family adapt, with Dad accepting the change right away while Mom struggles. Both kids and parents in the audience watch Fin’s family move from good intentions to active support, embracing Fin’s transition and gender identity.
Schuyler was tasked with building a resource guide for teachers and students aged nine to 12 viewing the play to complement their classroom discussions.
“Our goal is to bring classrooms into the theatre,” explained Schuyler.
In adapting a new guide for LGBG, which was originally performed in 2018 at the Roseneath Theatre, Schuyler considered how the conversation around trans kids has changed even in just the past few years. Namely, beyond being a guide through the trans experience, it serves as a community-oriented invitation to parents, teachers, friends and peers alike to deeply evaluate their approach to caring for trans people in their lives.
The show weaves together the experiences of trans kids and those of their parents, allowing parents to also see themselves on stage. The audience learns what it means to be supportive and really show up for someone you love.
Schuyler noted this duality in target audience is something we often don’t see, since we tend to target only one audience or another. LGBG strives to demonstrate everyone has a role to play in supporting trans youth, including parents, teachers and peers.
“Because it is a show that is so centralized in all facets of its storytelling that it doesn’t just target kids and it doesn’t just target the parents – there’s something in it for both communities and I think that’s really important,” said Schuyler.
For students interested in theatre, Schuyler encouraged them to seek out opportunities that feel safe in terms of their support systems and adds sometimes smaller spaces are the ones that make the most space for people. During his time at McMaster, he was closely involved with several theatre spaces on campus, including McMaster Activist Theatre, which he felt was one the most accessible ones on campus.
Schuyler also emphasized that there is always space for everyone, even if that sometimes means carving out a space for yourself, and while he notes that can be hard work, he hopes with so many working together towards this goal, as he felt working on LGBG, it will soon be less so.
C/O Charlotte Schwartz
Questions of literary expression and political tensions at the core of this alum’s debut novel
Chinmayi Yathiraju, contributor
Amidst an enduring global pandemic and rising political tensions, one needs only scroll through social media to become uncomfortably aware of our precarious and shifting political climate. There are several difficult issues that arise in the face of this transition, including the effects of individual actions on our political atmosphere and the turning of blind eyes to social issues. These are the kinds of issues alumnus Luke Beirne explores in his debut novel, Foxhunt.
Having grown up surrounded by books and a father who is a writer, literature has always been a constant in Beirne’s life. During his undergraduate studies, his passion for writing developed further when he took creative writing courses. Since then, Beirne has written in a freelance capacity and has been published in various magazines including the Hamilton Arts & Letters magazine. Foxhunt is his debut novel.
Set in 1950s London, Foxhunt follows Canadian writer, Milne Lowell, who leaves Montreal to work for a literary magazine supporting free expression. However, with rising political tensions and the progression of the Cold War, suspicions about the magazine’s affiliations begin to rise, leading to disconcerting encounters and calling everything Lowell knows into question.
The inspiration for Foxhunt came from Beirne’s undergraduate thesis project, when he first learned about the political affiliations of a major literary magazine and its role in perpetuating propaganda.
“I thought it was an interesting thing that one of the largest literary magazines in London at that time was being used for propaganda purposes. One of the things about that magazine was that people claim they didn't know . . . if they really didn't know that they were contributing to propaganda, how could their words be used for propaganda purposes?” said Beirne.
During his years completing his master’s degree in cultural studies and critical theory at McMaster University, Beirne’s research led him to a similar story of another magazine from the United States. Fuelled by his interest in literary culture and his fascination with the history of the Cold War and political propaganda, Beirne began writing Foxhunt in the fall of 2018. The novel took shape over the next three years, with much of his initial draft having been written at his home in New Brunswick.
In researching the historical context relevant to his novel, Beirne was able to delve into the relationship between the Cold War and the professionalization of creative writing. He was intrigued to learn the University of Iowa’s writers’ workshop, which has inspired and offered the framework for creative writing programs and workshops across the world, had links to the Cold War.
“I thought that it was very interesting, that the way that creative writing has been structured — and is still structured — has certain political implications,” said Beirne.
While his previous works have centered around genre fiction, Beirne considers Foxhunt to be a distinctly character driven novel. Grappling with complex social phenomena and the development and spread of propaganda, this is a novel he hopes will stay with readers long after turning the last page.
Beyond simply enjoying the story, Beirne hopes readers walk away with questions and can return to the story to find new insights and develop new interpretations.
“People go along in their daily lives and don't think about the political implications of their actions . . . [This novel] is an exploration of themes that are relevant today in terms of passivity and ideology, political participation and how people get sucked into things,” said Beirne.
Brimming with suspense, political drama and allusions to various literary works, Foxhunt is a rich and thought-provoking novel on the pursuit of creative expression as it is entangled with the surrounding political climate.
Foxhunt will be released on April 1, 2022.
McMaster alumna Elizabeth Ivanecky’s first book tackles questions of happiness
C/O Elizabeth Ivanecky
Happiness is a guiding light in our lives. It’s something we all aspire to but rarely, if ever, do we actually ask people if they’re happy. McMaster alumna Elizabeth Ivanecky is asking this question. Her new book The Child in Us: A Collection of Stories about Happiness explores her own search for happiness through the stories of influential people in her life.
Growing up in Dundas, Ontario, stories were always an important part of Ivanecky’s life. Her father initially inspired her love of stories by sharing stories with her and siblings before bed. It had always been Ivanecky’s dream to be an author.
Ivanecky completed two bachelors of arts at McMaster University: one as a double major in English & cultural studies and history, the other in French studies. After graduating in 2018, she entered the job market and worked mostly freelance jobs, doing translation work.
“After I finished university in 2018, I knew I needed to enter the job market quickly and so I just applied for whatever job I could get. But my brother was confused because he knew that I always wanted to be a writer and I'm applying for translation jobs, but those are the ones that I could get at the time. During my conversation I had with him he really pushed me to pursue my dream of being a writer, so that was the first thing that inspired this book,” explained Ivanecky.
Combined with this conversation with her brother, there were two other things that inspired her book. First was the song “The Child in Us” by Enigma, which really moved Ivanecky. Second was a quote from the late actor, Heath Ledger: “Everyone you meet always asks you if you have a career, are married or own a house as if life was some kind of grocery list. But no one ever asks if you’re happy.”
“I took that quote really literally and I thought I want to be that person that asked about people's happiness because I myself was going through moments after university where I realized I really need to do the things that make me happy,” said Ivanecky.
She started the process of writing her book in 2019. First, she interviewed many of the influential people in her life and asked them what happiness meant to them. From there she refined her writing style, ultimately opting to use creative nonfiction to fully do justice to the stories she was sharing.
The thread that unites these stories is the importance of channelling your inner child in order to find and remember happiness.
“My goal was that people reflect more on their happiness. I think after you read my book you really get a sense that there's no one right way to be happy in life and there's no one right path. We each have different paths toward our happiness and it's really just a matter of being intentional about your choices so that you can find happiness along the way in your journey . . . I include lessons at the end of each of my chapters so you learn different ways to find and remember your happiness and to channel the inner child within,” explained Ivanecky.
The Child in Us was published in December 2020 and is available on Amazon and through many local bookstores. The response so far has been very heartwarming and Ivanecky hopes that it encourages people to continue reflecting on their lives and their happiness.
“[Reflecting on happiness] allows you to experience joy more in your life and while you're never going to completely avoid sadness or these negative moments, it's just how you deal with these moments that really define you. I think when you also think about your happiness more part of that is thinking about how you cope with the negative in life which is also actually a big part of my books, is showing how people have coped with their unhappiness,” explained Ivanecky.
Ivanecky thinks her book might be a good read for students in particular.
“I think in today's day and age we just want things so fast and we think they come so quickly as well but even just thinking about my own life and all the people who I've interviewed, things take time. It takes hard work, dedication, passion, effort, all these things. It takes time for things to happen in your life, to achieve your goals and dreams. So I think this is a good read for students because it puts things in perspective for them so that they don't feel like they need to get everything all at once. They don't need to rush through life,” said Ivanecky.
More than that, she hopes that it will also remind readers to have hope.
“It's always important to have hope and I think that's always the tone of my book. It's a tone of optimism and hopefulness, so I wanted to make sure the reader felt they can like they can handle whatever life throws at them. I think it's good for students in that sense as well,” added Ivanecky.
Reflecting on our own happiness can give us direction in our lives as well as the strength to persevere in trying times. Books like Ivanecky’s The Child In Us offer insight into how others have found happiness and coped with unhappiness, helping us on our own journeys.
Thomas Brasch’s popup photography installation is making art accessible in these dark days
Art is often something we turn to when things are difficult, something we seek comfort and solace in. Not only is art something bright during the dark days, but it also can tell us stories that help us to imagine brighter days for ourselves.
These stories become part of our own, giving us new courage and strength to face these trying times. One such story is Thomas Brasch’s popup photography installation at 267 King St. E., which is making art more accessible while also bringing some hope and light to Hamilton.
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Brasch graduated from McMaster University with an honours bachelor of arts in french literature and returned to McMaster to complete a master’s of business degree. He went on to become a high school teacher. During Brasch’s time as a teacher, he developed an interest in photography.
After retiring, he travelled extensively and began to explore and experiment further with photography. Brasch primarily takes photos of nature and architecture and then transforms them into these round images, similar to kaleidoscopes or mandalas.
“One curator said [to me] that mandalas are actually memory palaces and your walk through them [helps] you meditate. So again, it's this idea of calming . . . it’s not just the image. In fact, it's never about one image. It's about a whole series of images that actually tell the story,” explained Brasch.
"One curator said [to me] that mandalas are actually memory palaces and your walk through them [helps] you meditate. So again, it's this idea of calming . . . it’s not just the image. In fact, it's never about one image. It's about a whole series of images that actually tell the story."
Stories are important to Brasch and a large part of why he creates art is to share these stories. From a distance, each of his photos may be beautifully abstract but if one takes a closer look they may be able to recognize the original image and see the story built into it.
Recently, Brasch reconnected with one of his McMaster classmates, Maya Premlata Rao. She loved Brasch’s art and the current installation was her idea. The building where his installation currently is belongs to Rao. The installation features unsold pieces from two of Brasch’s previous collections, Out of Darkness and Tapestry.
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“I think the whole goal with Maya and I was to share this with people in Hamilton. Yes, initially, there was the allure of getting more exposure and maybe somebody would show an interest or something. [Maya] is one of these people who is into good energy and everything. There was a good energy coming off of this,” said Brasch.
This installation is Brasch’s way of giving something to the community during these trying times, but it has also helped him realize the need to make art more accessible, especially to those who would not be able to visit a gallery, even if we were not in lockdown.
This installation is Brasch’s way of giving something to the community during these trying times, but it has also helped him realize the need to make art more accessible, especially to those who would not be able to visit a gallery, even if we were not in lockdown.
When Brasch was first setting up the exhibition, a passerby stopped to admire the art and asked if Brasch had an artist’s postcard to share. He hadn’t planned on having one and as such didn’t have one to offer to this passerby.
“He said, “Well, I'm a little short of cash and I collect these” and that's when the veil got pulled away from my eyes. I had the big aha moment . . . I thought, “Here I am, I have the opportunity of sharing this art with somebody who actually enjoys it”,” explained Brasch.
Brasch strongly believes that art is meant to be shared. More than that though, he believes the stories behind art are also meant to be shared, particularly stories of hope.
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“The source image is from a prison, but the prison is the oldest prison in Uruguay. It closed in 1986 [and] it's become an art gallery. So it's that whole idea of something bad coming into something good. It’s a place for people, for creation, [for] freedom of expression. All of this is able to be there,” explained Brasch.
These kinds of stories are something he feels is sorely needed during these times, but more generally he hopes that people will come away from his art feeling a bit lighter and having found what they needed.
“I just want somebody to go and be able to take a look and just feel, even if it's just a little bit, a little bit of a feel-good moment. They may not know the whole story. They may not have checked the website or anything. If it looks like Christmas ornaments to them, that's fine,” said Brasch.
"I just want somebody to go and be able to take a look and just feel, even if it's just a little bit, a little bit of a feel-good moment. They may not know the whole story. They may not have checked the website or anything. If it looks like Christmas ornaments to them, that's fine."
The current installation will be on display until the end of February.
Four McMaster students are helping a local gift-card cash-exchange company grow unexpectedly quickly in a relatively untapped Canadian market.
GiftCash is an online service startup based in Dundas that buys unredeemed or partially redeemed gift cards from customers in exchange for a percentage of the remaining value.
The company was co-founded in 2017 by Colin Moffat, a McMaster actuarial mathematics graduate, and his partner Kaya Harrod.
““Everybody buys gift cards and everybody receives them as gifts, and, a lot of time, people don't really want them,” Harrod said.
GiftCash runs a relatively simple but effective service. Prospective clients can go onto the site and check their gift card balance before submitting it. From there, the company offers a percentage of the card’s value. If the customer accepts, they receive an e-transfer payout within five business days.
Harrod and Moffat, are both from Ontario. Before starting the business, Moffat was playing professional poker in Las Vegas while completing his undergrad.
Inspired by a friend, Harrod and Moffat started the company as Moffat finished his degree. They officially incorporated GiftCash in August 2017, and hired their first employee in November.
Since 2017, GiftCash has grown quickly. Currently, more than 10,000 ‘orders’ of gift cards have been submitted to GiftCash, amounting to more than 40,000 cards redeemed by clients in total.
According to MarketWatch, Americans spent $130 billion on gift cards in 2017, but $1 billion were unspent.
One estimate in 2011 found that Canadians spent $6 billion a year on gift cards.
Because the Canadian gift card exchange industry is not as well-developed as the American market, Harrod and Moffat targeted Canadian clients at first.
“Raise and and CardPool kind of monopolized everything in the US, and they bring in millions of revenue themselves. There's nothing really like that in Canada,” Harrod said.
GiftCash’s biggest gift-card exchange competitor in Canada is CardSwap, which was founded in 2009.
However, encouraged by their early success, GiftCash expanded to the U.S. last year.
The company now already receives more orders per month from the U.S. than Canada.
GiftCash has fostered a close connection with McMaster as it has grown.
Including Moffat, eight GiftCash employees out of a total of fourteen in Canada are McMaster graduates or co-op students.
The company hired its first McMaster co-op student in 2018.
Currently, there are four co-op students working as data analysts, and Harrod and Moffat are looking to add to their team.
Harrod admits that she and Moffat did not expect the business to take off as fast as it did.
“Honestly, we didn't realize how big of a market this was until we kind of started. We kind of just jumped in headfirst and decided to do everything that we could,” Harrod said.
Harrod hopes GiftCash will be able to take the next step and become a major player in the Canadian and American market.
“Hopefully, by the end of this year, we'll have better infrastructure on the web site side, and we'll have a larger workforce,” Harrod said. “We'll be maybe not totally up there. I think that's a little bit of a high achievement. But at least we’ll be making a peg in the wall as we climb up to the top with our competitors.”
Students can find out more information about the startup at https://giftcash.ca/.
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Two years ago, Collin Rusneac was putting up decorations for the impending graduation ceremony of his English students in Higashi Sendai Junior High. That was when the tremors started.
The Mac philosophy and religious studies alumnus, fresh off of getting his bachelor's degree, enrolled in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme and set off for a full year of assisting Japanese teachers in English lessons.
“They let us pick where we wanted to get placed, so I chose a place in the countryside, but they placed me instead in Sendai, a really urban area,” said Rusneac.
Sendai, a mere 12 km from the coast, is where Rusneac spent the next few months of his life, all the while learning the language and becoming immersed in Japanese culture. Then on March 11, 2011, Japan encountered a magnitude 9.0 earthquake which shook Collin's resolve as well the lives of everyone around him.
“I looked outside and the ground was open, dirty water was streaming out from the pipes. It was horrifying. Kids around you are screaming and you don't know what to do,” said Rusneac.
Rusneac made note of how overly prepared the Japanese were for earthquake events as they are fairly commonplace, but they did not expect one of this severity.
“When I first came over, they brought in a truck to prepare us [assistant language tutors] for earthquakes. They strapped us into a bunch of chairs and shook us around while telling us what to expect on a big screen. It was sort of fun at the time but looking back now I would never not take it seriously again,” said Rusneac.
Higashi (West) Sendai Junior High was a brisk 20-minute bicycle ride away from the farthest landing point of the tsunami that demolished the nearby town of Shiromaki, where Rusneac visited after the event.
“The streets were split open, cars were dangling off of trees. It was like something out of movie special effects.”
A month later his students got to attend their long-awaited graduation ceremony as the nation attempted to recover from the catastrophe, while the school continued to serve as an emergency shelter for the injured and homeless.
In the few short days following the ceremony the school got caught in one of many aftershocks that caved in the roof of the school, albeit at a time where students were out of term and safe from harm's way.
Filmmaker Tim Graf is screening a documentary about the disaster recovery effort this Thursday, March 7 at 7 p.m. in CNH 104, to shed light on how the struggle is ongoing, even on this second anniversary of the earthquake.
Christina Pugliese
The Silhouette
In imagining where a pivotal career might begin, a ramshackled bar on the side of a cratered Ugandan highway is probably not what comes to mind.
For Dr. Richard Heinzl, however, it was on such a roadside by the Kenyan-Ugandan border where he first encountered a group of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) physicians – an experience that ultimately led him to establish the Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian relief organization, Doctors Without Borders Canada.
On Wednesday, Oct. 19, Heinzl visited McMaster at an event hosted by the McMaster Global Health Committee of McMaster Medical School.
Heinzl recounted his decision to take an elective in a rural Kenyan hospital after completing his first year. “I worked there for about three weeks and it was great,” a down-to-earth Heinzl told the group of ambitious students.
“But Kenya was actually a pretty prosperous country at that time. And right next door was Uganda, which was not doing well at all.”
As an idealistic 22-year-old, he ventured to Uganda, with merely a VISA, passport and name of a Canadian contact in hand. It was not long after that a truck filled with a high-spirited group of MSF workers approached. Heinzl recalled, “That’s when I fell in love with the organization.”
Three years after graduating, Heinzl, moved by his experience overseas, succeeded in founding the Canadian chapter of the international medical relief organization. Though he has now served in more than 80 countries threatened by public health emergencies, Heinzl is in no rush to settle down, explaining new initiatives underway within the organization.
Heinzl further explained the unique approach he takes in his work, noting that many projects conducted by previous groups have failed to involve the community or utilize findings to meaningfully improve the lives of the people.
He credited the Internet as a valuable tool in international aid. “The Internet is a treasure. It connects people with the rest of the world,” said Heinzl, noting the rise of the cellular phone.
Currently, 80 per cent of the population has access to a cell phone. “Cell phones give people access to information, which is just as important for health as are antibiotics or C-sections, for example,” said Heizl.
In fact, Heinzl recalled “dreaming up” the usefulness of cell phones and the Internet many years ago while working in remote areas. “You cannot simply go out into the hall to get a consultation from your colleagues when there are virtually no other doctors in the country.”
He added that “it is breathtaking to inquire what lies ahead,” regarding the future of globalized medicine.
Before concluding, Heinzl extended the dialogue to students, showing a genuine fascination with their experiences in international health.
“If I can share one lesson with you, it would be to follow what you love. Any one of you can dream up a country you want to go to, or an idea that you want to make happen, or a program that you want to create.”
After all, he said, “there is a world waiting for you.”