Virginia Reh

Rank: Assistant Professor
Department: Dramatic Arts
Ext: 5392
E-mail: vreh@brocku.ca

Work currently in progress, or about to be begun, along with indication of when the project is likely to culminate and what form it will take:
Preparation for directing Sondheim’s A Little Night Music for performance in Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, November 2009

Planning and organizing Lyric Canada 2010 – first time conference of creators and scholars of original Canadian lyric theatre works, in cooperation with the Shaw Festival – October 2010

Development of a new opera at Tapestry New Opera – first workshop 2009/2010

Early stages of commission of a new piece of music theatre for DART/Brock debut 2012

Work previously undertaken, research achievements or projects completed:
“Finding a Canadian Voice in Music Theatre” delivered at MANECCS/SACS Conference, Washington DC – October 2008

For Brock: Produced MIWSFPA Showcase March 2009

Directed excerpts from operas: Cendrillon and The Magic Flute for Showcase

General Brock October Soirée – Producer, directed DART segments, October 2008

Directed DART mainstage production, Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade, Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, November 2007

Directed: DART mainstage production, Jean Anouilh’s Ring Round the Moon, Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, November 2006

Dramaturgy and direction: Troy, the play (compilation of The Trojan Women (Euripides) and Tiger at the Gates (Giraudoux, adapted by Fry), performed by 3rd year studetns

Directed Art (Yasmina Reza), performed by fourth year DART students, 1999

Directed Le Cid (Corneille), performed by fourth year DART students, 1997

CD (Naxos) Griselda (Vivaldi), Dramatic Advisor and Italian Coach, Opera In Concert/Aradia Ensemble – released February 2008

Opera In Concert, Toronto Dramatic Consultant, 1983 to the present – approx. 40 operas (artists worked with include Maureen Forester, Russell Braun, Stuart Hamilton),

recent: Handel’s Tamerlano, February 2008, The Snow Maiden (Rimsky-Korsakov), April, 2008, Il Mondo della Luna (Haydn), February 2009

Niagara Symphony – Directed The Jungle Book – student actors and alumnus narrator – May 2009

Directed – The Telephone (Menotti) – In the Soil jurors’ choice SOS theatre, and Heliconian Hall (Toronto) – May/June 2009

Stolen Theatre Collective – actor (Older Eve) – The Diaries of Adam and Eve – April 2009

Acting Coach and Production Manager, Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, 1988-2002, worked with Canadian Opera Company

Dramaturgy: Script Lab, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus

Freelance directing, 1976 to the present, including:

Gypsy Violins (Kalman), Toronto Operetta Theatre, February 2007

The Gondoliers (Gilbert and Sullivan), Toronto Operetta Theatre, 2005

Kiss of the Spider Woman (Puig), Theatre Proteus (Toronto and St. Catharines), 2000
The New Moon (Romberg), Toronto Operetta Theatre, 1996

My Darling Judith (Foster), Theatre on the Grand, 1995

Directing voices for dubbing (Sailor Moon, A Friend Like Harry)

Freelance acting, 1973 to present, including (stage):

Shakespeare in the Square (Richard III), Theatre On the Grand (The Dining Room, On Golden Pond), Shows to Go (Two Ships Passing), Bayview Playhouse (Three Men on a Horse), Colonnade Theatre (Private Lives, Lady Windermere’s Fan, She Stoops to Conquer), Gryphon Theatre (Chapter Two), Adelaide Court (Two for the Seesaw) and Shaw Festival (The Apple Cart, The Admirable Crichton)

Also work in television, film and voice.

Teaching/coaching for stage, opera and media. Students have included: Jean Stilwell, Jamie McLean and Laura Bertram.

Research Grants held (including dates) and Research Awards or Honours:
Maggie Bassett award for contribution to Theatre in Ontario, Theatre Ontario, 1994

Areas of Research Interest (in brief):
Lyric theatre: human sound, voice and verbal language as a communicator in theatre forms. The intersection of spoken and musical language.
Oral communication to audiences in non-theatrical contexts.
Working with young people to foster an appreciation of and facility with language and verbal communication.
French neo-classical theatre.
Medieval theatre.