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SFU business students host IWD Conference

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WEB-international women

The Third Annual conference attracted influential Vancouver women

By Kelli Gustafson
Photos by Mark Burnham

SFU’s Young Women in Business Society ( YWiB) hosted their third annual International Women’s Day Conference on March 10, 2013. The Conference took place at SFU Woodward’s in celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD).

According to the official IWD website, IWD has been distinguished since the early 1900s, and recognizes universal suffrage and the struggle for gender equality. It also focuses on achievements women have made over the years in the face of adversity.

This year, YWiB’s IWD Conference was hosted by Dawn Chubai of CityTv, and featured a number of keynote speakers as well as a professional panel. Over 150 men and women from the Vancouver area attended the conference to engage with others, discuss ambitions, and become inspired by the motivational stories shared by the keynote speakers. Tickets ranged from $10–$35, and were available to YWiB members, high school and post-secondary students, as well as professionals.

Michaela Klassen, VP of public relations for YWiB SFU, explained this year’s “Gaining Momentum” theme to The Peak. “[ The theme] tried to focus on growth, in both our attendees and our speakers.”
According to Klassen, the conference “attempt[s] to create a forum for both student and professional women to connect over a common cause.” The common cause, Klassen said, is to celebrate the advances that women have made in all different fields, despite setbacks and obstacles they may have encountered due to gender inequalities.

A much-anticipated keynote speaker at this year’s conference was Tori Holmes, a young woman who, at the age of 21, rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in 86 days. Holmes spoke of both the physical and mental hardships she encountered along her journey. “I’m proud that I rowed across the Atlantic,” Holmes said, “but the thing that I am most proud of is that I got to the start line.”

Holmes and Ish Jhaj, her cofounder for Shooting for Hope, were among this year’s keynote speakers. Shahrzad Rafati; CEO & Founder of BroadbandTV Corp, also acted as as a keynote speaker.

Inspirational speakers and panelists stimulated conversation throughout the day, along with an expo fair for professional development. The expo invited attendees to explore opportunities within the community, and some companies, such as HootSuite, offered the chance for individuals to job shadow.

Vuitton Chan, Executive member of YWiB and attendee at the conference, shared with The Peak her experience of the day, “To speak with so many brilliant and ambitious young women keeps me motivated and inspired.” Chan believes that IWD SFU is important because, “there are not many conferences in Vancouver dedicated to recognizing the accomplishment of women.”

IWD SFU is an annual event, and many of this year’sattendees look forward to attending again next year, including Chan, who concluded by saying, “[holding this event] for students and professionals to come together and celebrate each other’s accomplishments is a good reminder that each one of us has something unique to bring to our community.”

Used ebooks are taking another slice of a writer’s pie

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Used copies contradict the inherent value in e-books

By Tara Nykyforiak

On March 11, the Forbes website posted an article on the potential for a used e-book marketplace on online sites such as Amazon and Apple. If this becomes reality, new obstacles and authorship challenges will plague writers everywhere.

With e-readers already a popular choice among consumers, the question is whether e-book purchasers should be allowed to resell in the same fashion as a physical book.

In terms of buyer’s rights, a potential parallel does exist between the two.

Publishers control the number of copies of physical books released for sale. This allows them to also control the prices of each book, but in doing so, they are abiding by the doctrine of first sale; when a consumer
purchases a book from a store such as Chapters, the publisher no longer controls further sales. These rights are now in the hands of the book’s owner.

But e-book files should not be treated the same way. No changes would occur to a digital file over time — there is no spine to crease, no pages to yellow and tear, and no chance of coffee forever staining its cover. A “used” ebook’s lower price tag would not reflect the fact that it is identical to a “new” one.

Furthermore, if a buyer has the offer of a cheaper “used” file identical to the more expensive new one, it’s easy to see that he or she would go for option A. Thus, not only would the author’s work be further devalued, but in the most perverse way possible. And where does this leave the author and publisher? If used e-books adhere to the traditional doctrine of first sale, the publisher and author would be awarded zero dollars from the resale of these files.

However, if an agreement is made that includes the author and publisher, the author would be paid 25 per cent of the used digital list price. Whatever Amazon, the used e-book seller, and the author do not make is awarded to the publisher.

Let’s say you have slaved away all day and have not been able to eat anything. Starving at 11 p.m., you make yourself a delicious homemade pizza and smell its warm fragrances wafting around you while it bakes. Once it’s done and you place it down to cool, I break into your kitchen and eat all but a single bite of your pizza pie. You go to bed wondering how I could be so cruel.

Writers work hard to create the books they do, going through countless hours of brainstorming, drafting, editing, re-editing, and finally putting everything together into a complete and presentable form. To take slivers
away from their already meagre slice of the pie is not only unjust, but showcases the ideals most valued by society today: How can I make a quick buck, and who can I use to get it?

Cashing in on parents’ gendered anxieties is a cheap trick

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WEB-kinder boo-Mark Burnham

Kinder Surprise releases a line of chocolate eggs just for girls, but who are they really appealing to?

By David Ly
Photos by Mark Burnham

How could any of us ever forget eating Kinder Surprise eggs, and getting the sweet little toy inside them? Whether it was a helicopter complete with rotating propellers, a challenging seven-piece puzzle, or even a figurine the size of your thumb, it didn’t matter if the surprise you got adhered to your birth-assigned gender, just as long as there was one. But not anymore.

Having appealed to children for decades now with surprises including over 8,000 toys, the creation of a new line of eggs titled “Kinder Surprise for Girls” seems pointless. I remember hearing one of their commercials advertising that now, “Everyone can enjoy Kinder Surprise!” But since when did everyone not include girls? I don’t know about you, but growing up surrounded by few guy friends, I remember my female friends being extremely excited to get a Kinder Surprise toy, regardless of whether it was a cute necklace or a cool fire truck.

Now, Kinder Surprise eggs come in two types of packaging: the regular one we are all used to seeing (despite our gender), and a newly designed wrapper that is prettily decorated with a pink flower on the top, supposedly only targeting little girls.

Do we really need to distinguish what toys boys and girls can and cannot play with? For such an iconic product, Kinder Surprise eggs should realize the impact they could have on young children: making them think that a pink figurine is not for a boy, and perpetuating dumb gender stereotypes.

We’re living in an age now where society is becoming more accepting of the blurring of gender boundaries, so why brainwash kids through chocolate eggs to think otherwise?

The creation of this new “girls only” line is contradictory to the company’s already-diverse market appeal. In Europe, the Kinder phenomenon is quite large. The surprises in the eggs have become so accommodating over there that they include hand-painted figurines, religious figurines of baby Jesus and the three kings, and even collectible metallic ones.

I don’t understand how Kinder Surprise could create such a variety of products without naming them “for Christians!” but feel the need to distinguish chocolate with jewelry and cute animals inside as “for girls.” I thought they have been doing a pretty swell job of already appealing to every kid’s need for a sweet little toy in an even sweeter wrapping.

Yes, a well-deserved round of applause for the new wrapping, as the design is quite well done, but as for the rest of the idea, I’m not going to throw any eggs into the basket! Kids are kids; a toy inside a chocolate egg is already good enough. It’s already ridiculous that McDonalds asks whether the toy in a happy meal you’re getting is for a boy or girl. Do we really need to take the surprise out of Kinder Surprises?

Flanagan persecution an affront to academic freedom

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Universities should be spaces where individuals are free to question popular opinion

By Travis Gordon

CHARLOTTETOWN (CUP) — University of Calgary professor and former political operative Tom Flanagan recently faced heavy scrutiny for questioning the illegality of viewing child porn. Flanagan previously served as a media pundit, political chief of staff to now-prime minister Stephen Harper, and political operative within the Alberta Wildrose party.

While lecturing on Aboriginal issues at the University of Lethbridge, Flanagan was called out by an irate student for having said, in 2009, “That’s actually another interesting debate or seminar. What’s wrong with child pornography, in the sense that it’s just pictures?”

Further taunted by a student in the crowd, Flanagan clarified on Wednesday evening. “I certainly have no sympathy for child molesters, but I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail for their taste in pictures.”

That remark received jeers and boos from the crowd of students. Flanagan went on to clarify further.

“It is a real issue of personal liberty and to what extent we put people in jail for doing something in which they do not harm another person.”

External reaction was swift. The Prime Minister’s Office condemned Flanagan’s comments as “repugnant and appalling.” The Wildrose party halted his work with them immediately. The Premier of Alberta reported that the comments “turned [her] stomach,” and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation dumped him as an oft-appearing commentator on political science and public policy.

The University of Calgary also issued a statement distancing themselves from his remarks and announcing his retirement.

My question is this: Why was a professor retired for voicing an unpopular opinion in an academic setting? Further, why did students not challenge Flanagan’s thinking intelligently? Why instead did they boo him and call him disgusting? Has academic discourse in Canada descended into simple, guttural responses?

It’s disgraceful. Should we not challenge conventional thinking? If students cannot clearly and articulate an oppositional response to someone who advocates for the legalized viewing of child pornography, it is certain that our society faces bigger problems.
Without academic freedom, how can professors challenge ideas or propose new ones? More importantly, how can we justify the implementation and existence of current ideas or laws without exploring alternatives, however unpopular?

Academic freedom should provide protection for those wishing to provoke discussion on issues as controversial and taboo as child pornography. The Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada says that faculty must be free to take intellectual risks and tackle controversial subjects in their teaching, research and scholarship.
Dr. Flanagan took an intellectual risk, and tackled a controversial subject. His reward? Political disownment, early retirement, and media vilification.

Tread lightly, professors.

Co-op, just do it

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peak week 10 coop

It’s worth the wait to graduate

By Amara Janssens
Illustration By Eleanor Qu

Gone are the days when getting a bachelors degree guaranteed you a job following graduation. Instead, the value of a degree is to simply provide the checkmark to the “has degree” box on an employer’s checklist. Due to the saturation of people who fulfill that requirement, employers’ checklists have become longer than ever before.

So how do you stand out when you are one of the million Canadians who have the same education level as you do? What can you do to prevent or limit the time you will spend interning for free once you leave university? The answer begins before you graduate, by partaking in the underused co-op program available to you as a student at SFU.

I hear a lot of excuses from fellow students as to why they don’t partake in co-op, such as “I don’t want to extend my degree,” “There’s too many hoops to jump to get in,” and “I don’t know what career I want.”
Undeniably, if you fully partake in the co-op program you will be at SFU for a little bit longer than four years. I have completed three co-op terms now, and plan on doing one more, making my total degree length five years.

However, you have to think of the time that will otherwise be spent looking for that first unpaid internship when you graduate with no relevant experience. After completing co-op you will already have over a year of experience in your field, making it easier to quickly secure a job that pays better than those of your peers.

Fifty-four per cent of co-op students who have completed four or more work terms secure a job before graduation.
Additionally, co-op alumni statistics look promising, as 96 per cent of co-op alumni who did not secure a job before graduation found relevant employment within one year of graduation.

The process to get into co-op does require a few steps. First, you have to submit an application well in advance of when you want to work. If you want to do a summer co-op, you’ll have to get your application rolling in the fall semester.

During that time, you need to attend info sessions, two online workshops, a resume and cover letter writing workshop, and oneon-one meetings with your co-op advisor. Although these seem like a lot of hoops to jump, the process is not that time consuming, and you only need to do most of these things once.

Just because you are a communication co-op student or a science co-op student, you don’t need to apply for jobs only in your major. You can apply for any job, posted for any faculty.

Even though you may not know what you want to do, you are not limited from trying new things. After all, what better way to find out if you like a career than by testing it out?

If you take a co-op term, you have to get paid (a contrast to the huge illegal industry of unpaid interns), and you gain relevant experience ranging from three months to over a year, depending on how many terms you complete. According to SFU Co-op, the more work terms completed, the less time looking for jobs after graduation.

So get out there, and get some experience for your Linkedin account.

SFU needs to engage its low-wage workers

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WEB-caution-wet-floor copy

Living wage report highlights persistent labour issues at SFU

By Michael McDonell
Photos by Mark Burnham

On Monday, March 4, the full report (and summary) of the SFU Living Wage Campaign’s was made available online. The report, “Simon Fraser University: Becoming the First Living Wage University in Canada”, persuasively links the campaign’s proposals with empirical evidence assembled from a number of sources. The report was authored by Michael McCarthy Flynn, the Living Wage Campaign Organizer, with a forward from professor Marjorie Griffen Cohen.

The report itself indicates several significant labour issues at SFU. It compares different insights into low-wage work revealed by the experiences of 33 workers interviewed. Given the findings of the report, it would not only be unethical, but illogical for us to not support the campaign.

Approximately 100 auxiliary janitorial staff earn just $13.43 per hour, lacking benefits (other than a medical plan) and job security.
It also shows that Chartwells employees at Tim Hortons, the Mackenzie Cafe, and other Burnaby locations earn slightly more ($15 per hour), but similarly lack a health and dental plan. While they are also unionized, one worker was dismayed at living “from paycheque to paycheque.”

While a minimum wage applies to individual workers, the Living Wage Campaign targets broader family and household needs. Over two fifths of all SFU workers (and over half all belowliving wage workers) interviewed earned less than $14 per hour. Roughly the same number of workers also had to budget for out-of-pocket expenses such as parking costs.

Moreover, over two thirds of campus employees interviewed were female, and over two thirds belong to underrepresented “minorities.” Slightly over half our workers have to look after dependent family members. If we cannot even address the needs of our workers, how will we
continue “engaging the world?” For this reason, the vast majority of workers felt that their job was deteriorating other aspects of their life, worsening chronic stress. Feelings of isolation from family, for example, are increasingly common. These are hardly the findings you’d expect from one of Canada’s top 100 employers of 2013.
SFU workers themselves expressed that a living wage would directly benefit their present well-being, and that of their families.

Based on this research, the report asks SFU to engage in a process to pass a living wage policy that would ensure that all staff of the University and all contracted workers (through a legally binding living wage clause) are paid a living wage to cover their basic family expenses. This proposal is backed up by four key points.

One is for SFU to provide the same working conditions many of its businesses have already agreed to under Fair Trade certification (i.e. ethical procurement). It states that SFU should strive toward an ethical work environment to maintain and facilitate high-quality education and research.

Taking the entire household into consideration, it then proposes “leadership and community engagement in providing practical solutions to child poverty.” About half of BC children living in poverty have at least one parent working full-time, all year. The poor themselves are often unemployed, underemployed, or low-wage workers, and their trajectory often begins early in life with intense psychosocial and socio-economic pressures.

Finally, the campaign encourages a consideration of the potential future benefit of the living wage to the next wave of students, who might not otherwise be able to attend university. For the university to not do its part to ensure the children of its employees have all the resources necessary to access post-secondary university would be a farce.

Luckily, the report claims that these proposals are practically feasible. They would affect less than 0.1 per cent of SFU’s budget, and the living wage calculation accounts for non-guaranteed benefits.

Furthermore, the demands are already consistent with SFU’s stated mission and Strategic Vision, and would merely extend the existing Ethical Procurement Policy to service work.

I encourage all members of the SFU community to participate in the Living Wage Campaign. Recently, my department student union (Labour Studies, aka LSSU) has joined the Living Wage Committee. DSUs and clubs can encourage members to sign the LW petition, promoting the larger Campaign. SFU Living Wage is viable and ethical: it is both practically and analytically worth supporting.

The urge to purge: dealing with bulimia nervosa

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bulimia the peak

By Alanna Fairey
Illustrated by Ariel Mitchell

When she was 15 years old, Darcy Hale made herself throw up for the first time in her family washroom. At the time, Hale’s parents were going through a divorce and it was negatively influencing her academic performance. In addition, Hale’s boyfriend at the time was verbally abusing her, leading her to find solace in a frequent binge-and-purge lifestyle.

Bulimia is an emotional disorder involving distortion of self-body image and an obsessive desire to lose weight that takes over the individual’s life. It manifests itself behaviorally in extreme overeating, followed by self-induced vomiting or fasting. Bulimia is not limited to self-induced vomiting, however, and can include extreme exercising and the abuse of laxatives after a binge in an attempt to purge the self of the excessive caloric intake.

“I felt like I was losing control of my life. I felt like everything was crumbling down around me,” Hale says. “I just felt like I didn’t have any control, and bulimia was the only way I could get some of that back.”

There are a plethora of different factors that can contribute to an individual’s development of bulimia nervosa, though more research still needs to be done.

“Some theories say that it can be influenced by environmental, biological or even genetic factors,” says Kristine Laboni, research coordinator at Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) Canada. These include early problems with food and weight, such as childhood obesity, family overeating, and poor habits.

Being raised in an environment with low parental contact, demanding parents, or family members that make negative comments about weight can also contribute. More recently, there has been a growing interest in the role that physical or sexual abuse may play.

Though men can also suffer from bulimia, according to Statistics Canada, about 90 per cent of cases of bulimia nervosa affect females. Approximately one to three per cent of young women develop bulimia nervosa in their lifetime, commonly beginning during their adolescent years.

While the constant vomiting is seen as a “means to an end” in the hopes of losing weight while seemingly gaining control, people often overlook the dangers of bulimia. The myth that bulimia is a “safe” disorder is just that — a myth.

Purging after meals is sometimes taken lightly in our society, but Luciana Rosu-Sieza, executive director of the Bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa Association (BANA), stresses that the direct health effects can be dire. Bulimia can cause an electrolyte imbalance, which affects the regularity of the individual’s heartbeat. At this point, the possibility of heart disease, heart failure, and even death becomes very real.
Frequent vomiting may cause inflammation — or even a rupture — of the esophagus, elevating risk for cancer. Other health effects include tooth decay due to exposure to stomach acids, constipation from laxative, and the possibility of gastric rupture.

Rosu-Sieza also notes that most bulimics are typically of an average weight, which often leads people to assume that nothing is wrong with them, and makes finding help and recovery much more difficult.
But bulimia is not limited to the physical state of an individual’s body. One’s state of mind can also be ruptured as a repercussion of bulimia.

“There are numerous [psychological issues],” says Laboni. “There can be issues such as depression or anxiety, personal shame, issues of control, and insomnia from potential malnutrition.”

BANA works to promote acceptance of diverse body shapes and sizes through the adoption of a healthy, balanced lifestyle. The association often organizes and hosts educational health promotion presentations and programs to raise awareness.

“In a lot of those presentations we don’t talk about eating disorders, because a lot of the research shows that talking about eating disorders actually promotes it,” Rosu-Sieza says. “Instead, we talk about self-esteem, body image and body base harassment, which is something that everybody’s experienced at some time.”

BANA instead facilitates health fairs and promotions that focus on eating disorders, but also on healthy eating, exercise and physical activity.
There are many organizations like BANA that provide resources for those seeking recovery from an eating disorder. Sadly, it takes a long time for many to get to that point.

Hale suffered in silence for three years, during which time she estimates that she spent over $10,000 on binge food, only to throw it up afterwards. Even though the vomiting only made her feel worse about herself, Hale soon became addicted to the process.

“Bulimia was, in a sick and twisted way, my friend. It was that companion that was always there and encouraged me to go that extra mile,” she says. “I knew it wasn’t healthy, but I didn’t care. It was just something I had to do.”

Three months after Hale’s 18th birthday, things took a turn for the worse. Also suffering from depression and low blood pressure as a direct result from her eating disorder, she collapsed in the home she shared with her mother.

Hale was taken to the hospital, and when she gained consciousness, she tearfully admitted to her parents that she was suffering from bulimia. She had never envisioned bulimia putting her in the hospital at the time, and her collapse was a wakeup call.

After being released from the hospital, Hale’s family and friends held an intervention, and she went to a treatment center for three months. There, she learned alternative coping skills and how to love her body.
Now at 27, Hale has graduated from college, works full-time, and is planning a wedding to her college boyfriend.

Though she admits that she sometimes has strong urges to purge after having a particularly large dinner, Hale is able to fend off most of those demons with her own coping mechanisms. She also cites her family, friends and fiance as having an integral role in her continued recovery. “I call them all my little support team,” Hale says. “I know that I wouldn’t completely get over my eating disorder without them.”

There are some common signs that an individual may be suffering from bulimia: Are they secretive about eating? Do they disappear once a meal is done? Have they gotten defensive when they were questioned about their eating habits? Have you noticed that they eat lots of food but have no change in weight?

If there is suspicion that an individual may have bulimia, pay attention to their patterns and reach out to them.

Hale admits to exhibiting most of these behaviours and while people had noticed, no one confronted her. She was often passive and quiet about her eating disorder, which she believes may have prevented her family and friends from talking to her about it.

“People noticed my weight loss, and they also saw me going to the bathroom at the end of every meal,” Hale explained. “Everyone knew what I was doing, but I was never confronted about it because I became difficult to deal with. There were times when I wished they would say something. I think it’s so important to confront the issue face first.”
Do not wait for a bulimic to be comfortable talking about their disorder, because it may not happen. Confront that person and seek help for them immediately.

It is much easier for a bulimic to recover from their disorder if they have support from loved ones while seeking professional help. However, loved ones should be mindful that recovering from bulimia is a lifelong process.

“It’s a lifelong process because people have relapses at times,” said Rosu-Sieza. “But going back is not a failure.”
Struggles are inevitable in the road to recovery, but no one should endure bulimia alone. Hale admits that she is still on the journey but hopes that her story will inspire others.

“My journey of self-love was not easy; it may have been the hardest thing that I have ever done,” Hale said. “But this is the only body I’ll ever have. I can’t lose that. If I ever have a daughter, I will tell her about my struggles.”

A Bite of Poetry at SFU Harbour Centre

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By Monica Miller

 

Grab your lunch, slip out of work/class, and hoof it over to the Teck Gallery at SFU Harbour Centre to hear a diverse array of local poets. On the third Wednesday of each month for the past year (except July and August), a mid-day reading series called Lunch Poems has taken place at SFU’s downtown campus. On Wednesday, March
20, 2013, SFU English professor Stephen Collis will read with former Writers’ Studio poetry mentor, Rachel Rose — both accomplished poets with new books out this year.

Lunch Poems was the brainchild of poet and Writers’ Studio graduate, Renee Sarojini Saklikar and Shauna Sylvester, executive director of SFU Public Square. “We got to chatting at a dinner in November 2011, and she invited me to come read at SFU,” explains Renee. They had a good turn out with a variety of students, staff, Writers’ Studio mentors, and even a former premier.

From there the idea snowballed, filling a void of poetry readings in the downtown core during lunchtime. Their muse — whose book was read at the inaugural event — is Frank O’Hara and his book Lunch Poems, commissioned by San Francisco bookstore-cum-publisher City Lights, as part of their avantgarde Pocket Poets series.

Here at SFU, a committee of volunteers arrange the monthly reading series. In addition to Renee, this team includes: Katherine McManus of the SFU’s Writing and Publishing Program; the director of the Writers’ Studio (first Betsy Warland and now Wayde Compton); Robin Prest, manager of public programming for SFU’s Centre for Dialogue; and Kim Gilker, SFU alumnus and employee of the International Centre of Art for Social Change.

The inaugural event took place on March 28, 2012, and featured Vancouver’s Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau, SFU alumnus and poet Daniela Elza, and more than 100 listeners with their lunches. One year later, attendees will be treated to what Renee describes as “pairing of lyric and language” poetry with Stephen Collis and Rachel Rose.
Renee calls Wayde Compton a “poet sommelier,” as he couples distinctive yet complimentary styles, and usually pairs an emerging poet with someone established.

Stephen Collis and Rachel Rose will both be reading from their latest books of poetry.

Collis’s book, To the Barricades, is hot off the press this month, and now he has to decide which poems are “reading poems.” To the Barricades is a continuation of The Barricades Project, a Life-Long Poem, which typically takes decades to write and is published over multiple volumes. This project began with Anarchive (2005) and The Commons (2008).

To figure out his reading poems, Collis says he will “lock [himself ] in [his] office, pace around, and read aloud” in an effort to “hear how it sounds and feels together.” He notes that it is important to combine the temporal and spatial, making an effort to have it echoe back to earlier in the reading so listeners feel fulfilled and it leaves them thinking.

Rose’s third book of poetry, Song and Spectacle, was published in the fall and shortlisted earlier this month for the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. She says it explores “how we live and see others and look with an unflinching eye at the world around us.”

Rose’s world has changed drastically in the past year. She has opened new professional doors, writing the libretto for the first lesbian opera, premiering as part of the Queer Arts Festival in August. She’s exploring more song-writing, combining her poetry with her brother’s musical talents.

Lunch Poems @ SFU has featured various poets over the past year including George Bowering, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Garry Thomas Morse, and Renee Saklikar, who emphasizes the that the event is about community building. “It’s strictly one hour, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m., and completely free.” Readings are followed by a Q&A session.

Theatrical maladjustment

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theatrical the peak

Conceptual Theatre production pushes boundaries and provokes community involvement

By Ljudmila Petrovic
Photo courtesy of David Cooper

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the theatre at Firehall Arts Centre was the stage props: there was some furniture, and the rest of the set design consisted of piles of storage boxes. This made me wonder what the play was going to be like amidst the creative and powerful, albeit messy stage. It turned out much like the stage.

The concept behind maladjusted is described as “theatre making policy,” a somewhat difficult connection to make out of context. I quickly learned that this entailed two components. The first, a short play (running at approximately half an hour) that dealt with various mental health issues and the “mechanization” of the mental health system.
This was followed by a repeat of that play facilitated by Theatre for Living’s artistic director, David Diamond, where audience members were asked to stop the scenes at integral parts where they could see an alternative and take the places of the community actors.

Diamond’s idea is to generate conversation on potential policy changes within the social services through community discussion and involvement. The project uses a community scribe, whose function is to transcribe any ideas for policy changes that might arise on a given night, then to compile them all into a Community Action Report to be presented to the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

The plot revolves around several stories and issues. One involves a mother and daughter (played by Khoal Marks and Micheala Hiltergerke, respectively) face the latter’s diagnosis of bipolar II disorder, while the mother deals with her own mental instabilities.

In another, a homeless man (Colin Ross stepping in for Martin Filby) deals with various mental health issues — including ADHD and anxiety — must fight through a bureaucratic system that lacks resources and is driven by overworked, often burnt-out workers and practitioners (Erin Arnold, Pierre Leichner, and Sam Bob’s characters all exemplify this).

Diamond then guides an audience discussion about the “human-centered care” approach to mental health that should be addressed in policymaking. The change, he tells us, is possible through theatre, and we can use theatre as a way to illustrate the issues, look within ourselves to find empathy and understanding, and to use it as a launchpad for discussion and brainstorming.

The second part, as mentioned, has the purpose of getting audience members to step into the shoes of the characters and to address possible routes for policy changes through an improvised adaption of the initial scene. While in theory an innovative idea, this is of course completely reliant on the type of audience in attendance; it took a while for people to begin breaking out of their shells and, when they did, it did not always lead to any ideas on policy change.
Diamond seems to have an expectation of where, when, and how people should approach the scene, and so he often asks probing questions and directs audience members as he would his actors. This is no doubt due to his obvious passion for the project, but it also intimidates audience members.

I decided to go up for the next scene. Being thrown into an unknown scene — one with complex characters, interactions, and issues — and having to deal with it in an empathetic but pragmatic way in front of an audience of strangers is an intimidating experience. That, combined with Diamond’s constant questioning and pushing, leaves you feeling exposed and vulnerable, but that might be just the right state to discuss protective policies for those who are systemically exposed and vulnerable.

As a social project, maladjusted is a bold and creative gem, and a potential vessel for change powered by a marginalized local community; as theatre, it is still conceptually novel, but the implementation of it leaves an image of disorganization.
Local projects that engage the community and rally for change like this are worth supporting. They are beacons of hope for those that may feel like they’re lost in the system.

Personal stories on the stage

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By David Ly

 

How Has My Love Affected You?, the most recent production on the Arts Club’s Revue Stage, is a personal account of the incredibly tumultuous relationship between Marcus Youssef and his mother, Roleene Youssef. Alongside Marcus’s 17-year-old son, Zac Youssef — the father-son act puts on a brave, personal performance.

When Marcus approached Zac with the idea of a play about his grandmother, Zac was originally not too enthusiastic about it, questioning the topic’s appropriateness in the public eye. However, being a musician, Zac began composing original songs with local singer-songwriter Veda Hill, with actual excerpts from Roleene’s journals. In creating original music for the play, Zac eventually became more comfortable with the production.

Despite his initial weariness, Zac felt more in his element with the piano at his fingertips, which is evident on stage: Marcus says that Zac is a musician first and actor second, only having a small amount of acting experience. Zac’s passion for music is evident in every word he sings from his grandmother’s writing collection, even the short one-liners from her vast collection of post-it notes.

Marcus says that, as an actor, “The ‘real’ feels more authentic, while older conventions [of theater] are too obvious.” This sentiment is self-evident in this production, as the style and setting are remarkable: as he speaks, actual photographs from his childhood with Roleene are projected onto mountains of boxes. The entire stage suffocates under these boxes and mounds of dusty journals from his mother’s storage unit.

In tandem with Marcus’ story-telling, the audience comes to truly understand the strenuous relationship he has with his mother, contributing to the authentic emotions experienced while watching the play.

Yet there are moments when the acting makes it too obvious that this is happening on stage; the result is a disconnection from the story. As it is a family memoir, it’s understandable that the audience is expected to feel sadness, pity, and relief for the performers, but it comes off as heavy-handed.

Surprisingly, these moments came mostly when Marcus and Zac are interacting directly with each other. One would expect closeness to inspire naturalism; however, this is not the case. To make matters worse, the delivery of some quickly-paced lines became a bit muddled with the live music.

The play focuses on a touchy subject: mental illness and how it affects family dynamics. If you can get past some poorly delivered lines, the attractive stage design and play as a whole comes together to create a wonderful message.

How Has My Love Affected You? is a brave production, although at times the acting is rusty. It’s honest, tumultuous, and complicated, but its message is clear: in the words of Marcus, “[Loving support is] what families are for.” It’s clear that he is entirely sincere.

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us:
[email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024