Performing and Fine Arts Faculty

 Key contacts

Hazel Fairbairn

PEFA Liaison

Email: fairbairnh@douglascollege.ca

Phone: 604 527 5967

 

Katrina Basnett

Administrative Associate 

Email: performingarts@douglascollege.ca

Phone: 604 527 5465

 

 

Faculty members

Christine Dewar

Christine Dewar

 

Email: dewarc@douglascollege.ca

Office: #3200B

Courses Taught: THEA 1130, THEA 1230, PEFA 1102, PEFA 1101

Areas of Expertise: Theatre History; Performing and Fine Arts

Education: BA, Honours English; and MA, English, University of British Columbia

 

Published Works:

  • "Hitting the Road." Event. Volume 29. Number 1. 2000.
  • "Home and Away." Event. Volume 27. Number 3. 1999.
  • "Vigilance and Balance." Event. Volume 26. Number 3. 1997.
  • "Secret Rituals." Event. Volume 25. Number 2. 1996.
  • "Ancestral Voices, Inner Voices." Event. Volume 24. Number 3. 1995.
  • "Green Thoughts and Worms." Event. Volume 24. Number 2. 1995.
  • "Snakes and Ladders: Charting the Journey of the Soul." Event. Volume 24. Number 1. 1995.
  • "Filling Empty Spaces." Event. Volume 23. Number 1. 1994.

Links:

  • Event Magazine
  • The Amelia Douglas Gallery
  • Certificate in the Performing and Fine Arts

Christine Dewar completed both her BA and MA Degrees at the University of British Columbia. Her passion for Theatre History was ignited while studying with historian Peter Loeffler. Christine performed in plays and films at UBC and wrote arts reviews for The Ubyssey. She directed Here We Are by Dorothy Parker, and Cubistique by Tom Cone. Christine has had a long association with the award-winning Douglas College literary journal, Event, where she currently works as Fiction Editor and writes fiction reviews. She has also been active with the Amelia Douglas Gallery, curating a range of art exhibits in including: Valerie Romain, Deep Water; Michael Downs, Mythologies; Sharalee Regehr, Women of Substance and, most recently, Joe Rosenblatt, Magic Gardens. Her recent public lectures include "Sarah Siddons and Edmund Kean: Two Actors in the Age of Jane Austen." Christine has been teaching at Douglas College since 1987. She believes her mission is to encourage all students to see live theatre, dance, music and art, and to explore history as a rich resource for their own creative work. All of her courses are open to University Transfer students seeking imaginative arts electives.

 

Hazel Fairbairn

Hazel Fairbairn

 

Email: fairbairnh@douglascollege.ca

Office: #N3243

Courses Taught: PEFA 1102, PEFA 1139, PEFA 1239, PEFA 1136, PEFA 3136, PEFA 3236, MUSC 1182, CMS Audio Engineering.

Areas of Expertise: Music; Art History; Audio Production

Education: PhD Ethnomusicology University of Cambridge; BSc, Honours Music The City University; PGCE, Music Pedagogy Institute of Education, University of London.

 

Published Works:

  • Changing Contexts for Traditional Dance Music in Ireland: The Rise of Group Performance Practice. Published in Folk Music Journal 1994 Vol. 6 Number 5 Reprinted in Roots Music ed. Mark F. DeWitt, Ashgate 2011.
 
  • Music from the Heart: Compositions of a Folk Fiddler (Colin Quigley)

 

Music Creation:

  • Ham on the Bone w Moff Skellington 2017 German Shepherd Records
  • The Radio People w Moff Skellington 2018 German Shepherd Records
  • Ledi w Kim Trainor 2020
  • Seeds w Kim Trainor 2021
  • Hwilitsum | Signs, part of Walk Quietly / ts’ekw’unshun kws qututhun  with Kim Trainor and Amy Huetsis 2022

Hazel moved to BC in 2012 following a 25-year career as a musician and educator in the UK. Working with producer Mark Russell, their fusion project Horace X appeared live at festivals and venues worldwide, and toured Canada annually between 2002 and 2006. They recorded six CDs and had record deals in North America and mainland Europe.

Hazel came into education via Musical Futures, an informal learning initiative which employed musicians to work alongside teachers in the classroom, she approaches teaching as a facilitator, and is committed to experiential, project-based learning.

Alongside teaching at Douglas College, Hazel continues to collaborate with Mark Russell on fusion beat-combo music, and works with poet Kim Trainor, creating string based electronic soundscapes and scores for Kim’s poetry films.

Deborah Neville

Deborah Neville

 

Email nevilled@douglascollege.ca

Courses Taught: THEA 1110, THEA 1210, THEA 2310, THEA 2410, THEA 1180, THEA 1280, THEA 3180/3280, PEFA 1120, PEFA 2120

Areas of Expertise:   Acting / Play Direction / Production

Education: BA Theatre UBC, MA Dramaturgy University of Glasgow

 

 

Theatre director, performer and educator Deborah Neville holds a BA in Theatre from the University of British Columbia and a Masters in Dramaturgy from the University of Glasgow where she was awarded the James Arnott Prize for Directing. Deborah taught and directed at The Royal Scottish Conservatoire in Glasgow, Scotland and is currently the Artistic Director of the Douglas College Theatre Department.

As a theatre maker, Deborah has collaborated, performed and directed with a range of companies and festivals in Canada, Scotland, Japan, and the USA — including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, New Works-New Worlds, Sounds of Progress, IndepenDance, TAG, and the Public Dreams Society.

Deborah is compelled by stories that explore social responsibility, inclusivity and the environment. Selected directing credits include: The Wolves, A Woman in Berlin, The Maids, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Rez Sisters, Blue Window, Agnes Under the Big Top, The Laramie Project, and Light the Way (Climate Change Theatre Action Plan).

Thrasso Petras

Thrasso Petras

 

Email thrassop@douglascollege.ca

Courses Taught: PEFA 3020, THEA 2310, THEA 2311

Areas of Expertise: Acting / Voice, Speech, & Text / Play Direction

 

Thrasso is a theatre artist, that is to say, actor, director, teacher and coach of voice, speech, text and movement. He holds a degree in Classical Studies and studied Theatre at UBC, a diploma in Physical Theatre Arts from the TOOBA Physical Theatre Centre and an MFA in Theatre Voice Pedagogy from UAlberta. He is a certified yoga teacher and a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, Canadian Actors Equity Association and ACTRA.

The focus of Thrasso’s creative research is the responsive relationship between sound and motion and the actor’s ability to manipulate this relationship in order to reveal meaning from text. His work revolves around the integration of physical theatre with the major approaches of voice, speech, and text analysis techniques. Thrasso develops performance training in which the clear, meaningful voice demanded by classical training is simultaneously informed by expressive articulation offered by the body in more avant-garde methodologies. The objective of this work is to provide the performer with the technical tools to fulfill the requirements of fully embodied communication, both in clarity of sound as well as clarity of meaning.

 

Mailing address

Performing and Fine Arts Certificate

Douglas College

Room 3200C

PO Box 2503

New Westminster, BC V3L 5B2

Street Address

Room 3200C

700 Royal Avenue

New Westminster, BC V3M 5Z5

Other Douglas College contact information