Associate Professor, Production, at Ryerson University, Canada
He has taught Theatre Arts, History, and Humanities for more than 30 years at college and university level. Pavlo also worked as the Principal Resident Designer (Scenographer) at Kirovohrad State Puppet Theatre and Kropyvnytsky State Theatre, both in Kropyvnytsky (Ukraine). He has designed or directed for more than 200 projects at regional and academic theatres in Canada, Ukraine and the USA and at the Off-Broadway companies. Pavlo’s work has been featured in the Southeastern Theatre Conference, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, the United States Institute for Theatre Technology’s Young Designers’ Forum, and in other numerous international conferences in the United States and Western Europe. He has participated in theatre design exhibits such as World Stage Design and Ming’s Clambake portfolio review. Pavlo is a four-time participant of Prague Quadrennial. Professional credits include Volyn State Puppet Theatre, Odessa Theatre for the Young Audiences, Poltava State Puppet Theatre (all in Ukraine), Le Ballet du Siècle de Taipei (Taipei, Taiwan), New York Fringe Festival, Equity Showcases at Take Wing and Soar company, Yangtze Repertory Company and The Billie Holiday Theatre (NYC), Michigan’s Meadowbrook Theatre, Plowshares Theatre Company and Jewish Ensemble Theatre, Texas Shakespeare Festival and Daemon Theatre (Toronto, Ontario, Canada). Pavlo holds the MFA degree in Production Design and Technology from Ohio University (USA); he is a member of UNIMA and ADC.
Abstract title: THE ANCIENT GREEKS MEETING THE CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN PLAYWRIGHTS AND ARTISTS: CREATIVE PROCESS OF PRODUCING THE PENELOPIAD AND THE ODYSSEY IN THE ROTATING REPERTORY FORMAT
The Penelopiad’s script and Dragana Varagic’s directorial vision asked for a Mediterranean, warm feeling of sandstone and bright blue water accented by disturbing red lines of the string of Odysseus’ bow. There were very specific requirements that came from the director: a table large enough to serve as the stage-within-a stage, as Odysseus’ ship, or the Trojan Horse; a bungee cord instead of the ropes; and the particular way of weaving the symbolic shroud out of grosgrain ribbons. Ross Manson’s staging of The Odyssey was influenced by the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda, which displays the dirty blooded clothes of the victims. Also, he wanted to use theatrical blood carried on stage on the feet of the performers, which would be leaving bloodied footprints on the initially pristine white surface that represents the beach. Both shows were performed in the reconfigured theatre now featuring the steeply raked audience seating for about 100 seats that we normally use for dance performances; the normal full capacity of the theatre is 1200 seats. My set design for The Penelopiad aimed to create an intimate indoor space of, nevertheless, epic proportions, matching the drama happening in Penelope’s soul. The small “island” of seating looked like it was floating above the ominously empty regular seats. The set design for The Odyssey was informed by the symbolic meaning of the clothes and the blood, as well as by the reconfigured theatre space. Using theatrical blood and performing the show in rep with The Penelopiad not only constituted numerous set change challenges but added complexity to the experience of those audience members who attended both productions. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood Ryerson School of Performance, Ryerson Theatre, 2018 Performed in rotating rep with The Odyssey Directed by Dragana Varagic Set Design by Pavlo Bosyy Costume Design by Andrew Nasturzio and Alessia Urbani.
