As spring becomes fully sprung, York’s talented Fine Arts faculty are travelling the country – and the world – for performances and exhibitions. A roundup:
Theatre Professor Robert Fothergill recently went to Bonn, Germany, to attend a production of The Dershowitz Protocol, his provocative play about terrorism and torture, running in repertory until April 29 at Theater Bonn. First performed five years ago at Toronto’s Artword Theatre, the play stems from post 9/11 comments made by Harvard University law Professor Alan Dershowitz: “If the judicially sanctioned torture of suspected terrorists might actually forestall a repeat of the 9/11 bombings, why not use it?”
Dance Professor Modesto Amegago‘s Nutifafa African Performance Ensemble presents A Celebration of Music and Dance tomorrow at 7:30pm in the auditorium of North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street. Proceeds from the performance go to the Human Factor Leadership Academy Project in Ghana, where Amegago comes from. For information, call 416-452-4337.
Music Professor Stephanie Martin directs the Pax Christi Chorale (below) and a 14-member professional wind ensemble this weekend in Anton Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor, a gigantic 19th-century romantic work April 26 at 7:30pm and April 27 at 3pm at the Grace 
Church on the Hill, 300 Lonsdale Road, Toronto. Click here for details.
Next week, Martin conducts the Gallery Choir of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in the final competition of CBC Radio’s nation-wide, live-to-air Chorale 2008. Tune in April 30 at 7pm on CBC Radio Two, 94.1FM, to hear the broadcast. The choir will sing excerpts from a Mass composed by Healey Willan, a Latin motet by Thomas Tallis and a new work composed by Martin for the choir during Holy Week this year.
During a stint in Italy this month as visiting professor at the University of Bologna, visual arts Professor Shelley Hornstein participated in a seminar series, The City in the Age of Globalization: Pilgrimages in the Spaces of Memory and Consumerism, sponsored by the International Centre for Civic Engagement. Hornstein’s presentation, A Star is Born: When Starchitecture Dazzles Toronto, examined the role, nature and effect of celebrity architectural projects by Libeskind, Gehry and Alsop within the urban environment and the people who live in or pass through it.
Theatre Department Chair Shawn Kerwin designed the sets and costumes for the Factory Theatre 
production of Beyond Mozambique, Toronto to May 4. Kerwin is also designing a production of Ken Cameron’s Harvest slated to run at the Blyth Festival June 25 to Aug. 16.
Visual Arts Professor Anna Hudson curated the photography exhibit Drive By, A Road Trip (right) with Jeff Thomas on view at the University of Toronto Art Centre from May 1 to June 28. A companion series of images will be displayed in the Wellesley subway station.
Theatre Professor Teresa Przybylski designed sets and costumes for Tarragon Theatre’s season finale, Brendan Gall’s Alias Godot, directed by alumnus Richard Rose. The show opened April 22 and runs to June 1.
A solo exhibition by Yvonne Singer, director of the Graduate Program in Visual Arts, will be on 
view May 3 to 25 at Toronto’s Loop Gallery. Signs of Life; an intimate portrait of someone I don’t know, is an installation documenting a personal story of migration and dislocation. The opening reception for the show is May 3 from 2 to 5pm.
Dance faculty member Julia Sasso performs with Toronto indie artist Tanya Crowder in Falling to Grace, a collection of three new solos choreographed by the two performers. The program runs May 13 to 17 at the Pia Bouman Studio Theatre as part of the 31st DanceWorks season. Anthology Vol.1 (left), four dramatic dance works created by alumna Tracey Norman, was featured at DanceWorks April 17-20.
Music Professor Lisette Canton will be conducting her Ottawa Bach Choir in an invitational performance at Podium 2008, the biannual conference of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. The choir will appear as part of the “Canada Sings” program on May 18.