All of the commenters’ names were put into a hat and the lucky winner’s name was drawn.
Congratulations, SARAH!

The winning comment was:

Thank you to everyone who entered, and good luck with your exams – blogUT is rooting for you!

Special thanks to High Park Nutrition for making this contest possible.

blogUT is teaming up with High Park Nutrition for a second time to give away another gift basket full of wellness goodies! This time, it’s all about banishing pesky exam stress.

To win the basket pictured above, all you have to do is comment on this post, answering the following question:

What tips do you have for other students about managing stress?

Comments will be accepted up until 11:59pm on Thursday, April 5th and we’ll be announcing the winning commenter’s name on Friday, April 6th. Please note that only those with a utoronto email will be entered into the draw.

Good luck to everyone, and we look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Special thanks to the wonderful people at High Park Nutrition for their generous donation.

Picture courtesy of Tasty Tours Toronto

Love Chocolate? Well, Tasty Tours Toronto is giving you all a chance to win 2 free tickets to their trial chocolate tour!  This is a great chance to learn more about where chocolate comes from, how a little chocolate can be good for you, and why we crave chocolate – while satisfying those cravings! The contest ends March 31st, and results will be announced April 1st. The trial tour will begin April 5th at 6:30pm in the Trinity Bellwoods vicinity. There are three ways to enter in the contest:

1) Sign up to the mailing list by going to their main website by simply clicking on the orange bar at the bottom of the page.

2) Like Tasty Tours Toronto on Facebook and comment on this photo telling them why you should win!

3) Follow Tasty Tours Toronto on Twitter and tweet ‘Win 2 spots to a trial of a new Chocolate Tour! Follow @Tasty_Tours & retweet this. Sweetweet! Info:http://ow.ly/9rHXP’.

Even if you don’t win or can’t make it on April 5, I encourage you to sign up for the Sweets Tour in Kensington Market. Public tours are every Sunday at 11:30am, alternate Saturdays at 11:30am or alternate Sundays at 2:00pm.

More information can be found on the Tasty Tours website.

February 18

Victoria College Dramatic Society: Arriver, aimer, et partir by Phyllis Pearson, directed by Lindsay Mayer

In the first and only entry by Victoria College to this year’s festival, Noa requested the assistance of stranger Ethan to help her move into her new home, only to find that the apartment she’d rented was unliveable and, at a surprisingly quick request, moved in with Ethan. The play continued at that speed; Noa moved in permanently and got a spare key within the first few minutes, although I’d imagine that if every woman moved in with the stranger who helped her move, many would be dead. Noa and Ethan quickly developed a bond, and Ethan explained his aspirations to build a new type of hang-glider so that people could go where the wind took them while Noa began tutoring a child in French passé composé, with an emphasis on etre auxiliary verbs that “have to do with motion”. The cast was delightfully bubbly – too much so – and each extended hand gesture and smile made Arriver, aimer, et partir seem more like a cartoon and less like the moving play about love and life it could have been. Couple in several extended blackout scene changes that seemed to make up about half the stage time and an entirely undefined space on stage and the execution of the piece quickly fell apart. Arriver, aimer, et partir had a cute and interesting script but was awkwardly presented in a way that took a lot of the joy out of it. I predicted no awards for this play.

University of Toronto Mississauga: Days Like These by Andrew Di Rosa, directed by Natasha Ramondino

In the third entry by UTM, Janet and Alan’s unstable marriage was shaken further when an old friend arrived to stay with them for a while during his seperation. The visitor, handsome and charismatic Joey, sensed a change in Alan, who had recently been laid off, as the two reconnected over beer; Alan had become lethargic, while Janet felt that her life was stuck. Realistic dialogue and superb performances from some of the cast made some moments hilarious and others shocking, and Days Like These offered the perfect blend of comedy and intense drama. The set was intricate and complex, moreso than almost any other in the festival, and the direction and staging throughout offered a realistic depiction of fully-formed characters while still making good use of the stage. A complex script filled with realized characters and wonderful direction and acting made Days Like These an extraordinary show and, I thought, a likely contender for some awards.

The Awards

The awkward consequence of predicting award-winners and critiquing productions is having to eat crow if the winners don’t match my expectations, and last night there were quite a few surprises:

IATSE Local 58 Award for Technical Achievement
To UTM for Twilight Soldier

Hart House Theatre Award for Best Performance
To the ensemble of the cast of UTM’s Trail of Embrace

Robertson Davies Playwriting Award
To Kylah Thomson for UTM’s Trail of Embrace

Robert Gill Award for Best Direction
To Carter West for Hart House Players’ Mannequin Ensemble

President’s Award for Best Production
To UTM for Trail of Embrace

The technical award to Twilight Soldier was no surprise, as their use of lighting and sound was superb, but the lack of other awards for this piece shocked me. Trail of Embrace was the big winner for the evening, much bigger than I expected, and though the awards for the ensemble and production were not unexpected, recognition for the script was. It was funny and touching but lacked the depth of others such as those of Twilight Soldier, Down the Drain, and Days Like These, and its success evokes in me thoughts of Bridesmaids’ Melissa McCarthy’s Oscar nominations and the growing shift towards recognizing humour over serious work. The award for direction also came quite out of left field, but it is rather difficult to ascertain how much work was the director’s, the writer’s, and the actors’ when one hasn’t seen the script.

Overall, this year’s drama festival was a fascinating mix of humour and seriousness, with a strong emphasis on failed relationships. UTM presented the most consistently strong shows and all three were worthy of recognition. All plays except for one took place in the present day, although the ages of characters spanned from early adolescense to beyond middle age. Music and lighting techniques were relied on heavily in almost all of the plays. Sets were mostly minimalistic and contained, whereas almost all characters each had an emotional outburst at some point.

The U of T Drama Festival is an excellent opportunity for students from all walks of life to showcase their skills and talents, and a great place for others to watch and participate in the development of a collective culture. Attending all ten shows was a wonderful experience for me and I encourage everyone else to attend at least one night in 2013. You too can take part in the beauty that is the theatre and the wonderful world that is the University of Toronto.

Hart House Players: Mannequin Ensemble by Reg Matson, directed by Carter West

The first play in the festival to veer off the course of naturalism, Mannequin Ensemble was set in a farcical world of murderous servants, spontaneous duels, and arrogantly oblivious noblemen. The play revolved around the attempts of a man of the upper class to solve a murder in his manor while also marrying his unfaithful fiancé, but he and his people were thwarted at every turn by absurd, hilarious twists, often of their own making. Though the piece relied heavily on music and scene changes that lasted just a tad too long, the jokes were witty and their deliveries spot-on. The same cannot be said for the slapstick humour which was, it seems, intentionally weak to add to the caricature, but which actually just made the two-dimensional characters and their one-dimensional acting seem even lazier. Despite this, Mannequin Ensemble garnered more laughs from the audience than any other play thus far, and its The-Maids-meets-Big-Comfy-Couch humour did make for good farce, though of whom it is never certain. Stiff competition from both drama and other comedies makes Mannequin Ensemble‘s awards prospectives look bleak.

St Michael’s College: The Long Run, written and directed by Rachel Ganz

If the nonsensical synopsis in the programme wasn’t indication enough that The Long Run needed more time in the workshop, the production certainly was. Upon realizing that their mother had left, maybe for good, three siblings of indeterminate ages argued over what they’d do after they’d been deserted by both of their parents. The premise was fascinating but its execution was not, and the result was one full act of shouting, monologues overflowing with awkward exposition, failed lighting cues, and more shouting. In addition to being the first play in the festival in which actors routinely restarted their lines after getting them wrong, The Long Run also featured the worst performances I’ve ever seen on Hart House Theatre’s stage. This is especially true of poor John Debono, who seemed convinced that solely volume conveyed emotion. A few interesting monologues about running away and what it means to face one’s problems gave this piece somewhat of a redemptive quality toward the end, but could not save it from the rest of itself. All-together bad acting, writing, and direction make The Long Run an unlikely candidate for any festival awards.

New College: Thick Blood, written and directed by William Wong

Though not the only entry in the festival to feature gay themes, Thick Blood was certainly the one that came closest to being itself homophobic, however unintentionally. It concerned two siblings who discovered a queer-themed magazine in their closeted brother’s sock drawer and, accompanied by a friend, squabbled for an inordinate period of time about what they insisted to be a big deal. A really, really, really, big deal. That seemed to be the central theme of Thick Blood - that having a gay brother is the most significant thing that can ever happen to anyone ever, and that being the sibling of a possibly gay man is incredibly stressful and difficult. Though it may have intended to shine light on negative attitudes of siblings towards queer members of their families, histrionic acting by the cast of three and the absence of any defense for the gay brother seemed to suggest that these siblings were justified in their offensive concerns over their brother’s change/life/future/soul. The script even went so far as to suggest that the pressures which may make a person homophobic are equatable to those which might make a person gay. Thick Blood ends with a recitation of a part of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, as if to suggest that either being gay or reacting to a gay brother is somehow a life-changing decision comparable to that alluded to in Frost’s poem. Even if my interpretation is on the pessimistic side, Thick Blood‘s excessive running time in comparison to the material make it difficult to be kind, and the constant references to the dialogue “going nowhere”, as if acknowledging it made it okay, did nothing to mend that. A circular script and over-reactive cast make Thick Blood an unlikely choice for any of the festival’s awards.

February 16

University of Toronto Mississauga: Trail of Embrace by Kylah Thomson, directed by Kaitlyn Alexander

Whereas last night’s submission from UTM was bleak and dismal, tonight’s was lighter and more cheery, though not without its darker side. Trail of Embrace followed a young woman as she went out on her first date in one year, accompanied by the memories of her past boyfriends. Constant motion and a sharp sense of wit gave this piece a great flow that kept the audience interested and invested in the plot as Skye reminisced about her previous relationships while meeting with an eager, if not eccentric, coffee date. Though the emotion was a little more contained than in other shows, the actors did a good job of being figments of imagination, products of flashbacks, and present conversationalists, sometime all at once. The twist ending – that Skye’s sister, the person with whom she’s had the most meaningful relationship in her whole life, had died – came as shock to an otherwise complacent audience. Though a little out of left field, it helped end the delightful Trail of Embrace with a tinge of sadness and a powerful message of love and loss. A clever script and excellent staging and direction make Trail of Embrace a likely candidate for at least two of the five possible awards.

New College: An Extravagant Life by Jade Jessica Ng, directed by Alex Howard

Continuing on the theme of love and memory we got An Extravagant Life, a weighty drama about a young man dying of some mysterious illness who is visited by the spirit of his true love, a man who happened to have died two years prior of some other mysterious illness. The piece began as a conversation between four friends, one of whom was repressing his grief and sadness, but then three of the friends disappeared a few minutes into the show and were replaced by a lengthy monologue and conversation between our dying protaganist and his former lover. Colin Asuncion’s remarkable emotion and strength as an actor in the lead role did little to compensate for the circular script that ended up, after what felt like hours, going no where. Audience members around me were slouching down with their eyes closed and some even began to text as Cam and Darren began their second – then third, then fourth… – round of sweet nothings and reminiscing about the days before that annoyingly mysterious, unnamed illness took Darren’s life. Ultimately, the play ended where it began and nothing was accomplished, making An Extravagant Life seem more like an exercise in romantic dialogue than a fully-formed play. Asuncion’s superb performance may have warranted an award, but there was little other merit to this piece.

February 15

University of Toronto Mississauga: Twilight Soldier by Gevvy Sidhu, directed by Victor Pokinko

Though not technically a college, UTM is constantly in competition with students of the larger and more well-known St. George Campus, and last night they proved themselves worthy rivals beyond a doubt. Set in Berlin immediately following Hitler’s suicide, Twilight Soldier follows a Nazi, in denial of the death of his leader, who has imprisoned two soldiers, an American and a Soviet, and is not quite certain what to do with them. He is accompanied by another German soldier who regrets his involvement with the war, and Mephistopheles, the demon who never hesitates to comment on or influence the proceedings of the play. Though its very conception may be more than a tad clichéd – the sexy devil in a short black dress, the weeping soldier wondering if he is a coward, the chessboard – extraordinarily convincing performances from its dynamic cast made Twilight Soldier a powerhouse of a play. The emotional energy was raw and real and the pain agonizingly effective. The awkwardness of speaking in English with trite German accents when the conversation was between two Germans was a little off-putting, but almost unnoticeable amidst the heavily allusive, intriguing, philosophical dialogue. Twilight Soldier was an overwhelming experience by a flawless cast and a very likely candidate for at least four of the five possible awards.

University College: Teen Fiction, written and directed by Brett McNeill

The show began with a man in drag shouting at four teen movie archetypes and went downhill from there. Teen Fiction was a parody of teen movies, it seems, even though it was neither a movie nor presented to teens, but inconsistency was only the least of its troubles. The interesting premise, that four archetypal teenagers – the thug, the cheerleader, the bitch, and the nerd – were told they were not allowed to be themselves for the duration of the play, was thwarted by hammy acting and constant unnecessary appeals to popular to teen movies. Every joke was told at least a dozen times, in only slightly different ways, and by curtain call the dead horse of teen movie parodies had been beaten so thoroughly it was almost unrecognizable. Couple in the recurring shtick characters not being allowed to swear (one must say “cauliflower” instead of “bitch”) and some bizarre subplot about a mystery drug that was actually a placebo, and you get a one-act play that sacrifices meaning for laughs and laughs for esoteric appeal. Teen Fiction was all-around poorly written, directed, produced, and executed, and it is unlikely to win any Drama Festival award. And none for Gretchen Wieners.

Trinity College: Down the Drain, written and directed by Salena Barry and Walter Villanueva

Two harsh spotlights shone down on two bathroom sinks and nothing but, giving Down the Drain a creepy but powerful effect of solitude and separation. Horace and Noreen Butler, married for years and with a grown-up child who’s moved away, come to reflect upon their marriage and relationship with each other over their morning rituals. The entire play was set at the bathroom sinks, with deeply realistic dialogue and brilliant chemistry between the cast of two, driving Horace and Noreen into an emotional battle over their lives and what they want. A short and sweet running time made each second of Down the Drain impactful for the audience and the chillingly unresolved ending drove the whole piece home. Superbly detailed set dressing and great sincerity from the actors made the audience feel practically voyeuristic in the home of these two strangers. Down the Drain is emotionally devastating and without a second of weakness, making it a likely contender for at least three of the five possible awards.

Note: The original text has been slightly altered.

On January 23rd, Oohlala Mobile announced the transformation of University of Toronto’s St. George campus into a virtual playground. By downloading the app, Oohlala, students become contestants in a digital treasure hunt, utilizing the GPS on their smartphones to locate and acquire the treasure. The hunt involves three simple steps:
Step 1: Locate the treasure chest using the app.
Step 2: Obtain the treasure chest.
Step 3: Prevent others stealing it from you!
Other students using the app are able to snatch the chest if they are within 50m of the prize holder. Students must use their wits, determination and speed while trying to hold on to the prize over a 5-day period! The person holding the chest on Thursday, February 6th at 5pm is the winner of a high-end Macbook Air, while the person who has held on to the chest the longest without its capture gets a semester’s worth of text books for free.
Check out the game here: www.CampusApp.com

Virtual Capture the Flag is OOHLALA Mobile’s latest initiative to enhance campus life via the OOHLALA mobile app. The app also allows students across Canadian universities and colleges, along with their student unions, to connect with one another, form study groups, trade books, get notified of campus events, and access exclusive student deals from local and national retailers. Student unions (such as the UTSU, which has adopted Oohlala as its official app) and clubs are able to view metrics to gauge student engagement and success of events, allowing them to deliver a more tailored and engaging student experience. “Oohlala Mobile is all about energizing the student experience and fostering a more close knit feel on campus. We help students navigate their campus life and have a good time while doing so,” said Danial Jameel, CEO and founder of Oohlala Mobile. “An interactive and action packed approach, Virtual Capture the Flag represents our commitment to finding unique ways for students to explore their campus and meet new people without relying on clichéd forms of marketing such as campus flyers on crowded bulletin boards and Facebook posts. Mediums that are effective in theory but have become saturated to the point that a lot of useful information is lost in the noise.” Danielle Sandhu, President of UTSU, remarked, “Traditional forms of mass communication are often drowned out in a sea of information and are often ineffective when it comes to reaching many target groups. Today’s students suffer from stimulus overflow and short attention spans. We need to keep things dynamic. When people know they are in for an interesting experience – in this case, being a part of not only a live adventure but an inaugural use of a new technology – not only does it create awareness of their university activities, but it strengthens their affinity to it.” Concepts like these are challenging the paradigms of media and interaction. Live gaming apps are just but one of the innovative ideas Oohlala has planned for engaging the North American student populace. Students want and deserve to get the most out of their time in college and that is our mission.

Oohlala Mobile’s motto is to “Energize the Student Experience”. Since its launch in September 2011, the company, composed of students and recent grads, has been selected by tech/startup accelerator FounderFuel, adopted by the Canadian federation of students, and numerous student unions including those at University of Toronto, Ryerson, McGill. The company has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including top honors at the Rotman ADventure business competition, Kinnear Business competition, NBTC 2011 entrepreneur competition, Queen’s Entrepreneur competition, Bank of Montreal’s Apex business competition, and the Quebec entrepreneur competition.

Mes chers amis, la SPECQUE c’est la Simulation du parlement européen Canada-Québec-Europe. Ne vous laissez pas être détournés par le mot “parliament” (ou “simulation”, ou quoi que ce soit). En fait la SPECQUE présente à chacun une opportunité inoubliable de pousser ses limites, apprendre beacoup sur le monde et les actualités, et finalement voyager et rencontrer des gens inspirants!

Il s’agit d’une semaine intense passée en débats, en commissions, en sessions plénières…on dort peu, on boit beaucoup de caffé…On joue le rôle d’un eurodéputé au sein du parlement européen, ou bien un commissaire qui propose une pièce de législation, ou un rapporteur qui la critique dans son rapport. On peut également être un lobbyiste, un journaliste, un photographe, le président de commission – il y a plein de rôles pour tous les goûts! Donc si vous vous intéressez aux questions de politique européen, la SPECQUE est pour vous!

Elle est peut-être plus chère aux canadiens qu’aux autres, parce que elle a été fondée au Québec en 1998. C’est vrai, la simulation du parlement européen a été proposée par une étudiante de l’Université Laval. La SPECQUE a lieu dans un endroit different chaque an, alternativement en Europe et au Canada. Cet été la ville hôte était Luxembourg, tandis qu’en 2012 Montréal aura ce privilège.

Voilà ce que le site web officiel de la SPECQUE en dit:

“En tant que simulation parlementaire, la SPECQUE permet à ses participants de se développer. Les qualités oratoires, le sens de l’initiative et de la négociation, l’art de la persuasion ainsi que la capacité à analyser en profondeur des questions sensibles, et les aborder sous un angle législatif, sont certaines compétences que la SPECQUE permet de cultiver. La Simulation permet aussi à ses participants d’élargir leurs horizons par la découverte de jeunes issus de milieux et de cultures différentes. Cette découverte, et l’ouverture d’esprit qui en découle, sont d’une valeur inestimable dans le contexte de mondialisation que nous connaissons actuellement.”

Je pourrai ajouter de ma part que je n’aurai jamais imaginé combien la SPECQUE pourrait être intéressante, stimulante et comment elle peut créer une dépendence. Si on y participe une fois, on veut retourner, c’est sûr!

Alors, si vous croyez que la SPECQUE c’est pour vous, contactez-moi pour plus de détails.

Le batîment de la commission européenne où la SPECQUE se déroulait cet été. Je mens pas quand je dis que c’est impressionnant!

AMINA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv7PwrWp5lQ

TATJANA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2wmKcBm4Ik and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHF3X8tQYPU

PADINA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWrU4We1Nq8

GAËL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmvt4B8rK2U

MICHELLE: http://youtu.be/5BGY6k4Aphs

Each of you will soon receive an email from blogUT regarding the collection of your prize. Get stoked for some Gainsbourg on Wednesday at 7pm!

Special thanks to EFUT for making this contest possible.