THEVOICE | 4 Play checks toxic masculinity THURSDAY, MARCH 17,2022 | EDITOR NICOLETTE COLOSIMO Arts&life Men Express Their Feelings examines what it means to be a man today = By KENNETH WONG n upcoming play star- ring a Langara College student uses a hockey locker room setting to challenge traditional notions of masculinity by exploring the hidden boundaries of men’s emotions. Written by Sunny Drake and directed by Cameron Macken- zie, Men Express Their Feelings 1s about two fathers and their sons in a hockey dressing room having diffi- cult discussions following a heated fight. The play tackles questions of gender, sexual identity and their cultural impacts. The play, premiering in Vancouver at the Firehall Arts Centre on March 18, stars Studio 58 student Quinn Churchill. Churchill said the play can help men understand what it means to be a man in the 21st century. “This story speaks so specifically to what men go through,” Churchill said. “I feel like in our society, women have already worked out a lot of these things that these men are going through.” Manisha Singh, a women’s stud- ies instructor at Langara, thinks that the play will still resonate with female audience members. “There’s so much empathy around the fact that guys are socialized from the time they were small boys, to having to suck it up and repress their emotions,” Singh said. “Women are in relationships with men, we're their partners, we're their sisters, we're their mothers.” Churchill said the play made him Ishan Sandhu and Quinn Churchill, actors in Men Express Their Feelings, have locker room conversations about gender and sexuality. courTEsy oF ZEE ZEE THEATRE COMPANY. more open to show what he’s strug- gling with regarding his own iden- tity. His dad pressured him to be a professional hockey player at a time when he was trying to figure out his own masculinity. “What’s amazing about this role is that my character is going through all of that figuring out what exactly he wants to do with himself, who exactly he is,” Churchill said. George Belliveau, a UBC theatre research professor, believes theatre has potential to be a place where open dialogue can happen. “You get to play someone who’s similar to you, but often you can also play someone who is different from you,” Belliveau said. “You might real- ize that maybe that character was not that different from you. So, you get to know a part of yourself that you maybe didn’t know was there.” Joshua Dodkin, a Vancouver hockey player with the LGBT team Cutting Edges, said these types of performances create a space for men to have conversations. “Locker room banter is just like guys ripping on each other,” Dodkin said. “Not always making the most accepting environment.” Dodkin said that it is important to move away from the traditional gender binary and embrace a new progressive vision. “Twenty years ago, if you were to talk about [mental illness or sexu- ality] as a man, you'd be deemed unmanly,” Dodkin said. “I think what [masculinity] should be about is caring about feminism, under- standing that just being a man you're given so much privilege, so you should be using that to make everyone equal.” Directing the play helped Cameron Mackenzie see his own emotions from a new perspective. “I’m being affected by what I’m hoping other people will be affected by, which is learn to express [my feel- ings], learn to open up, learn to move through something challenging, and not just like, bottle it down,” Mack- enzie said. Sunny Drake wrote the play to have a structure like a hockey game with three periods and char- acters stepping out and providing commentary on their thoughts and feelings. “T really find that comedy is such a way to draw people into difficult content,” Drake said. “It’s a fun play, and allows us to sort of sit with some really difficult things while getting to have a laugh, and a fun night out.” Sportsnews Falcons Mens team finishes third; women return empty-handed = By CORVINVASKI fter a podium finish for the Langara Falcons men’s basketball team and an early end to the women’s season at the PACWEST championships, coaches and players are preparing to come back stronger next season. The Langara men’s and women’s teams attended the champi- onships March 3-5 at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford. It was the first provincial finals to be held since the 2019-2020 season, capping off the return of basketball since the pandemic began. Going into the tourna- ment the men’s team was beginning to catch their stride playing as a team after struggles throughout the season. “No one really knew how to play with each other,” Falcons guard Royce take bronze at Pacwest playoffs Sargeant said. “But we found out that we could play together in the end.” The Falcons men’s team won their first game against the Douglas Royals and lost their second game to Vancouver Island University. They finished the tournament winning against the Camosun Char- gers in a wild double-overtime game that saw 18 lead changes and a buzzer beater three-pointer from Camosun at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime. The Falcons even- tually won 113-107 to capture third place in the playoffs. “Even though we had our strug- gles on the court at times and maybe underachieved a little bit, it’s been a SUBMITTED PHOTO nice group to work with. I was really pleased how we finished the end of the year,” coach Paul Eberhardt said. The Falcons women’s team played in the first game of the champion- “We knew that they were going to come running and ships versus eventual PACWEST champions Okanagan Coyotes. “We knew that they were going to come running and gunning, and we just wanted to slow it down,” coach Virginia Watson said. “Like really slow it down and take good high- quality shots.” The Falcons kept the game tied going into the half, but the Coyotes proved to be too much and began to pull away on the scoreboard, winning 79-64, ending the Falcons season. After her team sustained several injuries, Watson said they will have more stringent rules around weight training to prevent injuries. With the season now finished for both Falcons teams, the play- ers and coaches get a short break and then the players will be back to a training and practice regimen. “T just told the guys, right now you have to focus on gunning.” school because if they don't — VIRGINIAWATSON, get it done in the classroom, WOMEN'S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH they won't be able to play next year,” Eberhardt said. While the athletes are finishing their classes, the coaches are seeking recruits and plan- ning what their teams will look like next year. “The high school champion- ships are wrapping up. Most of our Vancouver Island University Camosun College ol 5 10 15 Langara Men's and Women's Game Stat Leaders Douglas College — rll Dhudwal 9 cl hance Samuel 5 Allayasa Bray 11 Royce Sargeant 4 Allayasa Bray 14 Royce Sargeant 5 Okanagan College Ri Nadia Singh 15 achel Labradar/ Jessica Castillo 6 Points @ Rebounds ©) Assist Allayasa Bray 17 AJ Chahal 22 Royce Sargeant 39 Nadia Singh 18 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 SOURCE: PACWEST B.C. coaches will have been in atten- dance at some of the championships, watching student athletes they’ve recruited and then hopefully land- ing some of them,” said the Langara director of athletics and intramurals, Jake McCallum. With both teams relatively young, there will be many familiar faces on the teams next year that will bring experience to their teams. “We are going to try to improve and come out stronger than this year,” said Falcons forward Stefany Martinez. PACWEST basketball will resume play this October.