Newsletter
Spring 2006
by Robin Sokoloski, Publications Coordinator Intern
Theatre On
the first weekend of March, I was invited
to attend the Canadian Conference of the Arts’ (CCA) national policy conference in
Ottawa as a blogger. What is a blogger and why was it
made a component of an arts conference?
Before the weekend, a blog was a relatively new concept to
me. A blog is an online journal, comprised of links and
postings. Many blogs allow readers to comment on the original
postings, thereby facilitating audience discussion. The word is an
abbreviation of "web log."
When the CCA asked me and eight other young individuals to
blog the conference, the guidelines were very informal. We were
asked to reflect on the conference from our own perspectives like "a
youthful enthusiastic thread weaving through the web of cultural policy
conversations."
One such conversation was based on Stephen Harper’s
election promise to offer tax breaks to parents to help cover the costs of
enrolling their kids in fitness-boosting activities. Many of the
attendees at the conference felt strongly about extending this tax break
to parents who have enrolled their children into arts-based activities as
well. To start engaging youth in the art sector, our country must
support art-based programs. Participation in the arts at an early
age is a powerful way of nurturing future cultural policy makers.
Art and culture does not matter to those who have not experienced
it.
Throughout the weekend, I was asked several times: “How
can events such as this encourage more youth to come out and
participate?” The nine young bloggers at the conference certainly
represented a minority in attendance. Youth engagement has been
identified as an area that everyone within the art sector must confront to
remain accessible, dynamic and inclusive. The CCA’s approach to this
challenge was not only to invite a team of young bloggers to their
conference, but to empower, promote and support their ideas and
input.
After the conference I received an email from CCA
representative Philipa Borgal that said: "...Your presence provided a
tangible difference in the room, and we (and many others) have been very
interested to read your opinions, viewpoints, and comments on the
blog. I think these will help CCA in the planning of future
conferences, especially when trying to attract young people to
attend."
The problem with youth communicating in this manner is
that blogs are new, and intimidating to those who have not used the
technology before. This potentially widens the gap even further,
leaving the voice of youth somewhere out there in cyberspace.
Technology is progressing at such a rapid rate that it is often difficult
for anyone to keep up. However, to capture all varying perspectives
it is essential to not only utilize, but to understand how these new forms
of communication can work towards benefiting the arts.
Taking us out of the conference setting for a second and
walking into a theatre space, one might find the same demographic (a youth
minority) amongst the audience. The question remains synonymous at
every stage throughout the cultural sector. The CCA has offered one
possible solution: Give youth a voice.
by Sharon
Sproule, Espanola Little Theatre
When you belong to a community theatre group in a small
town in Northern Ontario, population 5500, you are continually looking for
ways to further the group’s proficiency in the art. Over the years,
the Espanola Little Theatre (ELT) have heartily embraced training and
networking as the most influential forces on the quality of work done by
the group.
ELT was founded in 1958 by Recreation Director Red
McCarthy. In its early days, members took full advantage of the
courses and workshops offered by the Community Programmes Branch of the
Department of Education. Through the tireless efforts of George
Merton, who oversaw the theatre division, we were able to train with
leading Canadian and international professionals. ELT also took
advantage of the Theatre Ontario training grants to bring in professional
directors and facilitators for shows and workshops. We also attended
festivals; we learned from the public and private adjudications and from
seeing the quality of the work of other groups.
In the 1980s, a more intensive and focused training
programme started to evolve. We started by budgeting a certain
amount of money to be used specifically for training.
Sometimes it would go towards sending someone to the Actor’s Centre course
in Sault Ste. Marie, or hiring a bus to take a group to see a show
directed by a professional in Sudbury or the Sault—anything to get us to
see beyond our “own little basement.”
Today, every show of the season, including our Young
Company’s, has a professional Production Consultant or Polisher run a
weekend session, approximately two weeks before the show goes up. We
have also introduced a Mentorship programme for neophyte directors.
We also cover half of the cost for a member to attend a Theatre Ontario
Summer Course. Last year we sent a director, and this year we are
sending someone from stage management.
Because we feel attendance at the QUONTA Festival is such
a valuable training experience, we subsidize each company member to two
nights, and beginning this year, the director of any show we take to the
Festival will be subsidized for the entire festival, including
accommodation, theatre tickets, and a travel allowance to attend all shows
and all detailed adjudications.
Over the years our Supporting Donors have, in a large
measure, made it possible for us to embrace the concept of always striving
to reach beyond our theatre grasp and to love the art in ourselves, not
ourselves in the art. We are deeply in their debt.
By Andrea Emmerton
In 1991, when word got out that a dinner theatre was going
to operate in the back room of a Chinese restaurant in Sault Ste. Marie,
the theatre’s founder, Richard Howard, was told that he was “going down
the tubes.” His reaction was that if it happened, he would “pull the
chain himself.”
Fifteen seasons and at least ninety productions later,
Pull-Chain Theatre is still going strong. They have performed plays
such as Romeo and Juliet, The Little Foxes,
Cabaret, Into The Woods and The Crucible.
The venue has changed but the high quality of the work continues.
The first restaurant was torn down, and Pull-Chain moved to the former
Windsor Park Hotel, a space that is now being used by Algoma
College. Pull-Chain is temporarily sharing space with Sault Theatre
Workshop, but there is no doubt that Richard will find another funky,
permanent space in which to work his magic. Richard made a choice to
stay in Sault Ste. Marie: “This is where I am at the moment, and life
continues to be an adventure.”
Richard was born in Port Huron, Michigan, and grew up in
Sarnia. When he was about 10 or 11, he saw a newspaper ad about
auditions for Joan of Arc. He decided to try out. “When I
walked into that theatre space, I understood immediately that I was
home. I understood that those people were my family.” To this
day, Richard feels the same way about theatre and theatre people. He
still is passionate about life in general, and about theatre in
particular.
“There’s a quote that I’ve learned to live by,” Richard
said. “‘Problems are not caused by events in the past, but rather by
decisions made in the present to hold onto the past.’” Richard hopes
that the lessons he has learned through a lifetime of self-discovery will
help the young people that he works with, as a teacher and director.
“I think I’m someone who has found what he should be doing, and it’s
important to me that young people understand that if they get involved in
theatre, they’ll find that it’s a great healing process because it’s a
process of giving and overcoming.”
In the 1950s, Richard auditioned for the Stratford
Festival and was selected by Tyrone Guthrie to join the company. He
later attended the Actor’s Studio in New York and continued his education
in England as an actor. His interest turned to directing, as he
found that he could express himself more. “Directing allows you to
work out your own life, through the stories that you are telling. As
a director, I have many more stories to tell and my best work is still to
come. I feel like the top of a volcano, ready to erupt with new
stories, and new ways of telling old stories. You don’t go to a
rehearsal space to find theatre, you bring it with you. If you can’t
find a space in which to work, use your basement or garage. You
don’t have to have the scenery and props, just the actors and the
work.”
Richard married actress Lila Kedrova, after meeting and
seeing her perform in England. They worked and traveled together
throughout the world, and eventually settled in Sault Ste. Marie, where
Richard was directing for Sault Opera Company and Sault Theatre
Workshop. “Lila is totally responsible for anything really good and
positive in my life, without question. She is the one who opened my
eyes to what it really means to be an artist, and the importance and the
joy of it, and how much the world needs it. The irony is that
growing up, I thought my love of literature, music and painting was a
weakness in me, and I was ashamed of it. Lila showed me that it was
my strength.” Lila and Richard were married for thirty-one years,
until she passed on in 2001.
Richard has been a member of Theatre Ontario’s Talent Bank
since 1987, and has worked with more than fifty community theatres across
the province delivering workshops. A great number of Canada’s finest
theatre personalities have risen through the ranks of community
theatre. It has been, and continues to be, an essential part of this
country’s creative thrust. Richard firmly believes that the dynamics
of Ontario’s community theatre sector, and the Summer Courses set up under
the vigorous and nurturing eye of Theatre Ontario, are truly unique.
He initiated, and continues to support financially, the Richard Howard
Award, which will help to make the best professional training available to
those involved in community theatre. For over fifteen years, the
Richard Howard Award has been given out at the annual Theatre Ontario
Festival by the adjudicator to a community theatre director whose work is
entered competitively in the Festival. The recipient receives a
scholarship in the Summer Course of his or her choice. The award
includes tuition fees, room and board.
“My life is fulfilling, difficult, stressful, rewarding,
worthwhile,” Richard said. “I wouldn’t change anything in my life;
the bad; the ugly; the unfortunate. These things make up the pyramid
of who I am.”
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