Introducing Festival Adjudicator Bea Quarrie

We are excited to welcome Bea Quarrie as our adjudicator for Theatre Ontario Festival, running May 14 to 18, 2014 in Sarnia.  Bea has most recently adjudicated the 2013 Western Ontario Drama League (WODL) Festival and the 2012 Eastern Ontario Drama League (EODL) One-Act Festival.

As an adjudicator, director, and performer, Bea has always believed in the transformative power of the arts.  She has directed over 85 shows, some represented Canada at International Festivals in Japan, Germany, Aruba, and Venezuela, as well as in Canada.  She has been active in educational, amateur, and professional theatre, served on regional, provincial, and national committees, arts councils, theatre companies and theatre service organizations.  She has adjudicated all over Ontario for Sears and regional Festivals, co-founded five professional theatre companies in Peterborough, taught and directed in China, performed in over 100 productions, and is the subject of two films.  In her spare time she paints and exhibits large abstracts with the Abstract Ten group of painters.  Directing Hedda Gabler (Peterborough) and Spamalot (Cobourg) back to back this past year, exemplifies the range of her interests.

The annual Theatre Ontario Festival is a showcase of outstanding community theatre productions, a classroom for passionate and dedicated community theatre artists, a celebration of excellence in community theatre, and a destination bringing together theatre lovers from across the province.  Theatre Ontario Festival will be on May 14 to 18.

Excerpted from Bea's keynote at the WODL Festival "Why do we do community theatre?":

We sacrifice time and money, bribe significant others to join us, celebrate in the successes of our efforts and bemoan missed opportunities.  We commune together in the secular church of our community performance spaces because we love this ephemeral art called live theatre.  We continually aspire to create meaningful experiences for participants on both sides of the stage, often overcoming huge challenges.

As an adjudicator in community festivals, I often ask participants about the characters in their plays—why should we like them, what makes them “real”?  I am really asking the questions that are fundamental to the meaning of each play.  It is the driving force behind the action, the aspirations that are central to that meaning contained in the objectives of the play's characters.  After all, theatre is about aspirations—it is about longing and the desire for answers.  Small theatre concerns itself with small questions, and great theatre with the great Universals.

We work in a community, and the communal ideal of excellence is contagious.  When we can see theatre that responds to our need to love rather than to our need to have an experience that does not call for changes of any kind, internal or external, once actors/directors/designers are not so fearful of censure or misunderstanding that the bums-in-seats mentality dictates, then there is hope that the tide of our introverted, unhappy time will turn and that we will once again be prepared to look at ourselves truthfully.

Joy comes from feeling the power rather than fear when faced with the necessity of choice, to seek out and enjoy, to feel the life-giving pleasure of the power of artistic choice no matter what onstage or backstage role we take on, whether it is a splendidly silly comedy or face, or a deeply moving tragedy.

For all this we must have courage.  I know it exists in community theatres around the province because I have witnessed it personally.  I want to thank participants for returning community to community theatre.  Thanks for trusting that the gift of performance will be gratefully received no matter how complex the material.

If theatre is the coming together of all the arts, I thank all live theatre practitioners for returning all those arts to life.

Read more about Theatre Ontario Festival 2014 on our website

Browsing The Bulletin Board

Coming up from Theatre Ontario

• Upcoming workshops include Proposal Writing: Creative Approaches to Creative Proposals with Denise Bolduc on September 9 in Toronto, Playwriting: Idea to First Draft with Lindsay Price on September 14 in Toronto, and Playwriting: How to Self-Edit and Critique with Lindsay Price on September 15 in Toronto—future workshops include marketing, an OAC grant writing information session, and ask an agent (Toronto) and crowdfunding (Ottawa)
• Upcoming Community Theatre Discussion Forums in Oshawa on September 12 and Sault Ste. Marie on September 28: sharing and identifying opportunities to partner, and provide services and support such as advocacy, training, resources, and facilitation
• Applications are now being accepted for the Professional Theatre Training Program, offering financial support for unique and flexible training with a chosen mentor in any theatrical discipline except performance.  The application deadline is October 1.

Upcoming on The Bulletin Board

• Deadline for proposals (seminars, workshops, panels, research and “community sound bytes”) for the Symposium for Performing Arts in Rural Communities is August 30

• The Stratford Festival invites submissions from Canadian directors for the 2014 Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction, a director training program with emphasis on classical text.  This call is for theatre directors, from emerging to mid-stage in their career. Their primary task will be assistant directing one of the plays in the Festival’s 2014 season.  The deadline is September 1.
• The deadline for submissions for the Soulpepper Dance Awards is September 3, recognizing all sectors of dance artists in Toronto (emerging, senior, community, multi-disciplinary) by artists who exemplify the values of Soulpepper (creativity, innovation, collaboration, and spirit)
• Anna Migliari's An Acting Class: A Way of Work starts on September 4 - new students are welcome

New on The Bulletin Board

• Acting Up Stage Company invites submissions for the Syd & Shirley Banks Prize, an annual opportunity for musical theatre artists under 30 years of age who are under-exposed in Toronto and its surrounding areas.  The prize consists of a cash award, a cabaret performance, a feature role, and mentorship.  The submission deadline is September 9.
• Tarragon Theatre’s Playwriting and Dramaturgy with Brian Quirt explores playwriting and play development practice and its relationship to dramaturgy.  It’s a nine-session workshop, starting October 1.

Check out these items, and other postings from our members of workshops, calls for submission, funding opportunities, awards, and more—on Theatre Ontario’s Bulletin Board on our website

Welcoming New Board Members

We are thrilled to welcome Kevin Clarke, Paul Groulx, and Ted Sellers to our Board of Directors at Theatre Ontario.

Kevin D. Clarke’s interest in theatre was sparked in junior-high school and continued as a patron and volunteer at Theatre Calgary for shows including Anne of Green Gables and the Phantom of the Opera tour.  He moved to Toronto in 1996 to pursue a career in Information Technology with IBM and experienced a wider spectrum of theatre from Brad Fraser’s Outrageous to Cole Porter’s classic musical Anything Goes.  He gained career experience as Manager of PwC Canada’s IT Service Desk and Chaired the LGBT Employee Resource Group (GLEE).  As Senior Project Manager in the Global Human Resources group at Scotiabank, he is very excited to join the board and experience another aspect of theatre.

Paul Groulx has been involved in theatre since 1983 as an actor, director, producer, and stage manager of many productions in the region of Halton and Toronto.  He studied acting part-time in Toronto at various local studios from 1986 to 1989.  He then graduated from the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School, and he has practised law since 1997.  He has served as Vice President of the Oakville Arts Council and President of the Burl-Oak Theatre Group in Oakville.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors for West End Studio Theatre, a community theatre group in Oakville and also for Galahad Theatre Productions Ltd. A professional theatre company associated with The Living Arts Centre in Mississauga.  He resides in Milton with his husband and three children.

Ted Sellers has been involved in community theatre for many years in the Durham region.  He has been in several productions as an actor, producer, set designer and builder, as well as his newest adventure as a director.  He is the director of the youth group at Oshawa Little  Theatre.  As a member of the ACT-CO Board of Directors for the past few years, he has been witness to outstanding theatre throughout the regions.  Community theatre is alive, exciting, and certainly unpredictable which adds that air of excitement when you see a community theatre production.






We are also sad to say farewell to Barry Freeman and Ken Stephen, both of whom have had to step down from the Board of Directors.  Barry is departing in order to fulfill his obligations to the University of Toronto, including writing a book on globalization in relation to theatre in Toronto, and also editing a collection of essays by artists, educators and scholars called Why Theatre Now, about what it is that makes theatre especially urgent in our time and place.  Ken is currently writing two blogs, Large Stage Live!, about live arts performances that he attends, and Off The Beaten Staff, about rare and unusual classical musical.

“Barry and Ken’s contributions will certainly be missed on our Board and we are very sorry to see them go,” said Carol Beauchamp, Executive Director.  “I am very excited to have a highly-engaged Board with a broad range of experience and valuable skill sets, all committed to a vibrant and dynamic future for Theatre Ontario.”

Read more about Theatre Ontario's Board of Directors on our website

ONstage Openings for the week of August 26

In Southwestern Ontario
Aug. 28, Falling: A Wake at Blyth Festival*

For more information on this show and other theatre playing across Ontario, visit Theatre Ontario’s ONstage theatre listings on our website.

Theatre Ontario members can access discount tickets for shows marked with an * asterisk

Still playing in Southwestern Ontario
Port Stanley Festival Theatre - Drinking Alone
John Turner, Karen Parker, Shirley Barr, and Kate Gordon
Photo by Melissa Kempf

Ontario Off Stage

by Brandon Moore, Communications Coordinator

Behind The Scenes At Ontario’s Theatres

• Another Grassroots playwright is getting a new premiere in November: Joan Burrows’ newest play Gloria’s Guy will be presented at Alumnae Theatre Company as part of FireWorks.  I also saw that Neil Marr’s PS Uncle Angus will be presented by Peterborough Theatre Guild—a show that the director first saw as a world premiere at Markham Little Theatre as part of the ACT-CO 2010-2011 Festival where it won the Outstanding Presentation of a Drama.  These announcements demonstrate that some community theatres are not reticent to develop and produce new Canadian plays, given the right circumstances

Conversations

Michael Wheeler and Andrew Coyne
SummerWorks Shop Talk: An End To Arts Funding
Photo by Dahlia Katz

• SummerWorks’ August 14 ShopTalk featured a debate on An End To Arts Funding—I was prepping links to the arguments by participants Andrew Coyne and Nadia Ross, and terrific responses from Holger Syme, Rob Salerno, and Jacob Zimmer, but thankfully moderator Michael Wheeler at Praxis Theatre took care of that for me
• Lindsay Price, who is leading our two upcoming Playwriting workshops for emerging playwrights and emerging plays, speaks about how to get your playscript out from under the inner critic’s thumb on the Theatrefolk podcast
• Steal This Idea #1: To engage with new audiences, Cindy Marie Jenkins suggests being a Social Media Concierge
• Steal This Idea #2: One of my favourite uses of Pinterest by a theatre comes from across the border at the Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York.  Jen Caprio, Costume Designer for their production of The 39 Steps, is sharing her process on Pinterest.  For audience members with a particular passion for this production area, it could be an intriguing visualization of what she’s doing

From The Wire

• Burlington artists: Tottering Biped Theatre is organizing a theatre advocacy event to support Burlington's Cultural Advocacy Plan at the public consultations on August 28

You can also receive news from Theatre Ontario every month by email.  Our archives are online and the August issue is now available.

Browsing The Bulletin Board

Coming Up at Theatre Ontario

• Our first Community Theatre Discussion Forum of the Fall will be at Oshawa Little Theatre on September 12
• We’ve added three new workshops to our Fall workshop series including: Grant Writing Information Session with Pat Bradley on September 23 in Toronto, Ask an Agent with Alicia Jeffery on September 30 in Toronto, and Crowdfunding Basics with Nancy Kenny on October 7 in Ottawa.  Check out all of our upcoming courses and workshops, including grant proposal writing, playwriting, and marketing
• Save the date for Theatre Ontario Festival 2014 in Sarnia, May 14 to May 18.  Festival is a showcase of outstanding community theatre productions; a classroom for passionate, dedicated community theatre artists; a celebration of excellence in community theatre; and a destination bringing together theatre lovers from across the province

Upcoming on The Bulletin Board

• Today is the deadline to apply for Theatre 20’s Emerging Artist Ensemble for up-and-coming musical theatre performers
• The final workshop in the Young Associates Summer Seminar series is today: Integrate Database Management Into Your Workflow
• Deadline for proposals for the Symposium for Performing Arts in Rural Communities is August 30
• Deadline to apply for Bandcamp at Theatre Passe Muraille is August 23; Bandcamp is a unique program offering emerging musicians an affordable performance opportunity in a downtown, beer-filled venue

New on the Bulletin Board

• Soulpepper Theatre invites submissions for the 2013 Soulpepper Dance Awards, recognizing excellence in the Toronto Dance Community and Toronto-based artists who exemplify the values of Soulpepper (creativity, innovation, collaboration, and spirit). Awards are in four categories: Emerging Dance Artist, Senior Dance Artist, Community Dance Artist, Multi-Disciplinary Artist.  Deadline is September 3.

Esmeralda Enrique, 2012 Soulpepper Dance Award recipient
2013 submissions due on September 3
Photo by Nathan Kelly

Check out these items, and other postings from our members of workshops, calls for submission, funding opportunities, awards, and more—on Theatre Ontario’s Bulletin Board on our website

Call for Applications for the Professional Theatre Training Program

Theatre Ontario is now inviting applications for the October 1, 2013 deadline of our Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP), funded by the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

The Professional Theatre Training Program offers financial support for unique and flexible training with a chosen mentor in any theatrical discipline (except performance.) One can apply for professional development in his/her own discipline, or a "change of direction" in a career. To apply, applicants must have at least two years of professional experience following their formal education.

Read more about the Professional Theatre Training Program on our website

After reading the PTTP guidelines, applicants are encouraged to contact Mairin Smit, Program Coordinator (mairin@theatreontario.org or 416.408.4556 x.12) regarding your application.

Read also about the most recent mentorships (Spring 2013) funded by Theatre Ontario’s Professional Theatre Training program

ONstage Openings for the week of August 19

In Southwestern Ontario
Aug. 22, Drinking Alone at Port Stanley Festival Theatre, with previews from Aug. 21

In Central Ontario
Aug. 19, Munsch Ado About Nothing at Theatre By The Bay (Barrie)
Aug. 21, Sexy Laundry at Globus Theatre (Bobcaygeon)*

For more information on these shows and other theatre playing across Ontario, visit Theatre Ontario’s ONstage theatre listings on our website.

Theatre Ontario members can access discount tickets for shows marked with an * asterisk

Still playing in Toronto
Canadian Stage - Macbeth
Hugh Thompson, Jennifer Dzialoszynski and Sophie Goulet
Photo by David Hou

Browsing The Bulletin Board

Workshops from Theatre Ontario

• Proposal Writing: Creative Approaches to Creative Proposals, with Denise Bolduc on September 9 at 4pm in Toronto – A workshop for individuals and theatre organizations applying for funding and sponsorships: Change the grant-writing nightmare to a positive creative experience by learning relevant tools and valuable information to improve your chances of success.  Just in time for the Canada Council Granting Deadline on September 15!
• Playwriting: Idea to First Draft, with Lindsay Price on September 14 in Toronto – A workshop for emerging playwrights: Sometimes the hardest step in the playwriting process is the first. Where do I find inspiration? How do I develop an idea? What if my idea fizzles out halfway through?
• Playwriting: How to Self-Edit and Critique, with Lindsay Price on September 15 in Toronto – A workshop for emerging plays: Plays are not written in the first draft. Plays come to life in rewrites. But re-write how? What if we don't know how to move our work forward? What if we don't know how to critique our own work? What if we aren't sure how to process feedback from others? This workshop offers tools and techniques for playwrights who have a play “under construction.”

Check out all of our upcoming courses and workshops, including marketing, ask an agent, and crowdfunding.

Upcoming on The Bulletin Board

• Next in the Young Associates Summer Seminar series: Accounting Is Not Math: Knowledge For Your GM and Board Members is today, Integrate Database Management Into Your Workflow is August 21
• Submission deadline for Tarragon Theatre’s RBC Emerging Playwrights Competition is August 19, seeking full-length plays (min. 80 minutes) written in English by professional playwrights who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents and have less than five years of professional playwriting experience
• Submission deadline for Buddies In Bad Times’ Strange Sisters is also August 19; seeking new, not previously produced performances (10 minutes or less), durational pieces, and multidisciplinary art work

New on The Bulletin Board

• New this year, Bandcamp will bring new musical acts to the Theatre Passe Muraille Bar Space on the last Friday of each month. They are seeking musicians and musical performers of all ages and backgrounds to fill their Bar Space with music all season long. Bandcamp is a unique program offering emerging musicians an affordable performance opportunity in a downtown, beer-filled venue. While everyone is welcome to submit, they particularly encourage submissions from musicians working in diverse forms or world music. All performances begin at 10:30pm, and musicians must be available for a same-day afternoon sound check.  Submission deadline is August 23.
• Audit The Season is a brand new project from Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre where participants have access to the rehearsal and artistic development processes for every production in our season.  Professional and aspiring theatre-makers, as well as engaged audience members, can observe and unpack elements of the creative process from the inside. Those enrolled will see every play of the season; witness rehearsals at various stages (from first reads to dress rehearsals, from studios to the stage); have conversations with playwrights and directors including Richard Rose, Sean Dixon and Erin Shields; and discuss stages of play and production making with members of Tarragon's artistic team.  The program starts September 18.
• Alameda Theatre Company is holding a Playwriting Masterclass with Guillermo Verdecchia on September 21 and 22 in Toronto.

"Audit The Season" at Tarragon Theatre
(Image from No Great Mischief, 2012
Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

Check out these items, and other postings from our members of workshops, calls for submission, funding opportunities, awards, and more—on Theatre Ontario’s Bulletin Board on our website

ONstage Openings for the week of August 12

In Southwestern Ontario
Aug. 13, The Thrill at Stratford Festival, currently in previews – world premiere
Aug. 14, Othello at Stratford Festival, currently in previews
Aug. 14, Oliver! at Drayton Entertainment: Drayton Festival Theatre
Aug. 15, The Merchant Of Venice at Stratford Festival, currently in previews

In Toronto
Aug. 15, Richard III at Shakespeare In The Ruff, with previews from Aug. 13
Aug. 17, Full Dark: Part Deux at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre – workshop production
Aug. 18, The Company We Keep Cabaret Series at Theatre 20

Orillia Opera House - Same Time, Next Year
Robin Clipsham and Brian Paul

In Central Ontario
Aug. 13, Same Time, Next Year at Orillia Opera House
Aug. 14, Forever Plaid at Theatre Collingwood

Thousand Islands Playhouse - The (Post) Mistress
Martha Irving
Photo by Paul Del Motte

In Eastern Ontario
Aug. 16, Buster Canfield And His Amazing Circus Of Fleas at Festival Players of Prince Edward County (Picton)
Aug. 17, The (Post) Mistress at Thousand Islands Playhouse (Gananoque), with previews from Aug. 16

In Northeastern Ontario
Aug. 16, Looking from Espanola Little Theatre (Gore Bay / Parry Sound)

For more information on these shows and other theatre playing across Ontario, visit Theatre Ontario’s ONstage theatre listings on our website.

Ontario Off Stage

by Brandon Moore, Communications Coordinator

Behind The Scenes At Ontario’s Theatres

Espanola Little Theatre's Looking

• Espanola Little Theatre is still “Looking”: With six Theatre Ontario Festival awards in hand—including the Elsie for Outstanding Production—Espanola Little Theatre's production of Looking is now touring to Gore Bay (Gore Bay Community Hall on August 16) and Parry Sound (Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts on August 18.)  These will be the fifth and sixth venues for this production.  (Do you remember the first four?)
• Kristin Shepherd was one of the playwrights featured in “Grassroots: Original Plays From Ontario Community Theatres”, published by Playwrights Canada Press. Her newest play, Hope OP, will premiere at Gateway Theatre Guild in North Bay this November

Conversations

• Rob Salerno writes a compelling reminder on Exit Upstage to think about your audience when crowdfunding.  If you're looking to learn more about crowdfunding, join us on October 7 at Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa for our workshop Crowdfunding Basics: Tips for Artists and Arts Organizations with Nancy Kenny
• Adam Thurman encourages us to learn a lesson from Hollywood on Mission Paradox: Once the arts starts, the marketing (essentially) ends
• Holger Syme shared some German theatre season announcements—and how they prepare the audience for a theatrical experience, and a response to that experience, that goes beyond a commercial transaction

In Case You Missed It

• The Revival of the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre

Welcome Betsy Chaly to our Board of Directors

We are thrilled to welcome Betsy Chaly to our Board of Directors at Theatre Ontario.

Betsy is a bilingual marketing and communications professional with over fifteen years of experience in a variety of industries, including media, arts, telecom, government, and education.  Currently, she is the Vice President of Communications & Marketing at Indspire.  Prior to joining Indspire, Betsy provided consulting support to OCAD University, Tourism Northern Ontario, Waste Diversion Ontario, AIDWYC, and Don River.  Previously, she was the head of the marketing and communications departments at SOCAN, the Canada Media Fund, and CanWest MediaWorks, and she held various progressive roles at Bell.  Betsy is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators, and she serves on the board of directors of Art Starts.  She earned her MBA in International Business from the University of New Brunswick and also holds a B.A. Honours in Geography and B.Sc. in Biology.

Read more about our Board of Directors on the Theatre Ontario website

Browsing The Bulletin Board

From Theatre Ontario

• Playwright-in-Person, with Maja Ardal on August 12 at 8:30pm in Waterloo - Join us for this FREE event as Maja reads excerpts from her plays You Fancy Yourself and The Cure For Everything.
• Proposal Writing: Creative Approaches to Creative Proposals, with Denise Bolduc on September 9 at 4pm in Toronto – A workshop for individuals and theatre organizations applying for funding and sponsorships: Change the grant-writing nightmare to a positive creative experience by learning relevant tools and valuable information to improve your chances of success.  Just in time for the Canada Council Granting Deadline on September 15!
• Playwriting: Idea to First Draft, with Lindsay Price on September 14 in Toronto – A workshop for emerging playwrights: Sometimes the hardest step in the playwriting process is the first. Where do I find inspiration? How do I develop an idea? What if my idea fizzles out halfway through?
• Playwriting: How to Self-Edit and Critique, with Lindsay Price on September 15 in Toronto – A workshop for your emerging play: Plays are not written in the first draft. Plays come to life in rewrites. But re-write how? What if we don't know how to move our work forward? What if we don't know how to critique our own work? What if we aren't sure how to process feedback from others? This workshop offers tools and techniques for playwrights who have a play “under construction.”

Check out all of our upcoming courses and workshops including marketing, ask an agent, and crowdfunding basics.

Upcoming on The Bulletin Board

• Next in the Young Associates Summer Seminar series—"Managing Your Data: Making It Work For You And Your Organization" is today; "Accounting Is Not Math: Knowledge For Your GM and Board Members" is August 14
• Jumblies Theatre’s The Art Of Community starts on August 8 in Sudbury, for participants from any arts discipline, tradition or related field with an interest and/or background in community-engaged arts
• ArtReach Toronto and City of Toronto Cultural Services, in partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Grassroots Youth Collaborative invite you to participate in their 2013 Pitch Contest. If you are a young artist or a group of artists, between the ages of 18 and 29, they want to hear from you!  The application deadline is August 13

ArtReach 2012 Youth Arts Pitch Contest

Check out these items, and other postings from our members of workshops, calls for submission, funding opportunities, awards, and more—on Theatre Ontario’s Bulletin Board on our website

ONstage Openings for the week of August 6

In Southwestern Ontario
Aug. 7, Weekend Comedy at Drayton Entertainment: St. Jacobs Country Playhouse
Aug. 7, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story at Drayton Entertainment: Dunfield Theatre Cambridge
Aug. 7, Sorry... I'm Canadian at Drayton Entertainment: Huron County Playhouse (Grand Bend)
Aug. 7, Mary Poppins at Drayton Entertainment: Huron County Playhouse (Grand Bend)
Aug. 7, Prairie Nurse at Blyth Festival – world premiere

4th Line Theatre - The Real McCoy
Andrew Moodie
Photo by Wayne Eardley

In Central Ontario
Aug. 6, On A First Name Basis at Globus Theatre (Bobcaygeon)
Aug. 7, The Real McCoy at 4th Line Theatre (Millbrook), currently in previews
Aug. 7, Johnny & June at Drayton Entertainment: King's Wharf Theatre (Penetanguishene)
Aug. 9, A Night At The Movies at Peterborough Theatre Guild
Aug. 10, Crazy For You at Theatre By The Bay (Barrie), with previews from Aug. 8

Smiths Falls Community Theatre
- Pollyanna

In Eastern Ontario
Aug. 6, The Notorious Right Robert And His Robber Bride at Festival Players of Prince Edward County (Wellington)
Aug. 6, The Drawer Boy at Ottawa Little Theatre
Aug. 8, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Stirling Festival Theatre
Aug. 8, Pollyanna at Smiths Falls Community Theatre
Aug. 9, The Marriage-Go-Round at Classic Theatre Festival (Perth)
Aug. 11, Bain & Bernard: Yorick Kidding Me! at St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival (Prescott)

For more information on these shows and other theatre playing across Ontario, visit Theatre Ontario’s ONstage theatre listings on our website.

68 Applications Received for the 2014 Neil Munro Intern Directors Project at the Shaw Festival

Theatre Ontario is pleased to announce that we received 68 applications for the 2014 Neil Munro Intern Directors Project at the Shaw Festival.  Applications came in from Canadians in six provinces (Ontario, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia), the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Each season, the Shaw Festival hires two Intern Directors.  They look for promising professional directors at a point in their career where an extended residency with a company like the Shaw Festival will be of benefit to their professional development.  Applicants should have a good amount of professional experience but will not have had an opportunity to work on the scale of production that is characteristic of the Shaw Festival.

The choice of the two Intern Directors for 2014 is expected to be announced by the end of September.

Since its inception in 1988, the project has been sponsored annually by Sun Life Financial and Theatre Ontario.

Read more about the Neil Munro Intern Directors Project at the Shaw Festival on the Theatre Ontario website

Gray Powell, Wendy Thatcher, Wade Bogert-O'Brien, Sharry Flett,
Jeremy Carver-James, Kelly Wong, and Ben Sanders in Senora Carrar's Rifles
Directed by Michael Wheeler at the 2012 Neil Munro Intern Directors Project at the Shaw Festival.
Photo by Mark Callan.