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Newsletter Sears Ontario Drama Festival: A Celebration of
Excellence More than 10,000 students and teachers from almost 350 secondary schools throughout Ontario are participating in a province-wide celebration of achievement—the Sears Ontario Drama Festival. The purpose of the Festival is to provide a showcase for drama students in Ontario’s secondary schools and to foster understanding, excitement and improved standards for live theatre in schools. It brings together students, teachers and theatre professionals to view, discuss and enjoy each other’s work, under the guidance of experienced adjudicators. As it enters its 56th year, the Sears Ontario Drama Festival is a living testament to more than a half-century of combined student, teacher and community achievement in arts education. “Enthusiasm and pride in their achievements are seen in the actions of all who participate,” says Wayne Fairhead. “The performances you view are the result of countless hours of hard work and determination by students and staff. In this volatile educational environment, the Festival provides much needed stability and a sense of unity to thousands of students across the province. This promises to be the largest festival ever!” Wayne Fairhead is a drama teacher and arts educator, and has served as the Festival Executive Director for 12 years. He has been an active member of the Arts Education Council of Ontario since its inception, a former board member of Theatre Ontario and Prologue to the Performing Arts. In 1956, when Ken Watts founded the Festival with only three plays, who could have thought it would become the largest and longest running secondary school student drama festival in the world? In 1999, to honour his pioneering work, Ken was awarded the Order of Ontario. “Many Festival graduates are working in every theatrical field across this vast country, while others are using acquired skills successfully in a variety of careers,” says Fairhead. Past festival participants include Steve Allerick, Juan Chioran, David Cronenberg, Rosemary Dunsmore, the late Mira Friedlander, Sky Gilbert, the late Urjo Kareda, Margot Kidder, Michele Lansberg, Sue LePage, the late Dora Mavor Moore, Des McAnuff, Bram Morrison, Richard Rose, Rick Salutin, David Schatzky, Helen Shaver, Jason Sherman, Don Shipley, Sonja Smits, Guy Sprung, Judith Thompson and R.H. Thomson. The Festival also presents special awards including the MIRAs, created to honour the arts journalist and adjudicator, Mira Friedlander, the Ken Watts Award for outstanding contribution, the Margory Bennie Award recognizing outstanding contribution by a young woman theatre technician, Ann Watts Memorial Scholarships which help students with their performing arts studies, and the Wayne Fairhead New Play Award. The Festival promotes creativity, risk taking and strong organization in all areas of live theatre production—directing, performing, technical achievement and producing. More and more productions are being directed by students; in fact, last year’s Toronto Regional Festival saw ten of 12 productions directed by students. Many productions are incorporating original music composed and performed by students as well. The Sears Ontario Drama Festival also encourages the writing and development of original scripts by students, teachers and community members. Each year, a production of a new student-written script is invited to be part of Toronto’s annual Summerworks Theatre Festival. “Over the last decade, the biggest change has been the huge growth of original works written by students and teachers,” says Fairhead. “Although Daniel McIvor is the most popular playwright directed at the Festival, it’s amazing to see the huge number of original works produced. Some of these new plays explore teen issues, while a great number explore more universal themes in world issues and relationships.” Concrete Daisy and Other Plays, an anthology of five original plays from the last decade of the Festival was published in 1991. In 1996, Volume 2 with six original plays was published to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Festival. Volume 3 will be published by Playwrights Canada Press in the near future. Through special grants administered by the Ontario Arts Council, Theatre Ontario offers workshops at the Regional Festivals. Past workshop leaders have included David Craig, Astrid Jansen, Shawn Kerwin, Duncan McIntosh, Tanit Mendes, Kim Renders, Edward Roy, Sarah Stanley, Laurie Steven, Pierre Tetrault, and Terry Tweed ; with topics including Directing, Playbuilding, Mask, Physical Theatre, Design and Movement. These workshops draw hundreds of students and teachers, all enthusiastic about the opportunity to further develop their theatre-skills. High school drama groups must first qualify at one of twenty-four District area festivals held throughout the province. Each District, organized by geographical location, has from six to thirty entries depending upon the school population of the area. District finalists are then invited to five Regional Festivals. Three outstanding productions from each region are then invited to perform at the Ontario Showcase, held every second year at Hart House Theatre, on the University of Toronto campus. Every other year the showcase is held elsewhere in the province. This year, the finals—Ontario Showcase will be held in Sudbury, May 7 to 11, 2002 at Sudbury Secondary School. Regional Festivals take place in: Perth - East Regional Festival Hamilton - Southwest Regional Burlington - Northwest Regional Kirkland Lake - North Regional Toronto - Toronto Regional MEMBER PROFILE THEATRE SARNIA Amateur theatre in Sarnia grew through the leadership of Herman Voaden, Dr. R.K. Stratford and D. Park Jamieson with the creation of the Drama Club of Sarnia in 1927. Now known as Theatre Sarnia, it celebrates its 75th season this year and is one of the oldest, continuously operating, amateur theatre groups in Canada. Over the years, this group has performed in a Lutheran Church, the auditorium at Johnston Memorial School, their own building on Campbell Street, the Sarnia Public Library Auditorium, Sarnia Collegiate Institute Auditorium, and the original Imperial Theatre. Theatre Sarnia now calls their home The Imperial Oil Centre for the Performing Arts in downtown Sarnia that was officially opened on December 31, 1996. The theatre originally opened as the Capitol Theatre on New Year’s Eve 1936. It closed 52 years later in 1988, and was left abandoned and slated for demolition. In two short years, with the help of local industry, the city and private donors, Theatre Sarnia and many volunteers accomplished the transformation of the movie house to a live theatre venue. Now restored in all its Art Deco elegance the theatre seats 610 people and actively hosts a variety of professional and amateur performers, profit and non-profit events. This state of the art theatre facility is owned, managed and operated by Theatre Sarnia. In 2002 they’ll host two festivals—Theatre Ontario Festival from May 15 to 19, 2002 and WODL’s annual festival in Sarnia from March 11 to 16, 2002. Co-hosts of both festivals are George Wood Jr. and Megan Hobbs. Theatre Ontario Festival 2002 will be hosted for the first time by Theatre Sarnia, in partnership with the Western Ontario Drama League (WODL) and Theatre Ontario in the beautifully restored Imperial Oil Centre for the Performing Arts from May 15 to 19, 2002. Richard Howard acts as our Festival adjudicator. Thanks to a dedicated team of volunteers at Theatre Sarnia, Theatre Ontario Festival 2002 promises to be another successful Ontario showcase of talent. Here’s a list of many Theatre Sarnia Life Members who have helped to build this great theatre organization and who’ll be active on the Theatre Ontario Festival Committee: Fred Hadley, Val Hadley, Megan Hobbs, Clarice Hunt, Eila Kuosmanen, Edie Poore, Don Poore, Shirley O’Neill, Carol O’Grady and George Wood Jr. What started out as a small group of drama enthusiasts performing one-act plays and readings has now grown to be a large group of very dedicated volunteers who consistently strive to present high quality productions in a state of the art theatre facility which they own, manage and operate. "Theatre Sarnia has over 180 members that participate both on and off stage each year," adds George Wood Jr., President of the Board. "Our high quality productions which consistently strive for excellence draw annual audiences of 12,000 and keep people coming back each season." Celebrating their 75 th Diamond Jubilee Season, Theatre Sarnia offers 6 plays this season: Greetings by Tom Dudzick, Pinocchio by Vic Hyde, Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring, That Scottish Play (a Shakespearean parody), Ethan Claymore by Norm Foster and the musical Suds. Owned by Theatre Sarnia, the Imperial Oil Centre for the Performing Arts is busy over 200 nights per year. Their dedicated management staff support the many groups and performers that take the stage at the Imperial: Richard Poore (Theatre Manager), Monique Neuman (Box Office Coordinator), Louise Vasey (Volunteer Coordinator) and Dan Tidball (Technical Director). "Community Theatre by Community People" is the motto of this successful group, which is operated by a ten member Board of Directors. Over the years, they’ve hosted successful festivals such as the Dominion Drama Festival, Western Ontario Drama League Festival (WODL), and WODL Mini-Fest. They’ve won many awards and their work nominated for recognition at these festivals. Graduates of Theatre Sarnia have taken up many positions in various fields of the theatrical community and entertainment industry. A partial list includes: Victoria Wallace (designer), Rosemary Dunsmore (actor), John Wing (comedian), Patricia Yeatman (actor), and Richard Poore (theatre manager). For more information on Theatre Sarnia and the Imperial Theatre visit www.imperialtheatre.net |