Ovation Vol. 19 No. 4

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

Vol 19 No 4 | feb/mar 2012

by

Wendy Lill

centre stage

Our community pride takes

Our performing arts groups are integral to our culture and our quality of life.

We’re proud to support those who make our community a better place to live.

Message fro m the Artistic Director

Why did Wendy Lill call her play The Fighting Days?

An issue that had started to bring Manitoba women together now threatens to pit them against each other. Lill’s

The title refers in its most

characters arrive at that great

obvious form to the battle

theatrical divide—idealism

fought by an army of female

on one side, expediency on

soldiers in response to such

the other, and in the middle

laws as the 1906 Dominion

the audience, caught in the

Elections Act, which declared

mesmerizing crossfire.

that “no woman, idiot, lunatic or criminal shall vote.” The women proved to be a

This infighting wounds Francis Beynon, the hero

formidable force, led by those like Nellie McClung

of Lill’s play. The sisterhood that had given her

and the Beynon sisters who could speak and

a new home in Winnipeg—a circle that valued

write persuasively about the need for compassion

intelligence, progressive thinking and politi-

and equality.

cal action—now threatens her own ideals. The

Of course, the fight was complicated by another version of fighting days, when the Great War in Europe began to steal the nation’s focus away from domestic matters. As the women surren-

war within Francis herself, finally, reverberates beneath all the other conflicts in the play. Can her need for companionship (in love, family and work) overcome her need for freedom?

dered their husbands and sons to the war, they

Nellie McClung’s statue was unveiled at the

began to see Manitoba’s diverse ethnic popula-

Legislature last year, while Francis Beynon has

tion as being split between allies and enemies.

become a mere historical footnote. But while the

Should all women have the right to vote, or did

play rages on our stage, Francis wins the battle for

war demand that battle lines be drawn at home

our hearts and minds. That is the power of great

as well as abroad?

theatre. It forces us to revisit the old battle-

And, so, yet another fight begins, this one within the ranks of the suffrage movement. Those like

grounds and to choose anew our allies and, truth be told, our enemies.

Francis Beynon, who are opposed to the war on ideological grounds, are equally opposed to

Yours always,

discrimination against some Canadian women based on their country of origin. Those like Nellie McClung, who have a son in the Canadian army, are swayed by fear and the patriotic zeal of wartime. feb/mar 2012

3

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

Theatre Abbreviation Legend

Arts Club ATF ATP BAM Belfry Blyth Broadway CBC Centaur Citadel COC CS Dora Drayton Dry Cold GCTC Grand Mirvish MTYP NAC Necessary Angel Neptune NFB NTS Persephone PTAM PTE Rainbow RNT Royal Alex RSC RWB Segal Shaw SIR SNAC Soulpepper Stratford TA Tarragon TC TNB Toronto Free TPM TSO U of M U of T Black U of W VP West End WJT WSO YTP

Arts Club Theatre Company, Vancouver BC Atlantic Theatre Festival, Wolfville NS Alberta Theatre Projects, Calgary AB Brooklyn Academy of Music, NYC The Belfry Theatre, Victoria BC Blyth Theatre Festival, Blyth ON New York Theatre District Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Centaur Theatre Company, Montreal QC The Citadel Theatre, Edmonton AB Canadian Opera Company, Toronto ON The Canadian Stage Company, Toronto ON Dora Mavor Moore Award, Toronto ON Drayton Entertinment, Ontario Dry Cold Productions, Winnipeg MB The Great Canadian Theatre Company, Ottawa ON The Grand Theatre, London ON Mirvish Productions, Toronto ON Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Winnipeg MB National Arts Centre, Ottawa ON Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Toronto ON Neptune Theatre, Halifax NS National Film Board of Canada National Theatre School of Canada, Montreal QC Persephone Theatre, Saskatoon SK Popular Theatre Alliance of Manitoba, Winnipeg MB Prairie Theatre Exchange, Winnipeg MB Rainbow Stage, Winnipeg MB Royal National Theatre, London, England The Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto ON Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, England Royal Winnipeg Ballet The Segal Centre for Performing Arts, Montreal QC Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake ON Shakespeare in the Ruins, Winnipeg MB St. Norbert Arts Centre, Winnipeg MB Soulpepper Theatre Company, Toronto ON Stratford Festival, Stratford ON Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton ON Tarragon Theatre, Toronto ON Theatre Calgary, Calgary AB Theatre New Brunswick, Fredericton NB Toronto Free Theatre, Toronto ON Theatre Projects Manitoba, Winnipeg MB Toronto Symphony Orchestra University of Manitoba University of Toronto University of Winnipeg Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, Vancouver BC Theatre District, London, England Winnipeg Jewish Theatre Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Young People’s Theatre, Toronto ON

CMYK

MTC gratefully acknowledges the support of all corporate and individual donors and foundations, and the assistance of:

Pantone

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $5.9 million in the arts in Manitoba.

With the generous support of the Manitoba Arts Council

With the generous support of the City of Winnipeg through the Winnipeg Arts Council

Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi 5,9 millions de dollars I’an dernier dans les arts au Manitoba.

Vol 19 No 4 | feb/mar 2012

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre 174 Market Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0P8 Box office: 204-942-6537 Administration: 204-956-1340 www.mtc.mb.ca For advertising inquiries tel: 204-934-0309 e-mail: promo@mtc.mb.ca Printing: Premier Printing Ltd. Ovation is published six times per theatre season and has a total circulation of 115,000.

MTC is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

Scenery, Carpentry and Show Running Crew at the John Hirsch Theatre at the MTC Mainstage and the Tom Hendry Theatre at the MTC Warehouse are members of IATSE Local 63.

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Latecomers | Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the House Manager.

Courtesy to others | Talking, candy wrappers and coughing are distracting to fellow patrons and actors. We ask each patron to please keep noise to a minimum during a performance. Thank you for your cooperation.

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Warnings | On occasion, MTC’s productions may contain scriptspecific smoking of non-tobacco products, special effects and language/content warnings. For more information on specific productions, please visit www.mtc.mb.ca.

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setting the stage

by Harry & Mildred Gutkin

On 27 January 1914, a large delegation of both men and women appeared before the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, once again to present the case for granting women the right to vote in provincial elections. Included in the group were representatives of the Political Equality League, the Grain Growers’ Association, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Trades and Labor Council, the Icelandic Women’s Suffrage Association, the Canadian Women’s Press Club, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Dr. Mary Crawford, the President of the University Women’s Club and of the Political Equality League, introduced the five speakers, two women and three men, and the last to address the lawmakers was Mrs. Nellie McClung. Then rivalling Ralph Connor as Manitoba’s most popular writer, Mrs. McClung made her point with sharp lucidity.

The delegation had come, she said, not to beg for a favour but to obtain simple justice. “Have we not the brains to think?

Hands to work?

Hearts to feel?

And lives to live?” she demanded. “Do we not bear our part in citizenship? Do we not help build the Empire? Give us our due!”

into the arms of servant girls.” Then he added, gallantly, that there was “nothing wrong with a society that produced such attractive, pure, and noble ladies” as these now before him, but “the mother that is worthy of the name and of the good affection of a good man has a hundredfold more influence in shaping public opinion around her dinner table than she would have in the marketplace, hurling her eloquent phrases to the multitude.”

Roblin’s flowery courtesies expressed the received attitude of his time and his social group towards the tender sex, simultaneously idealized and subjugated. He loved his mother, he said, and for her sweet sake he revered all women.

“Gentle women,” he described the ladies, “queen of the home, set apart by your great function of motherhood ... Women are superior to men, now and always.” Nice women did not want to vote, the common argument ran, and since women exercised so important an influence for good, they must be sheltered from the world and its corruption.

Absolutely not, the suffragist movement insisted; women must be given the right to act in that world, — 1906 Dominion Election Act to remake that world for future generations.

They were constantly rebuked: was not woman’s place in the home with her children? “Yes,” retorted Nellie McClung to one opponent, “but it’s also in the world those children must enter!”

The feminists of the early twentieth century envisioned a world in which the nurturing values of home and fireside would be paramount, putting an end to war and to the exploitation of the weak by the powerful.

“No woman, idiot, lunatic, or criminal shall vote”

The Conservative premier, Sir Rodmond Roblin, rejected Mrs. McClung’s demand absolutely.

“Most women,” he told the petitioners, “don’t want the vote.” In Colorado, he informed them, where women could vote, “they shrank from the polls as from a pestilence.” Woman suffrage, he said, “would be a retrograde movement ... it will break up the home ... it will throw the children 6

feb/mar 2012

About the women confronting him at the legislature, Roblin’s perceptions were quite accurate

Political Equity league of Manitoba Photograph Originally published in The Grain Growers’ Guide, February 2, 1916. Courtesy of the Provincial archives of manitoba.

The Fighting Days

The executive of the Political Equity League of Manitoba, photographed after witnessing the passage of the Suffrage bill at the Manitoba Legislature, January 1916.

in one respect. These were no proletarian toilers, intruding into the deliberations of their betters.

Such presumption, he implied, would be unthinkable: he was afraid, he said, that “my friend Mr. Rigg”—Richard Rigg, the labour activist—“might shortly come to us for the extension of the franchise to servant girls, on the plea that servant girls have as good a right to vote as any other class of women.” In the rank and file of the suffrage movement were to be found the wives and daughters of successful men, newly leisured and eager to assert themselves outside the narrow domestic sphere.

Nellie McClung herself, as her writing and lecturing career developed, was able to entrust much of the household drudgery to a succession of immigrant servant-girls, and made one of them the heroine of a novel.

In the growing torrent of dissent that was inexorably altering Canadian society, even before the turn of the century, one irresistible tributary stream was the demand of educated, well-informed women for change, primarily in the franchise legislation and the laws on property and dower rights, as well as in the provisions for the health and well-being of the community.

With some degree of economic security, and in

many cases some access to men in positions of power, they demanded legal recognition of their equal worth. In Manitoba, significantly enough, the leaders of the woman suffrage movement, with some exceptions, stemmed originally from the self-confident, well-established British background of southern Ontario, a society that took for granted intellectual accomplishment and community leadership.

Two decades earlier, in 1882, twenty-one-year-old Cora Hind had arrived in Winnipeg from Ontario, to carve out a career for herself in journalism.

Her close friends were two women doctors, also originally from Ontario, the mother-and-daughter pair of Amelia and Lillian Yeomans; Amelia’s brother, William Dawson, became President of the Royal Society of Canada. The Beynon sisters, Lillian and Francis, were born in Kings, Ontario; Lillian earned a university degree, and both taught school before becoming influential journalists.

Dr. Mary Crawford was the daughter of a Scottish schoolmistress who had emigrated to become the principal of an Ottawa ladies’ college. Nellie McClung, on the other hand, grew up on a remote Manitoba farm, of Scottish-Irish stock, but her immigrant parents instilled in their offspring the absolute determination to become something more than shop assistants or farm labourers. feb/mar 2012

7

setting the stage

The Fighting Days In the economy of western Canada, however, women’s role differed markedly from the situation in the settled Ontario townships, where the conventional structures of patriarchal society were the norm, assigning women to dependence on men. Farm women worked side by side with their men in the back-breaking task of establishing a homestead, and the urban centres tended to attract some strong-willed young women, already declaring their independence from their families, and as determined as their brothers to improve their own prospects. Prairie women were an assertive presence in the pioneer economy, prominent in farm organizations such as the Grain Growers’ Association, and the farm groups could generally be relied on to throw their support behind the suffrage movement, with its component demand for the reform of property laws. In the Canadian West, as in the American, women achieved the franchise ahead of their sisters in the conservative East.

When Manitoba entered Confederation in 1870, the right to vote in provincial elections was assigned to male householders; that is, to “the master or chief of a household; one who keeps house with his family,” if he either owned his home or occupied “a separate maintenance and table enjoyed by himself and his dependents, distinct from other householders.” The following year, the voter, identified specifically as a “male person,” was re-defined as a “rate-payer,” required to have owned property valued at $100 or more for a year prior to the election, or to have paid a yearly rent of at least $20. A single woman, under certain conditions, could be a property-owner and a rate-payer; once married, however, her holdings generally passed to her husband, and if widowed or separated, she had no “dower rights,” no legal claim on any part of her husband’s estate. In any case, whether she did or did not own property, no woman could vote. The federal Election Act, indeed, decreed flatly that “no woman, idiot, lunatic, or criminal shall vote.”

8

feb/mar 2012

Notwithstanding Manitoba’s radical concession, the suffrage battle there had barely begun. In 1888 the property qualification for provincial elections had been removed from the male franchise, permitting all adult men to vote, but excluding women, as before. Gathering strength, the campaign to enfranchise women and to establish their economic rights would continue for thirty years longer, led by a number of political-minded women.

Gutkin, Harry & Mildred. Excerpt from “Give us our due!” How Manitoba Women Won the Vote. Manitoba History: The Journal of the Manitoba Historical Society, Number 32: Autumn 1996.

Nellie McClung photograph originally published in Trail Magazine, december 1910. Courtesy of the Provincial archives of Manitoba

Nellie McClung

In Manitoba, a partial break came in 1887, when female rate-payers were granted permission to vote in municipal elections; and in 1890 they were declared eligible to vote in school elections and also to serve as school trustees. Eastern public opinion seems to have been aghast at the recklessness of the uncouth frontier in making this move, and from pulpits and editorial pages alarmed opinion-makers predicted catastrophe: marriage could not survive if a man could not be certain what his wife did in the secrecy of the polling booth, or worse, if she openly defied his judgment. If she opposed him, her vote would cancel his, and if she concurred, what was the point of her voting at all? In any case, nice women did not want to vote.

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Curtain Calls

The Fighting Days

Francis Beynon

The Fighting Days playwright Wendy Lill has had a diverse career, working as a community health worker, a mental health outreach worker, a radio broadcaster, and even a Member of Parliament. Many of her plays have delved into complex social issues and her characters are often hard-working women dealing with the realities of their period in history. We chatted with Wendy about her career and the staying power of The Fighting Days, 29 years after the play premiered at Prairie Theatre Exchange.

What inspired you to write The Fighting Days?

The Fighting Days Playwright

Wendy Lill

The majority of the characters in The Fighting Days are real people from Canadian history. How close did you stick to historical fact?

The characters in The Fighting Days were all working journalists at the 10

feb/mar 2012

Francis Beynon Photograph Courtesy of the Provincial archives of Manitoba

Q & A with

When I was living in Winnipeg in the early 1980s, Kim McCaw, who was then the Artistic Director of Prairie Theatre Exchange, and Leslee Silverman, the Artistic Director at Actors’ Showcase, approached me and asked me to write a play about women in Manitoba history. After getting over the initial terror of taking on such a momentous topic, I hit the archives for months in search of inspiration. It was there I found an essay by historian Ramsay Cook called Francis Marion Beynon and the Rise of Christian Reformism. It proved to be the catalyst for the play. The essay introduced me to someone I had never read about in history books, although Francis fought side by side with Nellie McClung to gain the vote for women. For Francis Beynon, the democratic rights of women could not be separated from the larger freedoms under threat with the arrival of the First World War.

Ou r c ommu nity. Our future.

Together.

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Curtain Calls

The Fighting Days

time. They wrote for newspapers such as the Winnipeg Free Press and The Grain Growers’ Guide. They wrote fashion and recipe and advice columns to women living on isolated prairie farms. Every once in a while they were able to introduce radical ideas like having a public washroom for women when they journeyed into town, or schooling for girls or the vote for women. With their columns and the hundreds of letters they received and published, they provided a forum for the evolving ideas of this isolated population of women. In my research, I pored through years of articles and columns, as well as Francis Beynon’s own fictional account of her life in the book Aleta Dey to capture the colour and language of the period. The conflicts within the story are all rooted in reality.

The Fighting Days was written in 1983 and explores women’s rights in the early 20th century. In 2012, do you think women have achieved the type of freedom Francis longed for?

Francis Beynon was a feminist but also a pacifist and the freedom she fought for in the end was not gender specific. Francis fought against the glorification of war and, in this relatively young country of Canada, the freedom of people to live in peace without the threat of war. Canada’s military heritage has not diminished since then and I can’t help but think Francis would be horrified by the level of conflict around the world. If she lived today, I don’t think she would be shy about making her views known.

You’ve written for stage, screen and radio.

Does your creative process change depending on the medium?

In my experience, any success one may have in writing for stage, screen and radio all hinges on a good story and I have never found a story more poignant and powerful and relevant to modern times than the story of Francis Beynon. After all these years, I have to admit, I still love this story!

Your plays tackle diverse social issues, from residential schools to stem cell research. What role do you think theatre plays in exploring complex issues?

Theatre provides a place to explore ideas in the dark together. It gives us a chance to enter wildly different worlds and eras than our own and hopefully come out in some way altered. For me, the best plays are the ones where the conversations continue long after the lights come back on. I hope you can find some part of yourself in each of these characters in The Fighting Days. And, by the way, I’m sure all of these characters lived and worked and walked the streets right around this theatre almost a century ago.

Lillian Beynon Thomas Courtesy of the Provincial archives of Manitoba

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next at

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BY TRACY

A comedy OF MANNERS, without ThE MANNERS DIRECTED by MILES pOTTER

MARch 15 – ApRIl 7 “A rancidly funny account of two couples tiptoeing around their mutual dislike” –the GuardiaN

The gloves come off when two couples come together to discuss a playground scrap. When the façade of politeness begins to fade, social niceties give way to a knock ‘em down, drag ‘em out battle… served with dessert and espresso.

A CO-pRODUCTION WITh WARnInG Strong language

FIND OUT MORE AT

Gail SpONSORED and the late IN pART by Babs Asper

STARRINg MARThA hENRy

LETTS

DIRECTED by ANN hODgES

MARch 8 – 24 “Flat-out, no asterisks and without qualifications, the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years” – New York times

With the Westons, family time is blood sport. Leading the way through a minefield of dark secrets, repressed truths and emotional savagery is the pill-popping mommy dearest who stirs the toxic brew with perverse delight. gENEROUSLy SpONSORED by WARnInG Contains script-specific smoking of non-tobacco products, adult themes, mature content, strong language

www.mtc.mb.ca

Steven Schipper, Artistic Director

Camilla Holland, General Manager

Presents

by

Wendy Lill February 9 – March 3, 2012

Director Set & Costume Designer Lighting Designer Sound Designer Assistant Director Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Apprentice Stage Manager

Robb Paterson Brian Perchaluk Larry Isacoff Michael Wright Jennifer Lyon Margaret Brook Candace Maxwell Lisa Nelson

The Cast (in alphabetical order)

George McNair Francis Beynon Lily Beynon Nellie McClung

Richard Clarkin Sarah Constible Daria Puttaert Marina Stephenson Kerr

setting

ACT I Winnipeg, 1910-1914 ACT II Winnipeg, 1916-1917

The Fighting Days was commissioned by Kim McCaw at Prairie Theatre Exchange and Leslee Silverman at Actors’ Showcase in Winnipeg.

It premiered at Prairie Theatre Exchange on March 16, 1983.

The Fighting Days is staged by arrangement with Catalyst TCM INC, 100 Broadview #310, Toronto, ON, M4M 3H3

Thank You: Monique Dumontet, Brendan Carruthers & the Tara Players, Kim Hamin

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feb/mar 2012

ARTISTS

Richard Clarkin

Daria Puttaert

George McNair

Lily Beynon

MTC The Price, Mating Dance of the Werewolf, Waiting for Godot, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Death of a Salesman (with Mirvish), Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), The Miracle Worker.

MTC The Shunning, Top Girls, Pride and Prejudice, Shakespeare’s Dog (with NAC), The Tempest, A Christmas Carol.

OTHER THEATRE Hannah’s Turn (SummerWorks Theatre

Blatz, Stretching Hide (TPM); Strawberries in January, Unity (1918) (PTE); Honour (PTE/Belfry); Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure (Tom-Tom Theatre); To the Country (Winnipegger Ensemble); Stripped-Down Hamlet (SIR).

Festival); Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Dinner with Friends (TA); Festen, A Whistle in the Dark (Company Theatre); Half Life, The Eco Show (Necessary Angel); The Great War, The Red River Rebellion (VideoCabaret); Ring Around the Moon, Twelfth Night (Soulpepper); The Lion King (Mirvish); King Lear, The Merchant of Venice (Stratford); numerous shows for PTE, MTYP and WJT. Co-founder of Primus.

FILM/TV Goon, You Are Here, Casino Jack, The Five Senses, The Firm, Lost Girl, Republic of Doyle, Heartland, The Listener, Murdoch Mysteries, Flashpoint, The Border, Naturally, Sadie (series lead).

OTHER THEATRE The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven

FILM Zooey and Adam (Bed Bug Films).

TRAINING Graduate of the National Theatre School

and the University of Winnipeg.

ET CETERA Love to Jamie.

Marina Stephenson Kerr Nellie McClung

Sarah Constible Francis Beynon MTC Pride and Prejudice, Strong Poison, Shakespeare’s Dog (with NAC), The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?, Top Girls.

OTHER THEATRE Bingo!, Apple, Chimera, Zadie’s Shoes, MTC The 39 Steps, After Miss Julie, Bleeding Hearts,

The Threepenny Opera (with SIR).

OTHER THEATRE Generous (Theatre by the River);

Henry iv, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Richard iii, The Tempest, The Odyssey (SIR); The Monster Trilogy, Murder Ballads, Between Then and Now (TPM); The Edible Woman, Godspell, Unity (1918), Strawberries in January (PTE).

FILM/TV The Stone Angel, Less Than Kind, House Party, High Life, The Many Trials of One Jane Doe, The Haunting in Connecticut, Todd and the Book of Pure Evil.

For a full list of theatre abbreviations, please Refer to legend on page 4

The December Man (PTE); Urinetown (Persephone); Waiting for the Parade (TC); Puttin’ on the Ritz (Belfry); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who Has Seen the Wind (Citadel); Some Assembly Required, Bordertown Café (Sudbury Theatre Centre).

FILM/TV TV: Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, Less Than Kind. Film: Capote, The Big White, Class Project, My Awkward Sexual Adventure.

Wendy Lill Playwright

Playwright and former politician Wendy Lill has written extensively for radio, magazines, film and television. Her work has resulted in two ACTRA awards, a Golden Sheaf award (for her film Ikwe), a New York Festivals Radio Program and Promotion Award in 2011 feb/mar 2012

15

ARTISTS (Backbencher) and four nominations for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama (The Occupation of Heather Rose, All Fall Down, The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum and Corker). Chimera, her first play since leaving politics, premiered at the Tarragon Theatre.

She created and was head writer for the award-winning CBC Radio series Backbencher (2009-2011).

Lill was born in Vancouver and grew up in London, Ontario. She completed a BA in political science at Toronto’s York University. Lill lived in Winnipeg from 1979 until 1984 and during this time she began writing plays and developed a productive association with Prairie Theatre Exchange and its artistic director, Kim McCaw. In 1988, Lill moved to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and continued to write for theatre. She cofounded Dartmouth’s Eastern Front Theatre Company in 1993. In 1997, Lill was elected as a Member of Parliament (NDP) for Dartmouth. She was re-elected in 2000 for a second term.

Robb Paterson Director

MTC Directing credits include: The Shunning, White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play, Bleeding Hearts, Pride and Prejudice, Our Town, Rope’s End, Guys and Dolls (with TC/Citadel), Trying, My Fair Lady, Steel Magnolias (1993, 2010), An Inspector Calls, The Retreat from Moscow (MTC); Chicago, Cabaret, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors, The Pajama Game (MBA/MTC).

Acting credits include: Richard iii, Lady, Be Good!, True West, Little Shop of Horrors, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Billy Bishop Goes to War, A Christmas Carol – The Musical.

Brian Perchaluk Set & Costume Designer

MTC More than 40 productions, including recent and favourites: The Shunning, After Miss Julie, Steel Magnolias (2010), Educating Rita, The Boys in the Photograph (with Mirvish), Pride and Prejudice, Shakespeare’s Dog (with NAC), Our Town, Trying, My Fair Lady, The Lonesome West, To Kill a Mockingbird, Patience, Quills, Travels with My Aunt, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Oleanna, M. Butterfly (with NAC), Morning’s at Seven, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Filthy Rich.

OTHER THEATRE Brian’s work has been featured at

theatres across the country, including two seasons each at the Shaw and Stratford festivals. Selected recent credits include: Vimy (NAC/GCTC); To Kill a Mockingbird (TC); The Secret Mask, Burnin’ Love, The Savannah Disputation (PTE); Sweeney Todd, The Light in the Piazza (Dry Cold); King Lear, Fidelio (Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada); The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz (TPM); Spring Awakening (Winnipeg Studio Theatre); Les Disparus (Theatre Vice Versa Theatre).

TRAINING Brian is a graduate of the National Theatre

School and the University of Winnipeg.

ET CETERA Brian has received a Gemini Award for

outstanding production design and Jessie Richardson and Prix Rideau awards for outstanding set design. He is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.

Larry Isacoff Lighting Designer

OTHER THEATRE Directing credits include: The

Immigrant, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (WJT); Beauty and the Beast (2005, 2009), Peter Pan, The King and I, Big: The Musical, Footloose, Crazy for You, 42nd Street (Rainbow); Rick: The Rick Hansen Story, Seussical the Musical, Pippi Longstocking (MTYP). Acting credits include: Marvin’s Room (PTE); Oliver!, Angels in America (Centaur); Chicago, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma!, Damn Yankees (Rainbow).

ET CETERA Robb has appeared in more than 150

productions in Canada over the past 31 years.

MTC The Shunning, The Seafarer, Looking Back – West, Bleeding Hearts, Rope’s End, The Retreat from Moscow, Fully Committed, Mating Dance of the Werewolf, The Miracle Worker, Cloud Nine, Bedroom Farce, How I Got That Story, The Affections of May, Mrs. Klein, The Gin Game, Paper Wheat.

OTHER THEATRE Globe Theatre, 25th Street Theatre,

Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, PTE, MTYP. ET CETERA Larry divides his time between engaging

theatre projects and teaching yoga.

Continued on page 20

16

feb/mar 2012

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Before Curtain

After Encore

TRE VISI

SENSI

ARTISTS

Michael Wright

Jennifer Lyon

Sound Designer

Assistant Director

MTC Romeo and Juliet, The Seafarer, Looking Back – West,

Top Girls, Rope’s End, Fully Committed, The Last Five Years, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Cherry Docs.

OTHER THEATRE North Main Gothic, The Monster

Trilogy, The Elmwood Visitation, Age of Arousal (TPM); Everything is Coming Up Roses (Gearshifting Performance Works); Mmm Munsch, Something Drastic, Puppet Munsch (PTE); Macbeth (SIR); The Designated Mourner (Persona Theatre); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival); Hedwig and the Angry Inch Atrocity Tour 2004 (Rose Tinted Productions, UK).

MTC Actor: White Christmas, Pride and Prejudice, Guys and Dolls (with TC/Citadel), My Fair Lady, A Christmas Carol – The Musical, Steel Magnolias (1993).

OTHER THEATRE Actor: My Fair Lady (Arts Club);

FILM The Last Harvest, Métis, Métis Not, Dead Mothers Kitchen Floors.

Skylight (TNB); I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (PTE, Belfry); The Road to Hell, Communicating Doors (Persephone); Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Godspell (PTE); Hairspray, Singin’ in the Rain (Rainbow); Comet in Moominland (MTYP, Toronto, Montreal, NYC); Camelot, Man of La Mancha, The Miracle Worker (Stratford); The Who’s Tommy (Elgin Theatre, Canadian Tour).

ET CETERA Michael is active in the music world with

ET CETERA Jennifer gratefully acknowledges the sup-

over two dozen album credits. He lives in Winnipeg with his partner Arlea and is a member of iatse 63.

port of the Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council.

Continued on page 22

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PRAIRIE THEATRE EXCHANGE

3rd floor of Portage Place (next to IMAx)

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MedIA SponSor:

Marc devigne, Simon Miron, Jeremy Walmsley, Joseph Sevillo and Michael Lyons as the Altar boyz. photo: rodney braun

ARTISTS

Candace Maxwell

Lisa Nelson

Assistant Stage Manager

Apprentice Stage Manager

MTC The Boys in the Photograph (with Mirvish), The Syringa Tree, Over the Tavern, The Constant Wife, Fiddler on the Roof, Driving Miss Daisy, MTC 50th Anniversary Homecoming.

OTHER THEATRE Salome, The Magic Flute, Tosca,

Carmen (Manitoba Opera); Bingo!, The Savannah Disputation, Munscha Meeya, Chimera, The Vertical Hour, Honour (PTE); La Tragédie de Carmen, Siren Song (Banff Centre); Pride and Prejudice (Banff Centre/Citadel).

TRAINING University of Winnipeg and the Banff Centre.

ET CETERA Thank you to all my family and friends for

MTC First engagement.

OTHER THEATRE Way to Heaven, Talk at Prairie

Scene Festival, Sunday Father (WJT); The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz, Encore (TPM); H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, The Gondoliers, The Mikado (Redressed), Ruddigore (Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Winnipeg); StreetZone (FemFest/ Sarasvàti Productions).

TRAINING University of Winnipeg.

ET CETERA A big thank you to all my friends and

family for all their love and support—especially Nick and Dave!

their constant love and support. Enjoy the show!

2012 Regional Tour PRESENTED BY

For more info, visit: mtc.mb.ca PRESENTING SPONSOR

TOUR SPONSORS

Doowah Design Inc. Client: Manitoba Theatre Centre

Job no: 2462

WITH TOURING ASSISTANCE FROM

SUPPORTING SPONSORS Transport

Cast & Crew

Regional tour

1

2

Norm Foster NormNorm FosterFoster by

by

by

3

Photos by Leif Norman

4

As part of MTC’s commitment to the whole region, we’ve been sharing professional live theatre with enthusiastic audiences in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario for more than 50 years. Communities hosting the tour are well-known for their warm hospitality and keen appreciation of the art form. This year’s regional tour of Norm Foster’s The Melville Boys brings a touch of summer to 25 communities from January 24 to February 24.

1 Murray Farnell as Owen Melville 2 Kevin Klassen as Lee Melville 3 Alix Sobler as Mary 4 Elizabeth Stephensen as Loretta 5 Murray Farnell and Kevin Klassen 6 Elizabeth Stephensen and Kevin Klassen 7 Alix Sobler and Kevin Klassen 8 Murray Farnell and Elizabeth Stephensen (seated), Alix Sobler and Kevin Klassen (background)

5

6

7

8

PRESENTING SPONSOR

TOUR SPONSORS

WITH TOURING ASSISTANCE FROM

SUPPORTING SPONSORS Transport

Cast & Crew

The Royal ManiToba TheaTRe CenTRe honouRs heR MajesTy Queen elizabeTh ii on The oCCasion of heR diaMond jubilee, CelebRaTing 60 yeaRs of heR sTeadfasT seRviCe and dediCaTion To Canada.

Winnipeg culture on every corner

THE

gs

in sav

r

ne r o c

Don’t let any show go on without you!

Exclusive offers, e-deals and entertainment bundles.

Find out more at

cultureoneverycorner.ca

Individual Giving

“I do not want to pull through life like a thread that has no knot. I want to leave something behind when I go.”

– Nellie McClung in The Fighting Days Leaving a legacy is a natural inclination for many of us, something we contemplate on our journey through life. The women of The Fighting Days accomplish something far greater than many of us could ever hope to achieve: a legacy of democratic change and a more equitable society.

FO

• A bequest in your will • Life insurance • Charitable gift annuity • Charitable remainder trust • Listed securities You or your estate can potentially realize tax benefits from a planned gift as well. Talk to your financial advisor about possible tax savings. feb/mar 2012

For Founders’ Circle member Heather Power, leaving a legacy to MTC in the form of a life insurance policy made good sense. She pays a tax deductible premium on a policy and has named MTC as the beneficiary. “I have loved, been involved with, and supported the theatre all my life.

Through a life insurance policy, I can make a big impact after I’m gone. Each year, I pay the premium and get a tax receipt in return,” said Ms. Power. “It’s a small monthly donation, probably less than most people spend on coffee in a month, but it can be quite big in the end.”

ERS’ D N U

Making a planned gift is relatively easy and can take several forms:

26

Founders’ Circle member Heather Power takes a seat alongside MTC co-founders Tom Hendry and John Hirsch.

CIRCLE

At MTC, we are blessed w i t h a ve r y committed group of supporters who have decided their legacy includes showing confidence in the future of live theatre by making a planned gift to MTC. The Founders’ Circle was established in 2009 to honour and recognize those who make a planned gift to MTC. From modest beginnings, the Founders’ Circle has grown to 21 members: individuals committed to ensuring that great theatre and programming excellence are enjoyed by future generations of audiences and artists.

photo courtesy of the winnipeg free press

Will You Leave Something Behind?

It was this kind of forward thinking that inspired MTC co-founders John Hirsch and Tom Hendry to create a professional theatre company 54 years ago as a “celebration of community, of the values which a society holds.” With the visionary support of Founders’ Circle members, their dream will live on for generations to come.

Be part of the dream. Consider joining the Founders’ Circle by making a planned gift today. Information about our Planned Giving program and the Founders’ Circle is available in the lobby right now or from the MTC Development Office.

To make a planned gift or to obtain more information, visit www.mtc.mb.ca or contact Garth in the Development Office at 956-1340 ext 240.

The ROYAL MAniTObA TheATRe CenTRe And The MAniTObA bAR AssOCiATiOn pResenT The 2012 COMMuniTY pLAY

the

by AgAthA Christie

DireCteD by

steven sChipper

“One Of the mOst skillfully written murder mysteries ever prOduced” – New York Times

May 2 – 5, 2012 Tom Hendry WareHouse | 7:30 pm curTain

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Call 942-6537 CliCk www.mtc.mb.ca/mousetrap GeNerouslY spoNsored bY:

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Proceeds from this fundraising Play benefit the royal manitoba theatre centre and its Programs.

Doowah Design inc.

Client: MTC Job no: 2225 insertion: January 18, 2012 MTC Mousetrap ad - Ovation / CMYk / 4.75”x3.75” Problems or questions, call Brent at (204) 949-7230 is proud to

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ONLY

$40 100% of the net proceeds available at

258 McDermot Ave. 947-1322 Toll Free 877-212-8122 Monday to Friday | 9 am to 5 pm Saturday | 10 am to 5 pm

available online at

hilarydruxman.com/philanthropy.asp

from each LIVE necklace sold will be donated to MTC’s Backstage Pass: Theatre Perspectives for Students program.

We need YOUR

SUPPORT. dOnate tOdaY! MTC relies on the generosity of donors and friends to help produce great theatre at accessible prices.

gifT today!

donate online at

www.mtc.mb.ca or call 956-1340 today!

L-R Fiona Reid as Chris and Fiona Highet as Annie in Calendar Girls. Photo by Bruce Monk.

Make your

Supporting Partners

MTC expresses sincere thanks to our major corporate and government sponsors.

Black

|

SEASON PARTNERS |

CMYK

|

John Hirsch Mainstage |

|

Production co-Sponsors

Gail

and the late

Babs Asper

Tom Hendry Warehouse | production sponsors

Deborah Gray

Deborah Gray

Pantone

|

John Hirsch Mainstage | Performance SPONSORS

| theatre for young |

audiences

|

wordplay |

| BACKSTAGE PASS: THEATRE | perspectives for STUDENTS

S T R O N G E R C O M M U N I T I E S T O G E T H E R TM

| regional tour |

|

black & white |

|

Community play |

|

Talkbacks |

| Design Sponsor |

Gala Ball

|

2011

winnipeg fringe theatre festival |

Exchange The

DISTRI CT

|

ShawFest 2012 |

|

media sponsors |

S T R O N G E R C O M M U N I T I E S T O G E T H E R TM

feb/mar 2012

29

Behind the scen es Honorary Members

Accounting/Finance

Patron Services Office

His Honour, Lt. Governor Philip S. Lee The Honourable Greg Selinger, Premier of Manitoba His Worship, Mayor Sam Katz

Sharon Burden, Accounting Yvonne O’Connor, Accounting Shelley Stroski, Controller

Executive Officers

Administration

Gary Hannaford, FCA, Chair Kerry Dangerfield, chair-elect/chair, community relations Patrick Green, Treasurer/Chair, Organizational Performance David Carefoot, Assistant Treasurer Anthony C. Fletcher, Secretary Robert Eastwood, chair, resource development Jim McLandress, Chair, Governance & Strategic Planning

Brian Adolph, IT Manager Zaz Bajon, General Manager Emeritus Natascha Hainsworth, outreach coordinator Camilla Holland, General Manager Daphne MacMillan, Administrative Secretary Debbie Neufeld, Reception/Marketing Assistant Alan Waite, Assistant General Manager

Laurie Fletcher, Patron Services Office Manager Melanie Sexton, Ticketing Services Director Jennifer Skelly, Tessitura Application Coordinator Patron Services Representatives: Katie Adamson, Alison Derksen, Natercia Doucet, Anna-Laure Koop, Victoria Popp, Michaela Porter, Jessica Ross

Trustees

Artistic

David Atkins Brenlee Carrington Trepel David Christie Derrick Coupland Sandy Gousseau Jeff Lamothe Bruce Leslie Michelle Weinberg Rick Workman Richard L. Yaffe Brenda Zaporzan

Jeff Kennedy, Wordplay Coordinator Laurie Lam, Producer Robb Paterson, Associate Artistic Director Steven Schipper, Artistic Director Casey Shapira, Literary Apprentice* Melinda Tallin, Artistic Coordinator

Advisory Council Gerry Couture, Chair Gail Asper Morley Blankstein Doneta Brotchie Angus Campbell Hy Dashevsky Glen Dyrda, FCA John F. Fraser Jean Giguere Charron Hamilton Yude Henteleff Ken Houssin Gordon Keatch Colin R. MacArthur, QC Patrick J. Matthews Claire W. Miller Jeffrey Morton, FCA Hon. Jack Murta Lillian Neaman Shelley Nimchonok Andrew Ogaranko, QC James Pappas John Petersmeyer Lawrence Prout Jeff Quinton Patricia Rabson Margaret Redmond Susan Skinner Al Snyder Maureen Watchorn

Carpentry Louis Gagné, Layout Carpenter Brent Letain, Master Carpenter Chris Seida, Scenic Carpenter Lloyd Thomas, Carpenter

Communications Sue Caughlin, Marketing & Communications Manager Doowah Design, Design Bruce Monk, Photographer Brent Phillips, Director of Marketing & Communications Mark Saunders, Marketing & Communications Coordinator Teri Stevens, Publicist & online media coordinator

Production Laura Enns, Bookkeeper/Assistant Ian Kirk, Assistant Technical Director/Tour Technical Director Laura Lindeblom, Assistant Production Manager Rick MacPherson, Technical Director, Tom Hendry Theatre Russell Martin, Production Manager Benjamin Ross, Technical Director, John Hirsch Theatre Robert Smith, Interim assistant Technical Director

Properties Peter Baureiss, Properties Builder/Buyer Larry Demedash, Senior Properties Builder Ali Fulmyk, Apprentice Properties Builder Kari Hagness, Head of Properties James Sutherland, Properties Builder

Stage Crew Beverly Covert, Wigs & Makeup Supervisor Hart Greenberg, Head Carpenter Joan Lees-Miller, Head of Wardrobe Kayla McSwain, Dresser Claude Robert, Head Electrician John Tomiuk, House Stage Hand Michael Wright, Head of Sound

Tele-Sales Representative Sandra Rubin

Development

Tom Hendry Theatre

Kristine Betker, Director of Fund Development Garth Johnson, Major, individual & planned Giving Officer Michael Joyal, Development Assistant Stephanie Lambert, Special & Donor Events Coordinator

Randy Harder, Head Electrician Rick MacPherson, Technical Director Alison Nutt, Head Carpenter Greg Wood, Head of Sound Michael Wright, Head of Sound

John Hirsch Theatre Front-of-House Deborah Gay-de Vries, Front-of-House Manager Sheena Baird, Assistant House Manager Kim Cossette, Assistant House Manager Jaimie Chapman, Jonny Hall, Elfie Harvey, Kelsey Johnson, Sherri Kostecki, Tia Levine, Robyn Milligan, Rachael Neal, Jessica Olson, Amariah Peterson, Angela Rajfur, Caroline Shields, Cristin Sinclair, Kevin Stroski, Phyllis Van Drunen, Rita Vande Vyvere, Chelsea Zacharias, Derek Zorniak

Maintenance Andrew Drinnan, Building Superintendent Chris Fletcher, Assistant Building Superintendent

Paint Susan Groff, Head Scenic Artist Lawrence Van Went, Scenic Artist Assisted by: Kim Hamin, Julie Slessor

Tom Hendry Theatre Front-of-House Kim Cossette, Front-of-House Manager Scott Tweedy, Assistant House Manager Phyllis Hildebrand, Tia Levine, Pam Neal, Cristin Sinclair, Chelsea Zacharias

Wardrobe Amanda Isaak, sewer Donna Jenkyns, Sewer Norma Lachance, Sewer Thora Lamont, Cutter Barb Mackenzie, Sewer Lorraine O’Leary, Head of Wardrobe Lois Powne, First Hand Hollis Spevack, Sewer Jackie Van Winkle, Buyer/Accessories Iris Wood, Sewer

Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival & Master Playwright Festival Samantha Harrison, Festival Assistant Chuck McEwen, Executive Producer Rob Ring, Interim Festival Director

*Position Funded through the Jean Murray – Moray Sinclair theatre Apprenticeship Program

30

feb/mar 2012

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