Ontario Honours Sheatre’s Achievement In Victim Services
Regional theatre company, Sheatre, was honoured with The Ministry of The Attorney General’s Victim Services Award of Distinction on Thursday, November 28 at ceremonies at Queen’s Park in Toronto.  Joan Chandler, Artistic Director of Sheatre, and project partner Joachim Ostertag of The Men’s Program, were present to accept the award on behalf of the program FAR FROM THE HEART.
 
The Ontario government established the Victim Services Awards of Distinction to recognize the high quality and innovative services that individuals and organizations provide to victims of crime on a daily basis throughout the province. It is hoped that these awards will encourage the sharing of best practices and unique achievements among victim services professionals and volunteers across the province.
 
In recognition of their new program, “FAR FROM THE HEART”, Sheatre received the innovative service award,  which “highlights situations where a person or group has developed a unique or novel approach to achieve tangible improvements in services to the victims who are their clients, to better meet their needs.”
 
“FAR FROM THE HEART” is a dating violence prevention program teaching youth about rape, sexual assault and healthy relationships. “It was my goal to talk to young people about these sensitive and often puzzling topics in a way that they could accept and actively discuss,” says Chandler, “so I created a participatory theatre piece and wrapped supporting resources around it so that it would be easy, safe and really productive.”
 
The unique and comprehensive educational program uses the performing arts, interactive discussions, teacher training, an educational guide,  and in-class activities to send the message to youth and to assist teachers in the delivery of the core curriculum in the areas of sexual health and violence prevention.   To develop and produce FAR FROM THE HEART, Sheatre partnered with youth, The Bluewater Board of Education, The Sexual Assault and Partner Abuse Care Centre (Grey Bruce Health Services), The Men’s Program (Grey/Bruce), Women’s House Serving Grey Bruce, Parent Action on Drugs, Victim Witness Assistance Program, Public Health, Mixed Company Theatre,  and teachers.

Twenty-seven presentations were made to over 2000 people in schools and community centres across Grey Bruce in the spring of 2008.   “We reached almost 25% of the school youth population.  That is an achievement,” says Ostertag.  Students commented that “Everyone should see this!”   Plans are now underway for another tour in 2009.  Interest has also come from as far away as Kingston.

Support for the initiative came from The Ontario Trillium Foundation, The Canadian Women’s Foundation, The Ministries of Education and Culture: Arts Education Partnership Initiative through The Ontario Arts Foundation, The United Way of Bruce Grey, Bruce Power, The Raptors Foundation, and The Ministry of The Attorney General.

The Ontario government is committed to increasing the effectiveness of victim services across the province.  One step in achieving this goal is to help ensure that local agencies know about, and learn from, the successes of exemplary individuals and organizations.  The Awards of Distinction will help to raise the profile of these initiatives and help to achieve this goal.



(Joachim Ostertag, Joan Chandler and The Honourable Chris Bentley, Attorney General)

NEWSFLASH:
Augusto Boal, founder of the Theatre of the Oppressed, has been nominated for a Nobel Prize! To find out more and to support the nomination, go to: http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org

Trillium Funding Presentations: The Ontario Trillium Foundation announced three funding to support the Infrastructure Development, specifically the administrative operations of Sheatre. This award of $75,200 will enable the company to hire ongoing staff for the first time in its 21 history, developing the company’s stability and ability to respond to community needs.
Photo #18: Joan Chandler (Artistic Director), Bill Murdoch (MPP), Liz Fry (Trillium Foundation)

The Ontario Trillium Foundation also awarded $20,000 to Sheatre in support of the new Grey Bruce Cultural Network.
The Grey Bruce Cultural Network Steering Committee: Joan Chandler, Anne Frost, John Harrison, Judith Glover, Paul Conway, with Liz Fry (The Trillium Foundation) and Bill Murdoch.

The Grey-Bruce Cultural Network (GBCN) is a new, developing regional arts-and-culture service organization in Grey Bruce, organized by regional artists and arts-and-culture professionals. Its purpose is to encourage and support arts-and-culture people, projects and enterprises throughout the region, with a heavy emphasis on the technical, marketing, business and community development aspects of the sector. It is not yet incorporated. Its business is being governed by a Steering Committee which functions as its volunteer board of directors to guide its organizational development. The funds support the creation of a website, currently under development.

The resources of the Grey Bruce Cultural Network, at this stage, are the experience and expertise of its directors and members, assisted by whatever funding we can obtain. The funding is usually specific to projects, but the experience and expertise are available upon request to arts and culture people, projects and enterprises in Grey Bruce. The Steering Committee consists of: Joan Chandler, Sheatre, Kemble Paul Conway, Voyageur Storytelling, Northern Bruce Peninsula Project, Anne Finlay-Stewart, Rhymes with Orange Public Relations & Promotions, Owen Sound Anne Frost, Jackson Judith Glover, Owen Sound Little Theatre John Harrison, Tempo Foundation, Owen Sound. The GBCN’s offices are c/o Sheatre, RR 1 Kemble, Ontario N0H 1S0.

fall season

Sheatre (pronounced like “theatre,” of course), a community-based company serving Grey and Bruce Counties and beyond, continues to offer a wide array of issue-based and locally relevant theatrical events this fall.

Performances of “Far from the Heart,” an interactive show for students about date rape and how to deal with it, take place in Wiarton at the high school on September 29th and at OSCVI in Owen Sound in October, date to be confirmed.

This show will be broadcast by Rogers Cable to other schools in the Bluewater Board. Students from across Grey and Bruce will interact with the young actors to find alternatives to the scenes presented. What might the characters have done differently to avoid the problems shown in the play?

Date rape happens, but no-one wants to talk about it – here’s a way to get at the issue and get around the “eeeeew” factor to create some positive results.

And in an entirely different theatrical vein – Sheatre is touring a musical show about Tom Thomson this fall to area venues. Featuring renowned musician David Sereda, performances of “Songs in the Key of Tom” take place in Elora on October 20th and in Sarnia on October 27th. A showcase of the songs will also be performed in Sarnia at “Ontario Contact” on October 26th, for engagers from all across Ontario who are looking for touring performances to book for their 2007-8 seasons.

From November 3nd to 5th the script for “TOM” a new Canadian play about the life and legend of Tom Thomson, will be featured in a workshop and reading at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, with professional actors including Martin Julien. This reading before an audience gives the playwright a chance to see the show “on its feet,” and to make changes to the pace and sequence of the script before the show is mounted for a full production. The play is an outcrop of the “Brush” workshops. Tarragon Theatre, with this partnership, continues its long history of nurturing and developing new Canadian work.

And, in order to prepare for school touring performances of Sheatre’s shows about Tom Thomson, Sheatre will publish an Educational Guide this fall, in conjunction with the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery in Owen Sound. This guide links the shows to Ontario curriculum in order to make sure that teachers are able to make the best use of the opportunity to have students see Sheatre’s performances, and potentially participate in workshops like the ones that were used to develop the show.

For more information about any of these announcements, please call 519 534 3039.