CARRIE LOFFREE and the Canadian wheelchair fencing team went to Euskirchen, Germany this summer to compete in the 1998 World Fencing Championships (the biggest and most important international fencing competition aside from the Paralympics). There were 130 fencers there from 17 different countries and Carrie came in 13th in the world in both foil and epee. Not bad for someone with less than a year of experience competing against athletes who have been fencing for as long as 25 years! Carrie has been invited to join the unbeatable French team at their training camp in Nantes this September, and her long-term fencing goals include training for the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney. She is currently the #1 female paraplegic fencer in Canada, and has an excellent chance of making the Paralympic team. If you're interested in promoting positive images of disabled women athletes, or simply helping Carrie raise the funds she needs to continue participating in international competitions as she works towards the Paralympics, she would be thrilled to accept (income tax deductible) donations! You can contact her by e-mail at carrie@dsuper.net or by phone at (514) 844-3571. (Cheques should be made out to the "Association québécoise des sports en fauteuil roulant" or "AQSFR" and mailed to Carrie Loffree at 65 Sherbrooke St. E., #506, Montreal, PQ, H2X 1C4.)
BRUCE BARTON recently workshopped his new play, a 'performance piece,' with a heavy emphasis placed on light, sound, projection, and choreography. It was workshopped in Sackville, NB, from August 16 - 23, as part of the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (P.A.R.C.) 'Moveable Feast,' a writers' colony held each year. At least one writer is selected from each of the Atlantic provinces (average 6 writers in total). Bruce's dramaturge was Philip Adams, AD of Nakai Theatre in Whitehorse. He is hoping to see a staging of the piece in the coming year. Bruce has also recently relocated from UPEI to a position as Director at the Instructional Development Services Office at Dalhousie University.
A revised edition of A Guide To Theatre Archives At The University of Guelph will be forthcoming this winter. The 3rd edition of this Guide will update the previous one published in 1993, with the addition of some twenty-five new collections from theatre companies, playwrights, directors, and other theatre people, describing a total of 104 individual archival collections. Collections with ongoing deposits, such as those from most professional theatre companies operating in Ontario, are so indicated and the Guide has short descriptive annotations on the contents of each archive. Edited and with an introduction by LEN CONOLLY, Professor of English at Trent and Adjunct Professor and former Chair of Drama at Guelph, the new edition is expected to run to over forty pages, including the index.
Following in the footsteps of ACTR members Edward Littleand Julie Salverson, St. John's, Newfoundland members DENYSE LYNDE and PAUL O'NEILL (Honorary Member) are hard at work on a commemorative celebratory event to mark the anniversary of the establishment of the parish in 1699 by the Bishop of London. The specific project will be the staging of a community pageant chronicling the history of the parish in the larger community of St. John's. Joining Denyse and Paul are designer Martin Johnson, actor/ technician Dick Buehler and writer Peter Ayers. If you plan to be out east May 1999, be sure to drop by the Cathedral.
Some recent appointments include SHELLEY SCOTT to a position at the University of Lethbridge. ROB WALLACE is this year's Robart's Chair of Canadian Studies at York University, and LEN DOUCETTE is beginning a well-deserved retirement from Scarborough Campus of U of T. As of 1 July STEPHEN JOHNSON will an associate professor at the University of Toronto, dividing his time between the Erindale College/Sheridan College Theatre and Drama Programme and the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama. LISBIE RAE has found work in the sunnier climes of Florida.
CHES SKINNER has been appointed Dean of The School of Fine Arts at the University of Lethbridge for a term of 5 years. The School of Fine Arts includes The Divisions of Art, Music, and Theatre & Dramatic Arts, as well as a Music Conservatory, and Art Gallery. The enrollment continues to rise and this year classes are nearly all full. There is a large performance and presentation component to all three programmes with visiting artists enhancing the programme with workshops and master classes. (Three of the four plays in the season for 1998 The Division of Theatre & Dramatic are Canadian: 7 Stories (Panych), Frankenstein (Learning and Nowlan), and The Queens (Chaurette).
EDWARD LITTLE has been hired in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University, to develop and co-ordinate a new undergraduate specialization in Drama for Human Development. This semester marks the launch of the new programme. Students majoring in this area concentrate on educational, rehabilitative, and therapeutic aspects of theatre through a plan of study which examines the theory and practice of theatre for social change in areas such as popular and political theatre, celebratory theatre, community plays, theatre for special populations, and drama therapy. Things are going well, and Ed is thoroughly enjoying Montreal.
JERRY WASSERMAN is this year's recipient of the UBC Killam Teaching Prize, awarded for excellence in teaching. It's especially rewarding because it must be initiated and supported by both colleagues and students. The formal awarding of the prize was accompanied by various embarrassingly flattering testimonials, including one particularly valuable attribute and useful teaching tool. "He has," read the President, quoting one of Jerry's students, "the enthusiasm of a five-year old." Even after more than 25 years of teaching English, drama and theatre, Jerry can still honestly say that it still thrills him to get paid for talking about and doing the things that he'd talk about and do for free otherwise. And none of it is more exciting than his continuing forays into Canadian theatre history and Canadian playwriting.
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