Newsletter February 2023

• What the Prez Sez
• Alexander Galant - 2023/2024 Adjudicator
• Workshop - GST/HST Directors’ Liability plus Taxpayer Rights
• Community Theatre in the WODL Region
• Off the Wall - Upcoming Workshops
• New Plays from the Playwrights Canada Press
• Playwrights Guild of Canada - Canadian Play Outlet
• Concord Theatricals New Plays
• If you are Producing Canadian Plays this Season - Check This Out
• Is your WODL Membership Information Up-to-date?
• Dates for your Diary

By Linda Lloyd-McKenzie, WODL President, president@wodl.on.ca

It’s freezing outside and blowing snow has effectively closed the roads in and out of my area (Bruce County). Seems like the perfect day to cuddle up on the couch with a good book, a never ending crochet project, or that script that I should be memorizing! 

The fleetingness of theatre

©OnStage Blog

Another thing I like to do on days like this is to check out one of the many interesting blogs found on the OnStage blog website. It is a treasure trove of thought-provoking articles like the The fleetingness of theatre by Lindsay Timmington, a playwright and adjunct assistant professor at LaGuardia College. I think she captures that quintessential feeling most of us have when our latest theatre project ends. 

I heartily recommend the read. Careful though, it may lead you down a rabbit hole of equally entertaining blogs!  

Stay warm, friends!

Linda

By Ken Menzies, WODL Adjudications chair, adjudications@wodl.on.ca

Alexander Gallant will be WODL’s next travelling Festival adjudicator. The WODL board at it's last meeting unanimously approved the hiring of Alexander Gallant as our next (2023/2024) travelling Festival adjudicator, and he has agreed to take this position.

As in 2023, WODL is not hosting a traditional 5 day festival and the adjudicator who adjudicates shows from the day after Thanksgiving to the last weekend in April picks all the awards, the position of travelling adjudicator has been renamed the travelling Festival adjudicator.

After Alexander took the Theatre Ontario adjudicator course from Ron Cameron in 2016, I heard him adjudicate The Best Brothers by Daniel Maclvor at the Curtain Club in Toronto and thought he gave an excellent adjudication. He was to have been our travelling adjudicator until COVID forced WODL to shift to workshops. Before COVID began he acted in, and directed, many plays, but when COVID began he switched to film as a way of earning a living. His bio and photo are below.

Alexander Galant - Biography

Alexander Galant is a director, screenwriter, and novelist. Working in almost every technical position in theatre gave Alexander the background to direct some highly technically challenging productions such as Singin' in the Rain where it rained across the entire stage. The Wizard of Oz was one of the first productions in the GTA to use projections to mix computer-generated fx with live action. Recently Titanic the Musical where he created the illusion of the sinking at the St Jacobs Country Playhouse.

His experience as an actor has been helpful when directing more character-driven shows such as Les Misérables, Twelve Angry Men, Love Letters, and the Toronto Premiere of the new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank.

Alexander was offered full Equity Membership after directing Anne Frank but had to turn it down due to the financial responsibilities of a new baby on the way.

Taking a leave of absence from theatre, Alexander was the historical researcher and ghostwriter of a Gothic novel (with Shakespearean elements) that was on the New York Times Best Sellers List and, followed up by publishing his own award-winning novel.

Alexander earns his living working in the film industry, had been a full member of the Directors Guild of Canada, and is currently freelancing as a script supervisor with IATSE. He has written and directed his own award-winning films and recently directed extra scenes and special effects sequences for the TV series CHUCKY (second season).

February 14, 2023 at 11:00 am via Zoom -- NEW START TIME!

GST/HST Directors’ Liability plus Taxpayer Rights

Do you want to learn about potential personal liability for GST/HST?

Would you like to hear more about your rights as a taxpayer?

If you would like to learn about these issues you should attend CRA’s GST/HST Presentation: GST/HST Directors’ Liability plus Taxpayer Rights. You will hear directly from CRA’s GST/HST Headquarters Representative who has 30+ years experience working in CRA’s GST/HST programs. The Presentation will introduce and review some of the publicly available information on these issues, as well as provide you with some additional tips based on many years of practical experience.  

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• GST/HST personal liability potential
• Due diligence
• Understand Rights

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Legislation
• Your responsibilities
• Demonstrating Due Diligence
• Your 16 Rights
• Reference Materials 

WHO WILL BENEFIT:

This Presentation is designed for various organizations and sectors. It is intended for Directors, Managers and others who may deal with the CRA. You will be introduced to the 16 rights in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and issues concerning potential personal liability for an organization’s GST/HST amounts.

For more information contact Terri Graham at  workshops@wodl.on.ca.

A good place to find out about what other WODL groups are doing is the WODL Facebook page, WODL | Facebook. Most of the announcements are at fairly short notice, so check in often!

If your group is putting on an event that you would like included in the March newsletter, please send the information to communications@wodl.on.ca.

By Annie Gibson, Publisher, Playwrights Canada Press, jessica@playwrightscanada.com 

Check out these new books from Playwrights Canada Press!

Recently released:

Check out these new books from Playwrights Canada Press!

Post-Democracy by Hannah Moscovitch

Welcome to the world of the one per cent, the corporate elite, the C-suite, the kingmakers. A world managed by payoffs, press releases, NDAs, and company policies. What happens to morality in this world when its people have limitless power?

Yaga by Kat Sandler

She’s more than just a wicked old witch. Baba Yaga is a legend, usually known as that elderly woman who lives alone in the woods and grinds the bones of the wicked. But what if she was actually a sexy, smart, modern woman operating off of morally ambiguous motives?

The Negroes Are Congregating by Natasha Adiyana Morris

In this unapologetic and sharp-witted perspective about the evolving Black experience in Canada and around the world, a rhythmic fusion of spoken word, satire, and soulful dialect emerges steady as a heartbeat through a journey of raw truths and deep-rooted questions.

Coming soon:

Fall On Your Knees adapted by Hannah Moscovitch & Alisa Palmer from the novel by Ann-Marie MacDonald

This epic play follows three generations of a Cape Breton Island family in a tale of forbidden love, inescapable bonds, and devastating betrayals, all while harbouring secrets that threaten to shatter the family entirely.

Blackout: The Concordia Computer Riots by Tamara Brown, Kym Dominique-Ferguson, Lydie Dubuisson, and Mathieu Murphy-Perron

In February 1969, hundreds of students occupied a computer centre at what is now Montréal’s Concordia University to protest the mismanagement of a racism complaint lodged by Caribbean students against their biology professor. When an agreement to end the occupation fell through, riot police were called in, resulting in widespread damage, a mysterious fire, and nearly a hundred arrests.

After the Fire & The Particulars by Matthew MacKenzie

From the author of Bears comes two dark comedies that expose the effects of disturbing the natural order and what we’re capable of when pushed to our breaking point.



See what else is  coming soon.

Did you know you can browse our plays by subjects and casting? 

Want to hear more about sales and upcoming events? Sign up for our newsletter!

You can find more new releases, a blog full of interviews and excerpts, and more on playwrightscanada.com!

The Canadian Play Outlet has over 2000 Canadian Plays right at your fingertips. Looking for something specific? Check out the curated Collections.

Every month you can take a look at the newest unpublished and published plays available!

See January 2023 releases.

See their latest scripts click here.

Are you on the board of a theatre group that belongs to WODL? If your group has:



• A new President
• New WODL delegates
• A new Treasurer

Please let our membership chair, Shirley Bieman, know at membership@wodl.on.ca

28 February 2023

Deadline for submissions for the March newsletter

23 April 2023

WODL General Meeting

30 April 2023

Adjudications end

Victoria Day Long Weekend, 19 & 20 May 2023

WODL Festival and Reunion Gala 2023

21 May 2023

WODL AGM

Victoria Day Long Weekend, 17 & 18 May 2024

WODL Festival and Reunion Gala 2024

19 May 2024

WODL AGM

Victoria Day Long Weekend 2025 and week prior

WODL Festival 2025, Leamington

This newsletter was prepared by:

Tricia Ward

Communications coordinator

WODL

Western Ontario Drama League  | communications@wodl.on.ca | www.wodl.on.ca

Copyright © Western Ontario Drama League 2023. All Rights Reserved.