Wendy Lill -- playwriting and politicing

[Kathy Chung]

Report from the Evil City :

I went up to York University last night to hear Wendy Lill speak on "The
Playwright as Politician."  She was wonderful and inspiring.  The talk is
part of a series of free public events organised by Robert Wallace, this
year's Robarts Chair fot Canadian Studies at York.

(F.Y.I.  Wendy Lill is a Canadian playwright who was elected as a NDP
Member of Parliment representing Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, during the
federal election last year.  She is the NDP culture critic and their
spokesperson on disability issues.  Her plays include:  _Fighting Days_,
_The Occupation of Heather Rose_, _Memories of You_, _All Fall Down_,
_Glace Bay Miners Museum_.)

Here are some notes of her talk from my *sketchy* memory (if anyone else
on CANDRAMA was there and has corrections and additions, please do!):

Robert Wallace introduced Wendy Lill, welcoming her to her old university
(she did a degree in philosophy? and social work at York).  Lill began
with a description of her writing career, her interest in plays about
social and political issues, and how she was invited by Alexa MacDonald to
run for the NDP.

Lill gave a moving talk: urging each of us to be more involved in
community issues, speaking against the MAI with its threat to our national
cultural autonomy and the concentration of media ownership in Canada.  She
quoted from Martin Luther King (hope I got that right) that "Legislature
can't change the heart but can restraint the heartless."  She also spoke
in concern about the raising debt faced by students with their student
loans.  She spoke in support of legislature for the "Status of the Artist"
(issues such as income tax, training, etc), the need for more dramatic and
violent (passionate) responses to social issues, the need for clear
language in politics, etc.

She said that for her, the key question is about communities: Who is going
to control our communities?

Lill also spoke about the need to determine the significant
questions/issues in parliment.  She gave a moving example that one week,
the discussion in the house was about government kick backs while down the
street, at the Supreme Court, something of more significance was
happening: three deaf women were arguing for the right to have the means
to communicate with their doctors during their labours.

Near the end, Robert Wallace directed some discussion towards playwriting.
Lill spoke a bit about her writing process, the time needed to explore an
idea.  She said her present busy schedule means it would be impossible to
write any plays within her four year term but she wouldn't mind doing some
other forms of writing.  She enjoyed doing the "rookie MP diary" series
earlier in the year for the CBC (she read several entertaining and
thoughtful entries from that series to us) and would like to explore
something along those lines.

Finally, there was time for questions from the audience.

Anyway, if you are interested in the other events in the series, you can
call the Robarts Centre at York and ask to be put on their mailing list.
Their number is (416) 736-5499.

The next event is a panel of 4 theatrical producers on 14 October:
Sherrie Johnson, Artistic Producer, Spin Off Theatre Festival and Da Da
Kamera (Toronto); Leslie Lester, Artistic Producer, Nightwood Theatre and
the Group of Seven (Toronto); David Mirvish, Artistic Producer, Mirvish
Productions (Toronto); Alejandro Ronceria, independent not-for-profit
producer; Co-Artistic Director, Native Earth Performing Arts (Toronto).

Cheers to all, --- Kathy.

P.S.  No, I don't work for the Robarts Centre nor am I a student at York!
:-)

P.S.S.  Sorry this is so Toronto-centric.... I speak as a displaced west
coast person! :)

______________________________________________________________________________
Kathy Chung, PhD Candidate <kchung at chass.utoronto.ca>
Graduate Drama Centre, University of Toronto
214 College St, 3rd Fl., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA  M5T 2Z9
Ph: (416) 926-9692   Fax: c/o Massey College, UT (416) 978-1759