Wendy Lill -- playwriting and politicing

[Deborah A. Cottreau]

Only one question... Is wallace making transcripts available, because I
know for the price of photocopying and mailing there would be a market in
the R.o.C (Rest of Canada - thanks Denis).

Deborah C.

On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Kathy Chung wrote:

> 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
>