62 replies to this topic

[Nparker]

Dear Laila should also be canceled.

[JimV]

Vancouver festival cancels Israel-set play pulled by Belfry Theatre

 

Vancouver’s PuSh Festival was set to show The Runner as well as Dear Laila by Palestinian playwright Basel Zaraa, who did not want the two plays shown together

 

https://www.timescol...theatre-8098753

 

 

Morris said it’s “unsettling” when Canadian theatres cannot be a space for the public to engage in an exchange of ideas, but he sympathized with the PuSh Festival’s distress when Zaraa said he would withdraw his production if The Runner remained.

Well, the good news is that it cements Victoria’s reputation as a cowardly little woke backwater in case anybody still had doubts.

[Victoria Watcher]

The Belfry Theatre, Plenty Collective, and the Victoria Foundation have mutually agreed to return the unspent portion of the grant provided in the 2023 Community Grants Program.

The grant was provided for events that foster arts-based community connection and wellness. It was to focus on queer community building with an intersectional lens through nourishment, art and connection. The funding was given to the Belfry Theatre as the registered charity for use in partnership with the Plenty Collective. A review process indicates that the funds spent to date were used in alignment with the intended purpose. The organizations have decided to return the funds as the partnership is being discontinued for this grant.

The unspent portion of the grant will be returned to the Victoria Foundation and distributed as part of the 2024 Community Grants Program for gender equality initiatives.


https://victoriafoun...ria-foundation/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 January 2024 - 03:27 PM.

[Nparker]

...The grant was provided...to focus on queer community building with an intersectional lens through nourishment, art and connection...

When the woke stump even themselves with their gibberish.

[Victoria Watcher]

For the second time in three months, a play that depicts sensitive historical hardship has been cancelled in Victoria because a segment of the public doesn’t like what or how it is being depicted.

 

An online backlash against the production of Sisters, a Canadian drama about a residential school, asserts the play is offensive and racist. The resultant fear of violence prompted the Fernwood Community Association (FCA) on Wednesday to close the production just days before it was scheduled to conclude its two-week run at its tenant’s playhouse, Theatre Inconnu, on Fernwood.

 

Clayton Jevne, the theatre’s artistic director and GM said he reached out online to try to understand. 

 

“I put the word out: please let me know what was racist and offensive,” he tells Capital Daily.

 

“What I got back was, ‘Well, you're a white person, you're doing a story that concerns First Nations, and you shouldn’t be doing that.’”

 

Jevne wondered aloud whether any of the play’s detractors had read or seen the play.

 

 

 

https://www.capitald...ssociation-play

 

 

 

 

Shortly after 3pm Wednesday, a note appeared on Theatre Inconnu’s Facebook page promoting Sisters, which read: “Due to public protest, our landlord has shut down the play.”

 

The FCA board of directors made the decision following an onslaught of online accusations the play was “offensive” and “racist.”

 

______________________

 

 

Jevne also said the loss of that final performance could be ground-shifting for the theatre company which depends on its final big show to sell memberships. 

 

Known as Victoria's longest-surviving alternative theatre company, Theatre Inconnu has performed more than 150 productions in the city since its inception in 1978.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 07 March 2024 - 05:42 AM.

[Nparker]

More inclucivity and acceptance from the woke.

[lanforod]

Here's what will be an non-woke, amateur but great show, tickets still available for tonight and Saturday morning:
https://www.eventbri...s-795499529507 

[Nparker]

Sounds purrrrrfect.🐈‍⬛

[Tony]

Sisters   Explores the life of a nun who burns down a Native residential school, examining the cultural infrastructure and values of the white society which created them.

 

Sisters by Wendy Lill explores the topic of First Nations residential school abuse from a challenging perspective. The story focuses on the transformation of a young nun, eager to bring relief and love to those children she oversees. We see how the system, and her fellow workers, transform this caring soul into an abusive contributor to the suffering of her wards. It is a harsh indictment, and screams out for an answer: “How could this have happened?” Written 30 years ago, this play is more relevant than ever.

Edited by Tony, 07 March 2024 - 08:20 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The vast majority of posts on Facebook and Reddit were in support of staging the production, but Tuesday, the Fernwood Community Association announced it would be cancelling the remaining four shows.

 

The association acts as a landlord to Theatre Inconnu and issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying, “This decision was made to make space for listening and ensure the safety of everyone in our building and community.”

 

The company adds that it has invited its staff and performers to a discussion with an Indigenous facilitator.

 

It’s the second time in three months that a play has been cancelled in Fernwood.

 

In January the Belfry Theatre cancelled its upcoming staging of The Runner, a play centred in Israel that deals with violence in the Middle East. Vocal crowds of pro-Palestine supporters protested outside the Belfry, and the building was vandalized with the words “Free Palestine” spray painted in red on the building’s front steps.

 

Much of the criticism online centred on the idea of Sisters being told through the experiences of a white character as opposed to an Indigenous perspective.

Merk says she appreciates those view points, but disagrees with the idea of cancelling the production.

 

“Rather than cancelling this play that is attempting to tell a part of that story, write your own play,” Merk said. “I’m sure the Fernwood Community Association would be only too happy to produce it. Let’s hear those voices. ”

 

In the meantime, she hopes no future productions will be cancelled without broader public input.

 

“What kind of a world are we in where people are afraid to do a play?” Merk asks.

 

https://www.cheknews...cklash-1194189/

[Victoria Watcher]

Residential-school play cancelled after complaints playwright is white

 

https://www.timescol...s-white-8414462

[Victoria Watcher]

A day after cancelling the final four performances of the play Sisters, the Fernwood Community Association Board of Directors says it had a responsibility “to act quickly and decisively.”

 

Just hours prior to Wednesday's scheduled presentation at Paul Phillips Hall on Fernwood, the board informed Theatre Inconnu it was calling off the rest of its tenant’s two-week run because of an online uproar pegging the play “offensive” and “racist.”

 

“Our decision to cancel the remainder of the showings of Sisters was a challenging decision made after much deliberation,” a statement from the board said. 

 

“This decision was made to make space for listening and ensure the safety of everyone in our building and community.”

 

 

 

 

https://www.capitald...-to-cancel-play

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 March 2024 - 06:19 AM.

[Nparker]

Someone needs to cancel woke permanently.

[Mike K.]

It’ll cancel itself out eventually. The rest of society doesn’t really care. We'd never hear about these things if the media had more stuff to focus on, and even there, fewer and fewer people consume that material.

[max.bravo]

Average people do seem to be waking up to the nonsense. 

 

Remember the movie Crash? It was a bold dismantling of racism when it was released. It would never be made today because it would hurt peoples feelings. 

 

I can't wait for society to stop rewarding hurt feelings.

[Mike K.]

Our society has gotten so bad, that none of that resonates any more. It was all fun and games until a run to the grocery store cost $600 and your property taxes started rising not by 2-3% but 12-16%, and vandals can damage your property but you’ll be the bad guy for trying to stop them.

It’s madness and insanity out there without these added layers of social division. People just don’t care who or what thinks which or what at some community centre. They just don’t.

[max.bravo]

Good point. Being Woke is almost the ultimate expression of "privilege"

[Mike K.]

Exactly.

[Tony]

As someone with family working in the theatre business the show should have gone on.

 

Deal with the negative consequences , if any afterwards.

[Victoria Watcher]

The FCA board is waaaaaaaaay too woke for that.