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Langham Court Theatre board shake-up


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#1 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 21 November 2021 - 06:51 AM

Big changes in the board of a volunteer-run Victoria theatre company are being hailed as a shift toward inclusivity or a calculated takeover, depending on who you ask.

 

At an annual general meeting for Langham Court Theatre Society last Sunday that dragged on for five hours, voters elected six board members. The majority are first-time board members for the theatre, which has been criticized as exclusive and lacking in representation.

 

The theatre reached a settlement this year in a human rights tribunal case in which a Black actor alleged the company and a director discriminated against her on the basis of race after she was told there were no roles for Black women in a play.

 

Newly elected president Janine Longy, who had been previously elected as a member-at-large, and vice-president Kathy Macovichuk, whose role was not up for re-election, have resigned since the vote.

 

Macovichuk said she resigned because she believed that’s what the majority of the new board wanted, based on an earlier online campaign calling for her resignation.

 

“They knew that they wanted to have some changes be done and didn’t think that the present board was capable of doing it. So they had decided to come in and basically take over the theatre,” she said.

 

Macovichuk said she recognized change was needed at the theatre and she was trying to implement workshops on diversity and inclusion to improve representation in the wake of the human rights complaint, but it didn’t seem to be enough for many people. 

 

“There is a group who is not forgiving and who cannot move on and they are just forging forward and wanting to punish,” she said.

 

________________________

 

“We’ve been told many, many times that we’re privileged white racists. … It’s like a country club or golf club or something,” she said. “It’s not like that. We’ve always been very welcoming for everyone.”

 

________________________

 

After an emotional discussion at the meeting, members voted to revoke a lifetime membership for Judy Treloar, the director who told a Black actor there were no roles for Black women in a play.

 

https://www.timescol...usation-4781330


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 November 2021 - 06:55 AM.


#2 Spy Black

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Posted 21 November 2021 - 08:21 AM

A fine Victoria institution successfully taken over in a classic "woke revolt" by a bunch of UVIC alumni and miscellaneous local SJW's who have little (if anything) to do with live theatre in Victoria.

(in a B.C. based not for profit, anybody can join the society - and can then vote in Board elections at the societies AGM, which is how these SJW's manage these take overs).

 

The history of Langham Courts particular involvement in "woke progress" ignores the fact that plays (scripts) are actual things, and if there are no black people written into the script by the playwrite ... then if follow that folks will have to accept that there's no roles for black people to play in that particular production.

 

The removal of Treloar's lifetime membership is a classic bit of threat based fear mongering, designed to indicate to long time Langham Court members that they'd better get in lock-step with this new, woke, Board of Directors ... or it's out the door for them as well.

 

For those folks who may not be aware of the history of the local live theatre scene, Judy Treloar isn't just some random name in the mix ... she's part of the many decades old bedrock and foundation that forms the live theatre scene in Victoria, she's also part of the bedrock of Langham Court Theatre.

 

Without a concerted effort to put the brakes on, "woke culture" once again creeps into the mix in order to lay some sort of settler guilt trip on multi-generation residents of Victoria.


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#3 Barrrister

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Posted 21 November 2021 - 08:21 AM

Another lefty takeover and more tax money to follow. 



#4 Spy Black

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Posted 21 November 2021 - 08:25 AM

Another lefty takeover and more tax money to follow. 

Langham has around $250,000.00 in the bank ... so there's lots of cash to waste on "woke" endeavours before they run out of money and wind up putting Langham Court out of business.

 

These kinds of revolts don't generally go over very well with the live theatre audience in Victoria, so we'll see how the local, live theatre ticket buying community reacts to this change.


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#5 Barrrister

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Posted 21 November 2021 - 08:29 AM

They really dont care about ticket sales since they focus on increased government funding in order to get the message out.



#6 Spy Black

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Posted 21 November 2021 - 08:41 AM

They really dont care about ticket sales since they focus on increased government funding in order to get the message out.

That too.

SJW's rarely care about anything beyond fulfilling their limited agenda. 



#7 Listener

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Posted 23 November 2021 - 12:44 PM

The director stated the well-known casting requirements for the play as it has always been performed.  She said that a black woman would not play specific parts, but there were also other parts available.  The settlement of the human rights complaint denied her the right to confront her accuser and test the complaint in a public hearing. 

 

The majority of those who voted to revoke her life membership at Langham Court–earned over forty-four years of service–had bought their memberships at the door and been members for little more than an hour.  They dominated and disrupted the meeting; booing, rattling noisemakers, and shouting down any statement that met with their disapproval.

 

An organization does not survive as long as Langham Court has without occasional disruption and reinvention.  In the past, change has been orderly and civilized; without the need to manipulate the vote.


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#8 Spy Black

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Posted 02 December 2021 - 12:19 PM

Judy Treloar, the person being discussed above, has passed away ... with friends saying her passing was due to a broken heart.

 

Hopefully, Langham Court and the crop of as_holes that form its current Board of Directors are pleased with the work they did in withdrawing Ms. Treloar's lifetime membership, and then further besmirching her good name all over social media, and encouraging others in the theatre community to do the same.

 

Langham Court Theatre is now so profoundly stained such that removing that stain will likely take years, if it's even possible.

Absolutely disgusting behavior from Langham Courts Board of Directors - and now Ms. Treloar is gone.


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#9 Nparker

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Posted 02 December 2021 - 12:28 PM

Being tried in the court of public opinion seems to be having dire consequences for its victims lately.  I suppose the SJWs are feeling pretty smug with themselves, watching those they have vanquished die.


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#10 spanky123

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Posted 02 December 2021 - 03:37 PM

An organization does not survive as long as Langham Court has without occasional disruption and reinvention.  In the past, change has been orderly and civilized; without the need to manipulate the vote.

 

It is pretty binary in most cases. The new 'management' will produce great content and the theatre will thrive or it will not. The problem is that if it does not, usually the 'members' who initiated the coup are nowhere to be found when it comes time to ante up.



#11 Listener

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 06:12 PM

The new "management" announced today that the remainder of the 2021-2022 season is cancelled and the theatre is closed.  Apparently it is impossible to produce plays without implementing a new code of conduct or a General Manager.  Langham Court's friendly, welcoming and open culture worked just fine for 90+ years, and it produced plays for at least 60 years without a General Manager.



#12 On the Level

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 07:11 PM

Sounds like they took a lesson from the Royal BC Museum.  I am wondering what plays there will be when they reopen?  Will white people have to pay more and sit in a segregated area?


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#13 Mike K.

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 07:24 PM

Wasn’t there a guy who was charging white cisgendered people more for some event, a couple of years ago? Public backlash changed that trajectory, I seem to recall.

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#14 Spy Black

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 07:41 PM

Langham Court is dead.

 

This current Board will, as a group, be remembered in the Victoria theatre community for decades to come as the fools that destroyed a half century old, very successful Victoria theatre company.


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#15 On the Level

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 07:48 PM

It is well documented that theatre is racist (sarcasm) 



#16 Spy Black

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Posted 29 December 2021 - 08:06 PM

A playwright writes a play, and that play revolves entirely around two white, anglo Saxon families.

 

Not to put too fine a point on it, but in that play as noted above, there are no black people in two white anglo Saxon families ... and simply plunking a black actor down as a member of one of the white anglo Saxon families would result in an embarrassing, foolish, and ridiculous display of SWJ woke-washing.

It would cause the theatre company, actors, and Director of the play in question to be reduced to laughing stocks.

 

So when a theatre Director says "I'm sorry, but there are no black people in this play", it can simply mean (and mean nothing more than) the playwright didn't write any black people into the play, and for no more a complicated reason that the playwright was writing a play about two white, anglo Saxon families!


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#17 m3m

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Posted 30 December 2021 - 09:39 AM

You guys probably aren’t going to like new MacBeth movie from the Coen brothers starring Denzel Washington.
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#18 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 30 December 2021 - 09:46 AM

You guys probably aren’t going to like new MacBeth movie from the Coen brothers starring Denzel Washington.

 

It's getting good reviews.  

 

Bridgerton does alright.



#19 Spy Black

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Posted 30 December 2021 - 10:14 AM

Live theatre is a multi-layered affair, and indeed there are theatrical choices made by directors that may challenge the norm ... but those "challenges" are specifically chosen as a fundamental part of that directors personal vision for the performance in question ... the most obvious example being Hamilton, with all black actors playing all white historical figures.

 

But that's a directors very personal choice, based on their very personal vision.

 

Woke-culture doesn't play into Hamilton at all, which is simply a brilliant piece of writing that was directed by a brilliant director (Lin Manuel Miranda).

Miranda's concept was one of a classic bit of history told in the form of rap music ... and Miranda's brilliance realized that rap was a black music form, and therefore (despite the historical figures being white), having the parts played by a black cast was a case of simple (albeit brilliant) logic on Miranda's part.


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#20 Nparker

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Posted 30 December 2021 - 10:39 AM

So it would be acceptable to stage an all cisgender male, Caucasian version of "Farewell My Concubine"? 



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