 |
| ABOVE: Screaming Weenie M.A.D. Seán Cummings speaks at a OUR Spaces meeting December 08, 2009. |
Our Members Take Part In New Queer Centre
The summer of 2009 saw a group of Queer artists, athletes, organizers and concerned citizens get together to start the long process of building a new Queer Centre for Vancouver.
Screaming Weenie's Managing Artistic Director Seán Cummings joined eleven others from the community to kick start the process. Many of our members and artists are also contributing to the newly incorporated Vancouver Out Under the Rainbow Spaces Society - OUR Spaces.
To find out more about the new non-profit group, please visit their website at ourspaces.ca
|
| |
| |
| |
 |
 |
| ABOVE: Screaming Weenie M.A.D. Seán Cummings was interviewed by Xtra West as part of their series reporting on the cuts to arts in B.C. |
Cuts Hurt Queer Arts
The Liberal government in British Columbia has taken to draconian arts cuts in the most damaging of ways. Queer Cultural institutions and British Columbia social profits groups are scrambling to figure out how to keep their doors open.
We have been actively speaking with the media and members of the artistic and queer communities about ways to minimize the impact of the removal of support from gambling profits that the BC government has imposed. Seán is also active on committees dealing with these issues at the Alliance for the Arts and Culture & the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance.
Screaming Weenie, have been completely cut from annual support of gambling profits that we have used to produce original queer theatre in Vancouver over the years. And we are just one group of hundreds across the province who face closure. The government has failed to explain why BC is the only province in Canada who is abandoning social profits groups and the staff who feed their families in the arts.
In order to keep our doors open, Screaming Weenie is cutting staff to 10 hours a month. That includes all work on development programs for young playwrights and queer refugees. Clean Sheets, the national new play and workshop series produced by Screaming Weenie is also at risk.
Arts funding in BC is expected to be cut by 75% from $47 million in 2008 to $6.9 million in 2010. |
| |
 This grey square has been chosen by the arts community to illustrate the reality of a world without art.
Stay Informed. Speak Out. >> read more |
| |
| The Wrecking Ball |
 Wrecking Ball to Tackle Draconian Cuts to the Arts: Canada’s Leading Theatre Artists Take On the BC government from Coast to Coast
Vancouver’s theatre community joins actors, directors and designers from across the country in creative and satirical protest to the BC government’s mind-boggling and short-sighted plan to slash 90% of cultural funding, which will make it the only jurisdiction in Canada not to invest in culture.
In 2008, during the federal election, Wrecking Ball events across Canada helped turn the tide of public opinion against the Harper government’s planned culture cuts, and prevented a Harper majority. This time, events across Canada throughout the month of November will highlight the devastating arts cuts announced by the BC government in their September budget update.
Vancouver’s Wrecking Ball features some of Canada’s most nationally and internationally recognized actors and directors, including multiple award-winning actor/playwrights Daniel MacIvor (House, Twitch City) and Linda Griffiths (Maggie and Pierre), Leacock-winning writer Mark Leiren Young, and Alcan Award winner Carmen Aguirre. Original member of the Nylons and BC Walk of Fame member Denis Simpson will host.
Margaret Atwood asks, “What is it that power-hungry politicians want from BC artists? Control over the story through the annihilation of the former story-tellers? Is this the agenda behind the decapitation of arts funding in British Columbia, while mega-millions are poured into the Olympics? The BC arts community will retaliate, of course. Over the past 50 years they've put BC on the map.”
“It won’t just be a protest,” adds Wrecking Ball Spokesperson Adrienne Wong. “It’ll be a night to laugh and celebrate what we know – that British Columbians care about culture.
“And it’s not just arts and culture,” Wong adds. “Cuts to Gaming investments in many sectors indicate to us that this government is looking for ways to subsidize its corporate welfare, low-tax environment on the backs of civil society organizations that provide essential services to British Columbians. It seems that they don’t think much of activities like culture and sport and places where people come together for reasons other than profit. They call it a frill. We call it democracy.”
http://www.stopbcartscuts.ca/thewreckingball.html
Monday Nov. 23, 8 pm
Vogue Theatre, Vancouver. By Donation. |
| |
|
| |
Plenary On Diversity
Screaming Weenie sponsored a plenary on diversity at the 2009 Making A Scene Conference in Vancouver. On the panel was our own Associate Artistic Director C.E. Gatchalian who joined Neworld Theatre's Adrienne Wong, Reel Wheel's James Saunders and Theatre Terrific's Susanna Uchatius in a panel discussion on diversity on Vancouver stages.
|
|
