Deborah Raddall and Jean Robinson are part of the team organizing this year’s Liverpool International Theatre Festival. (Rick Conrad)
It happens every two years, it’s less than two months away and the organizers of the Liverpool International Theatre Festival want you to be part of it.
The festival is looking for local residents to open their homes and help welcome the almost 90 people coming to Liverpool from 10 different countries for the four-day event.
The volunteer-driven festival is celebrating its 16th edition from Oct. 17 to 20 at the Astor Theatre.
This year, amateur theatre troupes from Morocco, Egypt, the country of Georgia, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, Wales and the U.S. will be putting on one-act plays in an event that celebrates theatre and international friendship. Winds of Change from Liverpool will also be putting on a play at the festival.
“For those that haven’t been to the festival in the past,” says festival chairwoman Jean Robinson, “they are one-act plays and they have to be between 25 minutes long and 50 or 55 minutes long. And so, it’s a great introduction to theatre and different types of theatre.”
Deborah Raddall is in charge of LITF’s marketing and promotions.
“LITF is a celebration of culture and theatre and community. And it’s a chance for us, meaning Liverpool, to experience the world.”
The festival relies on 40 to 60 volunteers from the community to make it happen.
Members of the theatre troupes are billeted at homes around Queens County. This year, organizers are putting an urgent call out for people to open their homes to the actors and crews coming to Liverpool.
LITF asks hosts to provide a bed and some breakfast for festival participants. The festival looks after everything else, including other meals and transportation. Hosts also get two free tickets to the play involving their guests.
Raddall and her husband Blair have hosted troupes in their home for many previous festivals.
“It’s a wonderful experience, my experience has been really great with that. We’ve been hosting almost every year and we’ve made wonderful friendships and connections. It’s quite unique for a theatre festival.”
“All you need to do is have a bed. It’s a bed and breakfast situation. What we ask of our hosts at a minimum is to provide a bed, provide a breakfast for them in the mornings and to pick them up when they arrive, if it’s a reasonable time. … At a minimum interaction, make them welcome in your home, give them something to eat in the mornings and our festival is designed to pick up all the rest of the stuff. … We’re really looking for a welcoming space and a little bit of breakfast.”
Robinson said hosts and guests have made lasting connections.
“Hosts can be as engaged in the festival as they want to be. We know that these have become lifelong friendships and also new experiences. People have gotten to go skating for the first time with their host, even being taken to the ocean to see a beach for the first time, going out on a lobster boat or things like that that have really cemented those relationships.”
Raddall says they’re still looking for space for about 40 troupe members. Troupes and potential hosts fill out questionnaires so that organizers can help make sure the experience is as positive as possible for everybody.
“It’s a process that’s not just we’re just going to chuck somebody on your doorstep without having a conversation about what works best for you and what works best for them.”
If you’re interested in becoming a host for the Liverpool International Theatre Festival, you can contact info@litf.ca , check out their website at litf.ca or message them at their Facebook page.
Susan Letson is on the committee organizing the Medway Head Lighthouse Art and Craft Show and Sale, beginning Friday (Aug. 16) in Port Medway. (Rick Conrad)
About 25 people showed up at Queens Place Emera Centre in Liverpool on Saturday to discuss the Winds of Change relationship with the Astor Theatre. (Rick Conrad)
The Winds of Change theatre group has voted to end a short-lived relationship with Liverpool’s Astor Theatre and re-form as an independent society.
About 25 people showed up at a meeting on Saturday at Queens Place Emera Centre and voted to reverse a February 2023 decision to become a subcommittee within the Astor.
Nick Moase was the acting chairman of the Winds of Change. He chaired the meeting on Saturday. He is also the technical director for QCCR.
“The decision is what I expected,” he said in an interview after the meeting.
“With everything going on and the comments that have been said to me privately, I was aware that people weren’t comfortable with what the Astor Theatre was doing and that they wanted to separate the Winds of Change again to re-form.
“For 25 years, this has been on the books to discuss. We gave it a try. Things didn’t go as expected, so now we just continue on as the Winds of Change as a separate entity.”
Under the arrangement, the Winds of Change was to use its $29,000 legacy fund for theatrical productions at the theatre. That fund would then be reimbursed from ticket sales, and the Astor would keep any profit.
But recently, members of the group wanted to re-examine the relationship.
Ashley-Rose Goodwin resigned as the Astor’s associate artistic director this March, shortly after the wrap of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies. That was a Winds of Change-Astor co-production. Goodwin was the director of that show.
After her resignation, some in the community, including Winds of Change members, were upset at how the Astor was being operated by the board and recently hired executive director Jerri Southcott.
They were also annoyed when Southcott and the Astor decided not to pay for a Follies cast party at the Liverpool Curling Club. The relationship soured further when the Astor forgot to mention and thank the 70 members of the Follies cast and crew in its monthly newsletter. Southcott quickly sent out an apology the next day in another email to newsletter subscribers.
John Simmonds, the chairman of the Astor Theatre board of directors, was at the meeting on Saturday. He couldn’t comment on Saturday, but in an interview on Sunday, he said the group’s decision was unfortunate but not surprising.
“Maybe taking a long-term view, it’s probably the best for all concerned right now so that we can continue to do our thing and Winds of Change can re-form, get back and do the things that they were doing before, hopefully with the Astor. And as things cool down, we can re-examine the thing and take a look at it down the road.”
Simmonds said the Winds of Change will always be welcome at the Astor.
“We wish the Winds of Change well. That long history between the two organizations is not going to go away. Hopefully, everybody will feel comfortable working with each other again. I know I would. I was just thinking how important it would be to be able to meet people on the street, give them a smile, a handshake, a hug, whatever, and just continue on as friends as we were before.”
Moase said on Saturday that he will not remain on the board.
A slate of 10 people was nominated to form a new board for the Winds of Change. They must re-form as a legally recognized non-profit society through the registry of joint stocks.
Moase said he believes that the arrangement with the Astor for the past year worked well. But he said the Winds of Change is in good shape, especially given the level of participation in Follies.
“I think the interest is there, the people are there again. This issue with the Astor Theatre will come to a conclusion at some point and things will continue. Amateur theatre in Liverpool isn’t going anywhere. And I think we’re probably in good shape to have another production when folks are ready again.”
About 70 people turned out to the Astor Theatre in Liverpool on Sunday for a community town hall meeting. (Rick Conrad)
Updated April 10, 9:12 a.m.
The board and staff of the Astor Theatre in Liverpool held a community town hall on Sunday afternoon to try to clear up some of the controversy that has recently swirled around the historic theatre.
About 70 people showed up for the two-hour long session. It was at times heated, with some very pointed questions from audience members. Others were supportive of the board, while others showed up to get more specifics on what has apparently divided the Astor community.
Five board members as well as recently hired executive director Jerri Southcott and employee Malcolm Freeman took questions from the audience.
Chairman John Simmonds tried to clear up some things off the bat.
“We see no change in the direction of the Astor Theatre in terms of our instructions to Jerri. There’s been no change in our strategic plan or our mission or values,” he said.
“So we think that things have been going along well and will continue to go along well. And we would hope that the community would trust that whatever has occurred is just something that happened along the way. It’s not a pattern. It’s not a change in direction. There’s no regime change. So we hope to continue what has been the success of the Astor using community members, volunteers, as many people who are interested in coming in and joining in that.”
Simmonds also reminded people that Southcott has been on the job for only two months, and appealed to people for patience.
Astor Theatre Society board members Lynn Cochrane, Loris Azzano, Tina Tucker and Anne Espenant, employee Malcolm Freeman and executive director Jerri Southcott took questions from the audience at the Astor Theatre on Sunday. Chairman John Simmonds is shown standing. (Rick Conrad)
The misunderstandings and concerns appeared to start shortly after the musical Follies wrapped in early March. The director of that play, Ashley-Rose Goodwin, announced that she would be mounting another youth production, Oliver Jr.
Goodwin had produced numerous youth productions at the Astor in the past few years, both in her duties with the Astor and under her own company, Mersey Rose Theatre Company. She also led many youth theatre workshops and summer camps.
But shortly after the announcement of Oliver, Goodwin resigned as associate artistic director of the Astor.
That appeared to set off a cascade of events that eventually led to the resignations of two Astor board members.
Many parents and other community members were upset that Goodwin was no longer with the theatre.
A group of community members created the ad hoc group Queens County Community Theatre Advocates to “hold the board accountable,” according to a Facebook post. They said they were concerned about the “new direction” of the Astor.
They sent an open letter to the Astor board, saying they were shocked and dismayed at recent alleged decisions by the board and executive director Southcott.
They claimed that there was a sudden change in direction, that the local community was being shut out of Astor productions, that certain people were being paid to work on Astor productions instead of using community volunteers, and that Southcott was trying to engineer a “merger” between her Mahone Bay-based company South Shore Summer Theatre and the Astor. The group offered few specifics publicly about their concerns.
Things soon got heated and personal, with many people accusing the Astor or Southcott of various things on the Astor’s Facebook page. Members of this group also made accusations on their own public Facebook posts.
The group encouraged people to become members of the Astor Theatre Society so they could vote in a new board at an upcoming annual general meeting.
They have also organized a special meeting for Monday at 7 p.m. at Liverpool Regional High School. Their original purpose was to elect an interim board of directors and to set a date for the annual general meeting.
At the meeting on Sunday, however, Astor board members said that they will be at that meeting and that chairman John Simmonds will chair it.
The Astor board called the community meeting on Sunday to explain what has happened in the past month and to answer any questions from residents and Astor supporters.
“One of the questions that was asked online, ‘What is so heinous about the things that are going on that we need to replace the board?’” Simmonds said Sunday.
“And we would question and say, we don’t know. We don’t know. So we were hoping to sort of reveal these things now and bring them out into the light so people can make their decisions as to what direction they would like the Astor and this board and our current staff to go in.”
Betsy Hartt said she was upset at Goodwin’s departure, saying the “magic changed in this theatre when Ashley was running those programs”. She said she was also worried about rumours that the Astor would no longer be dedicated to community theatre.
“The concern I have is if there is going to be a refocus on spreading our wings, that’s great. But the centre of the focus still has to be on the activities in this building. So, Winds of Change, local theatre. And I’m hearing that that’s not the case.”
Southcott replied to Hartt that the Astor’s focus hasn’t changed.
“There are no changes in direction planned. There were no changes made. We did have a change in personnel. When Ashley resigned, we respectfully accepted her resignation and then we did our best to get the show on the road by posting positions, filling them, and putting together a production team. We have a group of kids that’s really excited. We have a production team that’s working really well together. But we are wide open to more volunteers, more cast members, all of the people here in Liverpool and Queens County are more than welcome to be involved. We were simply getting the next production on the go.”
Liverpool resident Sandra Atkinson speaks at the community meeting at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool on Sunday. (Rick Conrad)
As for the supposed merger with South Shore Summer Theatre, board member Anne Espenant said that was not the intent.
Espenant said the Astor had already been in discussions with that theatre company before Southcott was hired. South Shore Summer Theatre brought a play to Liverpool each of the past two summers that generated $10,000 in revenue for the Astor.
Espenant said the board hoped to bring that company under the Astor umbrella in the same way Liverpool theatre group Winds of Change had been part of the Astor.
“I just want to make it clear that that was not Jerri coming in and saying I’m going to bring in South Shore Summer Theatre. It was us talking to her about that. We were just having initial conversations with their board about whether they thought, just like with the Winds of Change board, that might be something they want to consider. Now it’s off the table. But that (discussion is) not on Jerri. It’s on us.”
Queens County resident Kristopher Snarby, who is the vocal coach for the upcoming musical Seussical, also sat on the Astor board for 12 years.
He echoed many in the audience on Sunday when he said he wasn’t clear what the online “uproar” was about. Snarby said the group of community members who wrote the letter to the Astor kept deflecting questions about their specific concerns.
“Like so many of you, I don’t think anybody really knows exactly what the problems are or were. And that’s a big problem in itself. … You read the letter and it says, I don’t know. It just says we’re mad, we’re angry.”
He said the accusations that the Astor or Southcott are trying to exclude local residents from productions is wrong, especially what he’s experienced since he’s been involved with Seussical.
“When I walked into this place, every kid who wanted to be there were there on the stage. There were no auditions. It’s the first show I’ve done where there were no auditions. So how can you be more inclusive than saying, ‘Come on the stage, we’re going to have fun. We’ll figure out the parts along the way.’ I’ve never seen that before. It’s the first time. You can’t get more inclusive than that.”
Snarby also said that another concern he saw online was that people are being paid for some productions.
He reminded people that when Winds of Change produced Les Miserables at the Astor in 2013, the musical director was paid and the musicians were given an honorarium. And he said they brought in actors from Halifax and Windsor to play two of the leading roles. They did not pay those actors, Snarby clarified later.
“There has been a history in this community of paying professionals for their time to do the job,” Snarby said. “Sometimes you have to pay professionals to do the job.”
Liverpool parent Lori Smyth said her two kids have attended the Astor theatre camps and they are also in Seussical. She says the apparent divide over the Astor has her kids worried.
“I just want to say that as a parent I’m very impressed with the team,” she said. “I am very grateful that there is a group of people that want to develop community theatre for the youth in this town. I think some of the parents are concerned, our kids are stressed. They love the theatre, and they love the Astor. With meetings happening tomorrow, and meetings all over the place, how is this going to affect their ability to finish the production that they have started?”
Southcott said the past month has taken a toll on her and the board.
“But even more importantly, I’m realizing the effects it’s having on your children,” she said.
“And it’s heartbreaking. I can tell you that we are committed as a production team to the kids and committed to providing this type of programming free of charge to everybody. I come to rehearsal and I feel better. I feel better because these kids are so incredibly talented, they’re nice, they are working together really well as a team. And I am committed to continuing that, so I hope that all of this can be resolved quickly.”
Board members and many in the audience said they’re also hopeful the rift can be repaired soon.
Liverpool resident Sandra Atkinson, who appeared in Follies, applauded the board for holding the information session.
“I just want you to fix it. I applaud you for being truthful, sharing your information, letting us know, letting us talk. And I applaud all the people for coming up here and saying whatever they felt they wanted to say. Thank you for doing this. And really just get to the table and fix it, please.”
The Astor recorded the town hall meeting and plans to post it on its Facebook page.
Jane Doucet will be joining five other Nova Scotia authors at White Point Beach Resort this week for ReadTreat. (Niki Davison)
Some of Nova Scotia’s best-selling authors will be in Queens County this weekend for the second ReadTreat event at White Point Beach Resort.
The event starts on Thurs., April 4. It’s four days and three nights of reading books, talking about books and meeting the people who make those books happen.
Acclaimed authors Lesley Crewe, Carol Bruneau, Jane Doucet, Len Wagg, Lorri Neilsen Glenn and Ray Cronin will talk about their recent or new releases. They will be holding various workshops throughout the weekend to help people with their own writing.
Best-selling author Len Wagg will also be giving a workshop on using photography to tell your own story.
And there will be chances to talk to authors one-on-one at dinner or in a fireside chat. Each day also starts out with a yoga session for those who want a little extra relaxation.
Jane Doucet is the author of three books, two of which are set on the South Shore. Her latest is Lost and Found in Lunenburg.
She will be giving a Sunday workshop on humour writing called Seriously Funny Writing with Jane Doucet.
“It’s an extravaganza for readers who love Atlantic Canadian authors. It should be a lot of fun.
“I’m a humour writer. I have three novels. So I will be sharing some humour writing tips, talking about how I use different types of humour in my novels and some ways to incorporate it. I’ll have a short writing exercise for them as well.”
Organized by Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press, this is the first ReadTreat since before the pandemic. The first event happened in March 2020.
Terrilee Bulger is the general manager of Nimbus. She said the first one was such a success that people wanted to do it again. And they hope to make it an annual event.
“Everybody loved it. Everybody thought it was such a unique, inspiring event, they wanted to go back.
“What’s better than spending time at White Point for the weekend reading books and hanging out with authors? I think that just sounds like an amazing weekend away myself. If you like books, if you like reading, if you like writing, there’s nothing like this. It’s really quite amazing. I think it’s a perfect way to spend the weekend.”
Doucet says events like this are as much fun for the authors as they are for readers.
“We all write alone, in isolation in our homes for the most poart. So just to be in community with other authors who you admire yourself and you read yourself , we’re all fans of each other, is just a great time. So I’m really looking forward to it.
“Come with your love of reading. Come to relax and read and chat with authors, because we love to speak to readers and hear what they’re writing as well. … I love encouraging aspiring writers, … so that will be a lot of fun for me.”
There are still tickets available. People can take in the whole weekend, or choose a day pass. Contact White Point Beach Resort for more information.
The cast of Follies on opening night Thursday at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad photo)
The curtain went up on a big, bold, breathtaking musical at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool on Thursday night.
Stephen Sondheim’s Follies began its eight-show run at the historic theatre. It features more than two dozen cast members from Queens and Lunenburg counties ranging in age from 14 to 77.
One of the many elaborate costumes in the musical Follies, playing until March 3 at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad photo)
A co-production of the Winds of Change and the Astor Theatre, it’s the first big musical mounted at the Astor since 2018. It runs until March 3. Tickets are available in person at the Astor Theatre box office, by calling 902-354-5250 or through Ticketpro Atlantic.
QCCR was at opening night and got reaction from some members of the audience after the show. Listen below.
Howe of the Astor Theatre, the Liverpool Town Hall Arts and Cultural Centre. Photo Ed Halverson
The executive director at the Astor Theatre is taking her final bow.
Jean Robinson-Dexter announced she will be stepping away from the position at the end of March.
She has been in the part-time executive director position at the Astor Theatre for almost three years while continuing to run her own consulting firm.
Robinson-Dexter says that busy schedule combined with health concerns caused her to think about how she wants to spend her time.
“As a number of people would know is that I have been on a journey with breast cancer for over a year now and that treatment is still underway,” said Robinson-Dexter. “I think I just took a pause a few days ago to think about where I am you know, the treatment seems to be going well but at my age I needed to think about out one, my health for myself and my family and what I wanted to be doing over the next few years.”
Robinson-Dexter will no longer run the day-to-day operations of the theatre, but still wants to be involved.
She was originally drawn to the Astor as a producer for shows like “The Full Monty”, “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and the Winds of Change production of “Les Misérables” and would like to return in that capacity, helping to bring new shows to life.
But before show starts planning her next production Robinson-Dexter will be tying-off loose ends over the next couple of weeks.
“There are a few deliverables and pieces of work that I want to have completed and the board would like me to complete before I step back and of course, as I say, I’ll be around and happy to support and provide information for whoever comes next,” said Robinson-Dexter.
She speaks fondly of her time as executive director and looks forward to being involved with the theatre in a new capacity.
“The Astor is a pretty special place in our community, and I think I’ve been pretty privileged to have the opportunity to be part of the Astor family for as many years as I have and so my role is hopefully just changing.”
