Sandra S. Lawn
Festival Chair
St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival
In our War of 1812 Celebrations website, I have been writing about "Living History" and its importance to understanding the present. I was curious to see what importance the St. Lawrence Theatrical Company had as part of our society and what role did Sandra see as its importance? She replies … “It is hard for me to put it into words. It is a number of things – it draws people back to the brilliance of Shakespeare and live theatre. It is enriching, it is fun, it is outdoors beside a magnificent river. I greatly enjoy technology but know in my heart that without Shakespeare as part of my world and the world of my friends and family we would be all the poorer and unable to participate properly in the creative Ontario everyone is seeking in so many different ways”.
I also wondered if she had any roles during a performance itself. She shares with me … “I do not have any role during a production – we used to introduce the play to the audience but with an Artistic Director like Ian Farthing (see my up coming article about Ian Farthing at ----, he is amazing!), this is much more effectively done by him. My husband and I also host a supper at the beginning of the rehearsal period.” Sandra does get to enjoy the performances during the season, visiting every single performance last year. She tells me … “It is a joy to attend and I am learning every single performance”. With that being said, I wondered if Sandra had a favorite production. She shares with me that … “Every year my favourite production morphs into that particular year’s production. However last year I loved Trouble on Dibble Street – as a former mayor and chair of the board I really wanted everyone in town to come to the Festival and love it and learn from it as I did. That just wasn’t possible until Trouble – when so many of our reluctant theatergoers came because it was our bicentennial gift to the town – and they loved it”.
(To be continued)
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