Interview with Sandra Lawn (Part Three)

Sandra S. Lawn
Festival Chair
St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

One of my passions, as you may know by now, is to have the ability, through THE INSIDE SCOOP, to inform festival and event planners/organizers about the issues and the importance of VOLUNTEERS! For most festivals and events, it is critical to have volunteers! I have been surprised from my previous interviews in THE INSIDE SCOOP, with the attention and insight, to this issue, that organizers have shared with me. I was not surprised, then, when Ms. Lawn told me that … “We started with just a handful of volunteers – perhaps 30 and are now up to over 300. Recruiting, training and appreciating are key. We have volunteer appreciation nights; offer free tickets on certain nights and at every opportunity value these key people. It is really important to have the right volunteer in the right position – and very, very occasionally we err”. With this in mind, I wanted to find out how the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival kept things fresh for the patrons and actors alike. Sandra says that … “Our artistic director and directors are always surprising us – the level of excellence is always high of course, but there is that special something that comes when you bring favourites back and add new bright stars every season. Our artistic director, directors and actors are all professional – they love the venue and the community and this lively happy spirit keeps things fresh for them and for us”. I’m sure Sandra is correct that “things are fresh” as it is reflected in the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival’s increase in their attendance during the 2010 season. During these difficult economic times, I wondered what Ms. Lawn attributed this increase too. “Having a new play based on an old play, captured people’s imagination - so I think that brought more local people – however the Ottawa audience might have wondered at first what this was all about. Word of mouth is the key factor although I believe our marketing just gets better every year as well as our internet presence. The programs throughout the year like Jake’s Gift coming again on D-Day, June 6th some claim was a life changing experience and we are getting the reputation of doing wonderful unique things”. This information, that I am sharing with you, will hopefully help other festival and event planners/organizers with their efforts to increase attendance!
(To be continued)

Interview with Sandra Lawn (Part Two)

Sandra S. Lawn
Festival Chair
St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

Sandra is very busy with her responsibilities as chair of the festival board, leading the meetings and fulfilling any duties that spring from that role. What I was interested in was Sandra’s duties as Chair of Fundraising! She tells me, “my duties are many – from organizing the fund raising team, in many cases making “the ask” and assisting with fundraising events – in some cases leading the effort." Ms. Lawn is very “hands on” and it sounds like her dedication and devotion helps inspire others in the continued efforts to offer such wonderful performances to so many audiences! Fundraising does come with some challenges that perhaps we, the audience and recipients of these great performances, do not see. Sandra states that, “One of the main challenges is maintaining financial stability”. She goes on to say, that “Our fund raising campaigns are run using the experience of major campaigns where I have been able to learn the basics of running a successful campaign, e.g. putting a major expansion on the Brockville and Area YMCA (opened when I was president) and being chair of the Friends of the Prescott Public Library when we put together a $575,000 expansion. Over the years we became better and better at writing grant proposals, mostly as a team.” Other minor “challenges” Sandra has dealt with were the few internal conflicts that she handled smoothly. She is wise however, having a written policy on conflict resolution, which fortunately has yet been used. That would then answer my question about “egos” with all the actors, volunteers, directors, etc. There seems to be no problems to overcome here.
(To be continued)

Interview with Sandra Lawn (Part One)

Sandra S. Lawn
Festival Chair
St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

In one of the most beautiful settings along the St. Lawrence River, in the town of Prescott, you can visit the Sandra S. Lawn Harbour & Marina. It hosts a wonderful children’s play area and a 148 slip Harbour. Sometimes in life you may not be curious as to “what’s in a name”. However, the name of this Harbour/Marina was clarified to Gary and me when we had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Sandra S. Lawn at a Gala evening in the Prescott Town Hall. This was right after the season’s opening performance of the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival. It turns out that Ms. Lawn was not only Chair of the Festival, but had been Mayor of Prescott for 15 years, until she retired in 1991. What an wonderful opportunity for me to get THE INSIDE SCOOP from Sandra about the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival. Sandra was generous with her time and shares informative and interesting information that I will now share with you! One of Ms. Lawn’s duties as Mayor of Prescott, was to facilitate the development of the Prescott waterfront into what is now, as I mentioned above, the Sandra S. Lawn Harbour. As chair of the South Grenville Economic Development Commission, she soon became well aware of the importance of tourism. That is where she and I and the Festival Nomad (Gary McWilliams, Ontario Visited), all share a similar passion! It is interesting that Sandra, a mother of three daughters (who just happen to be all musical), helped Sandra become “aware of the importance of the arts in our small rural town”. Sandra is extremely intelligent and has a sense of humor to boot. She holds a BSc in Biology and a Masters in Public Administration, the humor, she tells me “my study of Shakespeare amounted to about 15 minutes in English 2 at Queen’s”. How is it then that Sandra became so involved with the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival? Sandra tells me that she has been involved almost from the beginning. It happened “when my husband, as a Rotarian and mayor of our town came home to describe Deborah Smith’s enthusiastic presentation about the idea of Shakespeare in our Amphitheatre at the Harbour. In the first season I was a volunteer, and immediately after the first AGM was elected to the board of directors. I became chair of the board in January 2008. I have been chair of fundraising since 2004.”
(To Be Continued)

Interview with Greg Berrea (Part Two)

Greg Berrea

St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

Marketing Director

When asked, as Marketing Director, how he overcomes some of the challenges the audience does not see, he simply replied, “WITH PATIENCE”! One challenge is, as Greg says, “trying to put forth the best professional performances possible with our limited budget. This often requires a lot of volunteer time from our 300 dedicated volunteers who work on their own schedules”. As many of you may know, I am very interested in festivals and events volunteer programs and efforts. For many of Ontario’s great festivals and events it is critical to have these volunteers! Greg tells me … “We have approximately 300 dedicated volunteers who help by doing a number of things, everything from sewing costumes to painting sets to working Front of House. We hope we are keeping them happy! We offer two volunteer appreciation nights throughout the summer where our volunteers are treated to a social hour with refreshments, a few kind words from our Chairperson, and two free tickets to a performance”. I myself am still volunteering at Lang Pioneer Village in Keene this year and in part, the appreciation they give me does encourage me to continue. A “thank you” goes a long way in my books! Speaking of books, the attendance at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival was up over 8% for 2010, and I wondered to what Greg thought they might attribute this to? Simply Greg says … “Word of mouth! We do produce high quality outdoor professional theatre in the most beautiful of locations. We treat patrons to an enjoyable evening at a reasonable cost. When people visit us, they leave telling their friends how they NEED to see a show!" My final question for Greg for this edition of THE INSIDE SCOOP was asking if they encouraged the youth of today to attend performances. Indeed Greg was quick to respond by saying … “YES!! Children 12 & under attend FREE!! We also offer the Young Artist Training Program. More info can be found on our website, www.stlawrenceshakespeare.ca.” You really should attend an outdoor performance this season. You can get your own INSIDE SCOOP! a treat not to be missed for sure!