Ottawa Community Theatre
News &
Events
Statement from the Board: July 2020
Dear Members:
Change is a constant in today's society, and we are witnessing history in the making. People are being called to address racism and other injustices and to be better, to acknowledge the injustices committed against all marginalized communities and to help heal the wounds inflicted by the generations that came before us, up to and including today. We are answering that call.
We at the Lakeside Players renew our commitment to our members and the community at large to be a safe place for ALL persons. In our 30 year history, we have witnessed acts of prejudice and racism as well as acts of kindness and compassion. We commit to acting on behalf of those whose voices have been systematically silenced. The Lakeside Players acknowledges that it can no longer stand by while our Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ2S+ and other communities continue to face discrimination. As such, we feel we have a duty and responsibility to speak out; to provoke thoughtful discussion, to educate, and to promote social justice, as we have always done.
We support your right to peaceful protest and share in your quest for freedom from oppression. We will always be by your side. We recognize that we must do better, to educate ourselves and others, to assist in the move away from past stereotypes. As a theatre organization that is member/community driven, we renew our dedication to accessibility and inclusion. We will continue to address our issues as they are identified and listen to our community, engaging and acting on social issues of the day. We commit to our community that we will be inclusive in all that we do, and we will continue to acknowledge our dedication to improvement and change as required.
The Board of directors,
Lakeside Players, Ottawa
2020-2021 Season Cancelled
Dear friends and colleagues of The Lakeside Players,
Our 2020 season has been rough for us, especially after our successful run of Cinderella last fall.
Your spring program was cancelled this year due to lack of funds, and would have likely been cancelled regardless due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Being President of such a wonderful community can be rough. Watching out for the community is one of the important jobs that I have. At our board meeting June 14, the board of directors voted and moved that our yearly Pantomime will have to be postponed until our 2022 season (1 year from now in November 2021). We discussed at length about the impact on our community. We calculated that with the cast alone, we would never be able to achieve the social distancing requirements put on us by our government for rehearsals. Add to that, our audience would likely be restricted to every 3 or 4 seats at RKLC. Based on these decisions we voted unanimously to postpone our Panto this year.
This indeed is very sad news as I know a number of you were looking forward to coming back and being with us again. Please understand that the board is very disappointed as well, but upon discussion for an alternate, we would like to offer a few "online program ideas" that may be of interest to all of our community members and non members. One of the suggestions was that we put our productions online and that would include our Pantomimes as well, for the first time ever. These would be presented on our Youtube channel. We decided that the availability of our shows would be limited to 1 week for each production and each show would be announced the week prior so that you could schedule your online time with friends and family. Another idea we are also thinking of having is to have a virtual “on-line” party as well as a virtual “Panto read”. All of this would start later in the year at some point, beginning with our spring shows, and running our Pantomime productions during the fall Panto season.(Late October, November and December)
As always, we will share more with you as we move forward on this unknown road. Please be assured that we will endeavour to continue our tradition of providing a TOP quality Pantomime programs and Spring shows as soon as restrictions are lifted in our City/Province. Your board of directors is looking forward to seeing everyone again soon, and are hopeful that you are all well and staying healthy amidst this crisis.
One more thing, we look forward to seeing you at our “Virtual” AGM on July 12.
Harold Swaffield
President - The Lakeside Players, Ottawa
