This past season to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare we ran a Endowment campaign with the goal of raising $4,000. We are thrilled to report that we exceeded our goal by $200! And even more exciting is that this amount was matched by a private donor which in turn was also partly matched by the Winnipeg Foundation. In turn, that amount was submitted as part of a Canadian Heritage Grant matching endowment program and could potentially (we will learn in March) be matched dollar for dollar. What does all this mean? Well our campaign to
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Left: Nick in Stripped-Down Romeo & Juliet. By Nick Petuhoff During the summer of 2015, I received a call asking me if I was interested in interning with SIR as part of ACI Manitoba’s Youth Internship Program. I was ecstatic at having this opportunity to work with Andrew, Michelle, and Lisa, quickly accepting the proposal before I completely understood what I was getting myself into. I was interested in learning about Theatre Administration during my internship with SIR. I reasoned that I knew nothing about the subject and I wanted to understand how the daily business of running a theatre
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SIR General Manager, Lisa Nelson-Fries, test-drives the Larry Introducing the Larry Chair As I write to you today the snow is knee-deep in ‘The Ruins’, but the promise of the coming spring means that before long, our thoughts will turn to love. I know you share our excitement in that the 2017 Shakespeare in the Ruins’ production is Romeo & Juliet, perhaps the greatest love story ever told. As always, our promise to you is to present the unique ‘Ruins’ experience that is the hallmark of our annual celebration of the Bard’s work since our first production in 1996. Unfortunately,
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 Photo: Michelle Boulet As both a theatre artist and patron, I often ask myself why I am drawn to theatre as an art form. For me, the answer lies in engagement and connection. Theatre is able to completely engage me body, mind and soul. I am able to find my life and experience reflected on the stage in a way that is more immediate and compelling than what I get from movies and television. The connection that occurs between actors and audience is almost spiritual in nature. It reminds me that I’m not alone on my journey through life. I
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by Heidi Malazdrewich I can’t remember the first time I heard the story of Romeo and Juliet. It seems to have always been a part of my narrative landscape. As a teenager it coloured my angst ridden experience. Baz Luhrmann’s film version emerged into popular culture, and suddenly the soundtrack played in every car and at every sweaty high school dance. Needless to say the story had become hopelessly entangled with memories of love unrequited and pubescent giddiness— a sort of emotional touchstone to a riper more edgy time of my existence. It was filed away and kept for safe
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  Dear Billy My school is about to vote for class president. Anyway, this one guy who’s running, he’s kind of a douche, but he’s kind of funny, and he seems to know a lot of cheerleaders. He has said some stuff that’s a bit not great, but doesn’t everyone? He is a bit of a bully, but that makes sense because he has money. There’s also a rumour he got some kids expelled, but rumours, right? Here’s my question. My sister thinks he’s the devil. She says if I vote for him, she’ll never speak to me again (she
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Pat & Bob Migliore with Mayor Bowman Not that any of us here at SIR needed any more proof that our amazing volunteers are just that…amazing. We cannot do what we do without them. Our hardy and loyal volunteers constantly go over and above the call of duty by hauling chairs and helping to move the audience around the Ruins through the wind, rain, blazing sun and let us not forget the mosquitoes… all with a smile on their faces. So imagine our delight, when, for the second year in a row, an SIR nominee was awarded the ML&L Volunteer
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This isn’t our first ‘Romeo’. Artistic Director Andrew Cecon debuts and stars as Romeo in SIR’s infamous downtown rooftop production of Romeo and Juliet in 2003 (pictured above left). Former GM Matthew Moreau stars as Romeo in SIR’s inagural production of Romeo and Juliet in 1994 (pictured above right). In Elizabethan England, the legal age for marriage (with parental permission) was twelve-years-old for girls and fourteen-years-old for boys. Romeo and Juliet was originally played by an all-male cast. Female roles were most often played by pre-pubescent boys with high-pitched, “feminine” voices. Juliet would have been played by a boy until the late 1600s, when it first
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