Festival City Rotary Newsletter Feb 21, 2012

Posted by Vincent Hill 
on Feb 21, 2012
 

The Rotary Club Of Festival City

President:  David Moore

Minutes of the meeting of Feb 21, 2012

Club email:  festivalcityrotary@gmail.com

Club web blog: www.festivalcityrotary.blogspot.com

ClubRunner site: www.festivalcityrotary.ca

 

Guests:  Michele Boniface and Eric Ball are from the Stratford Artist Alliance.  Sam Theocharis and Geza Wordofa are potential new members. Rotary Exchange student Phanuwat Kongwattananon (Nu).

 

Draw Prize: Nick Giannakopoulos donated the prize won by Deb Stacey-Rivers.

 

Announcements:

  1. Dinner of the Month Draw: Peter Maranger was the winner of a dinner for four at The Annex Restaurant.

 

Guest Speaker: Anna Sherwin introduced Michele Boniface the chair of Off The Wall, Stratford Artists Alliance.  Michele said that the organization formed in 2005 is a mentor for potential backstage artists.  With the help of Stratford Festival artists OTW provides programs to train the next generation of skilled theatre staff. OTW offers courses in set design, mask making, faux food production, animatronics, bijou and corset making, artistic welding, puppetry, carpentry, upholstery and stage lighting.

Since its inception OTW has offered 42 workshops to over 280 participants.  Graduates of the courses work in some of North America’s most important theatres.  Some are apprentices in the Stratford Festival’s props department.  Some participants are teachers who pass on their newly acquired skills to their students.

OTW is a registered charity supported by the Trillium Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council, Ministry of Training and Colleges, and the City of Stratford to name a few supporters.

Michele introduced Eric Ball from the Stratford Festival props department who is one of the instructors at OTW. Eric showed some of the props built by participants. This included a wolf puppet, face masks, and a remotely controlled kerosene lamp.  An important consideration in producing props is to make them with the cheapest and easily available materials to keep costs down.  Eric recently produced some props for the Perimeter Institute including a model of a black hole!

For more information about Off The Wall visit www.stratfordoffthewall.com

Bill Helmuth thanked our two speakers.