Message from Jennifer Deon, Artistic Director“
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.” - Troilus and Cressida
On behalf of our board of directors, welcome to the 18th season of the Shakespeare By The Sea Festival! It has been a joyful year of doing all we can to make this summer possible and the best it can be.
Our annual general meeting in January welcomed four new board members for 2010: Chris Hibbs, Jill Kennedy, Debbie Robbins and Pam Taylor.
The AGM was combined with a weekend-long strategic planning retreat at the Ocean Quest Adventure Resort in CBS, during which time the board set our goals for 2010.
We are again grateful to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador through the Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development for assisting us in making that weekend possible.
The second annual Feast of Fools was held on April 23rd, Shakespeare’s birthday, at the BIS Irish Hall.
During this incredible evening we announced the winners of our first annual Words, Words, Words Sonnet Contest and presented the 2009 Alumni of the Year award to Republic of Doyle creator and star Allan Hawco.
But the main event of the event was the live and silent auction, during which we raised over $10,000 to support the organization. We offer our heartfelt thanks to all of the generous individuals and businesses in our community who contributed to the success of this event.
In May, we were also pleased to host a weekend of Vocal and Text Analysis workshops for company members. The workshops were led by Janine Pearson and Ian Watson, who took a weekend away from their regular work at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival to train our local actors.
We are very grateful to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Cultural Economic Development Program for assisting us in making this project possible.
Now we are in full-swing with the 18th annual season, and we are pleased to have the support of the Town of Conception Bay South, City of St. John’s, the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, and Newfoundland Power as major supporters of our event.
I ask you to also take a moment to recognize our advertisers in this program – all of them are locally owned, independent businesses who have chosen to support the Festival in and economy where every dollar counts. They are creative and dynamic in their own right, and we encourage you to share your patronage with them by checking out the unique and high-quality products and services they offer
This season is built on the contribution over 40 volunteers who have involved themselves this summer.
It’s not an easy effort – volunteering with the Festival means giving up countless evenings and weekends during our all-too-precious summer for rehearsals and performances. It’s hard, but it’s worth it.
We love what we do, and we love working together. And, of course, we love Shakespeare and the chance to perform the greatest works in the world each summer, right here in the place we love.
My final and sincere thanks are to you, our patrons. I hope that you enjoy our performances this summer and will continue to stay connected to the Festival. You can now follow us on Twitter or become our fan on Facebook – or simply join our email list by visiting our website at www.sbts.info.
Enjoy the show.