But what does that 66% cut mean to our audience and community? It means that our storytelling program for Queer immigrants and refugees has been put on hold. It means that our program for local playwrights has been reduced to a trickle. It means that our production plans, which would have employed five actors, three designers, a director and a playwright, have been postponed. It means that our contribution to culture in British Columbia is diminished. Diminished by more than 66%. Why is this?

It is a well known fact that people who work in the arts are generally inspired and impassioned people who put more hours in to their jobs than they are paid. For small arts groups like us, that is the standard. But what happens when you cannot pay them for that one hour of the two or three they actually work? Well, what happens is they need to find another job. And you have not lost one hour of creativity but actually two or three.

That is the reality of being part of culture in British Columbia in 2010.  We feel fortunate to be part of BC’s creative community.  Let’s hope that the people of the province call out for more investment in culture.

Funding cuts be damned.  It may be the last thing we ever do, but at least we will go out doing what we do best.

It is important to mention that normally we are always looking to stay very optimistic in our communications with the public about the future and funding in particular.  But it is important that the everyone understands the gravity of the situation for social profit entities in British Columbia in 2009.

With the cut in funding from BC Gaming,  we are faced with a 100% cut of our entire operations funding.  Screaming Weenie relied on this source to pay for everything from the lights to paper to communications to the web site to book keeping.   When going after project funding, having BC Gaming support was important to show the granting bodies that your infrastructure was stable and had basic administration covered.  Now that the Gaming support is gone, this sheds a shroud of doubt on all social profit organizations in BC, including ours.

With the new realities presented to us, we have reorganized to do our best to continue to pursue our mandate.

Our planned spring show at PAL had to be cut. Instead, we are focusing on keeping our commitment to partner with Zee Zee Theatre on Nelly Boy next month at the PAL Theatre. The project allows us to wrap up this season’s Queerly Canadian Series with the production of new work.

However, into November the future is much less clear as we turn down operations and attempt to keep the metaphorical pilot light on. Our programs QWEST and the Sanctuary Project will be in limbo until future funding becomes more clear.

As usual, my door remains open to anyone from our community with thoughts or questions.

Thanks to all our supporters.

Seán Cummings

In order to cut the $10,000 we lost in Gaming funds (gambling profits the province siphons from various casinos, bingos and lotteries in BC) I have to cut all staff, the phone line, dramaturgical operations that we provide to local playwrights, the web hosting service, all office supplies and postage. That leaves our accountant. But then I guess we won’t need an accountant since there is no one to answer the non-existent phones that are being used to coordinate non-existent shows. Yeah, it’s balanced!

And we get to reapply for non-exsistent funds next year. But who is going to write the grants? Once we find volunteers to write the grants, who is going to produce the shows we manage to raise meager funds for? Who has the expertise to pull this off on next to nothing? Oh yeah, experienced staff. But we can’t afford staff anymore, so everybody should just work for free. Let’s see how Equity feels about that shall we? Oh, why did I leave steady employment again?

The worst part of it all is the projects dear to my heart that now hang by a thread. I honestly believe that Screaming Weenie is an invaluable creative force in Vancouver. We will continue to search for answers to our funding needs. Good luck to all my comrades out there dealing with much the same thing.

Listen here: http://www.scottwalker.ca/audio/Krueger-Walker.mp3

He quotes a Christian text that says, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”.  I would have to argue with Minister Krueger that this is the most short sighted action he could take.  Arts funding in our province is not just about today but about the future. Our community needs the arts to nuture its growth as a mature society.  And his own ministry has come to the conclusion that for every dollar spent on Arts funding, $1.38 is created in taxes.  So, how are we to take this action as anything but an attack?

This is the kind of backward reasoning that kept our society locked into religious dogma that persecuted queers for centuries.

Monday morning came a little early for some, as the realisation that workshops started the morning after Pride in Vancouver.   The moaning and groaning didn’t last too long though as the actors joined Jack and Brad and went to work with their groups.

On Tuesday, the reality of the festival set in for me as I was up at 5am and went right through to midnight with contracts, cheques, receipts, signings, discussions, renegotiations and, oh yeah,  I was directing a workshop and had a live reading that night.  It’s days like this that define “labour of love”.

Wednesday was by far the most eventful.  Staples decided to implement a very bizarre policy that saw them refusing to hand a workshop script over to me until I proved that I had permission from the copyright holder of a script I had ordered copies of.  The long and short of this very long and painful interaction with an over-caffeinated young man, is without proof  that I was not running a pirating operation and abusing Staples in the process, I was not going to get these scripts.  I explained to this young man that after using Staples for months to copy scripts for workshop operations for the theatre company,  that this was very bad timing for him to get anxious and hold up a workshop that has a playwright who has traveled from Toronto. In order to get the new copies I had to kidnap Shelley from the Roundhouse and take her to Staples.  In the end, we got our scripts and swore to never use this Staples again in fear of ever having to deal with Mr. Wonderfull.  But we did get to the workshop on time.   And their reading rocked, as did Tony Berto’s Downstream.

Big thanks to Chris, the playwrights, actors and directors for making Clean Sheets a big sucess.

Then, there is noise from outside.  I go to look and what do I see?  Joan Crawford standing on the sidewalk with half a tree in one hand and an axe in the other.  And boy did she looked pissed.

Best entrance ever.

I did not want to send a letter to a young playwright in small town Canada saying that we could not invite them to attend.  I argued with myself, saying “this is exactly the kind of person who needs us, a group of professional queer artists who can make a difference in this playwright’s development”.  Why can’t we do everyone’s script?  Then I realised that making it too easy would help no one.  The struggle is part of the process.

Just as an actor needs to audition, do excellent work at that audition, then not get the part.  The work we do may be fantastic, and not be right at the same time.

I got a phone call from a playwright at 10:45pm the other night.  They had just received their letter in the mail and saw my phone number on the letter and dialed.  I was getting ready for bed.

I was not angry.  Thinking about it now, I suppose I could have been miffed.   But instead I was concerned that the person needed to know that they needed to not take the lack of an invitation to Clean Sheets as a discounting of their ability as a storyteller, but more of a sign of the abundance of good playwrights out there.

Our people at Screaming Weenie go above and beyond the call of duty time and time again because they want to provide inspiration and opportunity to storytellers.   We may want to do 28, but if we can only do 4 or 5 then that is better than none.

Seán

The shoot, however, went fabulously.  Michael and Tsholo kept things tight.  Even with some cancelations and no-shows, we managed a full day.

Our models on the day were Tsholo Khalema, Cameron MacKenzie, Dave Deveau, Berend McKenzie, Christopher Hunte, Symone, Miguel Mondaca, Nelson Wong, Chris Gatchalian, Erin Offer, Kyla Read, Rowla Alexopoulas, Tao Samis-Violini, David Samis, Lauren Burrows and Baby Max, and a surprise visit from Karen Matthews, Crema and Ilena Lee Cramer.

Can’t wait to see them.