Dale Hamilton, artistic director of Everybody’s Theatre Company, (ETC), announced the group will proceed with a mega quarry community-engaged theatre project.
The announcement comes after ETC learned they had been successfully awarded a $9,000 Canada Council grant and $8,500 from the Ontario Arts Council. The money will be used for production costs and to pay professional artists for their contribution.
Now in the research and development phase of the project, ETC will collaborate with residents of Melancthon and Mulmur Townships (north of Shelbourne), plus three local artists and two Native resource people to develop a draft script, lyrics, music, choreography and costume/prop designs, building towards an all-inclusive community-engaged active promenade outdoor walking play about a high-profile proposal for a controversial “mega-quarry”.
The Highland Companies (financed by an American hedge fund) has filed an application for a 2,316-acre open pit limestone gravel quarry to be situated on lands they own in Melancthon Township – the largest ever quarry in Canada and the second largest in North America.
The proposed quarry site is situated on prime agricultural land, to be excavated 200 feet below the water table in the midst of the headwaters for a number of significant river systems serving a large portion of Ontario’s population.
Due to the magnitude of the proposed excavation, and the fact that it lays in a highly sensitive water recharge area, any miscalculation, oversight or other error could, according to opponents, result in an environmental catastrophe.
Those in favour of the proposal point to the much-needed local employment that would result and the fact that gravel is needed in the road and building construction industry.
The overall goal of the project is to present, artistically, the various perspectives on the mega-quarry proposal, providing an opportunity for creative exploration in the midst of a community crisis.
Given the high-profile and potentially divisive nature of this issue, Hamilton said the purpose of the project is not to present one point of view, but to give voice to a wide range of opinions from a broad base of people.
This phase of the theatre project will culminate in October 2013 with a staged reading of the draft script, an exhibition of design drawings and/or models, initial choreography and draft musical compositions.
The event will also serve as outreach to the community in terms of wider participation in the production phase,which will begin in early 2014.
The theatre company is supported through the Canada Council for the Arts, with a grant for the Ontario Arts Council and Rural Learning Association.
For more information on the project, contact Dale Hamilton, artistic director of Everybody’s Theatre Company at dale@hsfx.ca.
