News Roundup, June 2, 2012

Dáirine Ní Mheadhra
(photo credit: John Lauener)

BAD DAYS IN CANADIAN PRINT MEDIA: Postmedia has cut posts in most of its operations including The Montreal Gazette, Edmonton Journal and the Ottawa Citizen. Meanwhile, The Globe and Mail has told its staff to add four unpaid days off to their summer schedules; in exchange, the company will not hire freelancers to fill the hole.

STRATFORD: The Stratford Shakespeare Festival Legacy Award will be given to Dame Maggie Smith this year. Dame Maggie played several seasons with the company, including in Antony and Cleopatra, Three Sisters and The Guardsman. (Source)

OTTAWA: Dáirine Ní Mheadhra has been awarded the $50K Molson award, announced the Canada Council. Ms Mheadhra is the founder of Queen of Puddings Music Theatre. (Source)


MONTREAL: Sherry Bie will be leaving the artistic directorship of the English section of the National Theatre School. The school is now accepting resumés for her replacement. (Source)


SAN FRANCISCO: Writer Steve Galluccio's Funkytown will be appearing at the city's LGBT film festival, Frameline, later this month. (Source)


HUDSON (QC): Hudson Village Theatre has announced its summer season. It includes Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks and Ned Durango Comes to Big Oak. The company's full-time artistic director was let go, at the end of last summer, and the board of directors has rehired the company's founder, Heather Markgraf, to program this season. (Company website)


MONTREAL: Provincial culture minister, Christine St-Pierre, has announced a deal in principle to pump $2.4 million into Théâtre du Rideau Vert for renovations and purchase of the building adjacent to the theatre. (Source, in French)