Category: News

Sandra grew up in Toronto and studied in Montreal. One of her professors at McGill University was author Hugh MacLennan who nourished her love of literature, storytelling, and drama. After graduation, Sandra taught English in Kenya for two years.

While married with a young child and working contract jobs, Sandra found volunteering as an usher at the Belfry (circa 1980) was her ticket to enjoying a wide variety of live theatre. She laughingly recalls that the volunteer seating in those pre-renovation days generally had “the visual obstacle of a pillar in the way.” After landing a full-time government job and with a growing family, Sandra became a Belfry subscriber. Later, switching careers to become an Investment Advisor, she shared her love of the theatre by buying tickets for 30 women clients of all ages to fill the balcony for a performance of the original Mom’s the Word production.

Sandra was inspired to become an annual donor because she feels she receives so much from the Belfry. Some of her favourite Belfry memories over the years include attending: Maggie and Pierre, The Dining Room, Two Pianos Four Hands, and The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She now cares for her 97-year-old mother who still accompanies her to some shows.

Inclusivity is important to Sandra, and she finds that the Belfry is inclusive in its programming as well as in terms of respect for human beings in general: “That is something I can feel from chatting with staff and board members.”

Last year, in response to the pandemic, Sandra increased her annual donation.

“I felt it was important to keep live actors living. Arts, music, and those kinds of things are often the first to go. The New Incubator Project is important for younger artists; I appreciate taking care of our youth. I appreciate how the Belfry has been part of the community and provides such a variety of offerings from Black History Month events to live dance parties for families with children, and I’m thrilled with the upcoming SPARK films.”

For further information about making a donation to the Belfry, please contact Susan Stevenson, Director of Development at susan.stevenson@belfry.bc.ca or 250-385-6835 ext. 229

For each Belfry production, the librarians at the Greater Victoria Public Library tuck into the script and then dive into the Dewey Decimal System to come up with books, films and recordings that could help enrich your experience.

Here’s what they came up with for Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes.

Our thanks to

For each Belfry production, the librarians at the Greater Victoria Public Library tuck into the script and then dive into the Dewey Decimal System to come up with books, films and recordings that could help enrich your experience.

Here’s what they came up with for Little Red Warrior & His Lawyer.

Our thanks to

Willpower

 The Belfry is participating in a public awareness campaign called Will Power this season.

The goal of the national campaign is to increase the percentage of Canadians who include charities in their will and to raise awareness that it’s possible to do so even if you have family members to support. Often a bequest is the largest gift someone will make in the history of their giving to a charity, and the Belfry has been fortunate to be the recipient of about one major bequest per year lately, typically from our long-time subscribers or volunteers.

Sometimes, donors who have made plans for a bequest will later decide to gift the value of the bequest to a charity during their lifetime, rather than in their will. The Belfry is grateful to have received one such significant gift from Ronald and Juliana Polstein in 2020.

The Polsteins had always valued travel and the arts. With artistic people in the family, they fully understood that artists live on a tight budget and that arts groups struggle to present shows even at the best of times. Ronald explains their reasons for deciding to make their gift to the Belfry sooner rather than later: “When the pandemic came along, it closed down venues around the world and took away the opportunity for people in the performing arts to have audiences. Revenues dropped, apart from government support. The need for donations became even greater and the arts needed help.” So they decided to advance the amount of their bequest to the Belfry Theatre Endowment Fund care of the Victoria Foundation, allowing it to qualify for government matching funds.

Juliana, who was very knowledgeable in her appreciation of the arts, passed away the next year in 2021. Ronald has continued to make generous gifts to Belfry operations through gifts of stocks, as he finds it very tax-efficient to give appreciated assets away. He strongly believes you can support family members as well as charities during one’s lifetime as well as in estate planning. He describes it as a form of “tithing” commenting that “We all have a responsibility to give to charity and it doesn’t have to be a large amount, even the value of a weekly cup of coffee can be an easy way for anyone to start giving.”

The Belfry formed a Legacy Circle of supporters who have bequests or other types of planned gifts for the theatre, and the circle has grown to more than 30 members in recent years (note: it’s possible to be a member and remain anonymous).

For further information about joining the Belfry Legacy Circle, contact Susan Stevenson, Director of Development at development@belfry.bc.ca or 250-385-6835 ext. 229 or visit https://www.belfry.bc.ca/legacy-giving/

I fell in love with this play over three years ago—watching a staged reading in Vancouver at the Talking Stick Festival, produced by Full Circle: First Nations Performance. I spoke that evening with playwright and director Kevin Loring about producing it at the Belfry—and shortly thereafter we had it scheduled for September of 2020, as the opening production of our 2020-2021 Season. The show was cast and the design team assembled. And then the pandemic dominoes started to fall—and we began contacting artists to let them know that the season had been cancelled. 

Miraculously, here we are—a year and a half later— preparing to bring Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer to the stage. I am still in love with its anarchic, comedic way of delivering stinging political points. As Kevin discusses in his playwrights’ notes, he has infused the play with the Indigenous tradition of the Trickster. In so doing, he has created a new mash-up:  politics, farce and disruption. 

And I must extend my gratitude to all involved in this production—unbelievably, everyone who was meant to be in the 2020 production—the cast, the designers, and Kevin—are here in the building—ready to bring Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer to you, our audience—either in-person at the Belfry or live-streamed into your home! 

 Michael Shamata