Hello. Thank you all for joining us, especially you guys on the west coast who probably got up at an ungodly hour to be here with us.
There's been a lot of discussion--and this is out to everybody--about international impact, sending Canadian work out onto the international stage, which is...yeah, hey, hey. One of the issues we're still wrestling with—and this is on many levels, including transportation and so forth—is getting work out to Canadians. There are still far too many Canadians who don't know what we, as Canadians, have produced historically--George F. Walker and George Boyd. These are wonderful playwrights who have created works that Canadians don't know anything about for the most part, except for regionally. I, myself, have commissioned three plays as the former artistic director of Black Theatre Workshop. They are great plays, and two of them have gone on to be published. However, they've yet to be able to get out of Montreal, where they were born.
What kind of emphasis or initiative do you think could be implemented to get Canadians connected with the history of its art and its culture? Our music history goes way back to Paul Anka and doo-wop. Our film history goes back to the Donald Pleasence film, Wedding in White. Before that, our playwriting history goes back to way back when.
I was struck by Anita's reference to what they were doing in England with celebrating Shakespeare. Shakespeare, obviously, is a good thing for England. We do Shakespeare really well. I was with you guys for two years.
How do we take that same initiative and make it Canadian in terms of celebrating our Canadian artists throughout our history?