Newsletter July 2026

• What the Prez Sez
• Adjudications Summer Update
• MiniFest is Nearly Here!
• List of Workshop Leaders
• Community Theatre in the WODL Region
• What's Happening in the Waterloo-Wellington Region
• What's Happening in the Halton-Hamilton-Niagara  Region
• What's Happening in the Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk-Oxford Region
• Off the Wall - Upcoming Workshops
• Playwrights Canada Press
• Horizon Solutions - Empower Your Team
• Playwrights Guild of Canada - Canadian Play Outlet
• Concord Theatricals New Plays
• If you are Producing Canadian Plays this Season - Check This Out
• Is your WODL Membership Information Up-to-date?
• Dates for your Diary

By Sue Garner, WODL President, president@wodl.on.ca

It's Summer!



• This summer, plan to join us for MINIFEST!!  WODL's summer workshop of silliness and learning is Friday night August 7 and and all day Saturday August 8. This year Minifest is hosted by Thistle Theatre in Embro (between Stratford and Woodstock)  Come one, come all to be part of the fun. More info and ticket link later in the newsletter.

• This summer, it's time to SIGN UP FOR YOUR ADJUDICATION. If your group wants adjudication between September and December, then August 1 is our deadline to fill in the form online. November 1 is the deadline for January to April, 2027 adjudications. A group can have up to 2 adjudications. If you want a bigger challenge - why not enter this year in-Festival!  In-Festival means you could be one of 3 shows chosen in early April to perform in our Festival showcase in Woodstock in May. Talk to your directors, set designer, lighting people and producer /stage manager. Which of your productions wants to be in for adjudication? Which one wants to be out?  Questions, just ask me or Renata Solski. our Adjudications Chair. Check her articles for more details and Delegates watch for more info.

• Summer also brings  Summer Theatre Camp programs - Thanks to all of you who are leaders for encouraging a new generation of community theatre lovers.

• This summer, check out the theatre on a warm evening - Lots of professional theatres have great offerings on right now, many with a beach nearby. This summer, I'm going to head to Blyth - they are a great source of new Canadian scripts that might be a fit for your group in the future.

• This summer, don't forget to leave the dark theatre and take in some outdoor time too.  

Hope to see you in Embro in August.

By Renata Solski, WODL Adjudications Chair, adjudications@wodl.on.ca

As another wonderful season ends, we are taking a short intermission until the fall. Although many stages will be dark over the summer, the excitement of a new theatre season is already waiting in the wings.

Adjudication Application Deadlines

• Fall 2026 Adjudication Applications: due August 1, 2026

• Winter 2027 Adjudication Applications: due November 1, 2026

Adjudication Fees

• The first adjudication of the season for a WODL member group is $250.

• Any additional adjudication in the same season is $350.

Production Eligibility

1. Two Out-of-Festival productions: Groups may enter two Out-of-Festival productions, but only one may be adjudicated for awards.
   
2. One In-Festival and one Out-of-Festival production: Groups entering one of each may have both productions adjudicated and eligible for awards.

Scheduling note: Please avoid Saturday adjudications whenever possible, as requested by the adjudicator. Saturday requests will be considered based on the adjudicator’s discretion and availability.

Please submit your application by the appropriate deadline so your production can be scheduled.

Applications are available as e-forms on our website at www.wodl.on.ca.

Wishing you a safe, relaxing, and creative summer. We look forward to seeing the lights come up again this fall!

I am always an email away. Feel free to send me your thoughts, questions, and comments anytime.

By Sue Garner, WODL President, president@wodl.on.ca

From Thistle Theatre - Minifest is coming Aug 7 & 8 - do you have your tickets yet???

• 5 groups are putting finishing touches on the play Jersey by Binbrook's Brad Fortman.

• We look forward to hosting teams from Binbrook Little Theatre, Cambridge Community Players, Guelph Little Theatre, London Community Players and Theatre Woodstock. 

• Workshop Leader is Heather May - talented director, actor, improv and drag artist. A landscaper in her day job. We can't wait to see what she will share after each show.

• Don't talk to us between August 1 and 6 - Thistle people have 6 days to get the set, lights and hall all set for you after our drama camp closes July 31. All hands on deck in Embro.

Times and Ticket Prices:

Everyone is welcome. In Embro we make our own party with theatre friends! (The town is too tiny for a pub, evening restaurant or Timmies.)

Here is the link to get your tickets:  https://thistle-theatre.com/minifest-2026/

• Weekend Pass is just $95 and includes tickets to all 3 performance and workshop sessions - Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. Also included - lunch on Saturday and the dinner banquet/awards/dance Saturday night. The Weekend Pass saves you $35 over individual pricing.

• Friday night - Doors open at 6:30 pm and things kick off at 7:00 pm. 2 plays and then a legendary Thistle Theatre FAPPP (Friday after play practice party (a 30 year tradition!) with food and fun. Cash bar. $20 for just this event.

• Saturday morning Coffee on for 8:45, first play at 9:30. 2 plays $20.

• Saturday Lunch $20.

• Saturday afternoon Final play and the Mashup! $20.

• Saturday night   Banquet dinner , Awards and some dancing and prancing at local community centre, $50.

• Cash refreshment bar all weekend.

Staying overnight?  

• Embro is also too small to have a hotel. We have a block of rooms reserved Friday and Saturday at Home 2 Suites by Hilton in Woodstock.

• Book by July 8 to get one of the rooms we're holding. Ask for WODL or Thistle Theatre. After that, deal is still available if rooms are. These are suites, so you can likely pile a few folks in!

• Breakfast is included and room rate is $200 +. Pet friendly for a fee.

Caution!

• Once you have been to a Minifest, you may want to come back year after year. You have been warned!

By Laurel Gillespie and Kim DiLello. WODL workshop chairs, laurel@wodl.on.ca, kim@wodl.on.ca

Time to take a relaxing (hopefully) summer break and reflect on your theatre group’s needs for the coming fall season. We have a talent bank of people who are prepared to deliver workshops in the WODL region. See if you might qualify for financial support for those workshops by contacting kim@wodl.on.ca or laurel@wodl.on.ca.

A good place to find out about what other WODL groups are doing is the WODL Facebook page, WODL | Facebook. Most of the announcements are at fairly short notice, so check in often!

If your group is putting on an event that you would like included in the September newsletter, please send the information to communications@wodl.on.ca.

By Bev Dietrich, WODL Area VP Waterloo-Wellington, bev@wodl.on.ca

Cambridge Community Players

Beginner acting classes for adults with instructor Michele Di Tomasso and Tara Taylor. Weekly classes begin July 6, 2026. Cost $350.00.

https://www.cambridgecommunityplayers.com

Elmira Theatre Company

Auditions on July 5 & 6 at 7:00 PM at St. James Lutheran Church in Elmira for murder mystery dinner theatre Shootout at the Silver Spur by Tracy Leighton. Performance dates September 11, 12 & 13, 2026 at the Elmira Legion.

Elmira Theatre Company is presenting Calendar Girls by Tim Firth in November of 2026. Leanne Stapley is looking to borrow the following props to use in the ETC production: Sunflower and garden display arrangement, Vintage kitchen scales, Preserving jars and display stands, Knitting and craft props, Tea service items and cake stands, Christmas cake and holiday display items and any custom-built concealment tables or specialty tables. If any theatre company has produced Calendar Girls and would be willing to lend, please contact Leanne at leannestapley@gmail.com.

https://elmiratheatre.com

Elora Community Theatre

13^th Annual Shakespeare in the Park Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, directed by Deb Stanson & David Tanner will be held at the Elora Centre for the Arts July 17-19 & July 24-26, 2026.

https://www.eloracommunitytheatre.org

Guelph Little Theatre

Ward One Acts Festival will be held July 2-5, 2026.

https://www.guelphlittletheatre.com/

Kitchener Waterloo Little Theatre

The New Works Collective is mounting a festival of home grown plays that run August 14-19 & 22-23, 2026. There will be six performances with three different combinations of shows, each presented once in each week of the run.

Auditions for A Survival Journey Through Corporate Womanhood by Zivy Hardy, directed by Jasmine Rajaballey will be held August 26-27, 2026, with performances October 16-18, 2026. This is a new play developed in KWLT’s New Works Collective. It is part of the Studio Series.

https://kwlt.org                                                                         

By Rob Blowey, WODL Area VP Halton-Hamilton-Niagara, robb@wodl.on.ca

Binbrook Little Theatre

https://binbrooktheatre.ca/

Murder on the Nile

By Agatha Christie, directed by Paul Marshall

Performance dates: October 16 – November 1, 2026.

Synopsis: Kay Ridgeway has led a charmed life. Blessed with beauty, enormous wealth, and a new husband, she embarks on a honeymoon voyage down the Nile. Fatal circumstances await when the idyllic surroundings are shattered by a shocking and brutal murder. Under scrutiny is a multitude of memorable passengers, all with a reason to kill. The tension and claustrophobia builds, as a shocking and audacious conspiracy is laid bare.

The play is based on the 1937 novel Death on the Nile.

MURDER ON THE NILE is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com



Dundas Little Theatre

https://dundaslittletheatre.com/

Auditions for The Last Wife

By Kate Hennig, Directed by George Th

Open auditions for Dundas Little Theatre’s winter production of The Last Wife will be held on:

• Sunday, July 12 from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
• Monday, July 13 from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm

Participants will be asked to perform (cold) readings from the script.

All auditions will be held at Dundas Little Theatre – Garstin Centre for the Arts, 37 Market Street South, Dundas, Ontario.

Peninsula Players Community Theatre Company

https://peninsulaplayersgrimsby.ca/

The Savannah Sipping Society

The box office opens: October 9, 2026

Show Dates:

November 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 2026 at 8:00 pm

November 8, 15, 22, 2026 at 2:00 pm

Box Office number: 905-309-6358



The Players' Guild of Hamilton

https://playersguild.org

Mass Appeal

Father Tim Farley, a lover of the good things in life, is comfortably ensconced as priest of a prosperous Catholic congregation. His well-ordered world is disrupted by the arrival of Mark Dolson, an impassioned and idealistic young seminarian. Their confrontation is a poignant, humorous and touching exploration of the nature of friendship, courage and the infinite variety of love.

Written by Bill C. Davis

Directed by David Dayler

September 18, 19, 24, 25, October 1, 2, and 3, 2026 at 8pm

September 20, 26, 27, and October 3, 2026 at 2pm

Theatre Burlington

https://www.theatreburlington.on.ca/

For the third year in a row, theatre Burlington has an all-Canadian playbill. Icemen by Vern Thiessen, Sleeping Beauty by Vic Hyde, How Could You, Mrs. Dick by Douglas Rodger, and Five Alarm by Kristen Da Silva.

Got to theatreburlington.on.ca for more information and audition times.

Icemen

by Vern Thiessen, Directed by Tim Denis, Produced by Moe Dwyer

A wealthy businessman wakes up bound and gagged in a utility shed, kidnapped by his own employees - brothers and icemen Joe and Rennie. Amid the Great Depression, the brothers' ice harvesting livelihood in Kempenfelt Bay is melting away due to the advent of refrigeration, only to further line the pockets of their employers. Desperate to claim what is rightfully theirs, these honest workers turned reluctant captors will stop at nothing to bring their greedy boss to a final reckoning.

SHOW DATES: September 25,26, October 2, 3, 9, 10, 8 pm.

September 26, October 3, October 10, 2 pm matinee

Website: stratfordoffthewall.com

Facebook: @offthewallstrat

Instagram: @offthewallstratfordartists

Hashtags: #stratfordoffthewall #theatreproduction #backstage

By Brandon Crone, Sales & Marketing Coordinator at Playwrights Canada Press, brandon@playwrightscanada.com

Check out these new books from Playwrights Canada Press!

Recently released:

Someone Like You by Christine Quintana

Best friends Isabelle and Kirsten have been ride-or-die besties since undergrad, particularly throughout Kirsten’s saga of bad relationship choices. But when Isabelle agrees to ghostwrite Kirsten’s dating-app messages to a promising new match, her role as supportive wingwoman gets complicated as she starts to fall for the handsome suitor herself. A brilliant millennial spin on Cyrano de Bergerac, Someone Like You serves up early-2000s rom-com charm while tackling fatphobia, racism, and desirability politics in today’s dating world. Witty, heartfelt, and achingly relatable, this play shines a spotlight on those too often relegated to the role of sidekick in tales of romance.

Black Boys by Stephen Jackman-Torkoff, Tawiah M’Carthy, Thomas Antony Olajide with Virgilia Griffith, and Jonathan Seinen

Black Boys uncovers the complex dynamics of the queer Black experience. Text, movement, and design portray the rhythm and vulnerability of three very different Black individuals who seek a deeper understanding of themselves, each other, and of how they encounter the world. As they explore their unique identities, their performances rigorously interrogate and playfully subvert the ways in which gender, sexuality, and race are read and performed.

Square Root of the Verb To Be by Wajdi Mouawad, translated by Linda Gaboriau

What could have been if your life had taken a different direction? In Square Root of the Verb to Be, Wajdi Mouawad imagines five possible destinies for his alter ego Talyani Waqar Malik and his family after fleeing Lebanon in 1978. Forty-two years after their exile, Talyani recounts their lives from the point of view of five parallel what-ifs in Rome, Houston, Montreal, Paris, and Beirut. This epic, uchronic story revisits Mouawad’s iconic characters and intertwines personal histories with global issues, offering a profound meditation on love, war, identity, and the paths not taken.

The Parallel Project edited by Argel Monte de Ramos & Jocelyn Tsui

The Parallel Project is a groundbreaking collection of monologues written by and for IBPOC and racialized artists. Emerging from an innovative writing initiative, it features original commissioned works designed to reflect under-represented voices and lived experiences. Presented as “monologue clusters” that artists can customize to fit their needs, these texts explore identity, community, queerness, grief, language, and more, offering an indispensable resource for auditions, classes, and performances.

Coming soon:

Raised by Women by Keith Barker

Raised by Women is a funny, moving tribute to the matriarchs who shaped Keith’s life—his mother, sisters, aunties, and friends—and the lessons they passed down to him. Through personal, poignant stories, Keith honours the women who raised him by using their guidance to repair his fractured relationship with his absent father. 

 + see what else is coming soon!

Did you know you can browse our plays by subjects and casting? 

Want to hear more about sales and upcoming events? Sign up for our newsletter!

You can find more new releases, a blog full of interviews and excerpts, and more on playwrightscanada.com.

The Canadian Play Outlet has over 2000 Canadian Plays right at your fingertips. Looking for something specific? Check out the curated Collections.

Every month you can take a look at the newest unpublished and published plays available!

New plays, June 2026

See their latest scripts click here.

The Playwrights Guild of Canada publicises productions of Canadian-written plays through its website, www.playwrightsguild.ca.

If you want to perform a Canadian play but cannot figure out where to obtain the amateur performance rights, view this presentation from PGC.

Are you on the board of a theatre group that belongs to WODL? If your group has:



• A new President
• New WODL delegates
• A new Treasurer

Please let our membership chair, Shirley Steele, know at membership@wodl.on.ca

7 to 8 August 2026

31 August 2026

Minifest, Thistle Theatre, Embro

Deadline for submissions for the September newsletter

18 October 2026

WODL AGM, place TBA

21 to 23 May 2027

WODL Festival 2027, Woodstock

This newsletter was prepared by:

Tricia Ward

Communications coordinator

WODL

Western Ontario Drama League  | communications@wodl.on.ca | www.wodl.on.ca

Copyright © Western Ontario Drama League 2026. All Rights Reserved.