Ottawa's gay and lesbian community is getting a financial boost after the Great Canadian Theatre Company's production BASH'd helped three GLBT organizations raise funds for upcoming projects.
The Jan. 22 performance of the Canadian “gay rap opera” was turned into a fundraising event to benefit Toto, Too Theatre Company, the Village and the Lambda Foundation.
The tickets sold by the three organizations made around $1600, according to Denis Schryburt of Toto, Too.
“It's not millions, but every bit counts,” says Gary Sealey, president of the Lambda Foundation, a national series of scholarships that awards research in human rights and GLBT issues.
Toto, Too Theatre Company is based in Ottawa and supports plays of a GLBT nature that might go overlooked by other companies. Projects that deal with gay, lesbian and transgender subject matter or are written or directed by someone with a GLBT background are likely to be picked up by Toto, Too.
Money from the BASH'd fundraiser will be used to put future productions together, including buying advertising space and props, says Schryburt.
Toto, Too has a play scheduled for March called Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. The play deals with GLBT issues, but Schryburt says, “If you want to know the connection, you'll have to come see the play!”
Toto, Too, whose name comes from a line in The Wizard of Oz, was created four years ago when one of its founders wondered if there was a need for a gay and lesbian theatre in Ottawa.
Schryburt responded: “Absolutely.”
About half the actors and half the audience interested in Toto, Too's productions are not members of the GLBT community, he says.
“A lot of people think the gay community is segregated, that we only care about 'gay issues,' but that's not true,” says Schryburt. “We don't want to be segregated and we don't want to segregate ourselves.”
The Village is an organization committed to making the GLBT community more visible. Selling tickets to BASH'd raised funds for projects the Village has lined up for the spring.
In addition to promoting more rainbow flags and decals that define the stretch of Bank Street known as Ottawa's gay village, the Village will be painting two murals in the community and adding a banner to the adult shop Wilde’s to commemorate GLBT icon Oscar Wilde, says Glenn Crawford, chair of the Village committee.
“We're trying to get people back into the Bank Street area,” says Crawford. “With all the construction and building collapses and arsons, it's been a pretty hard hit area.”
A portion of the money raised will go towards beefing up the scholarships the Lambda Foundation gives out to Carleton University and University of Ottawa graduate students every year.
“The scholarships need some topping up,” says Sealey.
In addition to lifting the financial burden from students, the scholarships work to support diversity and individualism in a university setting.
“It's not true that one kind of viewpoint fits everyone,” says Sealey. “It's important for the universities to value queer studies and diversity, not just the centralized curriculum.”
BASH'd discussed the effects of homophobia on the gay community. It hit home for many audience members, according to Schyrburt. So it's no surprise that Crawford says getting involved in the fundraiser “felt like a natural fit” for the Village.