RCM
Radio Communautaire Missisquoi’s Radio Drama Writing Awards 2010
Announcement of Competition Winners
Radio Communautaire Missisquoi (RCM) is pleased to announce the winners of its Radio Drama Writing Awards 2010. The distinguished panel of judges for the competition – Alex Paterson, Frances Gallagher and Jefferson Lewis – have completed their review of the entries. They met recently to select the winners and reached a unanimous decision that the prizes should be awarded as follows:
Alex Paterson, Chair of the Panel, said that the judges had been impressed by the quality of the entries and commented that “the entries proved once again that our community is blessed with a variety of talented writers whose style and imagination can produce interesting material. Hopefully by contributing to the 2010 competition, our contestants will encourage more entries in 2011.”
Patron Louise Penny thanked all the entrants for deciding to enter this new Competition and for the commitment and effort that they had dedicated to writing a new play. She went on to congratulate the winners and commented “It’s thrilling to have radio plays about the Townships being written and produced. And such a high calibre! As someone who also writes about the Townships, I know what a rich canvas it is. And now we’re discovering, thanks to CIDI, ever more artists, ever more writers, ever more voices – and more stories to tell about a place we cherish.”
Radio Communautaire Missisquoi plans to launch Radio Drama Writing Awards 2011 next summer at WordFest in Knowlton. Its goal is to promote new radio plays about some aspect of life in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, past or present, and to increase awareness of the possibilities and scope of radio in the field of drama. The RCM Radio Drama Writing Awards have been established with the aim of encouraging writers of drama who live in the Townships, or who have some close connection with it.
RCM acknowledges with deep appreciation the encouragement and generous support of the Competition’s Patron Louise Penny, internationally acclaimed Townships writer, and her husband Michael Whitehead. It also thanks The Townshippers’ Cultural & Research Foundation for its grant to help organize this Competition.
RCM is grateful to The Chawkers Foundation for providing the enabling grant to launch the new program “Townships Radio Theatre”. This will make it possible to invite Sunshine Theatre Productions to mount a professional production of one or more of the winning radio plays from the Competition.
a re-print from “The Record”
The time has come to stand up for what we believe in and start “movin’ on up to the eastside” of 305 Knowlton Road, in the Town of Brome Lake. To be more specific, where Valentine’s Restaurant used to be, right across from the post office. CIDI has been suffering from a lack of visibility and desperately needs attention.
Part of “being who we are” is to be noticed, and it doesn’t really happen when Radio Communautaire Missisquoi is hidden away in a basement. After all, we have to practice what we preach. As everyone knows by now, RCM`s mission statement is “Being Who We Are”, and it doesn’t bode well for us if we are hiding out in the shadows.
How about having a sign in front of our building, for a change, directing people’s attention to where we are located? It seems like a simple enough concept. So, what do we do with the newly acquired space?
a re-print from “The Record”
Radio Communautaire Missisquoi. What is it? Is it a radio station or a warm and fuzzy arts-development organization? Can anyone put a finger on the essence of this “new kid on the block”? I think it’s time to review who we are.
I never know how people are going to perceive RCM. We are multifaceted, producing radio programs, television shows and events. I guess you could say we are a non-profit production company. Our mandate is to operate community radio station CIDI 99.1 FM, and to produce fundraising events for local community organizations.
When brainstorming the company’s “raison d’être” our board of directors, back in 2005, decided that confidence would be RCM’s product of choice; the service it would offer the communities of Brome Missisquoi and Shefford. Right away, even though we felt strongly about our decision, we realized that it might be difficult communicating our goal to the general public.
a re-print from “The Record”
Radio Communautaire Missisquoi celebrated the new year with a live broadcast and party at the CIDI studios last weekend. This will hopefully become an annual event, with musicians playing live and volunteers schmoozing in the corridors and backrooms. Everyone at the station these days is up about the incredible year we’ve had building community in the Ville de Lac Brome area.
Developing the arts has become a reality for RCM, and now that we have a world-class piano, an operational radio station, website (rcmmedia.org) and TV show (Stop!), our tool chest is filling up. Tools are important, but second only to great volunteers. Equipment is useless if there is nobody to run it.
