Dear Southam News,

I am pleased to respond to your May 2nd Editorial entitled "No patience for violent protest." While I am a non-violent protester myself, I can understand why frustrated people see violence as the only option in anti-globalisation protests.

Personally I never was much of a protester until I was majorly screwed over by the Entertainment Department of the Gazette. I am attaching an expose below which tells the truth about what happened last summer, and I am willing to share the documented evidence with you if you ask for it, proving everything in the expose. Call me at (514) 842-1467, or send a reporter to the Quebec Drama Federation in Montreal where documents are on public display.

In short, the reason I have been driven to protest is because your organisation has provoked me with such unscrupulous tactics. I have been defamed by your media, and despite offering documented evidence, your organisation has refused to investigate abuses carried out by The Gazette. I am now a supporter of people like Jaggi Singh, Naomi Klein, Svend Robinson, and others you mention in your editorial. Southam News has driven me to the left-wing.

While it is one thiing to complain about anti-globalisation protests from a very biased perspective, it is another to take responsibility for your own organisation which is driving many people to the left.

I challenge you to investigate the documents and investigate the Entertainment Department of the Gazette. I would like a personal and public apology, and the truth to be reported.

Cheers!



Donovan King, Artistic Facilitator

Optative Theatrical Laboratories: otl.20m.com
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Critic Shuts Down Fringe Show – Literally!

The Final Word on “Car Stories”


FACT SHEET

· CAR STORIES, a play set in real cars was the first show ever to be kicked out of a Fringe Festival. With 30 annual festivals in the world, the first one being started in 1949, it is the first of tens of thousands to be kicked out.

· The Gazette newspaper, a sponsor of the Montreal Fringe Festival (with money and coverage) abused this conflict-of-interest sponsorship by insisting CAR STORIES be removed, after the critic Pat Donnelly was offended.

· Jeremy Hechtman, producer of The Fringe Festival launched a smear campaign to discredit Donovan King (Optative Theatrical Laboratories), the creator of CAR STORIES.

· Mainline Theatre and the Gazette initiated a high-level media cover-up, involving, among others, Gaetan Charlebois (theatre critic for The Hour.)

· Jeremy Hechtman, Patrick Goddard (Mainline Theatre,) and Lisa Levack (Geordie Productions) defrauded OTL of over $1000.

· Mainline Theatre did not follow the mandate of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, resulting in the defrauding of 65 young and experimental theatre companies, and consequently, hundreds of struggling artists.

· Anti-globalization activists are alarmed: with the “fringe” becoming corporate and corrupt, artists may have nowhere to turn to express themselves.


When the fringe is infringed on by the tentacles of capitalist corruption and the inevitable censorship that follows, it is time for artists and activists to unite to challenge this alarming activity. The fringe is the very edge of society where our ideas and artistic endeavours brew, where the potential to change society exists; and when this realm becomes trademarked and run in a corrupt manner like the Nike Corporation with its victims being the artists (versus the sweatshop labour of the third world), it is a clear signal that it is time for all artists and activists to RECLAIM THE FRINGE.

- Marie-Claude Ferrier, CAPT’N (Canadian Agit-Prop Theatre Network)



To begin, I would like to state that I am writing this journalistic expose somewhat anonymously. Originally from Montreal, I am a female theatre artist and freelance journalist currently based in Toronto. This is a true story, all based on legal documents, witness statements, media reports, etc. All people mentioned in this expose have been given a chance to express themselves, and several have notably remained silent. It is a complex tale, and one that artists globally and all Canadians should be concerned about. I urge the reader to study my account with diligence, and take the necessary steps to ensure that your voice is heard. As a theatre artist who works sometimes in Montreal I am concerned that if my name is published I may suffer the same fate as Donovan King, someone greatly admired for his artistic integrity, theatrical skills and imagination, and fearlessness in the face of adversity. While I was not involved as a participant in the whole CAR STORIES event at the Fringe Festival 2001, I did have a chance to play in the show as a spectator (and as a performer for one tour!) while visiting Montreal for a holiday. After studying the documents supplied by Optative Theatrical Laboratories, it is clear that there has been gross abuse of power by the Entertainment department of The Gazette, the Mainline Theatre (and producers of the Montreal Fringe Festival), Gaetan Charlebois of The Hour, and Lisa Levack, a theatre administrator at Geordie Productions. The end result was the destruction of Mr. King’s show and a host of other illegal actions, including among them defamation, fraud, censorship, and harassment. The libellous smoke and mirrors strategy projected by the media and administrators has ultimately failed, and with this expose the truth has emerged. I encourage all people concerned about freedom of expression, artists’ rights, and just plain good theatre to support OTL, and ensure there is a proper closure to this disturbing example of media cover-up.

In February 2001 experimental theatre artist Donovan King, approached the Montreal-based Mainline Theatre with the idea of doing a “car show” in the Fringe Festival. Producer Jeremy Hechtman was extremely enthusiastic about the idea, citing the fact that the festival had never enjoyed the presence of an innovative show set in real cars before. King´s experimental company, Optative Theatrical Laboratories (formed in Calgary, Alberta in January 2000), signed a contract for a BYOV (Bring Your Own Venue) format. For half the price of a regular play, the company must provide their own venue, receiving only advertising in the Fringe programme and box office service. King agreed, paid the fee out of his own pocket, and set about realising the idea. As the Artistic Facilitator (something like a “drama teacher”) of the project, he began searching for stories (suitable to be performed in cars) and looking for interested performers and crew. The artistic process began with the notice King composed and distributed, “ATTENTION! People with a Story”:

Optative Theatrical Laboratories is planning a theatrical experiment & international collaboration: Car Stories is to be performed at the Montreal Fringe Festival, June 14th – 24th, 2001.

· Anyone can submit a story (script, idea, or arrange to present a scene.
· There are no limits to your imagination – play with style, genre, etc.
· All submissions must be open to workshopping and collaboration…

King´s philosophy on theatre is experimental and counter-hegemonic in all regards, and is being developed as part of his MFA Thesis (in Directing) at the University of Calgary, Alberta. Despite an international CV including work in some of the worlds experimental theatrical institutions (his work as actor/teacher/director has been showcased in Hong Kong, Auckland, New York, Montreal, Calgary, the UK, and now Denmark,) King wished to open the doors to anyone who wanted to play in the theatre, so wrote the experimental theory “Optative Theatre!” as a guideline for participants in the project. Based on the theories of Anna Deavere Smith, Augusto Boal, Brecht, Fouccault, Antonio Gramsci, the United Nations mandate, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and many other sources (prominent artists and theorists,) the bottom line was that anyone could play, “regardless of training, status, or reputation.” Simple rules of respect were created, and participants were discouraged from abusing any excessive power that might give them a status-based edge over others. Everyone was encouraged to disregard standard theatrical practices in order to “PLAY” (a descriptor synonymous with “creative freedom” based on internet poet Vincent Kamberk´s description of the word,) by “experimenting with form, content, and process.” A global theatrical theory for the 21st Century, it seeks to break down social and artistic obstacles in the name of freedom of expression, and ultimately socialist humanity.

Stories began pouring in from people of all walks of life and from all over the world. Some were a paragraph long scrawled on a scrap of paper, others full-length copyrighted texts from professional playwrights. After a careful selection process, three were chosen. Car #1 by Dublin’s Matt Legault and directed by Joshua Parr was a comedic spoof of masturbatory fringe theatre, with a gay subtext. Car #2 by local author Caroline Gardner and workshopped by Joel Fishbane was a lesbian romance-spat. Car #3 written and workshopped by Newfoundlander Ross Bonnell was an interactive high-stakes theatre of the absurd involving a mysterious box, with many non-actors cast to play. The fourth car, a van, was a mask show facilitated by King which combined Keith Johnstone’s mask acting theory, improvisation, an imaginative sound-scape by Chris Piggins, and surreal lighting design by Hugo Bernier. Performers from Montreal’s MASK ON! troupe included Amy Sobol and Kathy Daehler.

The media before the event was huge; photographs of King and Hazel LaPalme (mooning out of car windows) appeared in several publications. Local theatre journalist Gaetan Charlebois requested to use the idea on the front cover of Montreal alternative paper/advertiser The Hour, and successfully obtained permission from King. In his article “Driven to Extremities: Car Stories Takes Theatre and Audiences to the Limit” he states:

There is a very thin line between breaking down the wall between spectator and performer and simply freaking the audience out. As we talk about his fringe production, Car Stories, director/creator Donovan King is scarring me. With the work audience members are encouraged to join the action…King sees this as a positive thing, a way of creating pure theatre. I see it as a nightmare…Besides spectators and company, there will also be guest artists, who don’t really have to be artists at all, who host and participate more directly…The visceral Freudian image that springs to mind most adamantly as I read the papers related to the project or speak to its creator is this: “Come into my parlour” – a seduction followed by an act of theatrical cannibalism…Plotting is utterly fluid and can change from performance to performance and day to day. “It’s always a process,” says King, “It’s not about the product. It´s about challenging the rules. Ultimately it´s about social betterment.”

Charlebois’ analysis of the “Optative Theatre!” theory has been described by some as “biased from the point of view of a sceptical critic”: King is described as a “maverick”, the show as a “nightmare” and “act of theatrical cannibalism,” and as a realm the spectator, may have to face their own inadequacies as a performer. Mr. Charlebois, once an aspiring actor, was unceremoniously expelled from John Abbott College’s Theatre Studies program after insulting professor Jon Torell, effectively resulting in the termination of his acting career. In CAR STORIES Charlebois was given the chance to “tread the boards” again - King had designed the show specifically to blur the barrier between spectator and performer, and everyone was required to “perform”.

Lisa Levack, the volunteer administrator for OTL, offered to take care of tasks such as faxing the press, acquiring the parking lot, and overseeing the complex scheduling of the entire project. As the workshopping process took place and the festival deadline drew nearer it became clear, according to King, that Levack was “not actually carrying her portion of the responsibility.” Advertising and press releases were arranged by King and Ross Bonnell, the parking lot acquired by King, and the acquisition of vehicles arranged by King and Celia Ste. Croix (a mechanics student). The accounting was taken care of by King, who had by now put up over one thousand Canadian Dollars for the project. When it became clear that Levack had lost all control of the administration, Toni Lemieux, a volunteer with no theatre administrative experience was called in to help. She accomplished more “in one day than Lisa did in a month,” jested King. Two days before opening, on June 13th King challenged Levack for being irresponsible, and asked her to start taking the project seriously. Levack exploded, and quit OTL in an e-mail to the cast entitled “Lisa’s resignation”, which both degraded King and his theory, and citied the main reason for quitting as being that “my personal sanity is at stake.”

In King’s response he thanked her for quitting, and pointed out that “usually people in Lisa´s shoes make every effort to defend themselves by defaming others,” and forecast that Levack´s actions were “possibly an attempt to sabotage the event.”

CAR STORIES opened on June 15th and was widely hailed as the best show the Fringe Festival had seen in a long time. All performances sold out, the spectators posted unprecedented amounts of praiseworthy “buzz” on the beer tent wall (one review, by spectator J.P. Carron was 38 pages long!), and on June 16th formerly sceptical Gaetan Charlebois declared that “I had to be a pure spectator and I was, indeed, fascinated both from an intellectual point of view and from that of a Spectator in Wonderland.” King even paid to play the spectator, and declared that it was “the best $7 I ever spent on the ‘theatre’.” I personally thought it was excellent – entertaining, challenging, fun, and inspirational. King even offered to let me play in the show, so on one of his walks from the beer tent to the parking lot as the Producer character, I approached him and the spectators playing his butchy ex-wife, demanding alimony and child-support payments for our starving teenage twins (played by two young francophone actresses from another show!) A quick improv ensued, and King´s character weaselled his way out of it, leaving my character empty-handed, and the “girls” begging the spectators for money! The great thing about CAR STORIES was that anyone could simply join in the action and play any character, preferably one who was “grungy in a slightly grotesque sort of way” according to King. There were street fights, prostitutes soliciting, beggars, annoying children, and a whole menagerie of characters to challenge and entertain spectators. The magic of inviting these characters into the show created the unpredictable and surreal feeling of King’s “urban wonderland”, in that spectators didn’t know who was in the show and who wasn’t, or where they were going. King explains that the concept was based on “the classical and Renaissance idea of theatrum mundi,” the theatre of the world in which, according to Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage, all the men and women merely players.” According to King: “The meta-theatre surrounding the event was as important as the event itself. We spread rumours of stolen vehicles, did an Invisible Theatre for the pre-fringe gala, and performed like drug dealers, incompetent producers, and drunken Irish lunatics when selling the show in the beer tent. The grungy urbanity was all-encompassing to help create the surreal magical tone we wanted: the urban wonderland.”

With mounting critical success, on June 17th Levack asked if she could re-join OTL. She was welcomed back by King, and accepted the role of site manager of the parking lot. King didn’t even hesitate, declaring “anyone can play!” In a June 17th e-mail entitled “More chAos” he reminded Levack that “Everyone pays, except FrinGe volunteers with Fringe bucks,” and that “We need a REAL squeegee kid!” Apparently some of the more “professional” actors were hesitant to invite others to play, possibly wishing to take all the glory for themselves. There are rumours of outright discrimination against the homeless by some players, and when King wanted to invite some real squeegee kids in to play, several actors objected, citing the possibility of the homeless being “violent” and “mentally unstable.” Given that one of the “professional” actors protesting was homeless himself for some time, and was recently arrested for violent drunken behaviour, King found that “the hypocrisy was disturbing.”

According to King, Levack’s performance as the site manager was equally disastrous as her previous involvement with the company:

When I brought the spectators to the parking lot as my Producer character, the show was usually behind schedule. There was supposed to be a box for spectators to collect, and more than often it wasn’t there. Performers were not in place, and as a result the show suffered. To make matters worse I received complaints from Sun Youth management about trash being strewn all over the site. I had to personally intervene and clean up the venue myself when Lisa said she was “too busy.” Apparently she also showed up late and left early, and basically just sat there during performances on the new Sun Youth deck smoking, chatting, and dropping her cigarette butts all over the place. The reason I asked Lisa to be a part of this was based on her stage management skills I had witnesses earlier when doing a show with her at the infinitheatre. I don’t know what happened to those skills. Lisa demonstrated the same incompetence managing the site as she had shown earlier as the administrator – she was someone who simply didn’t seem to care about the show at all. She even upset our graphic designer by changing the whole playbill without even consulting her.

There was also some sort of mix-up with Lisa Levack not informing Pat Donnelly, a theatre critic at The Gazette (Montreal’s only daily English newspaper) that she had to pay. On two occasions Pat Donnelly came to see the show and was turned away because she refused. Both times Lisa Levack sent letters of apology, but failed to mention that the theory put Pat on the same level as all other people, and also importantly that she, like everyone else needed $9 to see the show. On his birthday, June 19th King as his Producer character decided to clear it up by posting an open letter to Donnelly’s editors requesting that they give her nine dollars to see the show. Patrick Goddard, Mainline Theatre’s accountant/administrator gave King permission to post the notice in the beer tent. The notice was amusing in every sense of the word – he pointed out that Donnelly had being rude and obnoxious on her earlier visit to the box office (which, according to the box office volunteer who suffered Donnelly’s berating, was completely true,) and jested that the box office girl was so victimized by the crumpled paper Donnelly had thrown at her – that it resulted in a nine inch paper-cut across her face, effectively negating a promising modelling career or any chance of winning the MAC cosmetic award (a corporate beauty contest Mainline Theatre recently installed, to the disgust of many artists I might add.)

Instead of swallowing her pride at King’s jest, Donnelly, upon seeing the notice stormed out of the beer tent. A flurry of media activity followed, resulting in Hechtman tearing down all the notices, and telling scores of witnesses that “Pat Donnelly has refused to cover any more of the festival and Lucinda Chodan, Entertainments editor of The Gazette, has threatened to pull out $15,000 sponsorship because of King’s notice.” A secret meeting, initiated by Lisa Levack, was held behind King’s back (he was selling the show in the beer tent as the Producer character) at the Sun Youth parking lot. Levack attempted to coerce OTL actors to sign what she called “an apology to Pat Donnelly.” Several performers hesitantly signed Levack’s unwritten document, whereas others such as Peter Pelletier (a first nations actor who had flown in from Alberta to play in the show,) Kyle Allatt (a local actor who had worked with King many times before,) Joshua Parr (an employee of the infinitheatre), and Sarah McCullough (an actor/dancer who teaches with King sometimes) refused to sign anything. Instead they went to inform King of Levack’s betrayal. Matt Legault, a performer who did sign, gives his account:

…Lisa told me that the Gazette was going to pull its sponsorship from the Fringe for this year and the next and cease to review shows (Jeremy later said the same thing to me in front of a whole bunch of other Fringe performers. "The Gazette won't be reviewing any more shows, thanks to you," he turned to the others, "If a critic came to see your show but hasn't reviewed it yet, it won't happen. There won't be any more publicity for any of you in the Gazette, thanks to Car Stories.") as a result of what happened on the night Pat tried to see the show, and as a result of the letter that (King) wrote to the Gazette. That letter was going to be used against (King), the company, and the Fringe in a slander suit that the Gazette was going to file. I agreed to sign a paper claiming that I was going to have no more part in the show, and that it would be discontinued until further notice while the story was analysed further. The next day was our day off anyway, so I figured that it would be enough time to clear things up.

Another performer who prefers to remain anonymous claims: “Lisa was very alarmist in her demands. She told me if I didn’t sign the festival would collapse and Pat Donnelly would look down on me…I felt extremely pressured and manipulated.” Hugo Bernier, who was not at the site at the time claims: “From the very start of the fiasco where car stories was shut down, the sheer bulk of political mumbo jumbo that materialised from the un-explained hatred Lisa had for Donovan simply made me turn away.”

After the performance the same evening, King confronted Levack and Bonnell, who told him that the show had to be closed because otherwise the whole festival would be jeopardized due to The Gazette’s threats. When King stated that the media should never be able to wield that power over artists, and that it was clearly a conflict-of-interest sponsorship that had to be stood up to, Levack said, according to King: “I haven’t spent three years getting in Pat’s good books to have you ruin it.”

Later that evening, Hechtman also told King that the show was over. When King protested, Hechtman began the smear campaign, accusing him of punching out volunteers, abusing the staff, generating complaints from the “MUC Police Morality Squad”, etc. Perhaps in a desperate attempt to save his sponsorship, Hechtman initiated the scapegoating of King to soothe Donnelly’s injured ego. Instead of supporting freedom of expression, artists’ rights, and good fringe theatre, he effectively subverted Lisa Levack and encouraged her to subvert other OTL members. It is worth noting that most actors who saw Levack’s defamatory product (released two days later) have since expressed sincere regret and apologised to King. Several have expressed deep anger at Levack’s manipulative tactics. One actor defined the notice as a “Death Warrant.”

On June 20th King and Pelletier sent out a series of e-mails protesting the abusive conflict-of-interest, including one to the CBC’s Holly Simpson, and of course to Gaetan Charlebois of The Hour. Others were sent to The Gazette, and to Nick Lewis of The Calgary Herald. King sent an essay on the history of the Fringe Festival phenomenon in Canada, and pointed out that Mainline Theatre was in violation of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals mandate whereby shows must be “non-juried” (in other words administrators have no business interfering with or censoring the artists’ shows), and that “artists keep 100% of the profit” (Mainline Theatre was charging a $2 fee for entrance, a $1 fee for booking tickets, and a 50 cent fee per ticket sold, which came directly out of the artists’ profits.) King and Pelletier suggested that the Montreal Fringe had lost its “spirit”, and had become a greedy corporate festival. Very intelligent reading actually, and certainly worth noting, especially given that historically the original Fringe was created by artists in Edinburgh when their own international theatre festival refused to showcase their work. The bottom line is that the Fringe always has been an artists’ festival, and that artists should certainly be in the position of authority, versus the media or caretaker administrators, and that there was no good reason to kick CAR STORIES out.

That same day Hechtman suggested to Peter Pelletier that if King was removed from the show, it could still go on as part of the festival. Peter Pelletier and Kyle Allatt rapidly (and satirically) formed NEW ORDER THEATRE (or “NOT”) and “bought the rights to the show off King for $1” (who played along with the amusing ploy, vowing to protest with theatrical agit-prop techniques in his free time regardless of the outcome.) NOT was to be a corporate Canadian Regional Theatre, interested in promoting the same sort of “fluff” found in most Regional Theatres today. The reading NOT’s many documents is hilarious, as Pelletier and Allatt had clearly created a satirical mock-up. For example, goals listed in the NEW ORDER THEATRE “MAN-DATE”:

To continue provoking audiences in an alternative way, but only audiences in the show. No more “Guest Hosts”, Car #4 has to go, cut the lesbians, and add an aboriginal element sometimes, and a gay element at other times. Otherwise, the company will be run under Equity regulations – consult your CTA Handbook and call fast. We will have no more “playing”, we will simply ACT! I am now the Artistic Director, so if you want to be serious and join, you must have a head shot, CV with a minimum 2 years experience in the professional theatre, and you will be required to audition…

Pelletier presented all of NOT’s documents to Hechtman, who according to Pelletier “giggled a lot, but ultimately did not let the show continue on the advice of Goddard.” A conservative man who is rumoured to be more interested in finances than artistic endeavours, Goddard dabbles in playwrighting, but it is well-known that his forte lies in accounting (and sadly in exploiting artists, as in this case by breaking the CAFF mandate and taking hard earned money out of the artists pockets.) A note on Hechtman, he is an American man who used to write and appear in what some call “tasteless fringe theatre”, such as one sexist play called Live Sex Show – Llamas. The two have run the festival for several years under the Mainline Theatre banner, but rumours suggest that artists are concerned about the shady nature of the company’s financial policies and the dubious quality of the work they produce. According to one anonymous volunteer who worked for Mainline in the past: “They are very secretive about their bookkeeping, and many artists are starting to think that Goddard is no better than a corrupt banker. With the festival charging so many fees, one cannot help but wonder where all the money goes. Mainline Theatre consistently refuses to be audited. I think they are just posing as artists – the “theatre” they manufacture is widely seen as a tool to earn large profits for themselves through furtive accounting practices, often involving corporate sponsorship. In their “solo festival” Goddard wrote and performed in a play that featured him naked, which was not well-received by the spectators at all. Jeremy also just embarked on a ‘business trip’ to Dublin and Edinburgh to ‘scout’ new work. For a festival that is supposed to be non-juried there can be no justification for such a trip; I suspect he financed his holiday with the money taken from the artists.”

Later that day Alan Hustak of The Gazette interrogated King in a phone call, demanding if it was true that he had punched out a volunteer. King explained that he and volunteer co-ordinator Tristan had enjoyed a play fight on one tour, as had many others. Hustak then demanded what happened with the group and King playfully informed him that the rights of the show were sold to NOT for $1. King also offered to send the real details of the scandal over e-mail, at which point Hustak hung up on him. On June 21st Hustak reports in his article “Car Stories is parked in limbo”:

Late yesterday, Fringe producer Jeremy Hechtman said he had not decided whether the show…would be reinstated after it fired its “artistic facilitator,” Donovan King. King had been involved in a series of confrontations, including one with Gazette Theatre critic Pat Donnelly. The show had also provoked complaints about noise and the Montreal Urban Community police had to be called twice to the Car Stories site…

The article goes on to quote Chodan, who denied “rumours” of The Gazette’s threats to cancel coverage and sponsorship of the festival (in a recent interview she re-iterated “The Gazette never threatened a libel suit, it never threatened to withdraw its sponsorship of the festival and it never threatened to halt coverage.”) King states:

This article raises two important questions. Firstly, seeing as Lisa Levack was the site manager, would she not be responsible for noise and police complaints? Why hadn’t she told me about these (or did she and Hechtman fabricate them?) Secondly, why was The Gazette clearly lying? Hustak cites the main reason for us being suspended as being because I was “fired.” Seeing as this isn’t true, it clearly implicates him in the cover-up. The other fluff about confrontations is also false, unless a press release protesting abusive conflict-of-interest and Pat Donnelly interacting with my character can be considered “confrontations.” Everyone knows the real reason – because The Gazette threatened to withdraw sponsorship and coverage. What is especially disturbing is that Chodan denied the rumours. Seeing as it was Jeremy and Lisa spreading them, one must wonder why they accused The Gazette, a Fringe sponsor, of making threats? It seems improbable that they would start such a risky campaign if there were no truth in it. Hustak, instead of reporting like a proper journalist seeking to expose the truth must have been instructed by a higher-up (possibly an embarrassed official who realised the gravity of Donnelly’s error) to cover things up. He has since refused to comment when challenged.

Also on June 21st Levack sent out her press release from Geordie Productions at 8 pm. It was later acquired by an OTL insider, who described it as: “the most obnoxious, incriminating, and self-absorbed document in the whole collection. It deserves to be examined in the whole, grammatical errors and all”:

06/21/2001 20:00 5148453634 GEORDIE PRODUCTIONS PAGE 01

Attn: Lucinda Chodan
The Gazette

Re: Car Stories

Dear Ms. Chodan,

I am writing to you on behalf of the cast and crew of ‘Car Stories,’ the Fringe Festival play which has caused so much controversy. We wish to extend our sincere apologies to you and your staff as well as to the staff and participants of the 2001 Montreal Fringe Festival.

Donovan King has purported to act on our behalf during recent events, but in fact we have not been consulted, and his behaviour has come as quite a shock to us. Most of us have now resigned from Optative Theatrical laboratories, the company formed by Mr. King to produce the show. Our intention when joining the ‘Car Stories’ project was to create something truly original and to have fun, not to alienate and offend the Gazette, The City of Montreal, or The Fringe Festival and its guest companies.

We would like to state very clearly that we do not support Donovan King’s recent actions, which were undertaken solely by him. The Fringe Festival is not responsible for the recent regrettable occurances. Unfortunately Mr. King’s behaviour is now affecting all the Fringe participants and we, the former members of ‘Car Stories’ regret that more could not have been done to stop this beforehand.

I have personally been involved with the Fringe Festival for the last 5 years in different capacities. It is the event each year that I look forward to the most. I am ashamed that a member of this community would single-handedly attempt to destroy the Festival, let alone a member of a company that I was involved in. On behalf of the resigned OTL troupe, I ask you to reconsider your decision to stop reviewing the Fringe festival this year. It is a marvellous event which is of enormous benefit to the local theatrical community, and emerging artists.

Once again our sincerest apologies,

Lisa M. Levack
Past OTL Member
(phone number)

(Also on behalf of the following OTL past members: Ross Bonnell, Catherine Tasse, Stephanie Kerr, Elizabeth Westmore, Matthew Legault, Richard Seguin, Amy Sobol, K. Daehler, Peter Shams)

Cc: Pat Donnelly, Jeremy Hechtman


Sent from her employer’s office (Geordie Productions, a TYA troupe led by Elsa Bolan, wife of Centaur Theatre founder and pillar of the community Maurice Podbrey), this fax, according to King:

…incriminates Lisa Levack, Jeremy Hechtman, Lucinda Chodan, and Pat Donnelly. Firstly, Lisa claims to speak on behalf of the cast and crew of the show, when she is clearly only speaking for herself. Given that the signatories never read the document, coupled with the fact that the signatories only represent a small portion of all the Car Stories participants suggests that Levack was more interested in defaming me to boost her own reputation in the eyes of the critic. She suggests that I “purported to act on (their) behalf,” which is untrue: the letter criticising Donnelly was only signed by me, or more importantly, my Producer character. Lisa also claims that the intention was to “create something truly original and to have fun,” whereas the theory everyone was given as soon as they joined is specific in that the goal is to “challenge ourselves, the spectators, and society at large... by attempting to play the provocateur.” She goes on to suggest that the “Fringe Festival is not responsible.” Given that Goddard gave me permission to post the notice, shouldn’t the producers accept some responsibility? She posits that it is my fault that just about everyone in the “City of Montreal” is alienated, including the “guest companies” at the Festival! That is just plain ridiculous. Surely logic stipulates that it is Chodan and Donnelly’s fault if artists were upset about the loss of coverage – they did stop covering the festival after all, and for several days. Lisa then goes on to boast about her involvement in the festival, attempting to sell herself as an important figure in the theatre community. Most people who know Lisa, myself included, are aware that she hates the theatre, always complains about the business (including speaking negatively about her employer, Pat Donnelly, and a host of others behind their backs), and is using the theatre not as an artist, but as a stepping-stone to a corporate job with a higher salary. It is this sort of self-absorption and cowardly two-facedness that the optative theory is attempting to challenge, and it is a sad day when a petty theatre administrator attempts (and succeeds) in destroying likely the most challenging piece of theatre Montreal has seen in a long time. The bootlicking of the numerous apologies suggests that the media wields far too much power in Montreal – to reduce a foolish administrator into a cowardly obsequious servant is nothing short of disgusting. The Gazette owes it to the artists to open an inquiry, and reassess who they have working for them in the Entertainment Department. Never in my life have I witnessed such clear abuse of power, and it does a great disservice to The Gazette’s integrity as a newspaper.

The portion I have bolded makes it very clear that Chodan is lying in Hustak’s article when trying to cover-up the “rumours”. Donnelly did threaten to stop reviewing the festival. Why else would Levack apologise?

Gaetan Charlebois reports on June 21st in his article “The end of it: A final word on a dumb controversy” that King “is now threatening to sue a bunch of people and expounding on a wide array of conspiracy theories (which after talking to most of the parties involved don’t require repeating.)” Given that Charlebois received King’s well researched, and informative essay, it would seem that either he had joined the cover-up for some reason, or has extremely dubious skills as a journalist. The disparity seen in the article is astounding. Charlebois wrote:

… according to one Gazette source, and this has nothing to do with the Car Stories bullshit, there will be no more reviews in the paper (and have been none since Tuesday.) This represents a catastrophic vacuum in Fringe coverage in a city with one English daily during this, the single most important anglo theatrical event of the year. As reported yesterday, the paper will cover the Festival in the form of “articles.”

Surely any reasonable journalist would have inquired from the anonymous “source” why The Gazette had stopped posting reviews and planned to run “articles” instead. It is not enough for an intelligent readership to be given ambiguous and untrue details, when anyone with cognitive skills realises that the truth can be found by simply putting two and two together. Donnelly was offended by the notice, and the reviews stopped, all on the same day. How else does The Gazette explain it? When questioned, they have offered no comment.

Charlebois then went on to criticise the performers by stating: “…actors must assume some responsibility unless they are either intellectually handicapped or brain-washed automatons…they must step forward and enter the post-performance (and somewhat heated) dialogue and not act like lambs who lost their way.” Mr. Charlebois had been challenged to examine his own behaviour, given that he like all CAR STORIES spectators, was a performer (albeit not very bold one by his own admission.) When challenged by King in Charlebois’ chat room to assume the role of investigative journalist, Charlebois did not reply, “effectively casting himself as the brain-washed automaton,” according to King. “Charlebois’ journalism is faulty in that he failed to put the simple pieces together, then drew the incorrect conclusion after interviewing all parties except OTL.”

Also that day a meeting was held in the Parc du Portugal, with several CAR STORIES members present, including Lisa Levack, Ross Bonnell, Stephanie Kerr, Peter Shamzino, and Celia Ste. Croix. The decision to be made was whether or not to continue the show outside of the “fringe” label if the festival continued to be unreasonable. When Pelletier appeared playing the “NOT” Regional Theatre Director demanding Shakespearian and Contemporary monologues and King appeared in his now-iconic yellow protest t-shirt (written with black marker on the front: NOT ALLOWED TO PLAY; and the back: CENSORED BY THE “FRINGE” HELP!) with his mouth sealed shut with black duct tape, several remaining performers panicked and, under Levack’s guidance, quit once and for all. Peter Pelletier notes:

Instead of supporting their own artistic merits, and their own integrity, they opted to support corporate censorship and kow-towing to the media. Their reputations as actors were at stake, and Pat Donnelly’s influence over their careers was deemed more important than their own artistic endeavour. Also worth mentioning, after quitting Levack refused to surrender the OTL administrative apparatus, further abusing her position as the former administrator. With Stephanie Kerr’s assistance (who oversaw an internet campaign with the goal of dismantling the show,) Levack appropriated the e-mail account, shut down the OTL website, got rid of the cars and parking lot, dismissed the actors, etc. Loathsome…

That evening at midnight Hechtman presented Pelletier with the June 22nd Gazette article (how did he get an advanced copy if he wasn’t involved in the creation of it?) confirming that the show was in fact kicked out, and stated, according to Pelletier: “We’ve played enough with the CAR STORIES, all 65 shows here at the festival hate you!” Hechtman thrust the newspaper in Pelletier’s face and said: “Here’s your press!”

June 22nd marks the day the official Internet Theatre began. King and Pelletier appropriated Charlebois’ chat room “Fringe Reviews,” a relatively staid place that was, according to King “reminiscent of Mr. Roger’s neighbourhood.” It was announced that CAR STORIES was taking place on the Internet, and the playbill, including sponsors was listed in the chat room. The world’s first “Internet Play” was basically like a chat room, except the reader was encouraged to play people involved in the real story, the goal being to expose the corruption. Basically an interactive agit-prop exercise, it developed into one of the most insightful, witty, and painful artistic experiences that I have ever witnessed. Satirical versions of real people involved in the scandal appeared (such as “Henchman,”) as did some of the real players, commentators, and even editors! King relishes that he and Pelletier did play “some of the roles, such as mock-ups of ourselves, Shakespeare, Radiohead, and even a satirical version of Lisa Levack!” It would seem that many people joined in the spectacle, including Fringe staff member Virginia Preston, who is rumoured to have played King’s cat Dr. Ropes (one of the more intelligent characters in the Internet Version.) The postmodern story line was fragmented, and seemed to be half real and half fictional. For example, Levack did throw a cast party for many CAR STORIES participants, but excluded inviting King and Pelletier. In the Internet CAR STORIES it was reported that Kerr stole King’s leftover birthday cake to serve the cast party guests, including Pelletier who was only allowed into the party if he denounced King. In reality both King and Pelletier, describing the event as “malicious and self-absorbed,” never went. The whole Internet spectacle was sensational in that one never knew if they could trust the source, and whether it was fictional or not. For example, Levack could play Seguin, Charlebois could play King, etc. While it may have been satirical, one can only imagine the despondency of King who witnessed his entire artistic endeavour flushed down the toilet by The Gazette, Mainline Theatre, Lisa Levack, and those who took her side in the scandal. Three months of hard work, and a thousand dollars investment all vanished into thin air overnight, only to be replaced with backstabbing, defamation, lies, and fraud.

The press on June 22nd would seem to confirm that Charlebois now joined the cover-up. He writes in “Breaking Story: Car Stories is out:”

For the first time in the history of the Fringe a show has been kicked out. Car Stories will be presenting no more performances because of problems generated by the cast, crew, staff, and director. Notable among them a series of letters sent by Donovan King, the shows director, et al., all of whose seriousness is questionable, sent to various members of the press, to Lucinda Chodan (Assistant Managing Editor, Features at the Gazette) and Fringe staff, abuse by the company of Fringe volunteers and staff (notably King punching a volunteer co-ordinator in the stomach)…

Charlebois is actually defaming King here, without having consulted him as to the legitimacy of the charge. That, I believe is illegal, and puts Mr. Charlebois and The Hour in legal jeopardy should Mr. King wish to take it up with the Press Complaints Commission (something King tells me he intends to do with the help of the Quebec Drama Federation when he returns from Europe.) Given that when confronted regarding the “punching”, volunteer co-ordinator Tristan Brand said to King in front of witnesses “We’ll drop that charge,” it is absolutely appalling that Charlebois would be so sloppy in his journalism. King is well respected among real artists internationally, plus often teaches drama to children and teenagers in Montreal. His references are impeccable, and Mr. Charlebois’ false reporting puts Mr. King’s employability at risk. If King had actually punched out a volunteer why was it being reported on the 22nd of June when the show had been closed since the 19th? Why were no charges laid by the volunteer co-ordinator or festival producers? According to Pelletier:

It is clear that Hechtman coerced Tristan to lie as part of the cover up. I was in the festival office when Tristan dropped the charge, after Donovan firmly reminded him that it was only a play fight. Tristan was nervous and shaky, with Jeremy standing arms-crossed behind him, but he couldn’t look Donovan in the eye. The nonsense about Donovan or the company abusing staff is also absurd. Donovan never abused anyone. He is a socialist humanitarian. Even his character the Producer was hardly abusive, maybe a bit eccentric (he did try and sell the show like drugs!), but certainly not abusive in a festival where lunatic freak-show characters run around, unannounced, and with buzzing chainsaws threaten the guests. When Donovan asked Hechtman to produce complaintants, he was told “that is confidential.” The only abuse I saw was that initiated by Hechtman, Lisa, and Pat.

The Gazette quotes Hechtman as saying: “For a long list of reasons, they have been expelled. We are not selling tickets for them and they are not a part of the festival.” The reasons Pelletier heard from Hechtman when speaking with him were as follows:

1) “Donovan pissed off Pat Donnelly, affecting our funding and coverage”
2) “I got him the cover of the HOUR”
3) “I let him sell the show in the beer tent”
4) “He didn’t arrange the parking lot soon enough”

According to one anonymous female CAR STORIES participant:

Given that Hechtman was invited to write a story, invited to play in the show, invited to see the show, all of which he declined, the only answer to his behaviour is that he has devolved into a real jerk over the years. An “artist” I never respected, but tolerated, Hechtman now makes me nauseous and I wonder if perhaps it is time for him to return to the U.S.A. What is most appalling is that several years ago Hechtman created and appeared in perhaps one of the Fringe Festival’s most offensive shows ever, Live Sex Show – Llamas. As an unfortunate spectator, I witnessed him parade onto the stage, in that hammy and obnoxious manner that has come to characterise Jeremy Hechtman, clutching a realistic rubber dildo (with veins) as a microphone. He proceeded to berate the female members of the audience (both individually and as a group) with the most derogatory and sexist insults I have ever heard. It is not surprising that most of us left the show half way through Hechtman’s opening speech. Writing as a feminist, I have never been subjected to such a sexist, degrading, and thoroughly appalling spectacle in all my life. If I didn’t believe in Freedom of Expression, coupled with the fact that it was showcased at the Fringe Festival, I would have suggested that his show be shut down. Here’s a good question to ask: Since Hechtman produced such rubbish at the Fringe in the past, how does he justify, now that he is the “Producer”, expelling arguably the best show of the 2001 Festival?

Also on the 22nd Peter Pelletier presented Mainline staff with a script, giving them yet another chance to redeem themselves. Entitled “THE HARDCORE CHAMP” it cast Hechtman and Goddard as WWF wrestling promoter-types. An Invisible Theatre (recall theatrum mundi), it basically allowed CAR STORIES to be re-opened with the Mainline staff saving face by admitting that the whole fiasco was all part of the meta-theatre integral in the original event. King even volunteered to play a crazed lunatic who gets arrested and brought to the sanatorium, based on hurtful rumours people were spreading about him. There have been suggestions that Lisa Levack orchestrated a hate/censorship campaign against King. Hugo Bernier believes:

If there was a "censorship campaign" I doubt it was organised. I simply think that the combined efforts of many obfuscated people had a strong effect on the fringe organisers and other party members. To say that Lisa or that anyone else single-handedly brought down the might of the OTL is in my mind a little too judgemental, and a little too flattering. I doubt any of the people involved in the "official opposition" had enough brains to orchestrate such an operation.


On the 23rd King announced a “protest” on the “FREE PRESS” (Charlebois’ chat room,) and personally invited several artists, myself included to witness his performance. He appeared at the festival with his protest T-shirt, mask of a car crash victim (a prop used in Car #4), and his famous “optative glasses” - yellow sun glasses that he wears as a mask when playing the provocateur, a long since extinct character that only exists in the writings of Shakespeare and Commedia Della Arte. Basically the same as a King’s Fool or Court Jester, the character is willing to assume any role at any time and provoke the hell out of people by satirising any situation. It is, I am informed, a central theme in his MFA Thesis, and he recently told me in an e-mail that he was experimenting quite successfully with the role at the Elvarket festival in Ellsinore, Denmark. The game (called “Global Invisible Theatre”): when the glasses are on the provocateur could be playing anyone, when they are off they are simply being themselves. It is a technique King created, combining elements of Brecht’s V-effect (the actor/demonstrator) with Boal’s Invisible Theatre. If people are aware of the “game”, they understand the satire, if not, they believe the player actually is the role when the glasses are on. It was hilarious to see King appear at the site, all alone, wearing his funny yellow glasses, and scowling like an angry union leader. He was greeted by an empty beer tent (apparently Goddard had sent festival-goers to the local bar), about 4 police cruisers, and a panicky Hechtman and Goddard. Removing the mask and glasses (and character), he politely asked the Police what his rights were, and was informed that he was indeed allowed to protest as long as it was off “Fringe Property” (apparently Mainline Theatre somehow “owns” the public Parc des Ameriques during the festival.)

Hechtman retaliated by informing King that he and Pelletier were “barred from all Fringe premises,” an unfortunate declaration given that King was also reviewing many shows for Artistic Director Guy Sprung of local alternative company infinitheatre. By barring King from the sites, Hechtman is responsible for much talent that went unreviewed, which could have been launched by the infinitheatre (who are always looking to curate guest productions.) infinitheatre has good reason to be angry; Hechtman’s actions result in lost income potential, lost talent, plus is extremely insulting to the theatre that has always strongly supported the Festival.

In any case, the theatrical protest involved King’s character (the scowling “Protester”) challenging Hechtman when he was in the area to tell the truth, or at times he stumbled around in the mask like a car crash victim moaning: “You killed us!” to Jeremy or Patrick Goddard. He also handed out brilliant piece of culture-jamming, an agit-prop leaflet which is now a collectors’ item I am told. According to anti-corporate activist Naomi Klein, “a good jam is an X-ray of the subconscious of a campaign, uncovering not an opposite meaning but the deeper truth hiding behind the layers of advertising euphemisms.” The leaflet, which King had cut and pasted from The Gazette article (which erroneously declared that the show was shut down) can be read like a political cartoon: it is a poignant satire of the whole situation. The Fringe Festival, signified by a runaway truck, is in the process of smashing into a burning, flipping car signifying CAR STORIES (or “starving artists.”) The “Fringe” Festival portion of the header above the story is replaced with “CORPORATE” Festival in a business-like font. The “FREE PRESS” is announced in the bottom corner (www.hour.ca), and finally at the bottom it says: “Please donate to homeless distributor.” Some of King’s homeless friends did go into the beer tent to try and earn some money selling the flyers, but were all kicked out by security staff under Hechtman’s instruction.

This sadly proves King’s point that the original “no-holds-barred” fringe festival (where artists could produce anything they wished, including smut like Live Sex Show –Llamas - and get away with it!) is no longer. It has clearly eroded into its current manifestation: the corporate “fringe” festival, a profit-making business that appropriates the word “fringe” as a brand-marketing tool, and exploits the spectators and artists to generate larger profits for unscrupulous producers. Run like a shopping mall or corporate headquarters, the homeless are discriminated against and freedom to express anything critical of the establishment is censored. The goal is to get money out of the consumers’ pockets, the purchasable goods: “fringe” theatre. Using a security force, the media, and even the police, profits soar at the expense of the silenced oppressed who are first denied their voice and then both discredited and marginalized to ensure others don’t listen to them either. Montrealer Naomi Klein provides a good analysis of the hegemonic structure in her anti-corporate book NoLogo. According to CAR STORIES designer Hugo Bernier:

From my assessment of the situation, I have to say that the fringe is far from being a fringe theatre organisation and from this basis one could cause great harm to a festival that needs a little hurting. Their actions have proven unacceptable. They should have provided car stories with a safe working environment where they could explore their fringe theatre without the fear of being kicked out. THIS is the ultimate purpose of the fringe; to provide a vessel for the artists of the fringe theatre society to show their works safely to the general public.

To make matters worse, on June 24th Levack and Hechtman began the process of defrauding Optative Theatrical Laboratories. In an e-mail sent by Levack to OTL members (except King and Pelletier) entitled “Finalization of Accounts,” she states:

I am currently in the process of cleaning up all of the accounts with regards to the recent production of “Car Stories”. If you have any receipts you would like reimbursement for, please drop off original copies to 4317 St. Dominique by 5pm June 29th 2001. Anyone who would like to participate in the process of validating these receipts, please meet at the above address at 7 pm June 29th 2001.

One might wonder why an “incompetent” administrator who quit OTL on June 21st has assumed the role of dealing with the company’s money, which was mostly put up by King. According to Goddard and Hechtman, Levack is the “legal signatory”, based on a document they created with her, a document that King never saw or endorsed. An insider forwarded Levack’s message to King, who responded on the 24th with an e-mail to the same people, including Mainline Theatre staff:

In Levack’s PRESS RELEASE to the Gazette defaming me (of which many of you “signed” – although I heard that Levack was manipulating people into signing a document which was not yet written), Lisa has made you look STUPID, because the truth is now exposed. Tell her what you think – clear your names in the MEDIA…Lisa also states that she is a former member of OTL who has resigned in the PRESS. If she is a former member, why is Jeremy Hechtman writing her cheques, when I am still a member and put most of the money up? …Lisa’s meeting is not recognised by Optative Theatrical Laboratories.

Several “former” OTL members supported Levack and went to her meeting, under the assurances that according to her lawyer she was in the right. OTL still does not know who was present, although it is suspected that at least Bonnell, Séguin, and Kerr attended. King suspects that “Lisa’s ‘lawyer’ must have gotten that law degree out of a cracker jack box, if he or she even exists at all. If someone who quit and trashed our show can legally steal our money based on a doctored document, then the law needs some serious re-examination.”

June 24th also marked the final day of the festival, climaxing with an evening awards ceremony (the “Frankie Awards”) at the beer tent. The Fringe Festival was to hand out its first corporate-sponsored beauty contest award ever (MAC Cosmetics “Look du Fringe” award for the “most beautiful” people), in addition to various other prizes, such as the “spirit of the fringe” award for innovation. King appeared at the ceremony in his agit-prop costume and demanded to be allowed in. Anyone caught associating with King, including Allatt and Pelletier were denied entrance to the site. When site security staff refused to allow him in, King attempted to speak over the microphones and loud music, demanding answers from Mainline Theatre staff. When the technicians raised the volume, King decided it was time to “storm the beer tent” to access the stage. According to King, his goal was:

To get on the stage and demand to speak. If allowed, I would have asked Hechtman why he told everyone that we were kicked out because of Pat Donnelly’s threats, when The Gazette went on to deny the rumour. Pat was at the Frankies, and she would have had to answer too. This would have created an awkward situation where it would become crystal clear that either Hechtman or Donnelly was lying. I may have also called Hechtman on the punching bit and all his other lies, or perhaps asked Goddard (in front of the artists he was exploiting) if he intended to return the money he had defrauded them of. The amount of corruption that ruined our festival is appalling; I almost didn’t know where to start. It was a lot like the recent demonstrations in Quebec City – an impenetrable security wall protecting corrupt administrators inside, who refuse to listen to the truth or let legitimate protesters speak. People in positions of power historically try to silence critics - because it will erode their influence and expose their corruption. I call that censorship.

King never even came close to making it in. After attempting to gain entry twice, both times thwarted by a phalanx of security staff keeping track of his every movement on two-way radio, the police were called. King was handcuffed and arrested without warning by Officer Collin of MUC Station 38. The charge:

Having impeded or obstructed pedestrian, vehicular traffic/ by standing still, prowling, loitering on public thorough-fares and places, and by refusing to move on, by order of a police officer.

During the arrest hundreds of spectators spilled out of the tent to see the commotion, many of whom held up King’s leaflets to the Police, a gesture of defiance and solidarity. Many of the artists left the festival in disgust at this point, vowing not to return next year unless Mainline Theatre is removed as its producers. Some artists who had been misinformed, such as local actor Brent Watson, declared support for Lisa Levack (according to Pelletier he announced: “If Lisa needs any financial assistance against Donovan King, I will be glad to pay.”) Another Montreal artist, who had performed in a different show stated:

I was appalled at how far Jeremy Hechtman took this. We artists aren’t stupid, you know. He first told us that the show was out because of Donnelly’s threats, then changed his story two days later, trying to pinpoint the blame on Donovan. Everyone who was listening to him knows that he is a liar – you don’t change your story like that and expect people to believe you. When I heard that they weren’t even following their own mandate, at our expense I might add, I thought about how corrupt the whole system is. I won’t be doing another show here unless a system of checks and balances is created to make sure artists are not abused like this any more.

In King’s statement to the police he mentioned that protesting is a Canadian right, as is Freedom of Expression under the Charter (Section 2b), and that he believed it was a case of false arrest, especially since another officer had given him permission to protest earlier. At Station 38 he insisted that the police recorded what he was wearing, including the words on his shirt, his car crash mask, and optative glasses. King, who has used his dramatic skills to train potential officers for many years at John Abbott College’s Police Technology Department (in “Crisis Intervention” role-play,) informed me that “during the arrest Officer Collin and his colleagues made several protocol errors, most notably the charge itself,” and that “the arrest will almost certainly not stand up in Court.”

Charlebois concludes his self-implication in the cover-up by writing in his article “Breaking News”:

Towards 10:50pm, Sunday, June 24th, Donovan King (Car Stories) was arrested outside the Beer Tent, following the closing ceremonies of the Fringe Festival. At this time (11:15pm) police at Station 38, where King was taken, are not commenting on the charge.

Given that Charlebois was following the story from Day 1, was well aware that King was protesting for legitimate reasons (he did receive the essay, and a lot of the scandal’s exposition took place in his chat room after all!), why did he fail to mention the obvious in his article? Why didn’t he mention the word “protest,” or any of the circumstances behind the arrest, such as King’s costume, security staff refusing him entry, or his demanding to speak on the stage during the ceremony? Hundreds of festival-goers did witness the protest and arrest after all. Again, Charlebois demonstrates a complete and utter disrespect for artists, and is again responsible for flawed journalism that potentially can harm King and OTL’s well-deserved good reputation.

Pat Donnelly’s article on June 25th is not much better. She states that Car Stories was the show “that wouldn’t go away,” and suggests that King’s arrest (incorrectly described as being “for disturbing the peace”) was “part of his Thesis.” Amy Barratt, theatre critic of The Mirror (another free “alternative” advertiser) does not mention it at all in her June 28th article “Fringe aftershock.”

One must wonder why the Anglophone theatre critics in Montreal all rallied around Pat Donnelly to participate in this cover-up. There has been no explanation from any of them, and all invitations to study the documents have gone unheeded. OTL even delivered copies to The Gazette and The Hour, and all three critics were made aware that the documents could be studied at the Quebec Drama Federation. King also sent copies to the University of Calgary theatre librarian Cindy Murrell, and to other undisclosed locations throughout the world.

With the festival over, the defamation/journalistic incompetence part of the story now ends (almost!), and the fraud part takes off. On June 26th King received a registered letter (tracking number RE704163604CA) from former OTL member Lisa Levack stating:

Dear Mr. King,

With your recent resignation/dismissal from Optative Theatrical Laboratories and the production of “Car Stories” at the Montreal Fringe Festival 2001, there is much concern over the settling of financial matters…As the signatory, I require all production related receipts that you have in your possession, by Friday, the 29th of June at 5 pm. All receipts received after this time will be deemed inconsequential to the accounts of the production, and the individual who submits them will not be compensated. In order to provide reimbursement, please be sure to courier theses receipts…to my attention…After this has been received, the validity of these receipts will be collectively determined. You will be informed of the results of the decision…by Wednesday, the 4th of July.

To many, this document really beggars belief. Firstly, King never resigned from OTL (unless in clear jest, and he did this several times to satirise Levack every time she did), nor was he ever dismissed (unless one interprets “NOT” as a real theatre company that has actually taken “legal action” against King “resulting in his termination.”) King asks:

Does Levack really fail to understand the nature of satire? Given her experience as a box office administrator and stage manager, perhaps in future Levack should pay more attention to the forms, genres, and contents of the shows she is involved with instead of keeping her nose in a prompt script or accounting ledger. Levack did actually quit in reality, and twice! She had no right to negotiate or deal with money on OTL’s behalf, and I made her perfectly aware of this.

King responded to the couriered letter with the following, dated June 26th:

Dear Ms. Levack,

OTL asks you to sign the following document, and have it delivered by ARCHIE SEGUIN on a bicycle to…Pointe Claire…Mr. PETER PELLETIER, Artistic Director (and owner to the “rights” of CAR STORIES) also requests all the BAGS OF CHAOS. Please read carefully the following, and sign below:

I, LISA LEVACK, admit to the following: …

Here 18 points follow, asking Levack to admit to her corruption, and join the side of the artists. It was never signed. King did, however, send a pizza box full of receipts (many questionable such as the veterinarian fees for his cat) to Levack, “couriered” by her roommate Daniel Giverin, to see how she would react, predicting some sort of “unfair and obnoxious deal.” He then caught Levack on video at The Biftek (a bar on St. Laurent Street that sponsored CAR STORIES) in the act of Fraud. Lisa actually had the nerve to offer King $300, and when asked on camera to explain herself, she ran out of the bar covering her face in a state of panic. When asked if he would play the video on the Net, King replied “We haven’t decided yet. If Lisa wants to continue playing dirty pool, we may have no choice.”

On this day Patrick Goddard also agreed to the exchange of “ALL DOCUMENTS” relating to CAR STORIES, and signed a hand-written contract to that effect. Goddard gave OTL the one “document” that supposedly makes Levack the “legal signatory,” whereas he received a bound stack of them exposing the corruption within their own theatre. In OTL’s Press Release entitled “CORRUPTION AT MONTREAL “FRINGE” FESTIVAL: Media and Theatre Administrators close down artists! Donovan King is arrested for “Fringe” Protest!!!” the true story is told, followed by King demanding the following:

1) The “Fringe” festival reimburses him & the artists for estimated sales, affected due to closing CAR STORIES, plus the cost of arrest and any additional expenses incurred.
2) The “FRINGE” festival must create a new award, entitled the OPTATIVE AWARD for true artistic excellence (it will be a pair of yellow glasses.)
3) THE GAZETTE must not sponsor the FRINGE any more.
4) There will be NO MORE awards for COSMETICS.
5) All artists from the festival will be reimbursed 50 cents per ticket, as understood in the mandate of the CAFF (“artists keep 100% of the profit.”)
6) Lisa Levack will surrender all documents immediately to PETER PELLETIER of NEW ORDER THEATRE, and renegotiation will take place between the “Fringe” festival and NEW ORDER THEATRE.
7) The following people will re-open CAR STORIES and perform themselves for 1 week: PATRICK GODDARD, LISA LEVACK, STEPHANIE KERR, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE MUC POLICE, GAETAN CHARLEBOIS, PAT DONNELLY, LUCINDA CHODAN, JEREMY HECHTMAN, ROSS BONNELL. KING and PELLETIER will write REVIEWS, which will be PUBLISHED in THE GAZETTE and THE HOUR. There must be 4 cars, 4 stories, at least one host, and a minimum 2 actors per car. The story is up to them.

While King’s press release does seem to be in jest, in a recent email from Denmark he tells me that he is quite serious:

Look at it this way – firstly the reason we were shut down was because of Pat Donnelly and Lucinda Chodan’s decision to abuse The Gazette’s power as a sponsor and newspaper; all because Pat couldn’t take a joke. Pat actually really wanted to see the show, and I did e-mail her a personal apology and the theory after she got upset, which she didn’t respond to. This way she can save face by playing in the show (she would have had to play anyhow as the spectator.) Gaetan can revive his acting career (he does have experience from John Abbott College, and from when he played the spectator), and all the corrupt administrators like Levack, Goddard, Hechtman, etc. can actually try and be creative and do something useful. Hechtman has performance experience and Goddard claims to be a playwright. What are they afraid of? This way everyone saves face, has some fun, and learns something. The alternative may be to take them all to Court, win a bunch of money, potentially see them lose their jobs, and possibly witness the destruction of the festival, which I have always supported (it used to be run with integrity.) In fact, the type of theatre I create sees festivals like the fringe as the pinnacle of performing venues (when run properly.) I do not wish to see these people suffer, even though they have done everything in their power to destroy me, and the show I facilitated. They launched what many describe as a “hate campaign” against me, defrauded me of over $1000, defamed me in the press, potentially affecting my career; Gaetan Charlebois even shut down my hotmail account by telling them I was using it for “abuse”! Hotmail has refused to offer any explanation as to why it was closed, and now I can’t get in touch with real artists around the world, as the e-mail addresses were stored there. I am trying to get a hold of an old friend, a film-maker in Stockholm to make some artistic arrangements, but cannot find his phone number or e-mail address, which were stored in my hotmail account. Montreal is widely regarded as Canada’s cultural Mecca, and these corrupt people should celebrate and support our artistic excellence and integrity, especially as minority Anglophones. Their current behaviour amounts to censorship, defamation, and abuse of legitimate artistry. They are not meeting their job descriptions at all. Media should report neutrally on events, and administrators should support the art that they are blessed to be a part of. Those who don’t should go work in a corrupt bank instead, like the TD. These people are putting our festival at risk, and that is unacceptable to the real artists, to the spectators who enjoy our festival, and to all Canadians who enjoy the privileges afforded to us in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The amount of people who have asked me to re-open CAR STORIES is astounding. What people don’t realise is that I didn’t really do much apart from facilitate the project and play roles when there weren’t enough performers (and put myself a further grand in debt!) Anyone can make a CAR STORIES – get 4 cars, 4 stories, some players, a parking lot, some advertising, and away you go. All it takes is a bit of imagination, and some decent, genuine people. It is unfortunate that a few bad apples (and ones in positions of power) can spoil a thing so simple, and yet so good for everyone else. Where else can anyone play in the theatre with no experience, auditions, school fees, directors, rehearsals, etc? I challenge those nasty critics & administrators to re-open the show. Do they really want to face a court battle? While it would be fun for OTL, I really don’t want to see these people’s lives destroyed by their own incompetence. As the saying goes, DON’T BE, PLAY. If this story were to be made into a film, for example, these people would be hilarious to watch in the farcical and absurd nature of their behaviour. It would be like a bad Hollywood movie, or worse, a soap opera or cheesy melodrama. In the meta-theatre surrounding CAR STORIES if they had been playing all along, I would certainly applaud such fine hammy performances, but the sad part is that they weren’t playing at all. They actually ARE corrupt people with little concept of humanity, and that is why myself and many other theorists such as Anna Deavere Smith believe it is damn near impossible to create powerful and magical theatre nowadays. Too much self-absorbed bullshit – everything from corporate censorship to Equity regulations to boring Regional Theatres to egomaniacal critics to inequal funding opportunities to dragooned university departments to all the arse-kissing, schmoozing, rumour-mongering, and backstabbing that underscores it all. What OTL is trying to do is create an environment free from all that nonsense so theatre artists can really play, create, and challenge. The point is proven: even at a ‘fringe’ festival the pathetic politics of the theatre are impossible to escape, meaning that real theatre artists have an extremely hard time trying to get anything done, while the plastic people pat each other on the back and enjoy their cosmetic awards and subsequent corporate approval.

What makes Donovan King loveable to his supporters is that he does have a deep understanding of both the human condition and the theatre’s potential for growth and transformation, and a huge capacity for forgiveness. He is as genuine as people come, and he is very serious about not wanting these “bad apples” to hurt themselves or their careers. At the same time he won’t stand for any bullshit. Many in his shoes would be crying revenge and bringing the oppressors down in one fell swoop. CAR STORIES would likely have gone on to win awards, contracts with the FTA, and receive invites from international theatre festivals. If it wasn’t for the actions of the “bad apples” who destroyed the art and demonised King, the artists could have held their heads high in pride, and not down in confusion, bitterness, fear, and shame. Careers could have been launched. Amazingly, King doesn’t hate, or even pity these people – he and fellow players “observe them with bemusement”, then satirise their own foolishness, whether it be on the Net, on the phone, or through live performance. “One day,” according to King, “they may understand that there is so much more to the world than their self-absorbed bubbles. One day they may actually take the blinders off and engage with our wonderful world as human beings. One day the theatre may again be the rightful place to challenge society. With global oppression at its height in all countries, we need real human players to find theatrical ways to counter the corporations, governments, and other institutions that dehumanise, manipulate, and control us. What better place to start than at the Fringe? As the CAPT’N rightly calls for, we must reclaim our playground, the Fringe.” By examining the role of the traditional Fool, King is attempting to define how this role can be used in postmodern capitalist society to bring justice to the underdogs, and socialist humanity to all. Exploring the role of “provocateur” is a key plank in his MFA Thesis, and it is a role he explains “anyone can play.” Instead of luring people into the theatre, he insists “we, like Boal, must bring the theatre to them. Guy Debord rightly defined our society as a spectacle. Let’s agree, but instead of being cast by oppressive corporate directors and manipulative puppet-masters, let’s cast ourselves. It is time for all of us to play in our global spectacle, but to play roles that are counter-hegemonic to the currently abusive system we must live in every day, both in the world of theatre and in society at large. In the 21st Century the world must move from mastery into fellowship.”

In the meantime, the Canadian Agit-Prop Theatre Network, an underground organization that boasts “30 or so theatrical street protest companies, several freelance entartistes, six “legitimate” agit-prop theatre companies, and hundreds of individual members” urges support for Optative Theatrical Laboratories. President Marie-Claude Ferrier advises: “It is indeed time for everyone who has ever been oppressed to take action. If you support equality in all its human terms, genuine artistry, freedom of expression, and do not wish to see the media or Mainline Theatre abusing its power in Montreal again, here is what you can do (short of thrusting cream pies into the faces of the oppressors) to RECLAIM THE FRINGE”:

· FWD this expose to everyone on your contact list, and ask them to FWD it too.

· Spend some free time on the Net with a search engine, and send this expose to organisations you believe need to know about the scandal, especially media.

· Write to the Canadian Ministers of Heritage, Justice, and the PMO, and ask for an inquiry.

PMO: Hon. Jean Chretien Justice: Hon. Anne McLellan
House of Commons Justice Building
Kent and Wellington Sts. Kent & Wellington
Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K1A 0H8 Canada, K1A 0H8

Heritage: Hon. Sheila Copps
Edifice Jules Leger
Terrasses de la Chaudiere
15 Eddy St. 12th Floor
Hull, Quebec
Canada, K1A 0M5

· Write to the CBC: Demand to know why Holly Simpson (who had also been following the story from Day 1) didn’t take the necessary steps to ensure the story was covered. Tell them that you consider this scandal to be important, and ask them to investigate.

Audience Relations
P.O. Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5W 1E6
Call: 1866-306-INFO

· Write to The Gazette: Demand to know the truth about the cover-up. Ask them to open an inquiry into Chodan, Hustak, and Donnelly’s behaviour, and take disciplinary action.

250 St. Antoine St. W
Montreal, Quebec
Canada, H2Y 3R7

· Write to The Hour: Demand to know the truth about the cover-up, and that they investigate and take disciplinary action against Mr. Gaetan Charlebois.

355, Ste-Catherine W Street, 7th floor, Montreal (Quebec) H3B 1A5
FAX: (514)848-0271

· Write to the Mainline Theatre: Demand that they reimburse the artists they defrauded, return OTL’s money, and stop producing the Montreal Fringe Festival.

C.P. 42013 succ. Jeanne-Mance
Montreal, Quebec
Canada, H2W 2T3
 fringe@montrealfringe.ca

· Write to Geordie Productions: Ask them to investigate Lisa Levack’s role, and pressure her to come clean.

4001 Berri, Suite 103
Montreal, Quebec
Canada, H2L 4H2
 geordie@cam.org

· Write to the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals: Demand that they investigate Mainline Theatre, and cancel the contract allowing Mainline to be associated with the “Fringe” trademark. Ask them what guarantees and safeguards they have in place for exploited artists, and ask them to create a system to ensure this abuse never happens again.

174 Market Ave.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada, R3B 0P8

Current President: Chuck McEwan ( fringe@fringetoronto.com)

· Contact Optative Theatrical Laboratories: Offer your support, and learn how to play the provocateur!

otl.20m.com

As an afterword, Gaetan Charlebois wrote an article in The Hour following the festival. Entitled “Fringe Personality 2001: Jeremy Hechtman,” Charlebois praised both Jeremy Hechtman and derogatory Live Sex Show – Llamas. For a “journalist” to ignore the facts when they are delivered to his e-mail box and displayed on his own web page, defame one of Canada’s emerging experimental artists, then praise a corrupt producer as “the cock of the walk,” suggests that it is indeed time for The Hour to get a new theatre critic with more integrity. The same applies for The Gazette, who are clearly responsible for allowing their theatre critic and Entertainment Department to destroy a piece of innovative theatre by abusing a conflict-of-interest sponsorship. It is time for an inquiry.







APPENDIX A: Journalistic Questions not answered

The Gazette

1) Why did your paper stop reviewing Fringe Festival shows in the Entertainment Section for several days?
2) Why did you later cover The Fringe Festival in the form of “articles”?
3) Why didn’t you seek Donovan King’s opinion on his arrest?
4) If the Gazette didn’t threaten to cancel coverage and sponsorship of the Fringe Festival, why was no action taken against Mainline Theatre, who said that you did? Why was this not reported?
5) If no threats were made, why did Lisa Levack send you a grovelling Press Release?
6) Will an inquiry be opened into the behaviour of those within the Entertainment Department?
7) What was Alan Hustak’s source when he asked King if it was true that he had “punched out a volunteer”?
8) Why hasn’t The Gazette reported on the fraud committed by Mainline Theatre against OTL and the 65 shows it hosted?

The Hour

1) What was Mr. Charlebois’ source from The Gazette that claims that The Gazette’s actions had nothing to do with Car Stories?
2) What was Mr. Charlebois’ source when he reported that King had punched a volunteer coordinator in the stomach?
3) Has an inquiry been opened into Mr. Charlebois’ false reporting?
4) Why hasn’t The Hour reported on the fraud committed by Mainline Theatre against OTL and the 65 shows it hosted?

Mainline Theatre

1) Why did Jeremy Hechtman tell everyone that The Gazette had threatened to withdraw funding and coverage due to King’s open letter?
2) Is Mainline theatre planning on reimbursing OTL and the other 65 companies it defrauded?
3) Will Mainline Theatre release an audit of its accounting books?
4) Is Mainline Theatre planning on publicly apologising to King for defaming him?

CAFF

1) What is the CAFF position on the scandal?
2) Will Mainline Theatre be removed from the CAFF due to its abuse of artists?
3) Is the original mandate still in place? If not, why not?
4) How does the CAFF operate in regards to protecting artists’ rights?

Geordie Productions

1) What is Geordie Productions view of Lisa Levack’s use of its company facilities to send out defamatory faxes?
2) Does Geordie Productions plan to take disciplinary actions against Lisa Levack? If so, what?
3) Does Geordie Productions support Lisa Levack in her defrauding of OTL, and will they pressure her to come clean on her role in the scandal?