A couple of years ago, my friend Mark Brownell asked me if I would come to his class at George Brown College and speak about David and his work. I gave a somewhat rambling talk, and really enjoyed answering students’ questions afterward. Last year Mark asked me back, only this time after my rambling talk, students performed scenes from some of the plays, which was great fun. Finally this year when Mark asked me in, I realized that having a PowerPoint presentation might provide more visuals and result in less rambling. So I now have one: a 40-minute slide show that covers various aspects of David’s life and work. The George Brown IPAC class was the first to see it!
Shortly after I spoke at George Brown, my friend Mark Melymick asked me if I could come to speak to his Sheridan students, who were about to see Salt-Water Moon at Factory. (Not all of my friends are named “Mark”, although some of the nicest ones are.) I replied, “I have a PowerPoint presentation!” and off I went to Oakville, where I had a wonderful time with about eighty lively Sheridan Prep students.
Cawthra Park Secondary School in Mississauga has a special relationship with David’s work. Teacher Stacey Tiller has been doing scenes from David’s plays with students for several years, and David used to speak to her classes whenever he could. A couple of weeks ago I took my PowerPoint presentation out to Cawthra, which was a moving experience. The students had recently finished working on the plays, and they had many questions about the characters and about David, too.
If students at your school are studying David’s plays and would like to know more about David’s life and career, drop me a line through the website. I’ll be happy to travel wherever I can with my slideshow, or to present it over Zoom!