This summer (2009) RJD Productions will be at the Regina Fringe with WILD MAGIC
and at Winnipeg Fringe with LES MISERABLE OLD MEN!!!

WILD MAGIC - the big hit of the 2007 Fringe: Nancy Drake, Stefanie Wiens, and Rita Deverell will re-create Macbeth's weird sisters.

Venue: Royal Saskatchewan Museum,
July 2-6

Thurs: 6:45
Fri. 7:30
Sat: 7:45
Sun: 5:45
Mon: 7:00

LES MISERABLE OLD GUYS: Harry Nelken and Rex Deverell will perform in Rex's new comedy about two codgers' ongoing feud.

Thu July 16, 3:45 PM Advance Tickets on sale June 22

Venue#2 MTC Up the Alley 174 Market Ave (Entrance on John Hirsch Pl)

Fri July 17, 7:15 PM Advance Tickets on sale June 22

Venue#2 MTC Up the Alley 174 Market Ave (Entrance on John Hirsch Pl)

Sat July 18, 12:00 PM Advance Tickets on sale June 22

Venue#2 MTC Up the Alley 174 Market Ave (Entrance on John Hirsch Pl)

Sun July 19, 12:00 PM Advance Tickets on sale June 22

Venue#2 MTC Up the Alley 174 Market Ave (Entrance on John Hirsch Pl)

Mon July 20, 8:45 PM Advance Tickets on sale June 22

Venue#2 MTC Up the Alley 174 Market Ave (Entrance on John Hirsch Pl)

Thu July 23, 9:30 PM Advance Tickets on sale June 22

Venue#2 MTC Up the Alley 174 Market Ave (Entrance on John Hirsch Pl)

Fri July 24, 4:15 PM Advance Tickets on sale June 22

Venue#2 MTC Up the Alley 174 Market Ave (Entrance on John Hirsch Pl)

Sat July 25, 5:30 PM Advance Tickets on sale June 22

Venue#2 MTC Up the Alley 174 Market Ave (Entrance on John Hirsch Pl)

Rita's Latest Show !!!

N O T A D R O P

MEDIA RELEASE
OMNItv.ca

Canadian Documentary Premiere on OMNI.1

Portuguese language version – Saturday, March 21st at 10PM ET
English language version – Sunday, March 22nd at 8:30PM ET

Toronto, ON (March 9, 2009) - Rogers OMNI is proud to present the world television premiere of the thought-provoking docu-drama Not A Drop to help mark International Day For the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The 60 minute documentary launches to Portuguese speaking audiences on OMNI.1, Saturday, March 21st at 10:00p.m. English language viewers are invited to tune to OMNI.1 on Sunday, March 22nd at 8:30 p.m.

From veteran broadcaster Rita Shelton Deverell, Not A Drop is set in a fictionalized University Diversity Journalism Class and based on real events. Dramatic scenes for Not A Drop were shot on the Centennial@Wallace soundstage.

“OMNI is pleased to air Not a Drop in conjunction with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,” says Madeline Ziniak, national vice president of OMNI. “Rita’s production brings to light a serious clash between environmental and native community issues, set against a backdrop of perspectives drawn from her experience in Aboriginal and faith-based television and work with grassroots community organizations.”

When students of diverse backgrounds -- Japanese-Chinese (Hiromi Okuyama); Caucasian (Alexandra Pope), and Afro-Canadian (Jeremy McDonald) -- claim they are already “diverse enough,” their professor, a Black, former U.S. southerner (played by Stefanie Samuels) and an Aboriginal Activist (Pamela Matthews of One Dead Indian) take up the challenge and assign the class to report on the Walpole Island First Nation, located in what the locals in Windsor, Sarnia, and Detroit call “Chemical Valley.”

“"The people of the Walpole Island First Nation feel they represent all those communities who have not yet been able to say ‘No’ to the toxic living conditions some industries create,” says Rita Deverell, producer/director of Not a Drop. “My message with Not a Drop is that while we as journalists can be serious whistle blowers, taking action isn’t always part of the story – and I am deeply grateful to OMNI for their support in helping focus attention on this particular story, in hopes that real life action will be taken.”

The result of Not a Drop is that its characters – as well as its viewers – are provided with a first-hand learning experience about the deeply troubling issues of so-called “disposable peoples” in North America.

Not A Drop was exclusively funded through OMNI's Independent Producers Initiative, a $32.5 million independent production fund that to date has supported over 200 new documentary programmes. Interested producers can access funding criteria at OMNI Television’s web site http://www.omnitv.ca/ontario/info/funds .
About Rogers OMNI
Rogers OMNI is a free, over-the-air multilingual/multicultural television system made up of five regional broadcasters serving nine major markets across Canada: in BC (Vancouver and Victoria); Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton), and in Ontario (Ottawa-Gatineau, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area) via flagship stations OMNI.1 and OMNI.2. All Rogers OMNI stations share the collective mandate to reflect Canada’s diversity through the airing of inclusive and accessible programming, and are part of Rogers Media Inc., a division of Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX: RCI and NYSE: RCI) which is a diversified Canadian communications and media company. In addition to specializing in Canadian multilingual/multicultural programming, OMNI carries well-known American and International series and films – including a station-wide schedule of East Asian Super Cinema and South Asian Bollywood Freetime Movies.

About Rita Shelton Deverell
Producer/Director of Not a Drop, Rita Shelton Deverell is the first Storyteller-in-Residence at the School of Communications, Media and Design at Centennial College. She’s a veteran broadcaster (CBC, Vision TV & APTN), theatre artist, Journalism Professor, who has been honoured for her work with the Order of Canada. Other honours she has received include: Maclean's Honour Roll of Outstanding Canadians; Canadian Black Achievement Award; Media Watch's Dodi Robb Award and inductee, Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

To secure a screening copy of Not A Drop, photos for print or to interview anyone associated with its production please contact:

OMNI Media Contact:
Sandy Zwyer – Programme Information Coordinator, 416-260-3590 sandy.zwyer@rci.rogers.com
Koreen Ott – Director, Marketing and Public Relations, 416-764-3250
koreen.ott@rci.rogers.com

--END--

Latest Rex News


TrypTych, Canada’s Passionate Advocate of the Vocal Arts

presents

“A BOILER ROOM SUITE” on Friday, January 23, 2009 at 7.30 PM

and Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 7.30 PM

at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2737 Bayview Avenue

in Toronto, Ontario

Tickets $40/30



A FUNDRAISER FOR STREET HAVEN AT THE CROSSROADS

Housing and Social Services for Women



416 763 5066 info@tryptych.org



Edward Franko, Stage Director

William Shookhoff, Music Director

Vanessa Grant, Aggie Rose

Doug MacNaughton, Sprugg
Lenard Whiting, Pete

Sinfonia TrypTych



TrypTych, celebrating its 10th anniversary season, presents the Canadian opera A BOILER ROOM SUITE by Quenten Doolittle with libretto by Rex Deverell. This intimate gem of music theatre deals with two street people who have climbed into the boiler room of an abandoned hotel on the Prairies to seek refuge from winter and from the world, until it has turned more kind. This life-affirming work resonates more today as it did when it was written over 30 years ago.

BOILER ROOM SUITE stars Vanessa Grant (TrypTych, Opera in Concert), Doug MacNaughton (Canadian Opera Company, Pacific Opera, Opera Hamilton) and Lenard Whiting (Canadian Opera Company, Opera in Concert, Vancouver Opera), stage directed by TrypTych’s own Edward Franko (Opera Mississauga, Opera York) with music direction by William Shookhoff (Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables).

All proceeds from this production go to support Street Haven at the Crossroads ((http://www.streethaven.com/) which provides housing and social services for women. Their goal is to innovate and establish an integrated continuum of services which will improve the quality of life of women in need and bring creative solutions to their problems.



Latest Rita News

CENTENNIAL COLLEGE – Storyteller-in-Residence Appointed September 2008. .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rita Shelton Deverell
Storyteller-in-Residence Appointed

Rita Deverell, Storyteller-in-Residence

The Centre for Creative Communications is pleased to announce the appointment of producer, director and theatre artist Dr. Rita SheltonDeverell as its first Storyteller-in-Residence at the School of Communications, Media and Design at Centennial College.

Deverell will provide storytelling expertise to all programs at the School of Communications, Media and Design, located at The Centre for Creative Communications. She will be recognized with the world premiere screening of Not a Drop, her new one-hour docu-drama set in a fictionalized University Diversity Journalism Class, but based on real events, on:

Friday Dec. 5, 2008, at 11:30 a.m, at The Centre for Creative Communications
"Storytelling is the alpha and omega," Deverell says. "And I am pleased to find myself at the cross-section of communications, media and design worlds at Centennial College."

Commissioned by OMNI, Not a Drop will be broadcast on OMNI in 2oo9, the drama portions shot at Centennial College @Wallace Studios and the documentary portions shot on location at the Walpole Island First Nation. Not a Drop is about the aftermath of Katrina and disposable peoples in Canada.

Deverell got her start in television in 1972 when she helped to create a children’s program called All In a Tube on private TV stations. Since then, she's been an on-air journalist, a producer, a university professor, a social activist, a mentor and a visionary television pioneer. In 1974, she joined the CBC, eventually becoming a producer/host of Take 30 and CBC Access. In 1983, Rita joined the University of Regina's School of Journalism and Communications leaving in 1988 to become one of the founders of the world's first multi-faith broadcaster, Vision TV. From 2002-05 she was Director of News and Current Affairs at APTN, mentoring her Aboriginal successor.

Deverell has helped to advance the careers of visible minorities and Aboriginal people and is credited with influencing positively the portrayal of women onscreen. She was named to Maclean's Honour Roll of Outstanding Canadians, was the recipient of the Canadian Black Achievement Award, the Media Watch's Dodi Robb Award, was inducted into the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame, and in 2005 was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.

The Centre for Creative Communications is Canada's premiere school for Communications, Media and Design and offers forward-thinking and hands-on programs in Art + Design, Advertising + Public Relations, Integrated Media and Journalism + Publishing.

Media Contact: Paul Koidis, Manager, Communications, Marketing and Development pkoidis@centennialcollege.ca / 416.289.5000 ext. 8609

McNally Robinson Books
Rita Shelton Deverell with Femfest (Reading)
Thursday Oct 02 2008 7:00 pm, Winnipeg, Polo Park location, in the Events Alcove

Deverell will read from her plays McCarthy and the Old Woman and Smoked Glass Ceiling, as well as her essay Power Wrinkles. Deverell is a playwright, performer and filmmaker. On October 4th at 3pm, Deverell will present her docu-drama Not A Drop at Femfest. It follows a University class in Diversity Journalism from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to Aboriginal communities in Canada where there are severe water problems. Deverell's innovative journalism helped found Vision TV and brought her success as a television host and network executive. Deverell appears through the assistance of the Playwrights' Guild of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts.


Rita Shelton Deverell C.M., Ed.D. Rita's career in journalism has been one of pioneering innovation and creativity. With an unceasing drive for social justice, she is one of the first Black women in Canada to be a television host and a network executive. A founder of Vision TV, the world's first multi-faith network, she held several senior positions there as well as the network anchor job. From 2002 until 2005 she was head of News and Current Affairs at the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network mentoring her Aboriginal successor. In 2002 she was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame and in 2005 Deverell was appointed to the Order of Canada. In 2007 she became the first CanWest Global Fellow at the University of Western Ontario. In 2005 Rita was determined to return to her first profession, drama. She has written and performed two one-woman plays, Smoked Glass Ceiling (2005) and McCarthy and the Old Woman (2006). In 2007-08 her 6-part series of solo television dramas, Solo Flight, went to air on OMNI, SCN, and APTN. She is currently working on a television docu-drama, Not a Drop, is a member of the Playwright's Unit of Obsidian Theatre, and is developing a 2-act version of McCarthy and the Old Woman with the assistance of Nightwood Theatre.

FEMFEST runs September 26th to October 5th. Events take place at the Colin Jackson Studio Theatre, Prairie Theatre Exhange, 3rd Floor Portage Place Mall. For tickets and information contact Sarasvati Productions at 204.586.2236 | WWW.SARASVATI.CA.

Events with Rita Shelton Deverell:

3pm (TV Docu-Drama) Not a Drop Produced for OMNI/Rogers by Rita Shelton Deverell

4pm (Workshop) Low Budget Shorts facilitated by Rita Shelton Deverell, Presented by Film Training Manitoba

Rita on CBC TV's Test the Nation!!!

Sunday, September 7 is the official broadcast date for Test the Nation: Canada, eh?! Tune in from 8-10pm anywhere in Canada to CBC Television!

The website will go LIVE on Thursday, August 7 so invite your family and friends to take a practice test before the show. http://www.cbc.ca/testthenation

RITA AT THE 2008 WINNIPEG FRINGE


Big Ease, Big Sleaze: Six Characters in Search of Disaster makes its world debut at Winnipeg's Fringe
Winnipeg, July 2, 2008


Remember the images of Hurricane Katrina? Remember being a helpless witness to that massive loss of life, watching the unbelievable official indifference to the destruction of' families, homes, whole communities? What if you could revisit those traumatic days in 2005? What if you could lend a hand now and change the experience for some of the victims? Would you do it in the Big Easy? Or some of the world’s other trouble spots?

Big Ease, Big Sleaze is the story of six zany characters, one of them Canadian, who chose to do just that. They are ordinary people whose humour and heroism will move you beyond cynicism to laughter, to tears, and hope.

Rita Deverell is the creator of two previous Winnipeg Fringe Festival Hits: Smoked Glass Ceiling (2005) and McCarthy and the Old Woman (2006) She also appeared as a compelling witch in Rex Deverell's standing room only production of Wild Magic (2007).

When Katrina hit New Orleans, Rita Deverell was News Director at Winnipeg's Aboriginal People's Television Network.” As s black woman from the South, I suffered nightmares from the endless photos of Katrina’s dead. And my Aboriginal colleagues convinced me that the same death and destruction could be, and is, visited on them. Big Ease, Big Sleaze was born in my soul in those post-Katrina days.”

This is the second Deverell play directed by noted Winnipegger Cairn Moore, known for her work with Prairie Theatre Exchange and the University of Winnipeg.
Big Ease, Big Sleaze, Rita’s third one-woman show, is at the Exchange Community Church.

Media Contacts: lesleyhughescanada@yahoo.com or at 204-275-5757
Rita Shelton Deverell, 416-434-0758; http://deverellblogspot.com/ -- in Winnipeg from July 14.

RJ Deverell Productions

See a great page on Diversity in Canada (including a short article by Rita about mentoring tips. )
Go to at www.diversipro.com and DiversiPro Coach April 2008.pdf

Saturday, April 12, 08


The RJ Deverell Productions Blog Site
Rita Shelton Deverell & Rex Deverell
About RJ Deverell Productions.
RJ Deverell Productions is a company dedicated to the creation of thought provoking drama and documentaries. Rita and Rex Deverell are creative artists in theatre and in electronic media. Rex Deverell is a director, actor, and award winning playwright. Rita is a noted television host-producer and performer. She has written several one person theatre pieces which she has presented in fringe festivals across Canada.


Here is an invitation from Phil Aken, Artistic Director of Obsidian Theatre re the Mussorgsky Project 2 (in which Rita participates.)
"This is an great evening of new short plays that have been created by the Obsidian Playwright's Unit and I couldn't be prouder of all their hard work and delightful characters that they have created. Each piece is approximately 20 minutes long and they cover a wide range of subjects and ideas. The playwrights for this year are: Rita Deverell, Leah Simone Bowen, Rosemarie Stewart and Rachael-Lea Rickards.
The M-Project takes off on May 8th, 8pm at the Factory Theatre {Studio Theatre} 125 Bathurst Str {Corner of Adelaide and Bathurst}. This is a Pay What You Can event and it would be great to see you all there."
The Mussorgsky Project 2 is in association with Factory Theatre and the National CrossCurrents Festival 2008.

Rita's Concordia lecture about diversity and the air waves can be read via the following link:
http://www.leadership.tv/Diversity-April08.html