UTSC Professor Paula Sperdakos, who spearheaded the establishment of the Leigha Lee Browne Theatre on campus, recalls the informal meeting in which — much to her own surprise — she secured substantial for the theatre.
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0:05
And also when I got here in 1990, there was a, a project that was called Scarborough Hall and Scarborough Hall was gonna be somewhere on this campus.
0:18
And it was going to be an arts-sort of facility. It was going to have a theater and studio space and so on. So, anyway, it fell through.
0:27
But some money had been raised for it. And so, Drama as we then were, got it. Wasn’t enough.
0:38
And this is one of my favourite stories. I told this story at my retirement reception, but our principal at that time was Paul Thompson, the Principal of Scarborough College.
0:55
And just to give you an, a sense of what the college was like in those days, I went to a conference in Charlottetown.
1:08
It was the, what was called the Learned Societies Conference. It’s the Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities,
1:17
but it was called the Learneds then. And I was in the same hotel, just off campus where the conference was being held, with the Principal, Paul Thompson, so, we met at breakfast.
1:31
And he said, “How are things going in Drama, Paula?” And I said, “Oh, you know they’re going okay, Paul, thanks for asking.”
1:43
And he said, “Well, what about the theater? You know, what about the new theater?” And I said, “Well, you know,
1:50
I’m afraid we’re stalled. I mean, we’ve got $400,000, which we got from, from Scarborough Hall. But it’s not enough.”
2:00
And he said, “Oh, that’s too bad. So, what would be enough, do you think?” And I nearly swallowed my tongue. I mean, I said (vocalizing) “I don’t know! I don’t know, Paul.”
2:12
And he said, “Well, Paula, do you think a million dollars would be enough?” And I said (vocalizes) “I think so. I think that would be fine.”
2:24
And he said, “I’ll see what I can do.” And he did. And he did. And we got, we got professional theater architects, and we got the Leigha Lee Browne Theater, which opened in ’94, I think.
2:42
This conversation was in ’92. But it’s just, it’s just to tell you what the campus was like, that you would meet the Principal at, you know, breakfast, and he’d say, “I’ll see what I can do.”
2:56
And boom! It happened.
