Douglas Beattie

History

Douglas Beattie became an independent producer and director in 1979. His association with Dan Needles goes back to childhood summers spent on the farm. In addition to heading the Wingfield team, Doug has been guest director at the Stratford Festival, the Belfry Theatre, Victoria, Lighthouse Festival, Port Dover ON, Theatre Orangeville, the Blyth Festival, the Piggery Theatre, North Hatley PQ, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Gryphon Theatre, Barrie ON, and the Grand Theatre, London ON (The Perils of Persephone). He was consultant to Primedia's television production of Letter From Wingfield Farm which won the 1991 "Gemini" Award for best performing arts program and is co-executive producer of the Wingfield TV series. He is also founding Artistic Director of Touchmark Theatre in Guelph ON, and President of Douglas Beattie Theatrical Productions Ltd. which markets the audio and video recordings of the Wingfield plays.

Profile

Movies

Wingfield Lost and Found

Director

In the midst of a record drought wells on the Seventh Line are drying up. A search to locate a new well on Wingfield Farm ensues, but distractions abound: a high-tech cattle drive, a battle with yellow jackets, a feud with a red-tailed hawk, an eccentric line-up of water witches and a well driller who is only too happy to perforate the ground at forty dollars a foot. Is it the end of farming for Walt and Maggie, or can the precious liquid be found?

Wingfield's Inferno

Director

A devastating fire at the Orange Hall in Larkpur leaves it a smouldering ruin. Walt Wingfield leads the charge to get it rebuilt, but lighting a fire under his fellow committee members proves a daunting task. Is it courage they lack, or is the devil in the details?

Wingfield On Ice

Director

As the first frosts come to Persephone Township Walt and Maggie Wingfield are all set to welcome new life to the farm. She's expecting, and he's nesting. But Walt is alarmed about the old feuds that divide the neighbours and disturb the tranquillity of the community. His attempts to mend other people's fences meet with a resistance as stiff and cold as the weather itself. And the biggest challenge to them all is looming on the horizon.

Wingfield Unbound

Director

In his fourth season on the farm (and his first as a married man) Walt Wingfield tries to preserve the memory of the old rural community of Persephone Township by promoting the crumbling Hollyhock Mill as a museum site. But the locals say the mill is haunted. Undaunted by such superstitious fears, Walt sets out to prove to the neighbours that there's nothing to this curse business - with near disastrous results.

Wingfield's Folly

Director

In his third year on the farm, after two profit-free seasons, Walt finally pinpoints the economic source of his problems and embarks on a course which brings him to his most profound crisis to date. In this sequel to Letter From Wingfield Farm and Wingfield's Progress Walt sets up a closed economy with his neighbours, prints his own currency and falls in love.

Wingfield's Progress

Director

In his second season on the farm Walt faces a new challenge. The spectre of urban development looms on the Seventh Concession and Walt sounds the alarm. Can he mobilize the neighbourhood to save the rustic splendour of Larkspur? Does Larkspur want to be saved? Wingfield’s Progress is the story of Walt’s passionate response to a threat only he perceives. Larkspur and its residents are back at their hilarious best in this sequel to Letter From Wingfield Farm.

Letter from Wingfield Farm

Director

When a captain of industry trades his pinstripe suit for overalls and retreats to a hundred acre farm, the residents of Persephone Township raise their eyebrows. Weekend farmers are a common enough sight, but this man seems to think he can make a living with a broken down racehorse and a single furrow plough. Letter From Wingfield Farm is the story of one man's attempt to embrace a less complicated world. In a series of letters to the editor of the Larkspur weekly newspaper, Walt Wingfield tells of the people and events of his first year as a man of the soil.