Cash-strapped Sears Canada has pulled funding for an annual theatre festival that involves thousands of high school students in Ontario, B.C. Known as the Sears Drama Festival, the program's alumni include famous actors Keanu Reeves, Rachel McAdams and R.H. Thomson. "There was no doubt once the Sears Festival said, 'You've got something special and go for it,'" he says. 'I could cry'"We're pretty devastated, basically, for the kids and the future," says Wayne Fairhead, executive director of the Sears Drama Festival. "If it was not for the Sears Ontario Drama Festival I wouldn't be where I am today," wrote Toronto stagehand Justin Antheunis.

Source: CBC News August 29, 2017 09:00 UTC