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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council August 28, 2006 Page 7 owns. They hope maybe one day that can be part of the picture, creating an interlocking environment. Tom indicated that you don't get to see the face of directors behind the scenes, but Fred is one of the most renowned award winning theater directors in Cleveland. He works with Fairmount and they are pleased to have them here. Scott Lax is a novelist. He wrote the novel The Year That Trembled, which was made into a movie two years ago. Scott is also planning a writer's conference and writer's colloquium to be held here once we work things out. Scott indicated that this is a wonderful amazing facility with incredible potential. Writing fits in beautifully with theater and music and dance. He also wrote the play The Year That Trembled which was performed at University Schools, working with their entire Arts .Department. He has been a writer at University, Hawken and Western Reserve Academy and a vaxiety of other schools. The arts are very integrated, usually young people interested. That is a golden opportunity you would have here. With regard to the writer's conference Tom talked about, we hope to start in 2007 with the writer's symposium with not only some of the top writing talent in Northeastern Ohio, people you would be very well aware of who have done wonderful things, but also world-class writers. For example, he has the commitment to be head of the non-fiction department at the writer's conference when it comes to be from Ron Powers, a close friend of his. Ron co-wrote Flags of our Fathers which is going to be made into a movie by Spielberg and Clint Eastwood, the story of the World War II Iwo Jima Flagraisers. Ron also wrote Mark Twain a Life, a bestseller that is out now. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner, an Emmy winner and an amazing man who was head of the writer's conference non-fiction department. That is the top writer's conference in the world. They believe that with the talent they have access to nationally and locally they can have aworld-class writer's conference that could help to feed the theater department and help to bring this wonderful talent, education and so forth to your area. We are also in discussion with Fred Willard to do an improv summer workshop for us and one of the things that differentiates Fairmount is that they are committed to working with professionals who are actually working. It is making a huge difference in the enrollment and it will make a huge difference here when the robust program we are talking about starts to develop. All of this depends upon a robust facility that actually can serve the needs of all of this activity and also serve the needs of the community. These guys have nailed it. Tom indicated that Shirley Kolenic is the only person that matters. She is the Administrative Director of Fairmount. She keeps everything rolling. You will see a lot of her as we become more family and move forward. Mr. Buckholtz asked for comments from Council. Mr. Buckholtz stated that he thinks this is a remarkable job. He met with them way back in the beginning. Westlake, Reed helped envision how this can work. Mr. Buckholtz asked Tom if the amount of seats for some of the programs they are talking about is workable. Tom indicated that it was. You can use more, but 210-220 is fine. Angela added that they will be using seating that the Village has already purchased. In order to stagger seats, the size varies from 19-22". It is unknown now what the existing seating is. As they go forward with the project they will measure and inventory those