by Douglas Beattie

On January 14, 2010, Walt Wingfield passed another milestone in his remarkable career. The opening night performance of Wingfield Lost and Found at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton was Rod Beattie's 4,000th performance of a Wingfield play in a little over twenty-five years.

From the Orange Hall in Rosemont, Ontario, (August, 1984) to Edmonton (January, 2010), with opening nights in 1985 (Letter From Wingfield Farm), in 1987 (Wingfield's Progress), in 1990 (Wingfield's Folly), in 1997 (Wingfield Unbound), in 2001 (Wingfield On Ice), in 2005 (Wingfield's Inferno) and in 2009 (Wingfield Lost and Found), Walt and Rod have delighted capacity audiences across Canada in most major regional theatres, including Victoria's Belfry, the Vancouver Playhouse, Edmonton's Citadel, Theatre Calgary, the Globe in Regina, the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, the Grand in London, the Stratford Festival, Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, the Royal Alexandra Theatre and Canadian Stage Company in Toronto, Theatre New Brunswick and the Neptune in Halifax, as well as hundreds of smaller venues. They've also taken part in seasons at Cincinnati's Playhouse in the Park and the Asolo Theater in Sarasota, Florida.

The first three Wingfield plays were broadcast on CBC Radio's Morningside; a TV version of Letter From Wingfield Farm (produced by Primedia Productions) won the 1991 "Gemini" (Canadian TV) Award for Best Performing Arts Program; and in November, 1998, a series of thirty half-hour TV episodes, entitled Wingfield, produced by Norflicks Productions, made its CBC debut. The series currently airs on Bravo! Canada. Rod Beattie has won three best actor awards for his stage performances in the Wingfield plays: The "Sterling" in 1988 (Edmonton, Alberta), the "Dora" in 1992 (Toronto) and the "Critic's Award" in 1995 (Sarasota).