Tapestry Pictures, reborn a year and a half ago with the addition of Heather Godin, is expanding its focus on MOWs and miniseries and heading into the world of performing arts, documentary and feature film.

"With CBC's new vertical programming structure and its Thursday night performing arts strand, we've been in supply talks with them to develop the strand," says Tapestry co-principal Mary Young Leckie.

The company recently made its foray into performing arts with the Canada/U.K. coproduction of By Jeeves, shot at CBC's Studio 41 and distributed by Universal.

Really Useful Films is the coproduction partner on the $3-million project, which wrapped in early April. Andrew Lloyd Webber provided the music for a stellar cast of international performers. "It was a quick leg-up into performing arts," says Young Leckie.

To continue its entry into the performing arts world, Tapestry is in discussions with the Canadian Stage about its 2002 season, from which it is interested in bringing the following plays to TV: Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman; Tilsenberg by Malachy Mckee, an Irish actor/playwright; and Steve Martin's Picasso.

"We want to do what Norman Campbell did for the CBC in the '60s and '70s," says Young Leckie, whose intention is to shoot the plays using the same directors and performers.

On the doc front, Tapestry is developing a handful of projects with Martin Harbury of Bar Harbour Films, including a doc he made on the making of By Jeeves, which will also be distributed by Universal.

Tapestry is piloting Gotta Dance, a documentary entertainment series for Life Network. Produced and directed by Hasmi Giakoumis, the project is described as a "sometimes serious and sometimes comical look at dancing."

Three different dance environments will be chronicled in a docusoap fashion, including a downtown Flamenco dance school, junior competitive dance and the world of amateur ballroom dancing - the meet-and-greet dance studios.

Tapestry will shoot the half-hour pilot in May, with hopes of it turning into a continuing half-hour series in the fall.

As for projects based on real life, Tapestry is in development on Tagged: The Jonathan Womback Story, a CTV Signature Presentation drama.

Written by Elizabeth Stewart (The Adventures of Shirley Holmes) and Michael Amo (Blessed Stranger), the MOW tells the true story of a young Newmarket, ON boy who was beaten up at school by a gang of peers and how, after suffering severe head injuries, he fought his way back.

The $3.8-million film, produced and exec produced by Young Leckie and Godin, goes to camera in July in Newmarket and Sudbury - a big change for Tapestry, which has been shooting mostly in Manitoba for the past five years.

The producers are in discussions with actor Kevin Zeger (Air Bud) to star.

Salter Street International is distributing.

Another real-life-inspired project in development is the series Sanctuary for the CBC.

Beginning as a one-hour pilot, the series is based on the book At the Border Called Hope, written by Mary Jo Leddi (Order of Canada).

The book, and likewise the series, chronicles the life of Leddi, whose church was forced to downsize and to shut down the convent where she had worked for 23 years. All of a sudden she's thrust onto the streets looking for a new place for herself, and ultimately lands at a refugee halfway house, where she devotes the rest of her life to helping refugees.

Budgeted at $4 million, adapted by Keith Leckie and produced by Young Leckie and Godin, the series, if greenlit, will go to camera in Toronto in June 2002.

"Because it's such an unusual show with such a distinctive central character, it's a big risk for distributors. It has to prove itself at home before anyone takes it out and invests a lot of money in it," says Young Leckie.

Sextant is considering distributing.

But, says Young Leckie, "I'm a strong believer that CBC should be able to distribute internationally. It makes a lot of sense, just as BBC Enterprises does, they are the best distributors for their programming around the world."

On the feature film front, Keith Leckie is adapting the book The Way of a Boy, by Ernest Hillen.

Entitled Small Mercies, the $14-million film, set in Java during WWII, tells the story of a family plucked from their tea plantation and imprisoned by the Japanese. The husband was sent to a labor camp and the mother and children were sent to a POW camp for more than two years. The story is told from the perspective of the son, Ernest, very much in the fashion of My Life as a Dog.

Dutch director Paula van de Oust (her first English-language project) will direct the film.

Canadian-born actors Jennifer Tilly (Bound) and Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction) are attached. Willeke von Amelrooy (Antonia's Line) is also set to star and the producers are in discussions with Sting.

J&M was distributing until the distrib was sold last fall, so the project is currently up for grabs.

It will shoot no earlier than fall 2001. "We're taking a wait and see for the strike and the new feature film policy," says Young Leckie.

Tapestry is also developing the feature The Seduction of Martin Cruz, written by Janis Cole and directed by Holly Dale (Dangerous Offender).

The $4-million film chronicles the tripartite seduction of hockey, pedophiles and the media, to whom Cruz turned in hopes of exorcising his demons.

Finally, playwright Lee McDougall is developing a $5-million original comedy for Tapestry. Toast is a story of a small Northern Ontario, lawn-chair-manufacturing town about to be taken over by a large industry interested in turning it into the Silicon Valley of the north.

Fun & fantasy in Ottawa

Funbag Animation of Ottawa continues to explore the world of fantasy with its newest underworld adventure series, King, a coproduction with Decode Entertainment and French partner Alphanim.