Comments on: Other things going on in theatre and on the interweb

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:15:03 +0000

Done. Anyone else have a blog at least tangentially related to theatre?

Renna – No worries!

By: Jessica Ruano

Jessica Ruano — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:48:54 +0000

I’ve just read Ric Knowles’ book that discusses means of production. It’s nice to see the term being used in context!

By the way, you should put me on your blog list 😉

By: Renna

Renna — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:35:23 +0000

Thanks for the Next Stage link!

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:48:52 +0000

Cool. Yeah, it’s tough.
For 2 years my rent job was managing a rehearsal space and the fact is you can get like $50 + an hour for a decent clean studio in downtown Toronto for the hours between 6-10pm so it’s hard to offer rental companies who are rehearsing in the day the exclusive access you need to rehearse that way. Unless they want to pay an extra grand a week. Because Progress Lab is run by a number of companies sharing resources they cut out the middle man and thus cut out being priced out.
This is the part where I should write about the importance of possessing the “means of production”. It’s a good double entendre as we are also rehearsing productions.

By: Jessica Ruano

Jessica Ruano — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:15:55 +0000

Hi Michael. Come to think of it, I’d like to take back my last comment. I think Progress Lab has much more value as a rehearsal space by itself. It occurs to me that we have a few (but certainly not enough) spaces to rehearse here in Ottawa, but the main problem is these spaces are also used for performance. And it is unlikely that an independent company would be able to experiment with high level tech in that space if it is being used for a performance that same evening or a university class the next day. So they just don’t.
It would be ideal for Ottawa if we had a similar warehouse space that could be used for design and tech, ideally with little studio spaces attached to the rehearsal space. As far as I know, we don’t have anything suitable in a central location, though I do believe the Nepean Arts Centre has something similar to what I describe. I envy that warehouse – the Centre for Digital Media – that was used for HIVE in Vancouver. Too cool for words.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:40:30 +0000

Hey Jessica. I think we just missed each other there this winter doing different things with The Electric Company. Although the studio @ Progress Lab could be a great performance space (that was the first thing I thought when I saw it), it has incredible value as a rehearsal space that is big and high enough to rehearse anything with some tech. It really opens up the possibilities in terms of what you can rehearse and experiment with before you move into a theatre. We actually don’t have anything quite like it that indie companies have access to in Toronto. Is there anything like it for indie companies in Ottawa?

By: Jessica Ruano

Jessica Ruano — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:51:18 +0000

Hey Praxis, Thanks for the link! The Progress Lab has the potential to be an amazing performance space.