Luminato walks away from Toronto theatre
In 2011, Luminato had multiple local shows including Necessary Angel's Tout Comme Elle, pictured above, which had a cast of 50 Toronto theatre artists.
by Michael Wheeler
Welcome to the re-vamped praxistheatre.com. It was almost four years ago that I wrote my first major post for Praxis. It was titled Lumi-not-go and was a response to the festival not being responsive to what the needs of the artistic community needed when it invented itself one fine morning. It was followed up by a critique that looked at how else the money used to create the festival could be spent titled, How Luminato Failed Toronto. Yes, I have been ripping off Mike Daisey for that long.
A lot has happened in this space and my involvement with Luminato since that time. I ended up working over three years at different times as Artistic Producer in Training, Online Coordinator and Assistant Director on Volcano Theatre’s The Africa Trilogy, which was likely Luminato’s most successful locally created work. The festival put real money over an extended period of time into a piece of theatre that combined international calibre directors and playwrights with local actors and designers in a massive experiment that was the hit of the festival. I blogged the heck out of it on praxistheatre.com.
The whole thing went so well that last year Luminato invited me back to do a seminar for staff on effective cultural blogging, especially in support of the multiple local shows in the festival. It was a feel-good story about how a critique can lead to the incorporation of real change. It felt like Luminato had listened to the community that it was supposed to foster and be a part of.
All of that seems to have gone out the window with Wednesday’s announcement that Luminato would have zero local content in the theatre, dance and opera department in 2012. It’s like they completely forgot that they live in and are part of a community (again). Until major organizations recognize they are part of a larger ecosystem and have a role to play, we’re probably doomed to mediocrity. Do they not see renting talent instead of growing it is an unwise investment?
When The Playhouse closes in Vancouver, the silver lining that no one wants to talk about is those public funds that support it can go back into the pot at least. When Luminato operates this way – which I’m sure the Heritage Minister will cite later as increased funding – we lose twice. No opportunity – and less access to investment to do it ourselves.
Just like The Africa Trilogy, Theatre Smith-Gilmour's Lu Xun Blossoms (2011) contained local and international artists.
The other big losers are Torontonians. High-end theatrical performances tend to be quite expensive, so you better have some cash if they want to see Robert Wilson and Philip Glass re-live past glory. Meanwhile the local talent that exists here the other 355 days of the year will be no better off than before. Paying top dollar for high-end touring acts does not make you a world class city, don’t let a free concert or two fool you. What does it say to the world that we don’t even care to promote or present our own theatre? It does not scream sophistication.
Luminato has a new Artistic Director this year, Jorn Weisbrodt. Much of what we’re seeing is not his choosing, although it will be his job to stand behind it. His quote on the homepage of the Luminato website seems to indicate that programming work from Toronto is something he sees as part of his mandate:
“Luminato is Toronto’s fifth season when the festival stages the best of our city and invites the world to celebrate and transform it with us.” (Emphasis added)
My question for him is quite simple: Where from Toronto stages is “best of our city” at Luminato in 2012? The question for us is: How do we reach him so he will seriously consider the role of Luminato in the context of the community and cultural ecosystem the organization exists in?
It’s time to start the business of investing in local talent and actually making Toronto a hotbed of groundbreaking works 365 days a year. This is going to be messy, confusing, non-linear, and wholly worth it if key players would show the leadership to make it happen.
*The updated and upgraded praxistheatre.com is brought to you by the incomparable Graham F Scott. Thanks Graham. You Rock.
I wanted to really like Luminato, because I’ve had such personal great experience with it early on. But this is very disappointing news indeed. I thought the *point* of the festival was to celebrate what our locale has to offer up in terms of the arts, when artists are so easily overlooked the rest of the year. Why do alreadly-established foreign artists take precedent here? We have more than enough talent right in our own backyard; I saw it night after night with mouth and eyes wide, watching my fellow performers dazzle a sold-out venue full of smiling, awe-struck faces. I always wondered why they wouldn’t consider bringing our installment back, and now I know the answer is not that the money isn’t there, but that they are unwilling to spend it to honour hardworking Toronto artists.
And I thought the point of the festival was to see those great international productions that are redefining world theatre and allowing them to mix with locally created work. You may not see La Belle et La Bette or Einstein on the Beach as important work, but I do and I’m excited to get a chance to see them.
I am sad that there isn’t any locally commissioned work this year but as a long-time advocate for the need to see what is influencing the international theatre community I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. And why is no one talking about the inclusion of the Lepage work? Luminato has been a major partner in the commissioning of his last couple of large-scale works. Doesn’t that count for something?
I remember Michael and I having this same debate 4 years ago. For all we know, there are local projects in the works but nothing solidified for this year. Or maybe this was a product of the gap between ADs. What I do know is that thanks to the team at World Stage (who have to be given major props for their programming) and Luminato, I’ve been able to see many things in the last 5 years that I would have had to travel elsewhere to see in the past. I’m grateful for that.
I have a lot to say about this. To me this is a complex situation. The formula to get a festival like Luminato takes some tinkering to be sure. In my opinion Luminato should present local work, after all Toronto is part of the world. However, it’s not about simply buying a show from a local company and staging it. That is box ticking. This creates a further divide for the public I know this too well. Luminato is a different platform. Ask the local artist to solve one of your problems-activation of a site, a desire to really engage with a specific community, etc, and most importantly ask if the work is going to increase the overall capacity of the artist/company in perpetuity. To me Luminato should be instigating local work not just being a granting body to local artists. Local artists also need to think about making work that expands to meet the needs of a city wide festival.
I have a lot to say about this. To me this is a complex situation. The formula to get a festival like Luminato takes some tinkering to be sure. In my opinion Luminato should present local work, after all Toronto is part of the world. However, it’s not about simply buying a show from a local company and staging it. That is box ticking. This creates a further divide for the public I know this too well. Luminato is a different platform. Ask the local artist to solve one of your problems-activation of a site, a desire to really engage with a specific community, etc, and most importantly ask if the work is going to increase the overall capacity of the artist/company in perpetuity. To me Luminato should be instigating local work not just being a granting body to local artists. Local artists also need to think about making work that expands to meet the needs of a city wide festival.
Oh wow, it took a lot of patience for me to wait until lunch to respond to these great comments.
MK you are right – we did debate this four years ago and I am more adamant than ever that Luminato has a obligation to support and foster artists in the city that hosts their festival. Here’s some more context that didn’t exist then. JUST THIS WEEK, Vancouver lost a major regional theatre, Canadian theatre lost it’s biggest single prize, and Toronto’s biggest festival has now announced it will contain no local artists on the stage.
All of the resources Canadian theatre relies on and functions with are literally evaporating before our eyes. If we do not speak up, now, and loudly, it will all be gone. I’m glad you bring up Lepage who is my favourite Canadian director and whom I enjoyed In Toronto In 09, 10, and 11. The latest iteration as a for-profit exercise with The Mirvishes. I argue that local artists are the baby that is being thrown out with the bathwater so we can see him again in 12. Lepage can create these shows because of the generous and significant support he has received from the Quebec government. The Luminato strategy is going to lead to none of our own Lepages.
Tina, thanks for your comments too. Can you expand upon what artists can do to meet the needs of a city-wide festival. Guidance would be pretty useful.
Mina, thanks for your response. Certainly there can be a mix of local and intentional talent in a festival that stages “stages the best of our city and invites the world to celebrate and transform it with us”.
Dear Mr. Wheeler,
First off, thank you for your blog and your ongoing advocacy of Toronto’s vibrant theatre scene. While we understand where your concerns come from, I would like to respond to a few points outlined in your latest posting regarding the Luminato Festival.
Luminato is not strictly a theatre festival. It is a festival of creativity that presents a spectrum of events across music, dance, theatre, film, literature, magic, food, and visual arts – and more over, celebrating when those disciplines collide in interesting new expressions. During any given festival the balance of programming may shift – a focus on dance one year, a focus on art installations another.
The last couple of years Luminato made a conscious push to spotlight Toronto theatre, leveraging the International Society of the Performing Arts congress in 2011 to promote new opportunities for local artists. In addition to the major investments made locally over our first six years, and the commissioning relationships yet to come, Luminato has also partnered with the Toronto Arts Council on the Incubate initiative for the past three years to provide seed funding for project ideas.
This year Luminato announce partnerships with the AGO, Royal Conservatory, TIFF, ROM, the Toronto Public Library, Diamond Schmitt Architects, the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, Magicana, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as local artists Dan Bergeron, Thomas + Guinevere, Blue Republic, Vincent Lam, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Richard Flohil, Linden MacIntyre, Kyo McLear, James Laxer, J.L. Granatstein, Stephen Clarkson, Michael Bliss, Jay Douglas, Abyssinian Roots, Kae Sun, K’NAAN, Royal Wood, Alejandra Ribera, Jayme Stone, Quique Escamilla, Telmary Diaz, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Kevin Fox, Kobo Town, Michelle Josef, Bruce Cockburn, Jane Siberry, Mary-Margaret O’Hara, and Kevin Drew. These Toronto artists and more will be a featured part of the festival program, alongside visiting national and international artists.
Luminato knows the work that it takes to develop significant new theatrical piece. We continue to build the relationships around nurturing projects through development, and that sometimes takes many years. Jorn Weisbrodt, Luminato’s new Artistic Director, is actively engaging with local artists in the development process of new work for seasons to come.
Luminato doesn’t believe in the distinction between high art and low art. Luminato believes in good art, and we believe in making sure it is accessible. The majority of our programming is free, and for our ticketed events Luminato ensures a wide range of ticket prices (you can in fact see Einstein on the Beach for $25), provides tickets to local community organizations, and has a community rush ticketing program for most events – trying to ensure that every seat is filled.
Luminato continues to play an important role in the ecology of this healthy local artistic community. We look forward to joining audiences and artists at another exciting festival this June.
Sincerely,
Brad Lepp
Associate Director, Corporate Communications
Hi Brad,
Thanks for taking the time to leave such a lengthy comment. I don’t expect you to get into some sort of flame war here with me, but I would like to take the time to address a few of your points.
Great news that Einstein on the Beach tickets can be as low as $25. I couldn’t find info on your website about this currently, but we will be sure to spread the word in this space about cheap tickets to see a groundbreaking work by Wilson and Glass.
I am quite familiar with the Incubate program as Praxis has received one of those grants. It was quite helpful, and we appreciated it. It was one of several revenue streams we used to fund a 1-week with workshop with five performers. But the amounts of money we are taking about, compared with Luminato’s operating budget are not even remotely comparable. It’s a nice gesture, but if Luminato feels that this has fulfilled its role in the ecology, we have a long way to go.
Your list of non-theatre Canadian artists this year is quite impressive. Would you be able to respond with a list of the works Luminato has helped them create? The word “partnerships” seems quite broad to me. It would be great to know which ones are creating art because of Luminato and which ones are sitting on panels or presenting work that had already been made.
Looking forward to the partnerships that Mr. Weisbrodt will make in the future to ensure our collective success.
Best Regards,
Michael
Via a friend on Twitter: there is one local presentation on the stage at Luminato, that is not on the press release:
The Laura Secord Opera is with the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus which includes students from First Nations School of Toronto and a Toronto-based librettist.
Hi Michael. Thank you for inviting me to further participate in this exciting and important discussion.
Let me first say that I missed a word in my previous post that I think is important. What I meant to write was ‘The formula to get a festival like Luminato RIGHT takes some tinkering to be sure.’ Now, that said, let’s first acknowledge that Luminato has programmed local work in the past. Let’s also acknowledge that this year we are in Artistic Director transition and that seeding commissions and local work takes time and specific artistic producing resources talents and collaborations that I believe Luminato is looking to further develop. I have met with Jorn Weisbrodt and he has an exciting energy and a solid vision and I am sure that dialogue like the one you are engaging us in will only have a positive influence.
In order to programme local work one must have a knowledge of the local performance ecology and to be sure Jorn has his homework to do. Let me say that in my experience, programming a festival or a series is not easy. You have to consider both the retention of current audiences, balancing the needs and desires of your sponsors and donors as well as developing a strategy to acquire new audiences. We should all want that. And to be fair to the previous Artistic Director, I think that Chris Lorway was very sincere of his support of local companies and made a lot of effort to see a lot of work and meet with a lot of Toronto’s creators. Also I think its important the the work lead the audience and not the other way around.
But what I mean by local artists need to think about proposing and making work that meets the needs of a city wide arts festival is to first recognize what Luminato is. Luminato is a city wide arts festival. Like Mr. Leep says “it is a festival of creativity that presents a spectrum of events across music, dance, theatre, film, literature, magic, food and visual arts-and moreover, celebrates when those disciplines collide in interesting new expressions.” Many times artists pitch their work for their own needs and not the needs of the presenting platform that is inviting it to participate. I think that pressure to present local work for its own sake is a dangerous proposition. Like I said, Luminato is a different platform. If it were up to me I would be considering artists who are only interested in taking the opportunity to create and present work in Luminato that will increase their longterm capacity, those who are ready and able to participate in a discussion about work on the international stage, those who want to pitch work that they would not be able to do under normal creation circumstances and those who consider scale both conceptually and or physically to meet the city and the people who live in it.
If you are asking me, my advice to artists is this. Read again what the festival claims to be/wants to be and propose work that you think will help provide solutions in activating the city.
As an aside, I agree with you about you say about Robert Lepage. Many many not remember but for many years World Stage premiered a lot of Robert’s english language work- The 7 streams of the river Ota, Geometry of Miracles, Far Side of the Moon but it was clear that his work was growing bigger than our stages and it was time for Robert to expand his playground and for World Stage to bring other artists up through the ranks of international presentation. It’s hard to see your anchor artists go to other presenters especially when you have invested in the creation and development of their work but we can’t own artists nor limit their potential audience you just hope that they remember you in their journey. And I believe they remember you when you love them and let them go with an encyclopedia of recipricol learnings.
MK, I’m going to drive with you down to NOTL to meet with Michael and we are going to have lunch to discuss this 4 year long debate.
Hi Tina,
I’d like to take exception with one thing you say in an otherwise wonderfully thoughtful comment: “Many times artists pitch their work for their own needs and not the needs of the presenting platform that is inviting it to participate.” I believe this is EXACTLY what artists must do. When an artist begins to make work to fit the criteria of a festival (or of any external funder or presenter), rather than to serve and explore their own imagination, we are all in trouble. It is the cart leading the horse. As a producer and theatre-maker, i am familiar with having to bend my narratives to fit the funding criteria of various grant-givers in both the private and public sectors – but I always hope that presenters – Luminato being no exception – see exactly what I’m doing, and program THAT. What i hope i never do is make work to please a funder or a presenter. Rather, what i hope to do is make work that i believe addresses some pressing need in the world i see around me. If that work is successful – then i hope it garners support. Of course, festivals have themes, and can themselves address issues in vibrant and exciting ways, and if the art i make happens to line up with that conversation – or (and perhaps this was your intention) is INSPIRED by that conversation, then wonderful! But i worry about criteria. I worry about too many strings being attached. I worry about artists following rather than leading. As artists, we need to think about what the art is for, what the conversation is, and not about a festival or funder’s needs. With The Africa Trilogy, this is exactly what happened, and so i think Luminato got it right then – and all parties (audiences especially) benefitted. So – it’s possible. And when it does work, when the artist and the festival line up behind a conversation that is essential for our time and place, then – as you so rightly point out – long term capacity is increased. Not just the organizational capacity of the arts company involved, but the imaginative capacity of the artists. And THAT is what a big festival can do for a city’s artists – allow them to think beyond their normal boundaries. If anything, this means attaching fewer strings…
Hi Ross,
I just don’t think I was clear. I completely agree with you. I am not talking about criteria when I say meet the needs of the presenting platform. First of all anyone who works with me knows that they are not allowed to use the word theme around me. Seriously. And I did say that its important the the work lead the audience and not the other way around. To me its about the intention of the work. And I absolutely think Luminato got it right also with Africa Trilogy. (and others) Why? Because it was a work of grand vision. You had an international vision for the work. You had a desire to engage with a series of important and relevant issues that could speak to and engage many of the people who live in our city. You were not looking for a remount of Goodness, you wanted to do something that you needed a partner like Luminato to do, which has now subsequently changed the trajectory of your company. That is what I consider meeting the needs of the presenting platform. I hope that makes sense and further clarify what I meant. Keep up the good work. No strings attached. Respect.
Yup. Thanks, Tina!
To Brad Lepp.
Please read Brad Wheeler’s lips–no local Toronto companies engaged for this festival supposedly created to shine a light on the arts in this city. Pretty clear to me.
Lynn Slotkin
Lynn these are exciting times indeed
Lynn – thanks for the vote of support for the clarity of the question. Although I wish I was BRAD Wheeler. Praxis would be getting a lot more Globe and Mail coverage if that were the case.
Also wanted to link to Canadian Stage Artistic Director Matthew Jocelyn’s thoughts on the topic of the Canadian cultural ecology, newly available on the Toronto Star website. It is titled, Entire performing arts industry is to blame for the demise of the Vancouver Playhouse