Praxis Theatre is currently on hiatus! Please find co-founders Aislinn Rose and Michael Wheeler at The Theatre Centre and SpiderWebShow, respectively.

Author: Michael Wheeler

Canada Prize Image

by Michael Wheeler

Last winter the Canadian cultural community was shocked to learn the only new cultural funding of the big “2009 stimulus budget” would be an international $25 million Nobel Prize of The Arts/ competitive arts festival with qualifying rounds where the grand winner in each category would perform at Luminato. Soon after, it was revealed that falsified documentation about who’d been consulted was used to pitch the prize to the government. (Exactly how did that process work?) At the same time voices in Quebec were becoming increasingly uncomfortable about the Toronto-centric Anglo bias to the project, and many other voices nationally in the cultural sector began speaking out against cutting domestic funding in tandem with creating a large international award. Soon after, the initiative was classified as “under review” and no one ever heard about it again.

Well guess what? It’s back.

Minister James Moore announced yesterday that The Canada Prizes will happen, are no longer connected to Luminato, and will be administered by The Canada Council. There is a five-member Advisory Panel that will do some super-fast, but extensive consultations with “key figures in the arts and culture sector” before advising the Minister on the best way to set the thing up by the end of the summer. For anyone unlucky enough to be considered “not-key”, you can contribute your thoughts through an online form available for just 17 days at this link on the Canadian Heritage Website.

It’s hard to have a single opinion about all this: In some ways putting this cash in the hands of The Canada Council is the best, smartest, depoliticized way to distribute arts funding. So fundamentally I’m not sure that the specifics of the award will be all that controversial as long as it is distributed by an arms-length jury. The crazy part about this whole process, and the media coverage of it so far, is the lack of attention to whether the prize is a good idea to begin with.

The stated goal in the Ministry’s press release is to “brand Canada as a centre of excellence”. Which is a good idea – except for one thing – after we’re branded as excellent, we will have to create things that are excellent. Things aren’t looking so hot on that end – between the policies of current Federal and Provincial governments and the economic crisis – actual monies for art going to artists is way down.  Farewell DFAIT, Trade Routes, PromArt, small magazines, endowments, and BC artists. Bonjour a huge amount of money to an artist at the top of his or her career and the administrative and production costs of a massive international ceremony.

So more than anything this just seems like putting the cart before the horse. We would like to be branded as excellent, we would like to be perceived as excellent, but we are going to reduce the funds that would lead to excellence. (We will however throw you a big party if you ever get there.) It is a common approach to Canadian cultural funding these days that is a lot like encrusting the tip of a melting iceberg with gold. It should also probably be noted that it creates an inverse relationship between the creation of art and “fancy galas“.

Since the majority-that-almost-was in 2008, the Conservative government has been looking for ways to appear pro-culture while not actually funding any of the art or artists that contributed to their unrealized ambitions. This prize fits firmly in this category of things that will allow the government to say that arts funding is “up” while continuing to decrease the amount that is actually allocated to culture, either directly through grants to artists or indirectly by subsidizing rehearsal, performance space, equipment, travel costs, etc.

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Ironically, when the Minister of Official Languages and Canadian Heritage re-announced the prize yesterday, he received extensive coverage in the media – for something seemingly unrelated: In a hockey-induced fit of pride over the weekend he’d twittered the Vancouver Canucks were “Canada’s team in the playoffs”, seemingly unaware that many Canadians consider Quebec a part of Canada. (And all of a sudden we got a glimpse of how they could just forget to put French in the opening ceremonies of a Canadian Olympic games.) In an article in today’s The Globe and Mail he remains unrepentant and stands by his tweet and seems unabashed by the notion that Tweets Have Consequences.

So here we are right back where we started eighteen months ago, except everyone’s a little more hurt and a little more bitter: Anglophone artists are increasingly starved for support, francophone artists are armed with multiple instances of the government trying to exclude Quebec from the definition of Canadian culture, and a hostile government is inventing new and interesting ways not to fund the ecosystem that creates Canadian culture in both official languages. I am going to be so relieved to talk about this era in the past-tense.

If you want to read THE OLD Canada Prizes outline – the one that no one wants to talk about anymore – click here. It seems only fair that interested citizens wishing to provide feedback to the government have (unredacted) access to the documents used to create and approve the initiative.

Harold THE 2010 HAROLD AWARDS!

WHERE: The El Mocambo (464 Spadina Avenue)
WHEN: Monday, May 3rd, doors @ 7:30 p.m.
WHY: Because it will be awesome!
TICKETS: $10 at the door
HOSTED BY: David Gale

Since 1994, The Harold Awards have come to represent the independent and hard-working spirit of Toronto’s vibrant theatre community. Since 1994, it has been a boisterous, mischievous, frequently intoxicated, hilarious celebration.

If you’ve never been, make this the year you break the seal. Attendees are not even supposed to mention the other awards show, so we won’t do it here, but let’s just say it’s nothing like it! Click the link to learn more about The Harold Awards and how they work.
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Independent Theatre Think Tank: Exploring agreement options outside of the CTA & ITA

WHERE: Theatre Passe Muraille
WHEN: Monday, May 17, doors @ 6:30 p.m.
WHY: Because it took 3 long years to get here.
HOSTED BY: CAEA Ontario Council Policy Advisory Group.
PANELISTS: Naomi Campbell, Michael Rubenfeld, and Rebecca Northan.

After voting to create a solution that encourages (as opposed to discourages), the creation of indie theatre in a 96-1 vote at the 2008 AGM in Toronto, and again in a 42-4 vote at the 2009 AGM in Montreal, this is the first tangible sign CAEA is finally taking the concerns of membership on this issue seriously. This will likely be the only opportunity for Equity members to contribute to what this new solution will look like.

The Ontario CPAG and members of the newly formed Independent Theatre Review Committee will be available to update the membership on this issue, who will be able to contribute their own ideas in a general think tank session. This is not intended as a beef session but rather as an opportunity for CAEA members to contribute new ideas as the committee begins its work on a new generation of independent theatre agreements.

Members should contemplate the following question:
“What do you want in an agreement that is outside of the CTA or ITA?”
Members should avoid ever complaining about Equity stopping or hindering them from creating their own work ever again if they don’t attend. Book your babysitter/night off now to avoid disappointment with your career and/or industry.

UPDATE:
This comment came in soon after posting.
Equity Clarification

April 28, 2010, by
Comment

This young thespian really hits his rhythm around the 2 minute mark.

Okay, I’m putting the coffee down, but mostly because I feel like replacing brass balls with a half eaten pretzel is a strong choice.

Press the blue and white thingy above to see a video that expands the metaphor to include Girl Guides.

April 21, 2010, by
Comment

Last year's unconference. Photo by Amanda Lynne Ballard.

Last year's Unconference was held at Canadian Stage. This year it's at Dancemakers. Photo by Amanda Lynne Ballard.

Last year Praxis covered how The Unconference Was Unbelievably Well Attended. Well it’s that un-time of year again, so dust off the part of your brain that lets you meet and communicate with new people and get down to Dancemakers this weekend.

This year Small Wooden Shoe presents the Unconference on Saturday April 24 @ Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation – and the rest of the 3rd floor of the Case Goods Warehouse. Hosted by Misha Glouberman. The webpage for the event is here. New this year: Create your own login to participate in online discussion groups during and after the conference. (Or don’t – it’s an unconference – no one is the boss of you!)

Registration and coffee starts at 9:15 am. The event starts at 10am (being early is great!) Lunch will be around 12:30/1 and it will be done by 6 with social time after. Pre-registration is $10 and can be done by calling 416-367-1800 or emailing bradley@dancemakers.org

April 19, 2010, by
1 comment

by Michael Wheeler

Two events of note this week where people will get together to talk about the confluence of the arts and the internet:

Effective Blogging

praxis spacing creative trust logos

  • Thursday April 22, 12pm to 2pm.
  • Alterna Savings Boardroom, at Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Avenue, 4th flr.
  • With Matt Blackett (Spacing Magazine) and Michael Wheeler (Praxis Theatre).
  • Deadline to register for this session is Tuesday April 20, 2010.

Yours truly and Matt Blackett, Editor of Spacing Magazine, will be speaking about blogs and blogging as part of the TAPA Trade Series presented in partnership with The Creative Trust. (First order of business: Lets start the gradual phase-out of the word “blog”.)

To register please contact Alexis Da Silva-Powell, TAPA’s Corporate Partnerships and Membership Associate at alexisdsp@tapa.ca OR Shana Hillman, Creative Trust’s Program Manager at shana@creativetrust.ca

Arts Journalism: Staying Critical in the Digital Age


Arts Journalism Speakers

  • Tuesday April 20, Presentation 6:30 p.m., Reception 8:00 p.m.
  • Innis Town Hall. 2 Sussex Ave. @ University of Toronto
  • Moderated by Bronwyn Drainie, Editor of the Literary Review of Canada. Featuring Kamal Al-Solaylee, Assistant Professor at Ryerson and former theatre critic at the Globe and Mail, Seamus O’Regan, co-host of CTV’s Canada AM and host of Arts & Minds and The O’Regan Files on Bravo!, and Globe and Mail columnist and feature writer Kate Taylor, currently on leave as the Atkinson Fellow for 2009-2010.
  • Presented by the Canadian Journalism Foundation, this forum looks at the cultural giants of the past to the celebrity culture of today and how arts criticism and literary journalism have changed. Mainstream media cutbacks and the proliferation of blogging means everyone is a critic. Can the web save arts journalism?

    Tickets are $5 – $15 and can be purchased here.

    April 16, 2010, by
    5 comments

    At 6:16:11 PM Counsellor Minnan Wong's motion to "torpedo" the billboard tax before the budget was passed failed miserably.

    At 6:16:11 PM on April 15 Counsellor Minnan-Wong's motion to "torpedo" the Billboard Tax being connected to arts funding failed miserably.

    by Michael Wheeler

    If you’re sipping your morning coffee it’s time to spike it with something, and if it’s closer to lunch crack something bubbly – because folks – rarely is there such a clear cut victory as this:

    Years of community-based consultations and organizing has resulted in exactly what Torontonians had called for by a 5-1 margin. The revenue from the new Billboard Tax will be dedicated to arts funding for the public sphere.

    There’s nothing else to say really. Tip of the hat to Devon Ostrom and the entire Beautifulcity Alliance for their work, intelligence and sticktoitiveness. There were some dark moments there.

    Next time someone tells you grassroots organizing doesn’t work – or the current generation of artists is politically apathetic – feel free to send them the link to this post.

    April 9, 2010, by
    1 comment

    BeautifulCity founder Devon Ostrom talks to Late Night in the Bedroom about the history of the billboard tax, the logic behind its implementation, and how some city councillors would like to hijack the revenue for other uses.

    by Michael Wheeler

    It’s all come down to the next week. As covered over the past few months on this website, it’s been a long haul for the BeautifulCity Alliance: after years of depositions, presentations, reports, and finally votes by City Council, we’ll have our answer when final approval is given to the city budget over April 15th and 16th.

    Here’s some of what’s at stake:

    • Whether the visual pollution created by billboards will be counteracted by arts funding for the public sphere, or whether a billboard tax becomes like parking tickets and stripper licenses a new revenue stream for the city’s tax base.
    • Whether or not the original intent of the tax as presented to Council, recommended by City Staff, and supported by Torontonians by a 5-1 margin in a recent EKOS poll is actually reflected in the budget.
    • Whether or not the city meets its Lastman-era commitment to move per-capita arts spending from $18 to $25. Vancouver spends $19 per capita, Montreal spends $32 and New York spends $54.
    • Whether or not Toronto City Hall is a place where a grassroots, decade-long groundswell of dedicated engagement to provide a long-term sustainable approach to improved public space and arts funding is possible. Do vested interests have the ability to hijack community-based initiatives to in order to lower their tax rates? Where does the real power lie at City Hall?

    Demonstrating support and momentum behind Budget Chief Shelly Carroll’s motion to dedicate the billboard revenue to the arts will determine the answer to these questions. Things are starting to heat up: The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and The National Post all recently ran pieces about this motion, and Mayoral candidates are showing a willingness to step into the fray. Councillor Carroll’s Facebook status indicates she will be relying on the Web 2.0 political class to demonstrate support for her stand:

    Caroll Facebook

    What can you do?

    Go to beautifulcity.ca and follow the simple to follow instructions to indicate to Councillors on the Executive Committee that they have your support to use the billboard tax for its intended purpose to enhance public spaces with art.

    Props to these Councillors and/or Mayoral Candidates who have already indicated their support:

    Councillor Shelley Carroll, Budget Chief
    Councillor Joe Pantalone, Mayoral Candidate
    George Smitherman, Mayoral Candidate
    Councillor Joe Mihevc
    Councillor Janet Davis
    Councillor Howard Moscoe
    Councillor Paula Fletcher

    (Just because they’re listed here it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be contacted and congratulated for their principled stance.)

    April 8, 2010, by
    Comment

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    Fuse Magazine, XPACE and Images Festival 2010 invite you to the after party for the Fuse sponsored Images screening of Kevin Everson’s Erie and the launch of Fuse Magazine’s Spring issue Bikes, Boats and Big Ideas.

    When: Thursday April 8, 2010. Doors Open: @ 8:30 pm — 1:00am
    Where: XPACE Cultural Centre, 58 Ossington Ave (at Queen)
    What else: Dance the night away to the beats of DJ DJ Tanner and DJ Triple-X
    Admission is free!

    THE SPRING ISSUE OF FUSE PRESENTS:

    • Jesse McKee and the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective’s Steve Loft, Candice Hopkins and Leanne L’Hirondelle in conversation about changing the artistic landscape in Canada and internationally
    • Janna Graham on the labour politics behind big European art spectacles
    • Amy Zion on Art courtesy of the Olympic Games
    • Artist Project by Reena Katz
    • Reflections on our Parliamentary Democracy by Michael Wheeler
    • Reviews by Glen Lowry, Bart Gazzola, Debra Antoncic, Portia Priegert and Chris Gehman

    IMAGES SCREENING OF KEVIN EVERSON’S ERIE:

    The images Kevin Everson has recorded and compiled in Erie operate within the realm of the ready-made, with nearly the entire film composed of a series of unedited single- takes with sync sound, presented back to back. Forsaking montage for the most part, Everson refuses to insert an editorial presence through the tropes of narration or text, and instead favours a linkage which pivots upon the only direct dialogue in the film, spoken by three workers from an undisclosed General Motors factory. While their conversation centres upon the fate of the company, a united demand for leadership doesn’t stop at the corporate offices in Detroit, but instead radiates far beyond to all levels of government and the public who are now implicated in the crisis.

    Click here for the Facebook Event Page

    April 2, 2010, by
    Comment

    Basically this invite from our HATCH 2010 brethren from The Room was funny and complex enough to be posted as is sans-Variation.

    Basically this party invite from our HATCH 2010 brethren theRoom was funny enough to be posted as is, sans-Variation.

    March 31, 2010, by
    2 comments

    TTC #3

    Laura Mennell plays the mysterious Mila Brook in The Electric Company's Tear The Curtain. Photo by Brian Johnson.

    by Michael Wheeler

    One of the unconventional things about this residency is that unlike a traditional curriculum that would begin with basic fundamentals and conclude with something grand and complicated, I am taking the best opportunities I can get when they are available. This approach led me to begin my training program by participating in the first half of a 3-week film shoot for The Electric Company’s newest production – Tear The Curtain, commissioned by The Arts Club Theatre Company to open at The Stanley Theatre in Vancouver in early September 2010.

    This meant my cross-Canada study of the relationship between direction and design in theatre began with a crash course in how to direct a film. It took me a couple of days on set, and a couple of reads of the integrated script (which overall is formatted as a film not theatre script), to fully appreciate the magnitude and ambition of what I had gotten myself into.

    The story operates on two levels: Plot-wise it is a film-noir styled story set in a semi-fictional Vancouver full of gangsters, tycoons, a secret cell of revolutionaries and double-crossing vixens. Fundamentally it is a narrative that will entertain.  Thematically, it attempts something very complex and intricate by centring the plot around an embittered theatre critic in an era where film is becoming the dominant medium. The lead character is both fighting this shift, in part to keep his livelihood, and searching for the reason he was so enamoured with theatre to begin with.

    Jonathon Young plays critic Alex Braithewaite

    Jonathon Young plays critic Alex Braithewaite. Photo by Brian Johnson.

    This is not just an intellectual existential problem for the lead character to be considered by an audience. The show is a combination of both mediums. The Stanley Theatre – where the show will premiere – was once a movie theatre that has been transformed into a theatre theatre. All of the filmed sequences have been shot with in the Stanley Theatre and many of the shots are from the audience’s POV of the stage – or acknowledge in some way when that they were shot in the same room where the audience will experience the performance. Experientially – the line between film and theatre as mediums will be blurred as the same actors from the filmed portions will also tell the story through live scenes.

    Still with me?  Also, all of this was happening in the heart of Vancouver in the middle of the Olympics. Not too many of the huge crew of people that were working three weeks of consecutive 12hr days seemed all that aware of snowboard cross, curling or the luge – even though the Olympic village was around the corner.  We had important things to do! (Not entirely true: Managing Producer Nathan Medd scored last minute tickets with his family to the Opening Ceremonies and came back with some impressive photos on his iPhone.)

    My role was to observe – and occasionally be a sounding board for – director Kim Collier as she tore through an ambitious and demanding shooting schedule. Although I have been on film sets before, I have never considered each day and shot, from a director’s perspective, as such the learning curve was both steep and fascinating. One of my first realizations was that a production that used a large number of professionally filmed segments like this had only recently been made possible, or at least economically feasible, by new technology.  The film sections are not actually shot on film; a RED One high-res camera was used. This is considerably cheaper than shooting on film and allows all of the information to be stored digitally and viewed immediately.

    This technology is not flawless.  RED One cameras are a little too good – they can show too much detail and not have the pleasant hues that come from shooting on film. To combat this effect – and to contribute to a film noir-ish feel throughout, there was a single person whose only job was to keep a thin mist of haze circulating whenever camera was rolling. Keeping this haze perpetual and consistent was a major battle throughout each day, but was key to both the atmosphere and continuity of the material being filmed.

    Kim Collier (foreground right) directs while a Red One camera is operated by a RoboCop-like suit wearing operator.

    Kim Collier (foreground right) directs while a Red One camera is operated by a RoboCop-like suit wearing cameraman. Photo by Tim Matheson.

    A second element that jumped out at me as a theatre director learning to direct film was how little time there is for experimentation or mistakes. In theatre I think our creative process often leads us to take time feeling our way into things, trying different approaches, and sometimes using good ol’ trial and error. This is not even remotely a possibility on a film shoot – not only do you have to know exactly what shot you want ahead of time, but exactly what you want from each of your actors and your DP for each individual shot well ahead of time. Certainly you can make adjustments on the fly and always keep your eyes open for discoveries and opportunities – but time is money and a professional film crew is a lot of people’s time.

    The biggest day of the shoot was my last one, when a huge number of extras were used to create the crowd shots both of the audience filling the theatre and of a party in that occurs in the lobby of the theatre. On that day over seventy volunteer actors (myself included) showed up at 8am on a Saturday to be dressed in high fashion of the 1930s and strike a number of sophisticated poses and while feigning conversation throughout the day. Most ingenious use of the RED One Camera occurred at the end of this day when the seventy actors were shuffled to completely fill small sections of the 600ish seats the theatre with the camera “locked down”. Later in the editing room these multiple iterations of ourselves will become citizens of the same time and space filling the entire audience in a single shot.

    I am already looking forward to returning to Vancouver to join the theatre portion of rehearsals for Tear The Curtain leading up to an early September opening night. The whole company has been awfully nice to a guy from Toronto whom they’d never met before, and it was awesome to be included in this ambitious process. I’m looking forwards to learning the process by which The Electric Company and Director Kim Collier integrate the filmed and live materials both in the rehearsal hall and in tech at The Stanley Theatre. Next post – Michael Healey’s Courageous arrives at The Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.

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