Here’s some Saturday morning videos that hint humanity may not be doomed after all.
1 Brigitte dePape Ted Talk
Yesterday Brigitte dePape was the top news story across Canada as “the rogue page” who silently interrupted the Throne Speech that kicked off the first day of the new Parliament.
Wouldn’t you know it – she’s also a theatre artist, performer and articulate advocate for the value culture can contribute to society. (Spoiler alert – she’s not talking the economic value artists bring low-income neighbourhoods, or tourist dollars mega-musicals bring in.) Check out this dramatic monologue/Ted Talk combo she performed as part of last year’s TEDxYouthOttawa. 1/2 way through the clip she finishes the monologue, throws on a dress and starts the Ted Talk part. Wow.
2 The Grand Rapids LipDub
Move over Thriller – there is a new “Greatest Music Video Ever“. Really, what’s not to love about this video? It is a major achievement both for a community and artistically. Now it is being credited with turning around the fortunes of Grand Rapids. Which, after you watch the video, makes total sense.
Trust me – take the full 10 minutes. Make a tea, or whatever it is you need to do to get comfortable and enjoy. Be careful around 6:22 – that’s when my beverage almost came out my nose.
Here are 3 internet/performance-related things I am up to. They’re all completely different and have me thinking about how different people – playwrights, young artists and audiences – can interact with the the internet and performance.
Also, I still like to direct plays and will talk about that from time-to-time too.
1
Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) has asked me to give a seminar on – wait for it – Social Media in the Arts.
Today, as part of ‘PLAYWRIGHTS: Getting Down to Business’, a day of professional development workshops for playwrights organized by PGC, we will discuss social media as it relates to the Canadian playwright. What advice would you give playwrights about how to use social media these days? Leave your advice in the comments before 3pm and maybe we will end up discussing it.
2
This summer I am leading a FREE program for youth at The Theatre Centre on – you guessed it – online tools and performance.Dates:Monday July 25 – Friday July 29 Time: 10pm -2pm Age: 15-19
This FREE program includes free LUNCHES and a TRANSIT subsidy in an exploration of what tools are available on online, what stories the participants are interested in telling, and how to tell them on the stage in new and exciting ways. Throughout the week, resident companies at The Theatre Centre will join the workshop giving participants a rare window into how cutting-edge artists are working with the newest technologies to create their work. Click here to sign up or learn more.
3
Work is ongoing with Theatre Smith Gilmour as they move ever closer to their North American premiere of the first ever Sino-Canadian co-production Lu Xun Blossoms at Luminato.
The latest post explores who Lu Xun was (Western audiences can understand him as having many parallels to Chekhov). Luminato has also launched their own Smartphone Ap to keep track of everything that is going on when the mega-festival hits town, which means you can now also buy tickets instantly via the small computer many of us keep in our pockets.
4 (the outlier)
This weekend I will be participating in Directors Lab North, which fosters a national and international exchange between a community of emerging, mid level and established career directors created by alumni of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in New York City.
My involvement is contributing to a panel that also includes Obsidian Theatre Artistic Director Philip Akin and Modern Times Artistic Director Soheil Parsa. We will NOT be discussing the internet. Mostly we will be talking about theatre, aesthetics and identity. Although Philip has been an early adopter of the The Blog, so you never know. Also I guess my aesthetic in some way involves the internet. Never mind.
2011 is shaping up to be a particularly interesting year for local independent companies at Luminato and audience engagement through social media as these companies reach out to audiences across Toronto.
Lu Xun Blossoms
My official involvement this year is connected to my work with Theatre Smith-Gilmour and their recently launched website which will have regularly updated original and engaging content about the North American Premiere of Lu Xun blossoms at Luminato.
Co-produced by Theatre Smith Gilmour and The Shanghai Centre for the Dramatic Arts, it is the first ever Sino-Canadian theatrical co-production.
Necessary Angel is another local company involved in Luminato 2011. In fact, it has not one, but TWO shows in the festival this year. It’s probably a testament to the general consensus on how important/boundary pushing Necessary Angel is that no one has really complained about this fact.
The company is running two separate audience engagement initiatives for the shows through their Facebook page:
For the production Tout Comme Elle, audience members are solicited to submit pictures of their shoes and the stories they tell. Participants are entered into a draw to win dinner and tickets to a show.
Andromache is recruiting
For the production Andromache – something pretty crazy is happening:
The production is casting one of the roles, “the recruit”, through a Facebook competition facilitated by the Andromache Facebook App where potential “recruits” upload their photo and key info before being voted on by other facebook users who access the Andromache ap. The top three vote-getters will receive an interview with internationally acclaimed director Graham McLaren and one will be hired to play the role.
No shit. Forget that agent that doesn’t return your calls: Just get on Facebook, get that photo up there, and get your friends voting. There is work out there after all. (Please note: I uploaded my own photo and profile and I am not doing well. Come on Praxis Blog readers – don’t you want more weird blog posts about using Facebook to get work with important theatre companies?)
On a producing level, this is already a slam dunk in my mind – I can see that the number of people that “Like” the Facebook page, which is part of the process of voting, has gone up significantly since these competitions started. As Facebook groups become de-activated in favour of Pages, while Toronto remains a city with exceptionally high Facebook saturation – using participation in an international festival to leverage your Facebook Page Fans this way is pretty darn smart. Here’s hoping they get an actor in the top three that can play the part…
With the growth of the arts sector easily outpacing the growth of public investment, we have found ourselves in a difficult situation, asking questions about how to protect and sustain our current assets while nurturing the growth and development of future generations of artists.
The capitalization models that succeeded in past phases of industry growth make less sense today when existing organizations are struggling to find stability and so many new high potential ideas and innovations are left unfunded by government sources.
What are the new business models and resourcing strategies that will provide a platform for the next generation of development in the sector? How can we better engage the private sector and form new partnerships that will enhance our potential for success?
Beyond lagging public investment, the arts sector is also adapting to other environmental shifts. Previously declining levels of arts education in the public school system have produced a generation of adults entering the work force with little relationship to the arts. The advancement of digital technology, particularly in the last decade has had a profound effect on the creation and distribution of creative content to audiences, presenting both new challenges and opportunities for the sector.
How have these shifts affected audience participation? How have we adapted? What are the barriers to fully leveraging new digital opportunities?
Named after Harold Kandel: a theatre fan, social activist and avid heckler – winning a Harold is a big deal and probably means you put in years of tireless work in some way that has been essential to the theatrical ecosystem. Going to the Harolds is also fun because heckling and consumption of adult beverages is encouraged.
Below is the list of who was Harold-ed last night and now becomes an organizer of the 2012 event. See what you get for working so hard Haroldees: something new to organize and produce!
2011 Harold Award Winners
Nina Okens
Jordan Merkur
Gail Packwood
Paula Wing
Michael Kruse
Karen Rodd
Caroline Gillis
Patty Gail Peaker
Jenni Burke
Lyon Smith
Kristen Mueller-Heaslip
Bridget MacIntosh
John Palmer
Ken McDougall Award
Jordan Tannahill
Check out this great tribute video to Harold created by Kirsten Johnson
Most theatre school students do not graduate to a career in the theatre.
While theatre may be an important part of their experience, it simply does not have enough employment opportunities for all theatre school graduates. It has, in fact, very few.
Lwam Ghebretariat, 2011.
If we can accept that premise moving forward, obvious questions spring to mind.
What is theatre school for? What is its value to the great masses of us that it has produced who, for many different reasons, are not in the theatre’s employ?
Lwam Ghebretariat is a graduate of Canada’s most reputable theatre school, and yet he has never pursued a career in acting. He has persued a very different career, which he says has a unique connection to theatre.
Lwam and I sat down recently to try to answer these questions and others. Here’s how it sounded…
Lwam stared in the 2010 Summerworks hit, Homegrown
(If you would like to download this Exit Interview as a podcast, click the arrow above on the right.)
After graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada in 2003, Lwam stayed in school, completing a BA (Honours) in philosophy and French at the University of Alberta. He is currently in his final semester of law school at the University of Toronto.
As an undergraduate student he spent his summers researching Eritrean/Ethiopian literature and culture (some of that work can be seen here). As a law student he has worked and volunteered at Downtown Legal Services, representing low income clients in criminal court and disciplinary hearings, and at the African Canadian Legal Clinic, in the area of human rights litigation.
As an actor he most recently appeared in Homegrown (by Catherine Frid, directed by Beatriz Pizano/Aluna Theatre, Summerworks 2010), a play which received national media attention. Other credits include Twelfth Night (Canadian Stage) and Ministry of Love (Theatre Rien Pantoute).
Since this interview, Praxis has learned that Lwam was recently voted Valedictorian for his graduating class. So congratulations Lwam! We’re pretty sure your theatre training will come in handy.
Andy Bichlbaum on the BBC set in Paris where millions viewed him as "as "Jude Finisterra" a 'Dow Chemical Spokesperson' who took full responsibility for the Bhopal disaster
Who are the The Yes Men?
Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno are two guys who couldn’t hold down a job until they became representatives of Exxon, Halliburton, Dow Chemical, and the U.S. federal government. As the Yes Men, they use humor, truth and lunacy to bring media attention to the crimes of their unwilling employers.
Their film, The Yes Men Fix the World, won the audience award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, the Grierson Award for Most Entertaining Documentary, and went on to become a smash box-office sensation, only just barely surpassed by Avatar.
They also hope what they are doing is in some way a modern version of The Invisible Theatre. (See Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.)
How much are tickets?
By donation at the door to Project Democracy at The Royal.
Jeff Melanson is Arts Advisor to Mayor Rob Ford and Special Advisor to The Creative Capital Initiative. Click on the images to enlarge.
by Michael Wheeler with artwork and text by Jody Hewston
Today the one and only downtown public consultation on the City of Toronto’s ‘Creative Communities Public Consultations’, aka the Richard Florida-themed re-re-visioning of our city’s cultural plan (his theories also provided the basis of the old plan that went nowhere for a decade), will take place at City Hall from 6pm to 8:30pm. (There is also a youth-focussed consultation on April 7th.)
As part of our engagement with the City’s cultural plan, Praxis Theatre will be releasing ‘Hockey Cards’ that give stats on all the movers and shakers that will shape the City’s approach to culture in the years to come. Will this be a team that supports big institutions and sees culture as a means to tourism? Or will it be a team that recognizes the complex cultural ecosystem that makes the City more livable and inspiring for all residents and include a plan that fosters independent and mid-sized organizations?
One way or another – the people on these cards will eventually choose to play for team Massive Organization or Team Ecosystem. This city has bad luck with hockey teams, but I’m still holding out for an upset. (Note: Team Private Donations often refuses to play with team Team Ecosystem so here’s hoping that will be addressed in this plan also.)
Jim Prentice is one of three co-chairs of the Creative Capital Initiative. Click to enlarge
If you can come tonight, (You totally should!) you will have the opportunity to discuss these five questions:
MEASURING & VALUING CULTURE:
How do you measure value in your organization and what have your metrics taught you?
ACCESS, INCLUSION & ARTS EDUCATION:
What tools do you need from the City to improve affordability & access?
TORONTO’S POSITION AS A CREATIVE CAPITAL:
What should Toronto focus on over the next five years to raise its profile as a Creative Capital and what are the greatest barriers to accomplishing these goals?
BIG OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD:
Where can municipal investments in culture make the biggest impact?
QUICK WINS & URGENT MESSAGES:
If you could make one recommendation to the Mayor and Council regarding culture in Toronto, what would it be?
Karen Kain is one of three co-chairs of the Creative Capital Initiative. Click to enlarge
Now I know what you’re thinking:
These questions show a huge bias towards an understanding of culture that places its core value in its direct economic impact. What if I don’t agree that these are the right questions to be asking? What if I think metrics are incapable of capturing the impact of independent artists, and favour major institutions that have paid staff whose job it is to capture metrics, etc.?
There is a stool for you at 'The Duke of The Eatons Centre' (aka The Duke of Richmond) after the event at City Hall
Don’t worry, there will be plenty of people there that agree with you. The overall ideology this language applies, assumes a number of things to be true that governments and studies from around the world have found to be false. Namely that creative economies rhetoric is just a new language to talk about the educated upwardly mobile classes in a 21st Century economy. Never mind that – it will be fun, and you can always use conversation to address those values and ideas that resonate for you.
Afterwards, Praxis has made a reservation at the Duke of Richmond for a couple of pints. Hope to see you there and look forward to tonight’s conversation on the future of culture in Toronto.
The Essentials:
Tonight!
6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Council Chambers & Members’ lounge (3rd Floor)
100 Queen St.West, Toronto
Also, join us on Twitter @praxistheatre where our Artistic Producer Aislinn Rose will be live-tweeting the event under hashtag #creativeTO. You don’t need a Twitter account to follow along, just go to Twitter and search the hashtag.
So if you didn’t know – the billboard tax was recently overturned in the courts. Whether or not the court appeal should be launched will be decided by Planning and Growth Management Committee (PGM) today, Thursday, March 24th, in Committee Room 1 at 10:00am. This will be followed by Council on April 12th.
If you are an Equity member, tomorrow, Friday March 25th, is the last day to send in your Independent Theatre Survey to the good people at Leger. It takes 45 minutes and it is worth it! Just do it. Nike. I don’t know what else to say….
My take on the survey, and why it is important is here.
3: Hashtag for Arts and Culture in the Election
The Canadian Arts Coalition has suggested coordinating information on arts in culture an almost-certain federal election through the hashtag #artsvotecan.
For those of us on the internet, but not on Twitter, who would like to follow this newsfeed, you can find it at twitter.com/artsvotecan. The call to action: “Let’s build a national dialogue – one tweet at a time!”
“After the years and years of weaker and waterier imitations, we now find ourselves rejecting the very notion of a holy stage. It is not the fault of the holy that it has become a middle-class weapon to keep the children good.”
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