“Leaders” in the arts have long fought to have them thought of as industries. (I guess they wanted to be Leaders of Industry.)
Congrats, we’ve proved it! Industrial collapse!
To take the waves of lay-offs and closing personally is to ignore the social and economic systems we are entangled in.
The revenue problem is a side effect of a relevance problem. The relevance problem is a side effect of experience problems.
I wrote in the desire for a quiet improvisation
a desire for non-vocal informed consent to quiet.
I want a group of weirdos who have chops, care and have played the game, but also still know how to be human and playful.
People getting together and making each other delighted by behaving a little odd… that’s traditional theatre.
“Traditional theatre” isn’t people sitting in 1 direction with only half the room lit. That’s the radical theatre of Empire.
This is how theatre started and there’s little risk of that going away.
we, who believe in the touch and the present body / and the potential for exchange and transformation / how will we, locally and in networks, / contribute to that return
I (like most of us) have no inside information on the reasons behind the cancellation of Helen Lawrence at the FTA beyond what is in the Globe article and the statements Arden Ryshpan and the Canadian Actors Equity Association (CAEA) have posted and comments on Facebook. But (like most of us) the headline alone was […]
I’ve got some interesting feedback / questions for clarity from the last post in the comments and off line. Thought I’d post some more thoughts here, on whether 5 years is too long… The reason I like 5 is that I think it’s hard to know (sometimes) whether something is going well or not until year […]
A little twitter back and forth with Praxis folk plus a desire to respond to Shannon Litzenberger’s Metcalf report, Choreographing Our Future: Strategies for Supporting Next Generation Arts Practice has inspired me to post some thoughts on public funding models. I’ve been thinking lots about this and below is an edited version of some writing about this for a […]
[see also Policy, Politics and Rhubarb] from: Jacob Zimmer <jacob@smallwoodenshoe.org> to: andrew.cash@parl.gc.ca cc: shelly@shellyglover.ca, shelly.glover@parl.gc.ca, stephane.dion@parl.gc.ca, Brendan Healy <brendan@buddiesinbadtimes.com> date: Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 2:39 PM subject: We need transparency in the Department of Canadian Heritage
The Rhubarb Festival did not receive Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH) funding. Read the letter and response here. Nothing New The DCH is an arm of the government in power. That was true under the Liberals and PC’s when it was used to promote “Canadian” culture abroad and in Quebec. (oh for the ¿golden age? […]
I just returned from participating in a meeting convened by the Edmonton Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council that had fifty of us discussing the future of arts research, advocacy and topics spreading out from there. It’s the beginning of a conversation. Here are the notes I spoke from. Who has a relevant voice […]
For the record: I believe that going out can have a positive effect on a persons life. I believe that going out to meaningful and delightful things should be part of peoples lives. I believe a function of art might be ease alienation without denying complexity or difference. I belive the simplifying tendancy of lobbying […]
[Background] I am revoking / not going to submit my application for the position of Artistic Director of Factory Theatre. There are some very practical reasons.[1] but more than those – My application was made in an effort to have a conversation. This hasn’t materialized. I’ve had some interesting private chats with people I run […]
On the day that the situation is back in the news, Here is a draft of my Letter of Experience for the position of Artistic Director of Factory Theatre. I’ve broken it, for the purposes of the blog, into three posts plus the older cover letter Lots of people have asked if I expect that […]
[In which I articulate some by big picture values for doing what I do] of Values It is the event of theatre that excites me. The meeting of two groups of people: one group who mostly knows what is going to happen and one group who mostly doesn’t. One group who mostly witnesses and one […]
@Factory Theatre [In which I talk about what imagine for a space like Factory. This is the first stage of the application and I haven’t seen any numbers or talked with staff, so there is an aspirational tone without the specifics, but I believe in collaborating based on aspirations and then working hard on the […]
Some thoughts spurred from a few Michaels comments. I’m not looking to run an arts service or research organization – I’m a theatre director. I believe in leadership. I believe in curation and position taking. I’m not looking to run an “open-source theatre”, or a broadly defined “shared stake holder” art space [1]. Nor am […]
Lots and lots and lots has been and continues (great comments in those last two via Praxis) to be said about the situation at Factory.Now the official call has come. I have been thinking about buildings and space a lot recently. Thinking about finding a home for Small Wooden Shoe and my work, as well as […]
The specifics of the Stratford v. Slotkin is just stupid- where the the power dynamic is perceived as the big company deciding they didn’t want a writer (who mostly publishes online but has a history and connection with newspapers, radio and some other legacy formats) coming any more because she wasn’t “friends / fan of […]
An honest question:If the petition was: “Re-instate Ken Gass or close the doors of the theatre forever” would you sign? If “no”, what is the difference between the above and a boycott? As I’ve said before, I think sometimes theatres should be closed, so it’s not a crazy idea that the call be “Ken or […]
some thoughts, delayed, after the harolds [maybe the morning of the Dora announcement is as good as anytime] it’s important to come together. it’s important to trick your friends: congratulations Leora it’s important to be reminded: thank you Caroline, Nadia and Chris and everyone. It’s important to remember that I’ve (we’ve?) made some choices. And […]
Is there ever a time when it’s ok for a theatre company to close?This is the question I keep asking myself these days. I’d like to separate it a bit from the closing of the Vancouver Playhouse, though obviously that is what has it on my mind. I don’t know enough about the situation or […]
On the verge of starting our first workshop for non-identifying artists – I’ve been thinking, and really beginning to work towards, the ability to move between professional and amateur.This appeared in my inbox today (Via You’ve Cott Mail) “Among the consequences of our fetishism of professional status, it strikes me that we have relegated ourselves […]
Below is a letter I sent Monday to my city councillor. He’s both on the Executive Council and not quite a Fordist hard-liner.On Thursday some of the cuts, including to the arts, were pulled off the table [read about it.] Which is better. I am grateful for the people who wrote and called their councillors, […]
Another thing that I particularly like about the Pomegranate Center is that they clearly see community improvement as their mission. Their work then flows from that belief. I would argue that any 501(c)(3) organization has that view as a responsibility (and a privilege). How is the work of the arts altered or adjusted if that […]
On the lazy day after a great night at the Christmas Concert – great singing, great response from a lovely and generous audience… I think about this: A survey … found that of 74% of adults who said they were interested in classical music had played an instrument or sung in chorus at some point […]
99 Seats is talking about media complaints about the media in Most Everything That’s Wrong With American Journalism.The specifics are helpful and the analysis right on – and connects with a thread I’ve been thinking about for a while. In a large group discussion about, I think, politics and theatre from a year or so ago, […]
Artist and writer Chris Dupuis has taken some well aimed swings at a side bar in this weeks NOW. The “who’s the next… Peggy Baker, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan” form is generally a trite move to force a connection. At best it might be an understanding of working in tradition and a way to contextualize […]