1) What the fuck is going on?
Just finished ARCfest 2006 – the Art for Real Change Festival. Having difficulty departing from the whole taking-it-easy-for-a-while thing.
2) What’s the best way to empower people who are less fortunate?
This local organization, Global Aware, just launched a “Make Affluence History” campaign to complement the more famous “Make Poverty History” campaign.
I like the project because it speaks to something that is often left out of discussions around inequality, that is: some lack privilege because others hoard it. Everyone is implicated and responsible. So, I think the starting point to ‘empowering the less fortunate’ is to recognize one’s own place in that dynamic.
Otherwise, here’s a link to 198 non-violent methods to change the world.
3) If you knew George Bush, Stephen Harper and Bono were going to attend your next event, what (if anything) would you do differently?
I’m picturing a performance art project involving Harper and Bush in hermetically sealed glass containers and only fed the equivalent rations of children living below the poverty line . . . Bono could do the feeding . . . well maybe he should sing. I wonder if Harper has ever had to explain his position on same-sex marriage to a room of Queer activists . . .
Otherwise, I think the art featured at ARCfest speaks for itself.
4) What’s the best thing about independent theatre in Toronto?
I think it’s the indie theatre scene that pushes the political envelope in this city and has made an attempt to reach out to new communities, address contemporary social and political issues, and break through all those outdated theatre mores that’s left much of the mainstream theatre world with predominantly white-haired (not to mention white-skinned) audiences.
5) Could you list a few of the most pressing social justice and human rights issues affecting our community?
Here are three that were addressed in ARCfest 2006:
Rising poverty in Canada (particularly child poverty – 1 in 6 children in Canada live below the poverty line);
Canada’s involvement in this global war on terror has sent Canadian soldiers into a misguided mission in Afghanistan and left our country with a series of shameful domestic debacles in the name of national security; and
Toronto has an abysmal record in meeting the needs of people with disabilities.
Obviously, there are plenty of other equally important issues.
6) Do you have any unifying theories when it comes to art?
It’s political whether you like it or not – either you choose to challenge the status quo or you support it.
7) What does everyone need to stop doing?
Stop being cynical – that’s slowing us down
8) Any tips for making “social-message” theatre entertaining?
You don’t get carte blanche to whack the audience over the head with a social message just because you got one. Theatre that comes from a progressive, radical, left-wing perspective should still follow those basic tenets of what makes theatre work. Somehow “political art” has come to represent highly didactic, message-driven art with a lefty agenda. To me this is just bad art. Political art can be hysterical, nuanced, rife with dramatic tension, full of complex characters and all the other things that we love about theatre. Any theatre artist solely driven by the desire to deliver a message to the audience is wading into some dangerous waters.
9) What makes you laugh?
Fox News, that YouTube clip of Rumsfeld making origami, and Dave Chappelle.
10) Plans for the coming year?
ARCfest is collaborating with PEN Canada (a human rights organization protecting freedom of expression locally and globally) to develop a three-year project creatively engaging communities across Ontario in dialogue and action around freedom of expression. ARCfest has also received funding to facilitate a number of ARCforums – one-off ARCfest events through out the year. I’m also running the Circle Playhouse – a theatre program for youth where, over the course of 12 weeks, participants write and perform a play of their own creation.
this interview is awesome. josh lives across the street from me so i can vouch for the fact that he really is as busy as he seems to be. yes, theatre and positive political action, so rare that they coincide. I have a big worry about this though: i have a friend who is a pretty successful playwright and actor, he said to me this summer, “Yes we’re just preaching to the converted, but even the converted need a place to come have their values reaffirmed”. That depressed the shit out of me. Made me think we can’t do anything but stop the bleeding. no new souls are up for grabs. whaddo you guys think?
I heard Eleanor Wachtel interviewing Bruce Mau on CBC radio the other night about an essay he has in the new Walrus magazine: “Imagining the Future – Why the cynics are wrong.”
Basically, he argues that humans overall are better off now that at any point in history. With that newfound affluence, our species also has great power to influence change. Cynicism, he argues, simply puts the brakes on positive change. So despite all the bad stuff, we need to remind ourselves of the good and adopt an optimistic attitude, which will enable us and, hopefully inspire others, to make positive change.
I like that Josh has also identified cynicism as a barrier to doing more, better.
To your question of preaching to the converted . . . one thing I’ve noticed over the course of these interviews, is that younger members of the community are calling for and executing a new vision for the theatre community in this city. This is not to diminish the achievements of those who came before us, it’s to say that we’re here with new ideas and new challenges, and we need to change the apparatus to make it work for us.
I think in striving for that change, we’re going to find new audiences, new participants, and new ideas.
Preaching to the converted . . . hell yes. In doing so we refine and clarify our message. And as our messages gets more persuasive, new people will come to listen and participate.