Good question. Alec Scott address it and more in his insightful piece on the current state of Toronto theatre in this month’s issue of Toronto Life. A sample:
“In general, there’s too much quirky self-indulgence, not enough committed storytelling; too much about other times, other places, too little about how we live here and now. Some of it is clever, but by and large, the work fails to connect with audiences in a meaningful way.”
Read the full story here.
(Thanks to Alison Broverman for the heads up.)
“less Barenaked Ladies and more Neil Young. “
that’s a pretty good one, made even funnier by the fact that the barenaked ladies recently did the music for a shakespearean comedy at stratford. fair enough.
and overall i agree that there is not enough here and now. that we don’t take our own stories seriously enough. but the author makes some fairly sweeping generalizations that don’t stand up to what i’ve seen in the t dot. lumping the tarragon in with passe muraille and factory when there have been some pretty crazy good, well attended shows there as of late isn’t really fair. a 7 show season at any theatre in the world is going to provide anecdotal evidence to support that kind of claim. some theatres are doing better than others.
anyhow, the superbuild issue is a big one. the federal government loves throwing huge amounts of cash at national level institutions (1 frigging MILLION to Luminata this week) while agencies that support and foster new and younger artists like the TAC and OAC end up funding like 20% of applicants. so we build big museums for the previous generation’s work and very little that is new gets made. things are not so rocking in the free world.
there’s a whole tangent here about how there’s a major generation gap going on with funding. i’m determined not to make it, as i’m convinced that this underfunded generation I am a part of might have to just figure out how to make that revenue up in box office. or at least not count on it.
the roots make a good point about this off the top of their album, things fall apart:
if you play the shit that they like then the people will come. simple as that.
Oh, Mike! HUGE props for pulling out that Roots drop! (Which is a sample from Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues, making it that much cooler.)Yet another T-shirt. Great food for conversation you guys.
thanks simon. i didn’t know that’s where the sample came from. i had been thinking about how awesome a movie malcolm x was yesterday, so i must have had spike lee on the brain.
one other thing related to the toronto life article:
the author cites an anonymous source that has “watched an actor like David Fox rehearsing in his parka in a freezing hall, breathing steam”
yes. that is total b.s. mr. fox is a legend. a 17 year old sandwich artist at subway shouldn’t work under those conditions, let alone one of the country’s greatest talents. but if you took his parka away, i imagine he would continue to rehearse. cause that’s just how he rolls.
this is where the bar has been set for us in terms of work ethic. good to remember.
Yay, it’s finally online!
Sure, I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but it’s nice to see someone talking about this stagnancy problem theatre in Toronto seems to have.
How can we make theatre that people care about and are excited to see? When that rare things happen, it usually seems like an accident…
hey alison,
it was great to meet you at the party last week.
yes. i generally agree with the article. and things ARE generally stagnant. but everybody seems to be beating up on theatre in the t dot these days. and this article stays clear of the whole CanStage (I also still use Skydome and the OKeefe Centre) fiasco. i feel compelled to provide a counterpoint.
how can we make theatre that people care about and are excited to see? the problem is: which people? there is a subscriber base which is quite pleased to see the odd couple before shuffling off to see shirley valentine for the 3rd time. for those who are not, here’s some of the stuff i am excited to see:
Stuff Happens, Studio 180: David Fox as Donald Rumsfeld (sans parka). That’s all you need to know.
Minotaur, Unspun Theatre: This show was so insanely great at the fringe 2 years ago. I’m calling it a brechtian blair witch project. How cool is that?
Save Us, Suprise Performance: Fine, I’m in this show that’s part of HATCH. It will be many things, but dry and or conventional will not apply.
Alias Godot: There’s a reason the Tarragon put this show last in the season, and it’s not so everyone can go on summer vacation early.
Rhubarb: This week’s line up looks awesome.
so all is not doom and gloom, just most of it….