If you’re in theatre in Toronto, you’ve probably seen the SummerWorks Theatre Festival promo video, and are following the heated comments thread that’s followed. So what do you think? Harmless irony or dangerous distraction?
If you’re in theatre in Toronto, you’ve probably seen the SummerWorks Theatre Festival promo video, and are following the heated comments thread that’s followed. So what do you think? Harmless irony or dangerous distraction?
Although the tone of the video is rather smug, I’m more appalled by the incredible torrent of thought-policing that has ensued.
What a mean, jealous, petty community we live in.
I don’t know Anon. I find the comments interesting and varied. Why can’t people have their say? Would it be better if we all just kept quiet?
Of course you can have your say, but “judge, and prepared to be judged”.
“prepare” to be judged.
Man I’ve been resisting the urge to have anything to say about all this, but this byline pushes me over the edge.
What Michael’s doing in his first year as Artistic Producer of Summerworks is fairly impressive and not really related to this video fiasco.
He’s moved the entire festival to Queen West giving it more of a home and has added a live music component with the support of CBC Radio 3, which I think is a really smart move given our current perilous position in terms of relevance with anyone younger than 50 in this town. And those Propaganda E-Newsletters are really polished too. It’s an impressive operation.
And yeah, the video sucked, it was a miss, shit happens. It’s weird because those are some of the best artists I’m aware of all making a thing together, so one would assume it would turn out better. So it goes.
Bet the Summerworks Blog never had as many hits as it did yesterday though. Until yesterday i was the only one who’d ever left a comment there.
A word on satire. Yes, the irony does not shine through. Instead, these writers come off looking rather cliquish and self-congratulating. The video certainly got my attention, but it hasn’t persuaded me to attend Summerworks.
Mike,
The Propaganda newsletter is one of the best e-newsletters I’ve ever seen.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, you can find it and sign up for it here.
I want to know what software they’re using to make and distribute that thing. Is it like something NASA invented or what?
i think i’m in the “dangerous distraction” camp, though “dangerous” is probably too strong a word. “unfortunate” might be better.
yes, people are talking, but they’re not talking about anything that’s actually going on at summerworks. if all this debate and discussion was caused by even one of the very cool things mike listed above, that’d be awesome. but it seems to be all about the artistic integrity of those playwrights (which is such a stupid point to argue, because everyone knows they all have it in spades), and none of them (with the exception of tara beagan, i think) has a piece in the festival this year.
i do have issues with the video itself and what the heck the point is, but i think more than anything i’m disappointed because it seems to be pulling focus from the very thing it’s meant to be serving.
so can we talk about something else please? like maybe a new playwright or two who we can actually check out come august?
the ad inspired a dialogue on the nature of what is appropriate when in relationship to art and social politics. i would not say that is a dangerous or unfortunate distraction. i would say that this is at the very heart of what summerworks and theatre is for. what i think is amazing about all this is that this ad has been more successful than most of the theatre that gets made. That is bloody interesting stuff. Running away from the issues is a theatrical stereotype, and at the heart of why nobody gives a shit about theatre. because nobody is doing anything interesting. hopefully some of the plays in this year’s festival will be as interesting as this whole charade. after all this, i’m pretty interested in finding out.
I didn’t much like the video but then again so what. I think that it was a interesting idea poor execution kind of thing.
Just goes to show you that perhaps as writers there should have been some script involved. For improv maybe some theatresports women might have pulled it off better.
i disagree. i think its hilarious, mostly because its improvised. writers would have ruined it.
laughing ….ok well the irony of a video about writers being ruined if it had had writers is truly wonderful….
But it’s true. Imagine if one of these playwrights tried to author a viral video? P.U. Improv is best in the new millennium, and the more embarrassing, the better.