Theatre Awards: The Thrill Of Victory And The Agony Of Defeat

by John Goddard, Executive Director

I don’t like competitive theatre festivals.

I don’t like artists competing with each other for prizes, especially “The Best of Anything.”

To me it is contrary to what Art is about. Prizes belong to the world of sports and athletics which is based on a belief that people can be divided into a hierarchy based on one small aspect of the human condition to the exclusion of all others—faster, stronger, higher; dumber!

Theatre festivals should be FESTIVALS—a celebration of life and the creative genius of human beings. They should be showcases of the ability of the human race to examine, explore, and elucidate the human condition, the entire human condition.

Years ago someone asked me “who was the greatest poet of the English language—Shakespeare or Wordsworth?”, I refused to answer the question. Instead I replied “Are we not allowed to have two?” Or ten? Or a hundred? What is the value of identifying only one? And to identify one immediately ranks all other poets as second-class, less than desirable, flawed, not to be valued. Balderdash!

In May, I attended the Theatre Ontario Festival in London, brilliantly hosted by the London Community Players. It was a celebration of four wonderful, and very diverse, productions from across Ontario. We were treated to some great theatre and the adjudicators, Theresa Sears and David Switzer, helped the audiences and the practitioners appreciate the works with new perspectives and fresh interpretations. They helped us to examine what we had experienced and encouraged us to study the plays through a different lens.

And then Sunday morning came. And suddenly the festival was not about enjoying good art but about winning prizes. And the camaraderie of the previous four days, the learning, the enjoyment was replaced with the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” And now the talk is all about who “won” and who “lost.”

Early this month the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts Dora Award nominations were announced and the proverbial excrement hit the fan; Richard Ouzounian even wrote about it in the Toronto Star. The air is thick with anger and resentment and hurt feelings, not because certain plays or persons “lost” the award, but because they weren’t even nominated; the poor souls haven’t even had the chance to “lose” yet and they are already upset.

I understand the urge to reward good work, and the impetus to give recognition and praise to the excellent. I understand the desire to identify and celebrate what is valuable. That is why Theatre Ontario has its annual Festival.

I understand that some festivals, like Magnetic North, have been able to escape the whole competitive aspect and shift the focus to showcase. And I also know that the concept of theatre festivals is as old as theatre itself—the classical Greeks gave us both.

But I feel that the process of reducing many down to just one casts off too much of value along the route. And I wish there was a way of giving recognition to one which does not inherently take away from another. And I wish I knew what that was.

But I don’t.