Ontario Off Stage

by Brandon Moore, Communications Coordinator

This week's hot topic in the Twitterverse has been the news that Factory Theatre and Quiptake in Toronto will be holding the media night for The Art of Building a Bunker at the fifth performance after opening.

• Lois Dawson has the best synopsis of the conversation I've seen so far, and raises some good questions about critical discourse - "If it’s Factory Theatre vs. the Toronto theatre critics, we are all going to lose"
• Holger Syme describes himself as baffled, wondering about a "Theatre without critics?" on Dispositio
• Jacob Zimmer reflects on the power relationships in play in "On the outrage over who gets comped when" on Minor Expletives and Better Questions
• And ICYMI: prior to this particular news, Jillian Keiley, Artistic Director of the National Arts Centre English Theatre suggested on #CdnCult Times that we need to "get a real subjective conversation going"

My own reflections so far: this is an experiment.  Applying some "scientific method" to the experiment - Factory/Quiptake have not shared their hypothesis with us, and so we are making assumptions about that hypothesis.  And unfortunately, I think the "observer effect" of those assumptions is going to affect the experiment.

Conversation Starters

• Today marks the beginning of Culture Days, running through to September 28—Best wishes to all of the presenters across the province
• Perspectives on auditioning from the other side of the table: Mitchell Marcus, Artistic and Managing Director of Acting Up Stage Company shares his observation from an audition panel in “God I Hope I Get It!”
• Does Hamilton have “a grant seeking culture”?  Crystal Jonasson—a past Professional Theatre Training Program grant recipient—explores the question in the new Living Arts Hamilton blog
• The “perils” of gender-crossed Shakespeare, from the Guardian
• Equity in Theatre has its Toronto launch on September 27 (FB event) with “Paving New Paths”, a project involving playwrights writing the text of plays in chalk on chosen sidewalks

Behind the Scenes at Ontario’s Theatres

• Happy 40th birthday to the London Community Players
• Linda Griffiths passed away on Sunday.  During the 40th anniversary of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, she reflected on her career in Theatre Museum Canada’s “Legend Library” video series. The memorial "Her Night" will be at Theatre Passe Muraille on September 29 and there will be a livestream for those unable to attend in person.

In Case You Missed It

• ArtsVote Across Ontario
• A Roundtable on Richmond: Carolee Mason writes about our recent Adjudicators Symposium