Ontario Off Stage

by Brandon Moore, Community Theatre and Communications Manager

Conversation Starters

• Diane Ragsdale proposes five ways that arts organizations may need to adapt their philosophies and practices in relationship to their communities if their goal is deeper, more meaningful engagement.
• Jenn Stephenson writes about the immersive theatre experience, the preparatory emails that accompany it, and wonders what we may take for granted with our “non-immersive” theatre audience.
• Gwydion Suilebhan writes about leadership transitions and a playwriting collective in Washington DC that was intentional about its transition goals, and the value of renewal in arts leadership.
• “The cultural manager’s job isn’t accepting obvious solutions. The job is crafting solutions, step by step.” – Keen insight from Andrew Taylor on The Artful Manager.

Behind the Scenes at Ontario’s Theatres

Murray Finn receiving the Michael Spence Award for
his contribution to community theatre from Bruce Pitkin
at Theatre Ontario Festival 2016 in North Bay.

• ELATE celebrated Murray Finn, this year’s recipient of Theatre Ontario’s Michael Spence Award for Contribution to Community Theatre, with a celebration at the Lester B. Pearson Civic Centre in Elliot Lake.  (I will certainly confirm Murray’s description of our telephone conversation about the award—always one of my favourite tasks that I get to do each year.)
• fu-GEN Theatre Company’s “Walk the Walk: National Festival of Asian Canadian Women” introduced The 49—“plays by women of colour that you can program tomorrow.”
• Alex Mustakas, Artistic Director of Drayton Entertainment, was profiled on AQ’s Blog & Grill—a video-based weblog about entrepreneurship—and how Alex started Drayton Theatre, which is today one of Canada’s largest employers of professional artists.
• What does a Production Manager do? Seth Gerry shares his experiences at GCTC in Ottawa.
• The Stratford Festival has announced their productions for 2017—including an all-Canadian season in the Studio Theatre—and VOS Theatre in Cobourg announced their 2016/17 season.
• 4th Line Theatre’s new production of The Hero of Hunter Street—written by Talent Bank instructor and adjudicator Maja Ardal—was profiled on CBC Fresh Air.
• The next stop in the Ontario Fringe Theatre season is Hamilton—with the Hamilton Fringe Festival opening on July 14.

TO Toasts

• to Andy McKim, Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, who was awarded the 2016 Silver Ticket Award from the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.
• and to all of the winners at the 2016 Dora Mavor Moore Awards.