The Future?

Ok, just go and read this from the Globe & Mail: Canadians are no longer giving to charities as they once did

and after that sit back and consider the future of your theatre company and all those nights that you have sat in a bar and dissed the blue rinse set.

Maybe we should stop and think about the future of theatre. Maybe we should consider that Rob Ford the new Toronto mayor suggest we look to the private sector for funding. Maybe we should consider that elephant grey is not the best colour for a living room.

Post Past

So I have heard of Post Modern and Post Modernism.
I have heard of Post-Realism and even of Post Racial .
But I have come to the conclusion that I am now Post Past. As in Post the Past. This came clearly into focus for me at the Prismatic conference where the split in thought was most clear. There are some people who still feel defined by what has gone on historically and there are some who have put that knowledge into a secondary or tertiary position and have other objectives as they move forward. I am really not one to deny folks what they need to do but for myself and Obsidian I am really trying to look forward instead of back.

Here is a very handy fellow. Used to be a god in fact.

So Janus for whom the month of January is named after is depicted both looking backward into the past and forward into the future at the same time. Kind of like the original "this door swings both ways" But I digress.
 
It seems to me that being focused in just one direction contains the seeds of problems just waiting to be born. Thus I am attempting to be Post Past where, while cognizant of the past, I am now directing my energies towards the future and spending more time on the creation of the art that I believe in as opposed to countless hours trying to un-stack the deck of the current funding modalities.

Until the reality of the changing demographics smack the Euro-based theatres square in the face nothing will change.

Until the councils move their funding models away from giving the lion's share of funding to the anchor / venue based organizations nothing will change. So be it.

I may not be able to effect that change but I can do the best of all work so that the quality of what we do is unquestioned.

Instead of trying to force our work into venues that don't understand it I am concentrating on our work in the sure and certain knowledge that what we do will be desirable, prepared and compelling in both its quality and scope.

I want history to colour my cloak but not my glasses.

Thursday Break

Drag Queens and Epictetus   In Defense of Leaving at Intermission

Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves


This end of week break brought to you by The Stranger

Dear Don Rubin

Further to the last post regarding  Non-Traditional Casting and Criticism I have received permission from Tony Nardi to post this email.

Dear Don Rubin,

I just heard about your  event at Tarragon Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 21, to debate the subject of “Non-Traditional Casting and Criticism.”  I hope I can make it. I hope Rocco Galati (Constitutional lawyer and producer of the filmed version of "Two Letters... And Counting!") can make it, as well.
It's too bad I wasn't informed earlier about this panel. Given the subject of Letter Two, which specifically takes issue with cultural stereotyping by critics, directors, actors (even those from non-Anglo and non-Franco
backgrounds), and from a centuries-old infestation of colonial mindsetting, it would have been interesting to be a part of it.
I confess, I find "Non-Traditional Casting and Criticism" problematic. It presumes that there exists a normal, standard position, set by a casting God, and another standard that deviates form the norm, and, that there are
people who are "like this", 'this tight' with the casting God and could define normal for all the others. Is casting a white Canadian male as Treplev or Trigorin with a phony affected English accent considered traditional (normal) casting in Canada? The answer is ‘yes’. Has been ‘yes’ for many years.