Every sector of the economy has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. But as businesses can begin to reopen, there are still some spaces that have a precarious and uncertain future. Especially venues that require large gatherings to make a profit, such as, theatre spaces.
Toronto has a thriving independent theatre scene, that has been turned upside down due to the current climate. Niv posed questions to three theatres—Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and Theatre Passe Mureille—to get a sense of how they're coping, surviving, and staying hopeful for the future of theatre in the city.
Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company
How has your company been able to continue to support and give artists a platform to share their work during this time?
We are fortunate enough to have a passionate and supportive audience. This allows us to financially support projects that continue to tell the Jewish story in as many interesting and innovative ways as possible. We hope your readers will check us out at www.hgjewishtheatre.com.
How have you been able to adapt to these circumstances?
Like most theatre companies we have turned to the virtual world. We are very proud of our Conversation on the Green Series , Cabarets, Radio plays and other special programming that we have been able to offer. We have also been able to take advantage of the current circumstances and expand worldwide . This Winter we spearheaded A Global Hanukkah Celebration with Jewish Theatre company's from around the world. It included 13 Jewish Theatre companies, from 10 countries, and Hanukkah songs sung in six languages. It was viewed by over 25 thousand people globally. We look to continue this international perspective with a special lens on Israeli performing arts and Israeli theatre.
We are also involved in projects that now include other international Jewish Theatres from Berlin and Warsaw.
We sense the future of live performance will be different and unconventional for crews, actors, and audiences, for some time, can you tell us what you think this could look like for your company?
We are looking at some wonderfully innovative shows when we return to the theatre – hopefully this fall. These live productions will follow Covid 19 protocols to insure safety for our audience, crew and performers. That said, as we continue with virtual programming, we will continue to provide programming that entertains, enlightens and challenges our audience.
While we know these are exceptionally difficult times, has it given the theatre community time to reflect on what could be improved in independent theatre?
Nothing will replace the experience of a live audience experiencing a live theatre play together. However I think there might be aspects of this virtual world that remains part of theatre programming.
New work is always on the horizon, what future projects and artists are you most excited about?
It is always exciting bringing a new play to life. We have several projects that we have commissioned and are helping to develop.We are working with Jordi Mand, David Ferry, Jaclyn Grossman, Sterling Jarvis to name a few.
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
How has your company been able to continue to support and give artists a platform to share their work during this time?
As weeks and months passed by, the idea of returning to regular programming became less and less of a reality. This season, we’ve shifted our focus to our Residency and Community + Education Programs, and re-imagined the Rhubarb Festival as a performative publication. Additionally, we expanded our Queer Emerging Artist Award program to grant 20 $1500 prizes to emerging queer artists.
As we narrowed our focus this year in terms of artistic programming, we were able to increase artist fees and reduce work weeks for residency artists.
How have you been able to adapt to these circumstances?
We’ve pivoted a lot.
When the lockdown measures first came into effect in March 2020, we immediately began our “Queer Far Wherever You Are” programming - a daily Instagram Live takeover, which continued to June.
Our Pride Programming, which is typically a multi-week queer arts festival that hosts full-facility club nights, transformed into an offering of digital performances and outdoor events. We partnered with CBC to present “Queer Pride Inside,” a digital cabaret which featured queer creators from across Canada including: Heath V Salazar, Les Femmes Fatales, Beverly Glenn-Copeland. Alongside this was an offering of “analogue” projects — outdoor, in-person events, exhibitions, and activities that spanned the Greater Toronto Area.
But this all came with a huge learning curve, especially for our production and marketing departments. As a venued theatre company - we had to quickly adapt to film and digital media production (and we’re still building capacity in this). Much like other theatre spaces, we’ve sort of turned into a part-time film studio.
But we’re also using the time to look at how we work—what can be done differently, where can we build better processes for working, and how do we prepare our space for communities to be welcomed in.
We sense the future of live performance will be different and unconventional for crews, actors, and audiences, for some time, can you tell us what you think this could like for your company?
Absolutely—live performance will definitely be different for quite a bit of time.
As a company with a venue, we are going to have to deeply change our relationship with the space and how we engage with it—and with each other. Before COVID, we had club nights and full-facility parties, and that is something we will have to put on pause for a while.
As we prepare for the rollout of a vaccine, and start to welcome artists, crew, and audiences back into the space, there are going to be new expectations of us as a company. New health and safety expectations; new expectations around how we share this space and resources; new expectations in how we engage with artists.
At the end of the day, I believe there’s going to be a lot more consideration for our various communities at every level of planning and decision-making that looks at how we are sharing our space and resources with community.
While we know these are exceptionally difficulty times, has it given the theatre community time to reflect on what could be improved in independent theatre?
I think it’s important to articulate that conversations surrounding equity in the arts have been happening for a long time but both the pandemic and the reckoning with anti-Black racism brought these conversations to the fore, and this is particularly true for the theatre industry.
Conversations are happening. More folks with decision-making power are listening with more intent. The dial is turning. And I think change is inevitable—perhaps, mainly because a lot has changed and we’ve had to change with it (or at least we are faced with the choice to change).
And I think we’ve seen some pretty significant initiatives come out from theatre companies — resource sharing, new working models, new leadership, space-making. The tricky part is to maintain and sustain these changes and develop them further—and to resist falling back into old practices when our theatres open up again.
New work is always on the horizon, what future projects and artists are you most excited about?
Rhubarb Festival returns this month as a performative publication—capturing the essence of Canada’s longest-running new works festival in the form of a book.
Residency artists Yolanda Bonnell and Cole Alvis are further developing White Girls in Moccasins which interrogates the connection to one’s culture in a world of appropriation and colonial oppression. Justin Miller, another Residency artist, is working on a cli-fi disaster epic that also reflects on the past 10 months.
In the community, Obsidian Theatre is launching 21 Black Futures later this month; lemontree creation studios is working with Michael Caldwell on a new digital movement piece; and Theatre Passe Muraille presents 11:11 by Samson Bonkeabantu Brown.
Theatre Passe Muraille
How has your company been able to continue to support and give artists a platform to share their work during this time?
The theme of our season is #NavigatingTheNow, which means we are staying nimble and flexible as a company in order to support our artists and their ever-changing work during the pandemic. What’s been helpful is that Theatre Passe Muraille has always been committed to this. Many of our artist programs were already up and running prior to the pandemic. For example, #TPMBUZZ is a development series that offers selected theatre companies and artists our resources to develop their work in a way that is necessary for them. Prior to stricter lockdown procedures, one of the writers was able to use their week in the theatre as a writing space. For some companies, they had their team together on video call as they read-through and workshopped their scripts.
How have you been able to adapt to these circumstances?
Theatre Passe Muraille is an important venue and company that has offered a new and distinct voice in our industry since 1968. It has been challenging, but as mentioned before, we are committed to staying fluid and adaptable. The theatre community in Toronto is well connected, and there are also champions and organizations who advocate on our behalf. Our community is strong and supportive —Our Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign saw a significant increase this year compared to last year. Our team also meets regularly to communicate any changes and covid-19 related updates.
We sense the future of live performance will be different and unconventional for crews, actors, and audiences, for some time, can you tell us what you think this could look like for your company?
It’s really difficult to say. This is an answer we are trying to discover together with our artists and the TPM community. We are very interested in continuing our experimentation with the integration of digital programs. For example, through our Accessibility Labs project (supported by the Toronto Arts Council), we ran workshops on new ways of providing American Sign Language interpretation with the use of Augmented Reality equipment . The future of live performances will depend on new health & safety regulations, but it’ll also be dependent on our vision for it. A huge part of TPM’s mission is upgrading our program and spaces towards a more accessible future.
New work is always on the horizon, what future projects and artists are you most excited about?
I’m very excited for a production that was in workshop as part of #TPMBUZZ. Rubble is a show that is in development at our company-in-residence, Aluna theatre (with additional support from Pandemic Theatre and Nightwood Theatre). It takes place in Gaza, and the play creates a connection between what “theatre” represents as a venue and the voice of the late Palestinian National Poet, Mahmoud Darwish. I listened in on a video-call where the team did a full reading of the script and I already can’t wait for when this show eventually comes to life for audiences. The playwright, Suvendrini Lena, is also a neurologist who works at CAMH and Women’s College Hospital working on the front lines of Covid-19.
Every sector of the economy has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. But as businesses can begin to reopen, there are still some spaces that have a precarious and uncertain future. Especially venues that require large gatherings to make a profit, such as, theatre spaces.
Toronto has a thriving independent theatre scene, that has been turned upside down due to the current climate. Niv posed questions to three theatres—Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and Theatre Passe Mureille—to get a sense of how they're coping, surviving, and staying hopeful for the future of theatre in the city.
Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company
How has your company been able to continue to support and give artists a platform to share their work during this time?
We are fortunate enough to have a passionate and supportive audience. This allows us to financially support projects that continue to tell the Jewish story in as many interesting and innovative ways as possible. We hope your readers will check us out at www.hgjewishtheatre.com.
How have you been able to adapt to these circumstances?
Like most theatre companies we have turned to the virtual world. We are very proud of our Conversation on the Green Series , Cabarets, Radio plays and other special programming that we have been able to offer. We have also been able to take advantage of the current circumstances and expand worldwide . This Winter we spearheaded A Global Hanukkah Celebration with Jewish Theatre company's from around the world. It included 13 Jewish Theatre companies, from 10 countries, and Hanukkah songs sung in six languages. It was viewed by over 25 thousand people globally. We look to continue this international perspective with a special lens on Israeli performing arts and Israeli theatre.
We are also involved in projects that now include other international Jewish Theatres from Berlin and Warsaw.
We sense the future of live performance will be different and unconventional for crews, actors, and audiences, for some time, can you tell us what you think this could look like for your company?
We are looking at some wonderfully innovative shows when we return to the theatre – hopefully this fall. These live productions will follow Covid 19 protocols to insure safety for our audience, crew and performers. That said, as we continue with virtual programming, we will continue to provide programming that entertains, enlightens and challenges our audience.
While we know these are exceptionally difficult times, has it given the theatre community time to reflect on what could be improved in independent theatre?
Nothing will replace the experience of a live audience experiencing a live theatre play together. However I think there might be aspects of this virtual world that remains part of theatre programming.
New work is always on the horizon, what future projects and artists are you most excited about?
It is always exciting bringing a new play to life. We have several projects that we have commissioned and are helping to develop.We are working with Jordi Mand, David Ferry, Jaclyn Grossman, Sterling Jarvis to name a few.
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
How has your company been able to continue to support and give artists a platform to share their work during this time?
As weeks and months passed by, the idea of returning to regular programming became less and less of a reality. This season, we’ve shifted our focus to our Residency and Community + Education Programs, and re-imagined the Rhubarb Festival as a performative publication. Additionally, we expanded our Queer Emerging Artist Award program to grant 20 $1500 prizes to emerging queer artists.
As we narrowed our focus this year in terms of artistic programming, we were able to increase artist fees and reduce work weeks for residency artists.
How have you been able to adapt to these circumstances?
We’ve pivoted a lot.
When the lockdown measures first came into effect in March 2020, we immediately began our “Queer Far Wherever You Are” programming - a daily Instagram Live takeover, which continued to June.
Our Pride Programming, which is typically a multi-week queer arts festival that hosts full-facility club nights, transformed into an offering of digital performances and outdoor events. We partnered with CBC to present “Queer Pride Inside,” a digital cabaret which featured queer creators from across Canada including: Heath V Salazar, Les Femmes Fatales, Beverly Glenn-Copeland. Alongside this was an offering of “analogue” projects — outdoor, in-person events, exhibitions, and activities that spanned the Greater Toronto Area.
But this all came with a huge learning curve, especially for our production and marketing departments. As a venued theatre company - we had to quickly adapt to film and digital media production (and we’re still building capacity in this). Much like other theatre spaces, we’ve sort of turned into a part-time film studio.
But we’re also using the time to look at how we work—what can be done differently, where can we build better processes for working, and how do we prepare our space for communities to be welcomed in.
We sense the future of live performance will be different and unconventional for crews, actors, and audiences, for some time, can you tell us what you think this could like for your company?
Absolutely—live performance will definitely be different for quite a bit of time.
As a company with a venue, we are going to have to deeply change our relationship with the space and how we engage with it—and with each other. Before COVID, we had club nights and full-facility parties, and that is something we will have to put on pause for a while.
As we prepare for the rollout of a vaccine, and start to welcome artists, crew, and audiences back into the space, there are going to be new expectations of us as a company. New health and safety expectations; new expectations around how we share this space and resources; new expectations in how we engage with artists.
At the end of the day, I believe there’s going to be a lot more consideration for our various communities at every level of planning and decision-making that looks at how we are sharing our space and resources with community.
While we know these are exceptionally difficulty times, has it given the theatre community time to reflect on what could be improved in independent theatre?
I think it’s important to articulate that conversations surrounding equity in the arts have been happening for a long time but both the pandemic and the reckoning with anti-Black racism brought these conversations to the fore, and this is particularly true for the theatre industry.
Conversations are happening. More folks with decision-making power are listening with more intent. The dial is turning. And I think change is inevitable—perhaps, mainly because a lot has changed and we’ve had to change with it (or at least we are faced with the choice to change).
And I think we’ve seen some pretty significant initiatives come out from theatre companies — resource sharing, new working models, new leadership, space-making. The tricky part is to maintain and sustain these changes and develop them further—and to resist falling back into old practices when our theatres open up again.
New work is always on the horizon, what future projects and artists are you most excited about?
Rhubarb Festival returns this month as a performative publication—capturing the essence of Canada’s longest-running new works festival in the form of a book.
Residency artists Yolanda Bonnell and Cole Alvis are further developing White Girls in Moccasins which interrogates the connection to one’s culture in a world of appropriation and colonial oppression. Justin Miller, another Residency artist, is working on a cli-fi disaster epic that also reflects on the past 10 months.
In the community, Obsidian Theatre is launching 21 Black Futures later this month; lemontree creation studios is working with Michael Caldwell on a new digital movement piece; and Theatre Passe Muraille presents 11:11 by Samson Bonkeabantu Brown.
Theatre Passe Muraille
How has your company been able to continue to support and give artists a platform to share their work during this time?
The theme of our season is #NavigatingTheNow, which means we are staying nimble and flexible as a company in order to support our artists and their ever-changing work during the pandemic. What’s been helpful is that Theatre Passe Muraille has always been committed to this. Many of our artist programs were already up and running prior to the pandemic. For example, #TPMBUZZ is a development series that offers selected theatre companies and artists our resources to develop their work in a way that is necessary for them. Prior to stricter lockdown procedures, one of the writers was able to use their week in the theatre as a writing space. For some companies, they had their team together on video call as they read-through and workshopped their scripts.
How have you been able to adapt to these circumstances?
Theatre Passe Muraille is an important venue and company that has offered a new and distinct voice in our industry since 1968. It has been challenging, but as mentioned before, we are committed to staying fluid and adaptable. The theatre community in Toronto is well connected, and there are also champions and organizations who advocate on our behalf. Our community is strong and supportive —Our Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign saw a significant increase this year compared to last year. Our team also meets regularly to communicate any changes and covid-19 related updates.
We sense the future of live performance will be different and unconventional for crews, actors, and audiences, for some time, can you tell us what you think this could look like for your company?
It’s really difficult to say. This is an answer we are trying to discover together with our artists and the TPM community. We are very interested in continuing our experimentation with the integration of digital programs. For example, through our Accessibility Labs project (supported by the Toronto Arts Council), we ran workshops on new ways of providing American Sign Language interpretation with the use of Augmented Reality equipment . The future of live performances will depend on new health & safety regulations, but it’ll also be dependent on our vision for it. A huge part of TPM’s mission is upgrading our program and spaces towards a more accessible future.
New work is always on the horizon, what future projects and artists are you most excited about?
I’m very excited for a production that was in workshop as part of #TPMBUZZ. Rubble is a show that is in development at our company-in-residence, Aluna theatre (with additional support from Pandemic Theatre and Nightwood Theatre). It takes place in Gaza, and the play creates a connection between what “theatre” represents as a venue and the voice of the late Palestinian National Poet, Mahmoud Darwish. I listened in on a video-call where the team did a full reading of the script and I already can’t wait for when this show eventually comes to life for audiences. The playwright, Suvendrini Lena, is also a neurologist who works at CAMH and Women’s College Hospital working on the front lines of Covid-19.