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1560-EQ Fall 10 MAG.Indd EQUITY QUARTERLY FALL 2010 HOW WE GOT TO HERE BLACK THEATRE WORKSHOP TURNS 40 EQ CANADIAN THEATRE TIMELINE Cool Canadiana We’ve come a long way, baby! IT STARTED AS A WAY TO BOLSTER THE SPIRITS OF THE FIRST EUROPEAN SETTLERS - AND SINCE THEN CANADIAN LIVE PERFORMANCE HAS EVOLVED TO TACKLE THE ISSUES OF THE DAY AND PUT CANADIAN PRODUCTIONS ON THE MAP. WE’VE COME A LONG WAY FROM WHEN FOREIGN TOURING COMPANIES DOMINATED OUR STAGES, BUT WE HAVE A WAY TO GO YET TO ENSURE THE VOICES OF ABORIGINAL AND OTHER DIVERSE COMMUNITIES ARE HEARD ON OUR STAGES. Early Colonial Period 1500-1700 Late Colonial Period 1700-1900 1583 1606-1607 1694 1780 Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s company of Under the direction of Samuel de Bishop Saint-Vallier bans a production Les Jeunes Messieurs Canadiens is mummers comes to the New World Champlain, Marc Lescarbot creates of Molière’s Tartuffe in New France and founded in Montreal Le Théâtre de Neptune en la Nouvelle- the lead actor is excommunicated for France blasphemy EQUITY QUARTERLY FALL 2010 EQ VOLUME 4 NUMBER 3 2 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Showcasing the 6 3 NOTES FROM ARDEN R. RYSHPAN African-Canadian 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR experience 5 EQ MOVES 16 EQ&A 8 A brief history of 17 EQ BACKSTAGE Canadian theatre 18 FONDLY REMEMBERED 20 EQ CLASSIFIEDS 12 Cool Canadiana 21 EQ FLASHBACK Equity members are encouraged to submit ideas for articles, memorial notices and letters to the editor Coming issue: WINTER 2011 via email ([email protected]) or on disk with accompanying hard copy. The copy deadline for submissions is Subscriptions are available at an annual rate of $35, including GST. EQ Friday, October 29, 2010. EQ reserves the right to edit for length, style and content. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40038615 FALL 2010 – volume 4, Number 3 EQ Equity Quarterly (ISSN 1913-2190) is a forum to communicate to Equity members the activities of EQ is published four times a year by Canadian Actors’ Equity association. EXECUTIVE EDITOR Lynn McQueen the Association and issues of concern to the Association. With the exception of the editorial staff, the National Offi ce views expressed in solicited or unsolicited articles are not necessarily the views of the Association. 44 Victoria Street, 12th Floor, Toronto, ON M5C 3C4 EDITOR Barb Farwell Tel: 416-867-9165 | Fax: 416-867-9246 | Toll-free: 1-800-387-1856 (members only) Canadian Actors’ Equity Association (Equity) is the voice of professional artists working in live [email protected] | www.caea.com DESIGN & LAYOUT Chris Simeon, performance in English Canada. We represent more than 5,500 performers, directors, choreographers, September Creative Western Offi ce fi ght directors and stage managers working in theatre, opera and dance, and support their creative efforts 736 Granville Street, Suite 510, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1G3 by seeking to improve their working conditions and opportunities by negotiating and administering Tel: 604-682-6173 | 604-682-6174 | Toll free: 1-877-682-6173 (members only) collective agreements, providing benefi t plans, information and support and acting as an advocate. woffi [email protected] COVER AND INSIDE FRONT COVER: Our take on two national stereotypes. Images of our theatre history throughout the magazine are from a special photography exhibit created in honour of Equity’s 25th Anniversary in 2001 ABOVE: (L to R) Joel Wirkkunen, Jonathan Sutton, Peter Anderson, Malcolm Scott and Peter Grier in the 1999 Vancouver Playhouse Theatre production of The Overcoat Late Colonial Period 1700-1900 1788 1785 1825 1825 Officers in the military create The Garrison Allen’s Company of Comedians is the first Théâtre Royal is built in Montreal Royal Circus opens in Quebec Amateurs in Halifax professional English theatre company to settle in Quebec FALL 2010 EQUITY QUARTERLY 1 President’s message One of the undercurrents of almost every discussion about the state of Canadian theatre is this undeniable reality: The theatre “pie” across this country is not large enough to sustain all those who wish to feed themselves from it. The situation gets better or worse in modest measure with shifts in the country’s economy, but it is a chronic condition. It was true when most of us joined and, regrettably, there is no sign that it is going to improve any time soon. Notable exceptions are mostly regional and short-lived (a municipal Centennial, Olympics, etc.), and largely driven by politi- cal motivation that flickers out along with the final celebratory firework. Not only is the theatre-pie problem a perpetual one, but it has been getting steadily worse. Accord- ing to a study* based on the 2006 census data (goodbye, compulsory long form) conducted by Hill Strategies Research: “The number of artists in Canada grew much more quickly than the overall labour force between 1971 and 2006. There were three-and-a-half times as many artists in 2006 as in 1971. This is a much higher increase than the doubling of the overall labour force.” In other words, for the 35 years prior ending in 2006, the growth in the artistic workforce was about 75% greater than that in the workforce as a whole. Has anyone noticed a parallel increase of 75% in artistic opportunity and income over that time? Hello? Anyone? If anything, the stats show the opposite. Over the last 15 years of the study period, artist income actually declined by 11%, compared to an overall earnings increase of 9% in the same timeframe. Faced with the reality of not enough theatre pie to go around, many artists have begun to bake their own – witness the growth of independent theatre. But as innovative and proactive as that approach may seem, it too is problematic. Theatre costs a lot to produce, and it doesn’t bring in a lot of money. For many artists, the principal benefit is a fleeting opportunity to do the work they love, but still not enough consistent income to be able to pay rent or a mortgage, buy groceries or raise children. Sometimes these small projects blossom into larger, more remunerative ones, but those occasions are unfortunately exceptional. And yet, it is important to continue doing that kind of work. As part of the review of independent theatre, members will be asked to make critical decisions about the future of their organization and about what we, as artists, expect of a career in Canadian theatre. We need to enable and nurture grassroots work and, at the same time, we need to secure the protec- tions and benefits that provide us with the rare opportunity to earn a livelihood in this all too tenuous profession. Without either, we risk losing a key part of the tapestry of artistic excellence of which we are so justifiably proud. What does the future of Canadian theatre look like? You decide. Allan Teichman, President *www.hillstrategies.com/docs/Artists_Canada2006.pdf 1887 1873-1892 First stock theatre company appears in Winnipeg and lasts one season 1868-1900 40 theatres with a capacity of over 1,000 seats are built across Canada, all linked 1860 116 plays by Quebec playwrights are by rail Black patrons sitting in the main section published, of which only 40 are ever of Victoria’s Colonial Theatre are attacked performed FALL 2010 by whites who want them restricted to balcony seating 2 EQUITY QUARTERLY Notes from Arden R. Ryshpan Maintaining a space for Canadian content is one of the biggest challenges faced by the arts and culture sector. While we have embraced our fiction writers and musicians with enthusiasm (and to some degree our visual artists), there is still a hesitation among the general public to choose Canadian stories on the stage and screen. “Oh brother, here comes the moose…” you can hear your average Canadian thinking when they are asked to see a Canadian play or film. I don’t know why. We actually make a significant number of high quality productions in this country, both live and recorded. Lest anyone have any notions about say, the superiority of the British industry, I urge you to spend an evening in front of the telly the next time you are in London. Not everything deserves to be exported. And what makes a production “Canadian?” Surely, it means that it is made by Canadians who, regardless of the subject matter, are likely to explain it filtered through their life experience in this country. That sounds “Canadian” to me. I recognize the challenges that come with programming new works. The aver- age audience member has no idea if it is going to be good or not, especially if it comes from a new playwright. And when both their disposable income and available time are at a premium, they are likely to be selective about where they spend their dollars. Many seem to prefer to choose the tried and true rather than the new and different. Every artistic director ultimately needs to put a certain number of bums in seats if they wish to keep the doors open. Looking for the balance between “no risk – less risk – high risk” is not an enviable task. As funds become increasingly precious, the cash to develop new works gets meted out in smaller doses. There are theatres and companies all over this country doing yeoman’s work to bring new work to the stage and they should be commended for it. But a lack of a coherent government policy to create new works means that the financial burden has been downloaded to the creators themselves, who often work for little or no money to birth the project.
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