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Thank you so much for not going overboard with the praise for this show [The Blue Dragon]. This is the third Lepage production I've seen, and with each production my frustration mounts. Yes, Lepage creates lovely stage magic. But he seems to have trouble creating theatrical magic; that is, where the audience is moved or has at least one moment of emotional/spiritual transformation. Blue Dragon is the least successful of the three I have seen. The first Lepage show I saw was Polygraph. I walked out of that show thinking to myself, "You know, if I had the time and (particularly) the money, I'm pretty sure that I could create stage magic like that." Now, having seen Blue Dragon and having recently directed 36 VIEWS for Tempus Theatre, I'm even more convinced of this. There were theatrical tricks in Blue Dragon which were precisely what I was hoping to create for 36 VIEWS but could not because I just don't have the money to invest in technology, nor in the time it takes to experiment with the technology available to me. I may be biased, but I think 36 VIEWS was a much more powerful script than Blue Dragon. With the cuts that seem guaranteed to provincial arts funding, it seems highly likely that I and other British Columbian artists like me will never get the tools or support with which we could one-up Lepage with better stagecraft and better scripts. Regards,
Re: review of After Homelessness... I agree with Jerry Wasserman that the issues tackled by this show are difficult and complex. But as the Community Scribe to this project, I hope to allay his fear that no useful policy suggestions will come forward. On the contrary, I'm finding the audience's input a rich and rewarding source of new ideas and inspiration. As to quantity, on several occasions I've been mobbed after the show by audience members with more suggestions than could be received on stage. To be sure, some calls are echoed night after night: We must have a federal housing program with annual funding to develop and support co-ops once again, and offer tax incentives to build rental units for middle- and lower-income tenants. We must enforce existing standards of maintenance for rental housing. We must see our taxes used to develop and maintain a strong, healthy and educated citizenry, not a pliant consumer base. Other, more varied suggestions deal with operational policy. Some would see tent squatters offered safe, secure and appropriate housing before being evicted; or trained round-the-clock staff in all buildings with a preponderance of needy tenants. But there are different calls as well, usually aimed at developing human connection or awareness. Some of them make the audience squirm, perhaps because they seem naive, or too warm to be cool. Many would have us pay attention not only to the other person, but to our own feelings. They address our need to mourn, to trust others, and to take on responsibilities that we're used to leaving to the experts. These are the most difficult to translate into policy suggestions, but the task promises to be worth the effort. They hold answers to the central question of the play: What does it take to make a safe, appropriate home? Fortunately, more than a few of these ideas come with real-life examples of practice and success. It seems strange that we should need explicit directions about how to make environments that welcome us all. But that's the difficulty that we're confronting in this production. Thank goodness we have so many imaginative and thoughtful ideas in response. Gail Franklin
If my life in the theatre has taught me anything, it has taught me to go forth audaciously and manifest the worlds I want to see. Theatre, in short, has taught me to ACT. I'm sure you have heard the brutal news: 85%-92% of core provincial funding for Arts and Culture will be cut by 2012. Now, I've been up since 5 am and it is past midnight. I have a sick kid, and I'm expecting a rough night. There is a pile of laundry to fold on the chair to my left and I have two grants due the 15th that I have barely started yet. In short, I'm just like you, I don't have a minute to write letters to my mother, much less the government ... But I am asking you to do what I am doing tonight. I am stopping everything else in my life until I have told our leaders how I feel about the decimation of the arts and culture sector. I'll give the sound economic facts. I'll give the social reality. And I will give the personal testimony. I might say: I love Vancouver. I moved to this city/province/nation because of the incredible jaw-dropping creative acts I saw taking place in its theatre community. A kind of art which is only and uniquely born of this place. It couldn't happen in New York or London (both places I have lived). The theatre of this place stopped me cold. I was home. Acts of beauty mean everything to me. I feel sometimes that I only really live in the presence of art, music, theatre, dance, it is then that the outside world begins to resemble the inner world, truth, beauty, imagination made real ... I come out of the theatre, away from the gallery, raise my head out of a novel, and I am a better person, friend, mother, lover. Art restores me to who I am, and helps me imagine who I want to be. That is what Art does for me. That is what I cannot lose. At the rally the other day one of the speakers said, we won't see it right away, it will take two years maybe and all of a sudden it won't be there anymore. It’s not just these cuts, you see, it is the fact that the recession is hurting the foundation money, and the corporate money and the individual giving, perhaps because of those losses the demand on the Canada Council is going up, and therefore we are getting less funding from them. So when ALL your funding is shrinking and fading and you are strategizing and trying to still make it work and THEN you get the loss of Gaming and BC Arts Council? How can we go on? How can any of our companies, programs giving voice to youth, festivals, any of it, how can these things go on? Who who will save the arts? I will, dammit. And I hope you too. I am calling on you to act. Act if you love the arts. Act if you want to live in a vibrant city with festivals, happenings, lantern processions, free shows on the beach, all shows in the city. If you love Vancouver: ACT NOW. Attached is a pdf doc put out by the Alliance for Arts and Culture. It has stats for you to back up a simple argument that cutting the arts hurts us economically and socially. It’s two pages with lots of helpful headings and it gives you all of the addresses and email addresses of our leaders. Just skim it, it takes 10 seconds. Then act. Now is the moment. Write letters. Write as an audience member, as an emerging artist, as a board member, as a teacher, as a taxpayer, as a member of the business community who recognizes the importance of arts and culture. Join Alliance for Arts and Culture to get more info about future action. Pass on this message to everyone you know. Write your own to pass on. Take whatever creative action you can dream up. Dream big. Keep in touch. Let me know what I can do. Kendra Kendra Fanconi
Please forgive this mass email – but I am sending it out to those people who I know are great theatre lovers and fantastic audience members – or at the very least supporters of Michael and myself. You are all either friends or family. Thank you in advance for your patience and for reading this though. As I’m sure you have all heard, the arts is taking a massive hit in the most recent budget – with more cuts looming in the future (it has been stated that a 92% cut in Arts Funding is due next year). Just the other day some of the suggested cuts were re-instated – but in no way are we out of the woods…much more is coming down the pipe. Please be reassured - I KNOW these are tough times for EVERYONE – in many sectors and in all professions & walks of life - therefore, I don’t want to moan, nor do I wish to presume what your position / view is on the cuts that have been made (some of you will approve and some of you won’t) and - that’s ok - I am not writing to change your mind…I am a big believer in both “sustainability and making your own way” as well as support and funding! However, I am asking you - the other ½ of the theatre arts (our audience) - to step up to the plate and make some noise, if you are comfortable doing so. Frankly there is no such thing as theatre without an audience! If we did not have you, we would be no more than playing dress-up. Theatre is a collaborative art form – and it relies on the audience for it to exist. You, to be honest, are just as important as us (although sometimes we hate to admit it!!!). Here is what I know… many of my friends, colleagues are faced with a very very dire situation. The worst part is these massive cuts were unexpected – and leave little or no time for them to regroup and rethink and strategize and as a result the theatre community is scrambling! Many people will be laid off (many companies operate with only one or two staff), seasons will be cut back, shows will be cancelled and a number of the smaller companies will be forced to close their doors. This is a real shame – because Canada (Vancouver, in particular) is known for its abundance of small vibrant theatre companies who are doing groundbreaking and extraordinary work. That aside, not only does this leave the artist out of work, it also affects administrators, publicists, designers, technicians, seamstresses, painters, box office staff, etc, etc. Not to mention the people we do business with: local restaurants, lumber yards, paint stores, fabric stores, printing companies, website designers, marketing companies, accountants, venues, and so on. I also believe that tourism will be drastically affected. Culture is an important part of why people travel to a country. I know this simply because a): I travel when I can and I love a sexy place with lots of things to see and do….and b): when TNT was running, a large percentage of our audience was from out of town / country. The worst part of all of this is, of course, the effect it will have on families, their income, the ability to pay their rent, buy food, etc. Most of us – being self employed – are not eligible for EI. As a theatre artist, the Artistic Producer of a small theatre company, a lover of the arts and the very proud president of the Greater Vancouver Theatre Alliance (GVPTA), I feel I must do something – and to encourage those of you who I know love theatre to do whatever you are comfy with. So here are my solutions – ideas that I can pitch to you! If you have more ideas, please pass them on! If you love / support Theatre…pick as many as you like!
Thanks so much for reading through all of this. I appreciate it. Extra special thanks for being such huge supporters of Michael, me, Hoarse Raven Theatre and the community we work in. It means a lot to us. Truly. If none of the above ideas work for you – no worries! All is good! cheers and thanks. love Tanja Tanja Dixon-Warren
To contribute to the discussion of diversity on our stages, here is an excerpt from Des McAnuff's opening night speech for the Stratford Festival's current production of Macbeth: "It is my fervent belief that when we produce Shakespeare we should do exactly what he himself did. We should acknowledge and reflect our own current circumstances. We should find resonances between the past and the present – using the words of the former to shed light on the latter. And above all we should aim to transcend both past and present, in order to explore the plays’ only real setting: the unchanging but infinitely varied landscape of the human soul. Tonight’s production employs what is often called “non-traditional casting” -- a term that means, among other things, that “ethnically diverse” actors get to play Shakespearean roles other than Othello. This to me is a fundamental requirement for any theatre that presumes to call itself a leader in the Canada of the 21st century. The term “non-traditional” does raise the question of what we mean by “traditional.” I think that when some use the term “traditional” they really mean “Victorian,” for tradition unfortunately is often limited to the outer reaches of human memory. The Victorians were greatly concerned with “historic detail.” Our traditions here go much further back, to Shakespeare and beyond. And Shakespeare was an ‘eclecticist’ when it comes to questions of historic setting and, for that matter, casting. Shakespeare’s company was composed entirely of men and so I suppose one could argue that casting women in female roles is non-traditional casting. Ours is a multi-racial society – in fact, our closest metropolis, Toronto, is one of the most diverse cities in the world. If our audiences can’t find their own reflections on our stages, as Shakespeare’s audiences did on his, we cannot possibly claim to be speaking to Canadians today. The complexion of Canada has changed and continues to change, and we must change with it in order to stay at the forefront of our art. Think about it. Even the most literal-minded of audiences are willing to accept a painted backdrop as an indication of a mountain landscape, or a flat wooden floor as representative of the rocks and shoals of Prospero’s island. And yet to many of those same audiences, the idea of a black or Asian Hamlet or Henry V violates all credibility. I find that very limiting, and somewhat sad." Best,
Hello to My Dear Theatrical Friends and Colleagues, I can't believe I'm sending this email out. Round about 35 (about 6 years ago) my ego gave way to the actually very liberating notion that nobody really talks about me as much as I would like to think they do. However, enough has been said that after almost two years of misinformation I feel it's important to set the record straight. Why now? Because I've recently come across a couple of conversations that have made it evident that said misinformation has cost me a couple of theatrical opportunities. Contrary to what seems to be the popular opinion, I have not left the theatre. I never left the theatre. Theatre is a life-long addiction that's hard to beat. I took a break. Yes. I changed my relationship to my work. Yes. Did I leave the theatre? No. I simply recognized that change is a good thing. I left the helm of neworld in the most excellent and capable hands of Adrienne and Marcus who have made the place thrive and I'm fortunate that they let me hang on and still feel important. I transferred my AD skills to another passion in my life - helping young people. Being on the front lines of social work has actually re-ignited and deepened my creativity. Many of you have juggled other careers with theatre. For those of you who haven't, I highly recommend it. I'm a bit shaken by the enthusiasm with which some people say, “So, I hear you've left the biz.” I regret to inform you that I will continue to unleash my spoiled bourgeois psyche on the masses (well, dozens) of audience members who have the misfortune of being trapped in my presence. This past two years, while apparently retired from the theatre, I have helped produce HIVE2, I've directed My Acid Trip for Solo Collective, am co-writing the sequel to Ali and Ali, and have been developing Bollywood Wedding, which I will be directing this summer. If you have not put a thought to me in the past two years, please continue to do so. If, on the other hand, I happen to come up in conversation, please let people know that I am still alive and well and thoroughly in awe of myself. In fact, I am perpetually emerging. Much love,
Dear Jerry and Linda (and entire theatre community), As Michael and I close Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding after so many years, I find myself getting somewhat reflective and a little mushy….forgive me for this. I guess I feel that when thanks are due – they should be said! And thus I take a moment or two to thank all of those people who have made our lives so wonderful and exciting and incredibly full. I hope you don’t mind me using your site as a venue in which to do this. First off - I want to thank the two of you for all your support of Michael, Hoarse Raven Theatre and myself over the years. You have both been wonderful. Linda for creation and maintenance of your website and Jerry for being the fabulous HRT supporter that he is. And to both of you for simply supporting live theatre. Thank you so much….it is so appreciated – truly. I also want to thank the Vancouver theatre community as a whole Neither Michael nor I anticipated the emotional toll that closing the show would have on us and our family. It is extraordinarily overwhelming to be the recipient of the kindness and support that is so prevalent in our community. We have had emails, phone calls, letters – you name it – from many people that we have (and have not) worked with over the years. All unanimously ‘checking in’ and asking ‘are we okay’ / ‘can we help in any way’. It is a humbling thing – and I thank you all…from the bottom of my heart. I especially have to thank the amazing 1400 plus actors, crew, techies, designers, stage managers and production managers that we have worked with over the years (and believe me – we worked them hard!!!). I see our ‘alumni’ working all over the city, the country and the world – in theatre, TV, commercials and film. I am immensely proud to have been somehow part of their careers and to have watched them soar. It is a very cool thing. And to our audiences! As a company that operates without any funding or help in any way – we have survived (albeit barely) on our box office revenues. This reminds me constantly that Vancouver does have a passion for theatre and Vancouver loves what we do. Bottom line – TNT’s (and all our other shows) would not have lasted so long if the audience did not want to come! Again – this humbles me – and I have much to thank our audiences for. Finally, although TNT is closing, Hoarse Raven will continue. We will be downsized, smaller, and going back to producing plays in the way that we did when we first began. Essentially, Michael and I are a couple of plebs from East Van who simply want to put on shows. And I know that somehow, all will be ok. I often hear (when eavesdropping with a glass of wine!) that the Vancouver theatre scene is ‘closed’ / ‘difficult to get into,’ etc etc. I think this is rot and nonsense (forgive my frankness). From my experience…yes, our standards our high, and yes, we require people to work hard…but Vancouver theatre artists are the most kick-ass, kind, welcoming, open-minded, ethical and generous people I know. Michael and I deliberately chose to stay and work in Vancouver precisely for this reason and we are immensely grateful that we have raised our kids in a community such as this. I am proud to be part of it. Thank you all so very much for everything over the years. I am looking forward to quietly gardening and actually getting out to all your opening nights (we were so busy -we often didn’t have the time) – and most importantly to seeing all of you more often Again – thank you for everything. We consider ourselves privileged to walk and work in a community such as this. Cheers, PS: Please join us for our CLOSE THE BAR PAR-TAY on Sunday June 7. Tanja Dixon-Warren
2881 Kitchener Street Vancouver BC V5K 3E4
I just read the discussion on line [about acting and diversity on Vancouver’s stages]. It is very engaging and important. I’ve just agreed to work on a national project to open up diversity opportunities in auditions and casting. Recently, I’ve had some roadblocks put up getting a work developed featuring First Nations actors in traditionally white roles, but that is a topic for another day. A small correction for the record: None of the plays in the Playhouse 2008/2009 season had all-white casts. That’s not to say we are a good example of diversity on stage, but it is not true, as stated in one of your letters, that the shows were “all-white.” We need to correctly acknowledge efforts and results to keep things moving forward. Of the four plays picked by my predecessor, Glynis Leyshon, Frost/Nixon had three non-white actors; in Miss Julie two out of three were not white; one of the actors in Toronto, Mississippi is half Chinese, and there is a non-white actor in Top Girls. In Drowsy Chaperone, the one play I picked, there was one non-white actor as prescribed by the self-referential text, to which we happened to add another non-white actor in a prominent role. None of this was a goal – it probably should have been – but in a world of sometimes unintentional prejudice, it may be good to record the occasional unintentional inclusiveness as a small step forward. Max Reimer
I saw a show last night (Whale Riding Weather) and although I enjoyed it I was troubled. Today as I was walking down the street I saw a sea of faces and then it hit me - this was the 6th show I’d seen in four weeks that had an all-white cast and it is really starting to bug me. A quick look through the theatre directory on the web shows that this exclusive trend is rampant. One can argue that if it is a period piece like The Constant Wife at the Stanley Theatre, you have to cast all white because of the time period (although I don't agree with that). But look at all the shows that are playing or have just closed: Last Five Years and There Came a Gypsy Riding both at Jericho Arts Centre - all white; Three Viewings at Presentation House - all white; Skydive at the Arts Club - all white; Holy Mo at Pacific Theatre - all white; Toronto, Mississippi at the Playhouse - all white; Dial M for Murder at Metro Theatre - all white; Opening Night at Vagabond Players – all white; Art of Murder at the Gateway - all white. Of the shows that are on now I found only three—Altar Boyz (the Arts Club on tour), Basic Training at the Clutch, Lives Were Around Me at Battery Opera—in which you see a non-white face. [I can add Studio 58’s Bye Bye Birdie and the one performance of WEIGHTS on last Sunday at the Chan Centre. JW] If one of the jobs of theatre is to hold a mirror up to society, then I don't know what society they are reflecting because it is not like any I have seen anywhere in Greater Vancouver. And to be clear, I am not saying that local theatres should be doing Chinese or Black plays about the Chinese or Black 'experience' - it would just be nice to see some Chinese or Black faces on the local stages more regularly. Otherwise the theatre is going to become more and more unreal and exclusive and reflective of a society that doesn't exist anywhere in this city except on stage. Sincerely,
I was relieved to see David C. Jones share a concern I've had for some time. Vancouver's stages do not reflect the diversity in the greater community. I've witnessed a racial double standard in my own acting career. I am of Portuguese descent and have an "ethnic" look. I have been told when auditioning for more than one period piece that I looked too ethnic for the role. However, I have seen several non-ethnic white men be cast as Spanish or other "ethnic" parts repeatedly. Surprisingly, I haven't experienced this problem working in TV or film where I`ve played a variety of roles from Irish to Italian to Argentinian. As someone who grew up in Vancouver, I had never been in such a homogeneous group of peers until I started working in the theatre. A few years ago I gathered a group of high school friends together to watch a play I really loved. My diverse group of friends enjoyed the show but more than one remarked than they were the only non-white people in the audience that night. They didn't feel comfortable hanging around after, so we left. Since then, at most other recreational outings whether it be a concert or sports game, I still never encounter such a lack of diversity as I do when I go to the theatre. I`m not suggesting that I think people in the theatre community are racist. Far from it. But it seems strange that in a city as diverse as ours, there is so little variety on stage. It`s a missed opportunity. There are so many wonderful stories waiting to be told. The theatre needs the support of the community. Reflecting the community that supports it seems like the right thing to do. It probably wouldn't hurt to reach out to new audience members also. We could always use more bums in seats. Best regards,
David Jones comments in his letter about casting more visible minorities, saying it would be nice to see different faces on our stages. More than that, I think it's essential. I would go out on a limb here and say that most people I know, in management or artistic positions, also agree that it is necessary. So why doesn't it happen? I will tell you from my perspective as director (and I could also say as writer) I love the idea of diverse casting. And yet I don't do that much of it. Why? I will use the example of The Constant Wife here, because this was my most recent opportunity to cast anyone in Vancouver. Because I am not in town very much, all of this casting was done through discussions with the management of the Arts Club, via emails and phone. I started by putting forward the names of people I thought would be good in certain parts. The Arts Club responded by putting forward their own list. Mostly, they liked my list, which was based on my knowledge of who I knew, either by reputation or my experience working with them. Unfortunately, in this case, I couldn't get out to audition for it, so the remainder of the casting, i.e., those parts for which there wasn't an obvious perfect choice, was done through a kind of delicate negotiation, whereby the Arts Club would submit names and resumes to me, I would look them over, pull the ones I thought were suitable, and these we would discuss. Also, at the same time, I would call people I knew in Vancouver, people who had likely seen the candidates, and ask them about this or that actor, what they were like to work with, how reliable they were, what they were like with this kind of material, etc. In this whole process, not a single person of colour came to my mind, or anybody else's. Why? Why doesn't my mind go there? Am I that unimaginative? I must accept that I have certain prejudices, clearly. As for the Arts Club, they didn't submit anybody of colour to me as a candidate, either. So, in part, I think the Arts Club must accept they have a certain prejudice also. This prejudice, I want to assure you, is not out of active dislike or distaste for anyone, but out of habit. I am not in the habit of thinking of a black woman, for instance, for the part of a Maugham character, the wife of an established doctor, in a play set in London in 1928. I suspect the Arts Club is not in this habit either. I further suspect that there are many actors of colour who are also not in a habit of thinking this way. Nobody ever said to anybody, to my recollection, 'please, whatever happens, no people of colour in this play'. Instead, it is a kind of prejudice, maybe the worst kind, innocuous, bland, generic. Only the most imaginative person would see a Chinese actor playing the part of the very British mother, for instance, of a proper English girl. I wish that imaginative person was me. But I admit my mind doesn't automatically go there. I consider myself a creative and intelligent person, and I have been known to think 'outside the box', but to this day, I readily admit, I tend to respond, out of habit, to certain kinds of casting. I'd like to break this habit; I'd like to think of more non-traditional ways of casting. When I think about The Constant Wife, aside from my desire to put the very best possible people on stage, I can't think of a single good reason not to have had more diverse casting. Does it mean I will do more colour blind casting in the future? Yes and no. I have a great desire to redress the imbalance between actors on stage and the audience. At the moment we are only talking potential audience. The great majority of the Arts Club audience is white; at least it has been for The Constant Wife. I suspect this is because of the subject matter, the author, any number of things, but also because of the habit of white people going to the theatre more than, say, East Indians. So if you talk about what is actually true, in fact, and perhaps sadly, the casting of The Constant Wife very much reflects its audience. This can change; this change is not going to come because suddenly more and more diverse audiences will appear. This change will happen because somebody leads, and others follow. The leadership from this can come from people of colour, pushing for more diverse casting, it can come from audiences demanding it, it can come from directors casting in more diverse ways, it can come from management insisting that people colour be considered in non-traditional roles, it can come from acting schools enrolling more a more diverse cross-section of students, it can come from critics asking for diversity, and it can come from letters to editors such as this one by David Jones. I don't want to defend myself, really. I am to blame for my own shortcomings, one of them my complete lack of imagination in non-traditional casting. I'm not going to say that there aren't enough good actors of colour to fill these roles; the truth is, I don't know if there are or not, until I see them. I think theatres need to do a better job of pushing the colour-blind casting agenda, I think directors need to open their minds more, I think actors of colour need to see themselves in more non-traditional roles, and ask to be seen for them, I think acting schools should make their enrolments as diverse as possible. If all these things happen, we will see more diverse casting on our stages. If our theatre is to be relevant to a broader audience we must all open our minds. Ten years from now, a production of The Constant Wife at the Stanley Theatre could not only have a more racially diverse cast, but an equally diverse audience watching it. It's up to all of us. Morris Panych
I'm thrilled to see these letters on the website. I want you (and everyone ) to know that CAEA is taking a serious and hard look at the diversity issue on a national level. This initiative was spearheaded by members of the Vancouver Advisory, including David C. Jones and Valerie Sing Turner. At their urging, National Council has taken this up as a priority and we have spent a huge amount of time working to come up with policy which will address the very real desire to affect change in this area. There is no question that the make-up of contemporary society is by no means reflected on our stages and I believe that the health of our profession depends on a change in casting practices. As I write this, I have just finished 3 days of meetings where the equivalent of a full day was given over to identifying ways we as an association can help to facilitate this change. On a personal note, I often feel as though theatre is the last bastion for mono-ethnicity (I think I just made that term up - someone today said "Dead White Theatre"). If there was any other profession, particularly one as public as ours, where so few visible minorities were employed, there would be an absolute outcry. I can't even think of other disciplines within the entertainment industry with so little diversity. Dance, music, opera, film and television have all broken through these barriers years ago. The subject is a thorny one to be sure and even as I write this I'm wondering who I will offend and whether my terminology will get reactions. I know we're all diverse. I know that statistically, visible minorities aren't anymore; they're a majority. But you know, at some point you just have to put it out there and hope it makes sense and that more people will embrace the change that needs to come. Our world will be richer for it and in the end one can hope it will make theatre a growth industry, instead of one struggling to survive. Annabel Kershaw
I am so happy this is being discussed. I don't want to keep hogging space but I wanted to add a few things based on my time on the Equity Advisory and the diversity forum I produced with Ian Farthing and Valerie Sing Turner about five years ago. In terms of schooling there is a bit of a chicken / egg situation. Directors want to cast diverse - but there are not enough diverse actors - because not enough of them go get proper professional training - young diverse people go with their high school to see a show at the Arts Club or Playhouse - they get touched by the magic of performance art - they consider getting training - then they notice the cast is all white - realize there is no career for people like them - so they don't get training and therefore there are no diverse actors to cast. So how do we solve that? In terms of the actor fitting the role we see examples of unique or diverse casting that succeeds all the time. Jack Paterson often casts women in male roles in his Shakespeare plays at the Jericho Arts Centre. When James Fagan Tait did the period play A Christmas Carol he did it with south Asians and the amazing and black Tom Pickett as Marley. Even the Arts Club cast historical figure Eva Peron in Evita - a white blonde woman in real life - with the stunning and black Lovena Fox. But these are the exceptions and in the meantime dozens of all white shows are produced. More disturbing to me is I just noticed three upcoming productions being put on by recent acting school grads at Havana, the Firehall and PAL, each with a cast of five or more, featuring all white casts. Are these young artists emulating their mentors? Do they think that is what real theatre should look like? White. I don't think they are being racists and it could be that they tried to cast colour blind and couldn't. But it can also be the unintentional assumption our veteran artist are imprinting on our younger up and comers. Theatre shows must be cast with all white people. That's what the big kids do. One of the comments that came out of a diversity forum is that many high schools are 60% or more non-white and that inter-racial dating is more and more the norm. Because of this change in our cultural make-up there has been a tipping point - whereas older generations would notice colour - younger generations notice an absence of colour. That is why we are going to lose the audiences of tomorrow - theatre will look more and more unreal to them. Again I am not talking about doing shows about being Indian or Vietnamese. That is often an excuse for lack of diversity - 'where are the indian writers?' The comment that was made at the forum was young people need Skytrain shows. When they ride the train they see a sea of diverse faces. When they see a show they don't. They don't want a show about being ethnic - they just want to see their world they live in on stage. Last comments and I promise I won't write anymore so others can weigh in. I believe when people go see a play - they kind of know that the actors are acting. Especially young audiences. We will accept what is put in front of us if it is telling a compelling story. The Studio 58 production of Bye Bye Birdie featured many Asian actors and a black actress as the mother. I didn't see too many people asking for an explanation or for their money back. They get that it's actors acting as the characters. That's why we didn't mind a diverse Evita or Jacob Marley. To make the argument that the actor has to fit the role physically can be extrapolated down to say that if you are casting the part of a murderer you can only cast an actor who has actually killed someone! I have heard British shows and companies like the RSC have unofficially mandated diversity on their stages. I think if we don't start doing so in Vancouver and Canada we are in danger of losing the next generation of audiences. Let’s keep shining a light on this issue. David C. Jones
As an artist of colour in the Vancouver theatre scene, I'd like to throw out a few thoughts on this important issue that the intrepid David C. Jones has brought to your and your readers' attention. First of all, I'd like everyone to consider throwing away labels such as "colour-blind" and "non-traditional" casting. When I'm on stage, there's no way for me to pretend I'm white when I play a character that might originally have been written with a white actor in mind, nor would I want to pretend; my ethnicity adds uniqueness, more layers of complexity and a heretofore unmined richness to an already well-known story -- if the director has the imagination to see those possibilities. And to think that an audience is "blind" to colour is ludicrous and disingenuous at the same time. As for the term "non-traditional," there's a negative implication that to cast diverse actors goes against tradition, but one must ask, exactly whose tradition is that? In Asia and other non-white societies, they have a long tradition of casting non-white actors in plays written by western European and North American writers, and they don't think it strange at all to have, say, a Chinese Hamlet or a South Asian Nora. Only in Canada, it seems, do we have a tradition of persistently creating an oddly unreal world populated only by white people. So in discussions regarding (lack of) diversity, my vote is for "contemporary casting," which has the positive connotation of reflecting contemporary society and therefore making the work relevant to contemporary society. Like David, I don’t believe it is most people's intention to be exclusive; it’s just that very few people make much of an effort to be inclusive. At a time when it is generally acknowledged that theatre’s traditional audience of predominantly white upper- and middle-class patrons is greying and urgently needs to be replaced, the lack of recognition of the need to make Canadian theatre relevant to a younger, more diverse audience is unfortunate. Statistics Canada has forecast that by 2017 -- only 8 years from now! -- the so-called visible minority will be the visible majority, particularly in Canada’s urban centres. It is ironic that in a city whose glorious diversity is a fact of our everyday lives, such reality remains invisible, rather than visible, on Vancouver's stages. I think about this issue a lot. I have to. People make judgements about me - good and bad - just by looking at my face. So at yet another recent discussion about diversity, this time with Canadian Actors' Equity's Council, I had something of an epiphany: I would venture to say that 95% of what passes for "Canadian" theatre is actually white identity theatre. We all know what identity theatre is. If a production has a black playwright, with a black director and a predominantly black cast, it's black identity theatre. Same idea whether it's Asian, Aboriginal, South Asian, you name it. So if there's a white playwright, a white director and a predominantly (or usually exclusively) white cast, then it's white identity theatre. (And probably 80% of that is white male identity theatre, but that's a whole other discussion.) But that's OK: there's a place for white identity theatre, just as there is for black/asian/aboriginal/south asian/everything-else identity theatre in the theatre ecology, because all those stories need to be told. But please, just put a sign on your door, put it in your mandate and in your grant proposals and have the courage to declare that that's the kind of theatre you're interested in doing. Please don't pretend you're producing Canadian theatre. And please don’t suggest that there isn’t enough talent among the visible minority; that is a specious and insulting argument. I know many talented actors of colour who toil away in undeserved obscurity. As one young black actor said to me, “My parents warned me that I would have to be 10 times as good as a white actor in order just to get noticed.” Case in point: I attended the tribute to Lorena Gale at the Firehall on Monday night, and I was thrilled by the number of talented artists of colour onstage, as well as the incredible diversity of the nearly full house. The talent is out there; it’s just that few people are willing to look. And in a world where white and inter-racial couples adopt children from Asia and Africa, there are absolutely no limitations as to who can play what -– except in our imaginations. So the real question isn't why isn't there enough diversity on Canadian stages. The real question is, why do we produce theatre? What is theatre’s raison d’être for present-day Canadians? Is it merely to entertain? To provide a pleasant distraction? To provide an alternative for those consumer dollars? These are all valid reasons, but as an idealist, I believe that at its best theatre can resonate within its audiences in both small and profound ways that provoke change for the better in ourselves as individuals and as a society. So what message are we conveying to our audiences when we exclude nearly 50% of our society from the stage? How can we open people’s minds to other possibilities if the world we present doesn’t reflect their own? And who are we not reaching? What limitations are we unwittingly imposing on ourselves if we fail to make ourselves relevant to the youth of this country who take a diversified world for granted, and who don’t go to theatre because they don’t recognize the world they live in? I realize this is getting long, but bear with me, Jerry, for one last thought. I think the critics in this country need to be more pro-active in contextualizing the merits of the productions they review in terms of the individual production's relevancy to today's audiences. I mean, I get tired of seeing the same old stories presented from the same old predominantly white perspective, and I wonder if you get a little weary about that too, since you see many more shows than I do. So my challenge to you and your colleagues is to try to view and review the work through a slightly different lens and comment on a particular play's appeal and resonance to a wider, more diverse contemporary audience. C'mon, start a revolution: I thought theatre and the arts were supposed to lead the way to a more progressive society, and you guys have the power to help Canadian theatre find its way. Oh, and thanks, Jerry, for providing a great forum for this discussion. I guess you're already helping! Cheers, Valerie Sing Turner
Smart minds weighing in on this issue indeed and all these observations are valid - as well as the fact that Vancouver has lots of great theatre companies for whom diverse casting is part of their nature. One example of many is - to toot my own horn - neworldtheatre's production of Crime and Punishment. I picked this one as it's an example of a classical piece that may normally be entirely populated by people whose ethnic background might be ... I don't know, English, Irish, German .... In all honesty though, I can't believe we're still even discussing this issue. I love the theatre, but please indulge me with a general statement: echoing what David said, we're supposed to be reflecting the world around us. But sometimes we get so caught up in our own theatre world, we lose sight of the world around the world around us. These days, when I'm asked about the issue of diversity, I reply with a poem I've written. I offer this poem here. It's sincere and does not make light of the issue. I'm just tired of talking about these issues as if it's still 1989. olive is my colour i'm vancouverite iranian and muslim too my line is aryan and arab mixed in there my son is part armenian with a dash of egyptian so you can label me coloured or caucasian classified i'm a passionate man with a feminine side Peace,
Four years ago I was part of a company that produced Normand Chaurette's Fragments of a Farewell Letter Read by Geologists. One of the parts we were looking to cast was that of a scientist in Cambodia. It's a challenging role with a long monologue that ends the play. We called around to directors and companies asking for names of Asian actors they could recommend. One of the most common reactions was, "It's gonna be hard to find a strong Asian male for the role." I thought that was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard. This is Vancouver! Are you crazy? So we placed an ad, and put a call out to talent agencies. Most of the submissions we received were from actors who work almost exclusively in film and tv. (We noticed that a lot of these actors had gone to theatre school but had limited professional experience in theatre.) After seeing the auditions we had no problem finding a strong actor to play the role. The person we eventually cast was the actor Ronin Wong and he gave an exceptional performance every night. Jerry reviewed the show and highlighted the strength of Ronin's performance saying, his "elegant performance made me wonder why I haven’t seen this guy on a local stage for years." I think the answer is that nobody was offering him a gig. My impression from this and other experiences is that there are many actors of colour who would like to get more parts in the theatre but they just aren't getting the work. When these actors graduate from theatre school they go to the generals, they self-produce shows trying to get noticed. But all too often these talents don't get cast in professional theatre and end up working in film and tv. I don't buy the argument that there is no pool of talented actors of colour. I believe the theatre schools are genuinely trying to select a diverse ensemble and most student shows reflect that more so than professional ones. I really think the onus is on the big professional companies. They receive a lot of public funding from the greater community. They should feel an obligation and responsibility to address the lack of diversity on our stages. Not every English play has to look like a Merchant-Ivory production. This is one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world. That's a huge potential asset and many of these big companies just don't seem to get it yet. But I'm hopeful things are going to improve soon. If only because we are having this discussion. Thanks again,
Have been following with interest the discussion on colour-blind casting and I would like to add another perspective. Casting people of different ethnicities, regardless of the ostensible ethnicity of the part(s), is one thing -- and certainly something we could collectively work toward achieving. Having grown up in Asia, I attest to how natural it can seem for a Chinese person to play Juliet, or a South Asian person to play Tybalt. I clearly remember a professional production of R&J two decades ago in Malaysia - a multicultural society - in which not only was the entire cast drawn from the local acting pool, but Tybalt was played by a woman and the Nurse by a man. Was it a decent production? Yes. Was it well attended? Yes. Did the casting seem, considering the context, perfectly appropriate? Yes. Mounting productions with parts written for people of various ethnicities - with characters named "John Kim" or "Priya Kumar" - is quite another thing and, I would argue, an equally important step toward achieving more representation in the Metro Vancouver theatre scene. (One letter-writer in this discussion touched on shows about the ethnic "experience," and from where I'm at there's more than enough of that still going around!) There are more performers of different ethnicities now than perhaps a decade ago, but there are still few ethnic writers who create work about the contemporary Canadian experience from an ethnic perspective, never mind a Vancouver perspective. And if they did, who would produce it? Self-producing without the non-profit umbrella is a hell of a gauntlet to run, and I speak from experience -- not that it's impossible, but I digress. Some have suggested in this discussion that ethnic communities in Vancouver do not support theatre. While in Toronto last summer I attended the "Potluck Festival," a script-reading festival of new work by Asian Canadian emerging playwrights -- an annual affair now in its sixth year from the fu-GEN Asian Canadian theatre company at Factory Theatre, and well-attended by a diverse audience. I liked the calibre of the work and was surprised that there were few semi-professional or professional ethnic theatre companies in Vancouver that had achieved anything similar, notwithstanding some well-attended productions at the community theatre level here: Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre in Vancouver and Apna Community Theatre in Surrey, to name a couple. For this we - and by this, I mean the ethnic communities in Vancouver - may have few to blame but ourselves, an entirely different and interesting discussion in its own right. Some have suggested in their letters that theatre casting and production in Vancouver may reflect the proclivities of its audience. With the caveat that the work - and the actors - are decent, and that the marketing and promotional machine is targeting the right demographic, I respectfully submit that if you build it, they will come: if people of colour see more people of colour in the cast, if they see productions that speak more to a Canadian experience they can relate with, including shows that - gasp! - may even possess a multicultural sensibility in their poetic choices, they would be more inclined to come on down and check it out. This includes that elusive "young" set who think Pride & Prejudice is, like, just a movie with Kiera Knightley. As an Asian Canadian female playwright, I have been writing and co-producing original work for the past few years that is consciously contemporary, multicultural, and set-in-Vancouver, out of the Playwrights Theatre Centre. Three years ago we started with a two-hander and four shows; we sold out one, primarily to an ethnic audience. Last year we mounted a production with a cast of eight and six shows; we sold out two, to a more diverse audience. This year we mount our third full (so far, all have been non-Equity) production, and if the trend holds we hope to do better in every way than we did last year. And on it goes. This is a fight that must be waged on all fronts, and I'm encouraged that awareness and (some!) action is the beginning of actual change. But it's a pretty long road, and it sure as heck don't end in Tipperary. Thanks for having this discussion. Vancouverplays.com has my money! Grace Chin
I've been following the letters to the editor that are talking about casting with diversity in mind. Perhaps a better phrase would be casting with 'real life in mind.' As AD of Theatre Terrific, a company that works with all kinds of diversity in performers, it's such a tiresome topic. There is such a strong "entitlement" element in theatre in general. My view is that theatre speaks to universal issues that we all have a democratic stake in. Love, hate, family, war, sex, work, ad infinitum. Where we fail is that we assume that these issues are spoken by and interpreted correctly and, above all, safely for our ears and in our idiom by the predominant Caucasian intellectual biped. What does an Asian man have to do with us? What does a man with Down Syndrome have to do with us? Why watch a quadriplegic woman portray Cleopatra? That's just charity. What is forgotten is that this 'us' is 'we' and that 'we' includes every human being. What we fail to recognize is that our deep universal human concerns are universally owned by every single human being. Where we fail is that we do not value and/or are uncomfortable seeing and hearing 'our' vital issues addressed in ways/ forms/ words/ sounds/ movements that are not familiar to us. We are stuck in the assumption that normality of race, movement, intellect, etc is the epitome. Artistically, that is rather gutless and a sad narrow state of affairs. We should know better. We should celebrate differences and actively seek them out. Without them the world and art in general would be one very beige place. Theatre is supposed to be subversive and testy. When it falls into comfortable, we are well into the beige stage! A quote from over a century ago:
A 34-year-old Asian man with Down Syndrome. A young woman living with quadriplegia. A 55-year-old wife/mother. They tackle sexual worth with humor, anger and heart. That's what I call gutsy diversity. Come see The Glass Box. It ends Saturday at PTC. We're diverse and we're here. Thanks for the opportunity to express some thoughts. Sincerely,
Onstage, I have played a white sheep named Snowy. Ah, the Magic of The Theatre; People’ll believe anything! Currently, I’m out working in the rest of the world where they seem to be quite a bit further along on this “issue” (to wit; Yanna MacIntosh, an actor with silky dark brown skin, is playing Calpurnia, Titantia and Lady M at Stratford this season). I’ll write more when I’ve time to gather my thoughts. They’re scattered back over the past THIRTY YEARS!!! that I’ve been forced to engage (and re-engage) with this not-so-merry-go-round. And sorry for the curt edge; it’s been sharpened by the ignorance, fear, judgment and backward thinking of others who often wilfully use their God-given intelligence to find justification for excluding me and others like me from Mother Theatre, rather than embracing the Wondrousness we have to contribute. You know who you are. P.S. Morris! I’m available for hire, anytime, anyplace pal. Ciao, ciao All, "If we cannot now end our differences,
Weighing in on this conversation late but glad (and frustrated like some of you) that the conversation is "still happening." I agree with Camyar - it feels something like the '80s (enjoyed the poem, BTW). Those who have been around that long know that I was very involved in local theatre activism, including the diversity issue, in the 80s and 90s through both Equity and PACT. It got too tiring, though, having the same conversations over and over and over again. And so, not wanting to repeat any of the wonderful things that have been said in these letters, allow me to add this: I am pleased to say that Headlines has reflected the diversity of the world around us in office staffing, Board membership, casting, and the kinds of stories that get told for the last 25 years of the company's 28 year history. Other small companies, as has been mentioned, manage to do the same. It isn't rocket science. It is well beyond time to stop angsting about it (if others would do "x" then we could do "y"), and get on with the simple task of catching up to the general public and having local theatre production reflect the diversity of the taxpayers. This might sound harsh, but there is a practicality to it. Come to a Headlines show....our ever-transforming audience looks and sounds like the UN. Thanks for opening up the space, Jerry. All the best to all, David Diamond
I have been listening to the conversation about colour-blind casting and am grateful for it. Although Presentation House doesn’t always cast non-white actors in its shows, we are passionately committed to bringing culturally diverse voices to our stage. We currently have Patti Flather’s Where the River Meets the Sea up and running, which features four First Nations performers, but we are having difficulty attracting press. And it makes me mad that they ignore them, that they marginalize them. As Valerie Sing Turner so eloquently put it, “perhaps they should try to view and review the work through a slightly different lens and comment on a particular play's appeal and resonance to a wider, more diverse contemporary audience.” So it seems that First Nations people are still marginalized, even in the arts. I feel so passionately about supporting Aboriginal people in Canada because they have suffered greatly at the hands of colonialism. Their stories have been silenced for too long and my heart tells me that we all need to listen to them. “Nobody ever said to anybody, to my recollection, 'please, whatever happens, no people of colour in this play'. Instead, it is a kind of prejudice, maybe the worst kind, innocuous, bland, generic.” -- Morris Panych “I think the critics in this country need to be more pro-active in contextualizing the merits of the productions they review in terms of the individual production's relevancy to today's audiences.” -- Valerie Sing Turner The real question is, why do we produce theatre? What is theatre’s raison d’être for present-day Canadians? Is it merely to entertain? To provide a pleasant distraction? To provide an alternative for those consumer dollars? These are all valid reasons, but as an idealist, I believe that at its best theatre can resonate within its audiences in both small and profound ways that provoke change for the better in ourselves as individuals and as a society. So what message are we conveying to our audiences when we exclude nearly 50% of our society from the stage? Brenda Leadley
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Hello Jerry, 
