“I really miss the live feedback from an audience, that energy; the shared experience of people coming together in a space and breathing, gasping, laughing together (you know, all the risky and dangerous stuff right now). Heck, I even miss the oblivious patron unwrapping candy at the most inopportune moment…”
Read More“Art is always changing. Art has to change so the shows we do at the Segal will reflect the time and the artists we want to work with. We’ll see what makes sense for us to keep doing or what doesn’t.”
Read More“I miss watching other actors work or at work. I miss how a director works. I love Tech Week and I miss Tech Week. Some of us from Vancouver once a month will participate in Zoom calls and just to talk stuff. I miss the critical thought about the work.”
Read More“I am in awe of many of the younger artists I know who seem to have thrown themselves into creating art other than theatre - they're writing, making music, putting out content on line or in other interesting ways. Maybe it would be to take this time to "meet yourself" outside of your art.”
Read More“Community theatre is theatre. School plays are theatre. Theatre as a hobby is no less valuable than theatre as a calling (this idea was anathema to me until embarrassingly recently). Theatre schools make great, smart, engaged, justice-seeking, art-loving PEOPLE, regardless of whether they stay in the industry. So, I would tell a new graduate, if you want to pursue other skills right now, that is not a failure. Life is long.”
Read More“I don’t know if I consider myself one capable of giving sage advice, but my chief offering would be to be kind to yourself. It’s an occupational hazard of being an artist that a massive amount of your time is not spent being an artist. It’s the work and trying to find the time to share the art.”
Read More“My heart breaks for the whole community and all the communities. Nothing specific, but I think we need to remind ourselves that we’re doing okay. If we’re still here and we’re still showing up in the middle of this chaos, we’re doing okay. We are…Hang in there.”
Read More“For artists, our own relationship with theatre will have changed. It can be tiring, exhausting. There are many positives about it, but within the professional theatrical community you can forget as a job what you loved about theatre, what’s special about it. I think there’s going to be a renewed sense of passion for theatre since we’re going to be away from it for a long time.”
Read More“All of these opportunities working with students on the cusp of graduating into the unknown have been so valuable and inspiring as to what I’m getting from them rather than the other way around. I know that sounds cliched to say, but I’ve found these students to be so versatile and adaptable.”
Read More“If there’s a definitive in this, it’s the fact we are all in this together. The enemy is no longer each other; I say that with condition as not everyone is on board with that. But I do feel what this brings home is that truly we are all in this together.”
Read More“Once there’s a safe vaccine in place, people will be craving to go back into the theatre. They will want to see something live. There’s a need for live story telling. I have to believe that.”
Read MoreThe advantage of graduating now during this pandemic is that there will be something new at the end of all this…The new theatre school graduates will be adapting to a whole new different world. Whatever the industry is, they will be the children of it
Read More“You are not your career. Your value as an artist has nothing to do with your employment or your peers’ vision of success. Stay disciplined and joyful in your art and make every obstacle an opportunity for creativity.”
Read More“Theatre is a marginal industry during the best of these situations, and I suspect people will use this as an excuse not to return. We’ll need to be wildly imaginative to lure them back and I think the entire structure as it exists across the country now will be changed.”
Read More“Like thousands of other actors who work predominately in the theatre, I have devoted the whole of my professional life to developing competence in a very specialized set of skills. To have the marketability of those skills (and as a result my ability to earn a living) disappear overnight is frightening. But I’m trying to keep my chin up, and mainly succeeding.”
Read More“I hope with the sort of wake up with the racial inequities of the world, theatre will be more conscious of what it means to be an equitable space for all people. It really goes beyond just saying a bunch of nice things but implementing things in how they run their theatre companies and who makes up theatre companies.”
Read More“Take this time to reflect on how we treat each other, and how we’ve been treating each other while we have time…and we have lots of time right now.”
Read More“For artists of colour:. . .Just because people talk about changes in the industry, you can’t change people’s mindset overnight. Those people aren’t going to vanish from the theatre industry… You need to go out there and be able to show them, “No, no, no. I’m that good. You should take a second look at me.” Use this time to get all that done.”
Read More“Spring will come again….this pause is an opportunity to really focus on what about this business really fuels you. What can you do to change it and make it a more just and equitable and comfortable space for all performers. Especially your colleagues and friends of colour.”
Read More“My advice for recent grads is to recognize that this death has levelled the playing field. None of us know the way forward, and the most senior arts leader doesn’t have any better strategies for the future than a recent theatre grad (who may in fact have more objectivity on what could be possible).”
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