What Support?!

I'm sitting in a cafe with a group of artists and the thread of the conversation is miserable
"The government does not support the arts.  There is not enough funding. Arts never get money" etc.

I'm arriving early to a staged reading I'm performing in.  I'm arriving early to sit in the audience and support the other two groups which go on before me.  The house is moderately full (as full as 25 seats will let you be).  I'm enjoying listening to these other new Canadian Plays.  After the first read I note the company, having done their reading, leave the venue.  Following the second act I note the same thing of this company.  I climb onto my stool to read for the audience. The house is less than moderately full, having lost half of it in exiting companies and their friends in the audience.

I'm on stage for a two show staged reading (a different one) for a new theatre company; it is the official launch of this theatre company - "hello world we are here!".  The theatre company is closely related to another company, so close I call them sister companies.  The artistic teams and regular actors used have a large cross over.  I take my place and look out into the abysmal audience - photographer and his girlfriend asked to be there to shoot the event, sister to an actor, boyfriend to another actor. No one else? No support from your sister company? 

I'm sitting at an improv show, hosted by my good friends The Dandies for their regular Holo Deck Follies show (a Star Trek improv spoof) and the audience is packed. Yes it is a Movember fund raiser event so lets knock off 20% of that house.  It is still full.  I know eight months ago this audience was not full, but the Dandies, being who they are decided they wanted to better promote and so that is what they have been doing.  Regular houses are now decently full.

I'm sitting at Savage in Limbo.  A popular play, a new company.  I know one of the actresses and am good friends with her producer fiancé.  (His first theatre producer role)  The house is decent and I am told it is unusual for them, the other nights have been sell outs.  The show just announced their extension.

I'm wondering what is the difference here and thinking back to my cafe where the artists are bitching.  Yes it is true, we do not have funding in copious amounts from federal and provincial levels.  It also seems that when we do have funding it goes to those who already have the means and don't seem to really need the support (Mirvish for Lord of the Rings, Egoyan for another film, Cronenberg, CanStage, Tarragon…the list goes on) yes they deserve funding too, but so much seems to go to these already established places, where they have existing fundraising models in place, where they could most likely survive without the government money.  I don't know this for sure, but I'm willing to bet on it.  *insert firm handshake here*  So the point is what little money we have in government support seems to be given to the already established. This to me is a problem - because well if we gave a more equal distribution of money to a larger pool of artists then their would be that much more art being made in order to make the community that much more vibrant.  Again true, but something is not hitting me right on this note.  Why does this potential for a good "damn the man" blog not sing to me.

And it hits me while I am sitting in the audience for the Dandies.  The man in this case is Joe Canadian who is sitting at home, watching TV, missing out on another piece of art that a friend of their's did.  It is the artist at the bar saying I can't afford a ticket to your show while ordering their fifth pint that night (lets not discuss last nights bar tab), it is the theatre team that is too busy to make it to your show because we are doing ours…the list goes on.  So here it is!  

Get off your ass and get out there as support the arts.  Don't be so self centered and only focus on your work expecting people to come see it - go see some other shows support them and they will come to out to your show,  hold off on a couple of pints this month and buy a ticket to a show you want to see - not every ticket is a hundred dollar Mirvish hit/flop and I bet your buddy's show is only 10/20 bucks, don't watch another movie or episode of TV - hell PVR that shit and go see closing night of your best friends blood sweat and tears.  My artist friends in the cafe are right there is no support for the arts but lets clarify what we mean.  No support means that our community is not helping itself, it is not supporting itself, it is not making an effort to be an artistic community.  So why in hell would any government body look at a flailing industry with no internal support and throw them money?  I wouldn't.  

When I look at who does get money, Mirvish, Egoyan, CanStage…you know what,  they could survive without the government money because they worked damn hard to get an audience to support them, and that audience would still be there if these establishments had to raise the funds on their own, or get more grass roots because they had less money.  I look at the team on Savage in Limbo and the Dandies and see them make money because they work hard and for their efforts people have come to see them.  Yes much more could and should be made but they are showing what happens when artists support artists and go see the work. Money breeds money, and if I have to throw a dollar out then I'm throwing it where I can see it winning.  I get what the government is doing.  So when I spend my dollar, I'm going to spend it on my fellow and immediate artists because I believe in them and the work they are doing, and dammit, I wanna let the government know the next time they hand out cash, that it should reach all artists because Toronto is a thriving community supported internally first.

Addendum
When I go see live shows, or support arts in person, I am always presently surprised.  Those moments can never be recreated and are individual in that moment.  Case in point the November fundraiser which the Dandies recently did - well they achieved their campaign goal on the first night of their drive - I helped artists and prostate cancer.  But better yet, I got to see my best friend propose to his girlfriend live on stage and hear her accept because I was present.  That will never happen again.  Didn't read that on FB, I saw it live.  Congratulations Dale Wells and Andie Leathley  you two are awesome.

GET OUT THERE, STOP BITCHING, SUPPORT THE ARTS AND HELP OUR COMMUNITY THRIVE

The Fault of Canadian Cinema

In the past six years I have seen a lot of Canadian movies and they all seem to have one thing in common: a distinct Canadian style.  I can spot Canadian film and television a mile away by the way it looks.  Unfortunately, this Canadian does not seem to be appreciated by… well by anybody.  The result of this lacking appreciation seems to be that no one wants to watch a Canadian product.  It seems that everyone is drawn to the product of our more affluent neighbors to the south and no matter what we produce we just can't seem to compete.

I will take a moment to point out that there are exceptions to the rule and I know out there some Canadian films don't rank in my above statements.  It is a very broad brush I paint with. I am okay with that because I'm speaking to a majority right now.

Moving back on target, I don't understand why our film product is perceived as substandard.  Nor do I understand why we continue to make the same product and expect different results.  We as an affluent country have the means, the technology, the natural environment and for goodness we certainly have the talent on both sides of the camera to produce something different.  This is a point that I have raised many times with my friends, colleagues and, acquaintances and it seems everyone agrees: When will we make movies that compete against our American counter parts? 

Believe it or not I am the last person on the planet who wants to lose or give up any of my Canadian identity.  At the same time I am an artist who would like to see the work of my country competing on a world class stage.  All too often I see a great Canadian film crash because of our distinct style.  I for one am tired of it.  

I'm no genius, but when I look at marketing and gaining an audience it seems simple to me.  If everyone is selling big bright red juicy apples and people are buying them then anyone competing against them apples has one of two choices to make a dollar.

One: if your apples don't look as big, as bright as red and as juicy as the other guy's find a unique angle to market your apples so that people see value in something different.

Two: if number one is not working, then start selling big bright red juicy apples also.  This way you can compete in the market place.  Once you have a loyal following at your fruit stand, start trying to sell your other apples too.  In doing so you are now more competitive in the market place.

From where I sit, our apples are not big, bright red and juicy. Nobody seems to be buying them.  Hey Canada filmmakers, when you going to start selling big, bright red juicy apples?

Performance

Earlier today I had a thought about what I wanted to blog about tonight.  It was about "Creative Ideas" - how someone comes up with something, that to so many may be inane, but they follow through with it and then it becomes cool, popular, a 'thing', etc.  The idea came to me while I was in rehearsal and I thought that is something to chew on a bit....

Forget that, I'll have to come back to it.  As I said, it came to me in rehearsal, and following the rehearsal, I went on stage and did a reading of the thing I was rehearsing.  I have just travelled home, following that performance, and I am all jazzed.  I wanted to throw my emotional state out on this page with a "sympathetic audience" (a line from the play), because well, I believe that you will understand.  Now although you are not here with me to chat over a coffee and get all existential with me I have a sense of unspoken camaraderie with you my reader, a connection.  It is through the release of emotion and our connection that magic can happen so....

Adrenaline is pumping through my veins.  As I walked down the subway platform I felt elevated, not above anyone there, just different.  I said to myself, "I am fortunate for having found and chosen to follow that which inspires me, that which gives me joy, and that which allows me to feel so alive."  I wanted to run up and down and scream for joy, to dance with glee, to pull a little bit of the old Snoopy shuffle.

If you don't know my reference:  Classic happy Snoopy dance, as depicted in Peanuts cartoon by Charles M. Schultz

Let me be clear that tonight was an extra special night for me.  It has been a slow year, acting has not exactly been on the plate, it has been a down time in career, unlike the past few which have been on the high time.  So when Andrew Lamb, a director I have wanted to work with for a while called, and said would I join him up on stage...well I did a happy dance when I got off the phone.  All of that to say tonight was special because I got to act.  I was up in front of audience for a reading of a new Canadian play.  I was working with other wonderful talent, I had been directed by a director I wanted to work with and most of all I got to have fun doing what I love...for the first time in a long time.  (little fist pump whohoo)

I have a good friend and business partner, Stevie Jay, and we have agreed that good theatre needs a black box (and sometimes not even that), an audience, and good story telling - that is it.  Everything else can add to it, but it is extra.  Tonight at the reading it is all we had.  It was 'just' a reading.  We rehearsed it twice through this afternoon, took a break for dinner and up we went script in hand.  So much fun.

So there I am in a small space reading away, portraying the limited character I have created off of a few reads, telling this story, which by the way is very well written by play wright Adam Bailey, and I look up.  I look out into the audience and use them as the character they are in this piece and all I can see are faces of people who are completely engaged.  People who have been transported to the world we three actors and a playwright have created.  Souls that are so wrapped up in the story that for a brief time they are able to let go of everything else.  Spirits who are living a different reality in this moment which I am helping to create.  There was one particular moment that my character's pride is rising with the story he is recounting, he is stepping out of the mire onto solid land. On a physical level I had been sitting slightly slumped over and as I said this little speech I began to sit more upright.  I was amazed to see several audience members who were slouched in there chairs begin to rise with me, to sit more upright and live that moment simultaneously.

Yes it is my perception, and there could be a million reasons why several people, began to sit more upright in pace with me as I did so.  But I believe they sat up with me because they were engaged, they were transported and for some maybe they felt pride and experienced something as I told my piece of that story.  It is a rush to see the effect I can have on people (we all have that power when we share our feelings - go tell your lover how you really feel and see what happens).  I am so happy that I get to actively tell story and produce that effect on many people, to reach out and touch other humans, to bring something to them, something they may be talking about right now.  All I can say is WOW!  And I know that feeling is understood by every artist out there.  Thanks for letting me share.

Thanksgiving

"I have to little"
"I'm so close, if there was just a little bit more."
"I got a job, just not the one I want."
"I know I could do that, why is s/he doing it?"
"I just don't make enough."
"If I had..."

These are all statements I hear, and I catch myself saying, that express a state of having and wanting more.  Each one implies that what is possessed is not enough.

So today as I reflect on these words, I wonder how they reflect on my acting.  I see very powerful connections.

There is a challenge to change perceptions in my world; to that end I offer this:

"Today is Thanksgiving. I am very grateful and thankful for that which I have.  It covers all my necessities in this world and gives me the inspiration to push for more.  It is more than enough and I am happy for it.  Thank you universe."

Are We Wrong?

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearce

from the pages of TAT Journal, Issue 6

I read these words today and began thinking.  What does this mean? To live creative life, lose fear of wrong?  Hmmm.  I have pondered it all day. 

What does it mean to be wrong?  This is the state where my opinion or thought is not accepted by other people.  That whether my thought, mathematically, socially, morally, or anything else, is  different from the general consensus  then I am wrong. It means I am going against. Okay, that seems fine.  There have been times in history when those who were wrong were eventually able to prove they were right - there was much persecution and challenge along the way - but when they finally go there all was well (Capernicus, Galileo, Tesla....)  These people all knew when to stand behind their opinions - things begin to make sense.

If we are wrong we often will fight tooth and nail to be right.  Being right means acceptance, it means fitting in and from that an easy path.  Who would not want to be right.  So without these things we are ostracized, looked down on, ridiculed and so on.  In order to avoid these things we fight.  

Fighting for me takes a lot of energy.  I channel everything into it and as a by product of that I typically shut down everything else becoming single focussed.  I do this out of fear, fear of not being accepted, fear of being wrong, fear of not having value - for if my statement has no value then how do I?  With all that fear running through me and all my energy dedicated to proving (fighting) that I am right when do I act creatively? And so it makes sense and I think it is an exceptionally insightful statement.

If I lose my fear of being wrong, I can accept the challenges that come with being wrong.  I can then open myself to other points of view, I can see alternatives and be open to receive offers and different opinions.  As an actor I read that list and recognize these are the skills I need to effectively interact on stage and screen.  So let me echo the words of Joseph Chilton Pearce once more

To Live A Creative Life,

We MUST Lose Our Fear Of Being Wrong!