As a cultural community we are continually producing reports. These documents contain essential research on an ecology that I believe more of us are taking collective ownership of, but this information doesn’t always trickle down as much as it could.
Recently three documents were released that seemed to be of real importance to live performance in Canada:
- Achieving Equity in Canadian Theatre: A Report with Best Practice Recommendations
- Request for Expressions of Interest – Shared Charitable Platform for the Arts Sector
- Hill Strategies: Arts Research Monitor on Performing Arts/Theatres
This edition strives to break these documents down, interrogate their results, and open them up for discussion by the wider community. To this end, Shakespeare in the Ruff Artistic Director Brendan McMurtry-Howlett reflects on the Equity in Theatre Symposium and Report, PACT Executive Director Sara Meurling looks at what we can (and can’t) learn from available data, and I take on the emerging discussion surrounding Shared Platforms.
How can we address the gender imbalance in theatre? How much and what kind of theatre is being made? What shape should new producing models take? These are all essential questions to consider for anyone invested in contemporary live performance.
Michael Wheeler
Editor -in-Chief: #CdnCult
