Volume 1

"Know your audience" is the old adage, warning writers of all stripes to consider who will be eventually reading – experiencing – what you...

My wife and kids love Canada Day. My kids are the colour of Canada, all Red and White. Literally. My wife grew up in Kanata. Her family has settler roots in the Ottawa Valley. My little Indians have red hair. Blue eyes. And status cards. Well, they will… once I send the paperwork away.

For me, it's more complicated. I’m Nlakap’amux. Indigenous.

How are Indigenous people supposed to celebrate the birth of Canada? Most of what we call British Columbia is still un-ceded indigenous territory. Our people were never extinguished, conquered and our lands were never surrendered. That means Canada doesn’t even own it. It’s occupied territory.

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Every year at Western Canada High School in Calgary, students in the grade 12 drama class are asked to choose a section of a...

As we look ahead to the upcoming second season of The SpiderWebShow we hope achieve three things:

For all the work to be done on public funding systems, the arms-length nature is integral to having an arts culture that can be outside the direct influence of government ministers

Big question. What if, collectively, we demanded that we be Perfect?

For over two years, I spent time with the community. I visited schools, shopping malls, shelters, churches, jails, and offices. I helped deliver early morning coffee to people sleeping outside, played pool with youth at shelters, stood on street corners and knocked on doors in random neighborhoods. Almost every person I talked to had something to say about the issue of homelessness.

Toronto has a hole in it where a Patrick used to be. I cannot be the only one missing his remarks on recent Rob Fordian events. Nor, I’m sure, am I the only one missing his dry rejoinders about all manner of incivility surrounding us at every turn. His response – for example – to the Sochi Olympics is missing from the front lines, or his well-structured outrage to the demise of public transit, indeed his legendary critique of (pick any show and imagine a moment) is leaving me devoid of a bon mot that I would traditionally have recounted from his lips to your ears.

Laakkuluk: I think that as artists we both help create and challenge popular culture which kind of goes back to our conversation about artists as activists. I think that no matter what, "Canada" is going to be shaped by popular culture. and it is our job to explore the extra-ordinary - outside of popular culture. Matthew: Can either of you think of irresponsible artists who don't imagine Canada well? Laakkuluk: I think more of the irresponsibility of curators and galleries more than the artists. Amy: Ah, I understand that Laakkuluk. I never thought about an irresponsible artist! Judgement?

Notwithstanding that I agree that conflating theatre with commercial enterprise is “perverse,” I don’t see how this should prevent us from appropriating the private sector’s most potent tools – effective branding and communications. Moreover, I don’t see how this necessarily prevents us from repositioning theatres as community institutions, rather than entertainment companies.