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Dive into Episode 2 of Quiver, the solo show by Anna Chatteron.
Maddie’s sweet sixteen sister, Beatrice, is dating someone she shouldn’t. Their brassy single mom, Sheila, makes up with her ex-boyfriend again. So fourteen-year-old Maddie is left to fend for herself with nothing but her bow and arrow.
Quiver is a solo show written and performed by Anna Chatterton. Sound Design by Michael Rinaldi.
Maddie’s sweet sixteen sister, Beatrice, is dating someone she shouldn’t. Their brassy single mom, Sheila, makes up with her ex-boyfriend again. So fourteen-year-old Maddie is left to fend for herself with nothing but her bow and arrow.
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In this, our final episode of Better Angels – a Parable, Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley interview playwright, Andrea Scott. Andrea talks about being a playwright, the genesis of Better Angels, and racism in Canada.
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What do you do when you feel trapped and alone? You could walk out the front door, but you’re even less uncertain of what lies beyond.
Akosua is a young woman late of Ghana who has come to Canada to work as a nanny for Leila and Greg Tate in their beautiful Toronto home.
The couple insist she is a member of their family, but when they increasingly deny her pay she comes to a chilling realization: she is a prisoner.
Written by Andrea Scott and featuring Akosua Amo-Adem, Sascha Cole, Peyson Rock and David Christo, the play premiered at Summerworks in 2015 and was originally directed by Nigel Shawn Williams.
The arts, in their many forms, provide society’s most progressive and radical forms of human expression.
Topics that are too progressive, unfashionable, or forbidden/illegal at any given time in society are fair game for the arts, and often provide the most fertile ground for creation and engagement. With that in mind, it is startling that the most conservative elements of for-profit industry (like banking) are more progressive and inclusive than the classical arts. Banks are driven by profit and know that their markets are incredibly diverse, so they have evolved to serve and reflect their customers. The arts are not market-driven—and rightly so—but the permissive attitude towards an outdated status quo is undermining the evolution, and sustainability, of many sectors of performing arts.
Diversity brings vitality and resilience, and vitality and resilience bring success.
A friend who recently witnessed me provoking a heated debate at Opera America about appropriation and diversity shared a fantastic podcast that interviews a Black computer programmer who had experienced extensive ‘passive’ and ‘passive systemic’ racism at Silicon Valley tech companies. The podcast went on to explore recent research conducted on diversity, and its proven impact on businesses. As a result, I uncovered a few gems:
“female representation in top management leads to an (average) increase of $42 million in firm value”
Standard and Poors on the banking industry
“increases in racial diversity were clearly related to enhanced financial performance”
Prof. Orlando Richard in a survey of 177 banks (2003)
The podcast complemented the interview with the work of Dr. Scott Page, a professor researching the power of diversity in performance of complex systems. It was amazing, and of course – it made sense! Random algorithms that were far less specialized were consistently beaten by proven groups of algorithms with the same expertise. In further research, Dr. Page proved introducing a diverse set of algorithms specifically and measurably improved the results. The broader skills and knowledge of the average “randoms” overpowered the proven but overly concentrated “experts”.
A diverse ecology is a more resilient one. Conversely, when humans have impacted an ecology, reducing diversity to represent only a handful of varieties of species, the ecology becomes increasingly vulnerable to disease, natural disaster, and ecological imbalances that can lead to extinction or over-population. Evolution undoubtedly benefits from the sharing of diverse skills, at the biological level. Two parrots with similar histories, instincts, and immune systems will create a less evolved/resilient baby parrot than two parrots who have diverse histories, instincts, and immune systems. Nature is smart enough to keep or activate the best of both parents.
Classical music is currently a marriage of two parrots with the same background. It may be the single greatest example of an industry run by experts with almost exclusively the same pedigree. Conductors, music directors, artistic directors, the most successful composers (living or dead) and heads of companies are, with a few notable exceptions, almost exclusively male, white, Euro-classical music trained, university graduates coming from affluent families, with a cultural background that is predominantly English, French, or German speaking.
For these leaders, thriving in colonial and post-colonial societies was a natural thing. But reacting to a changing world where they represent a shrinking minority is not coming about as naturally. Let me be clear that they are, inarguably, experts in their fields and have achieved remarkable things. But does such a large preponderance of a single type help or hinder the natural evolution of art, music and culture?
At a basic level, understanding our world means creating and distributing art that is more likely to be connected, impactful, and attractive to a general public. In a world that is less and less homogenous – an understanding of its stories and dynamics would logically come from those who best understand these stories and dynamics. No one group can do that, thus a resilient and vital arts practice would be led by leaders from diverse backgrounds. The post-colonial world where highly-educated classically trained leaders impart Greco-Roman culture to a less educated population, where interaction with non-European communities is called “outreach”, where arts presentation is reflective of a puritanical relationship to culture (“don’t touch”, “clap now”, “no booing”), has already become outdated from the general public’s point-of-view, and we continue to lose their interest.
I am an optimist, and see diversity of leadership as the greatest current potential for the arts to be reborn. Any single great idea that I might have would be dwarfed by the myriad ideas and innovations that a generation of diverse leaders could bring. Whereas the market motivates banks and businesses to innovate, it is the world and the evolving public who must motivate the arts to adapt. The great works that live on today come from artists intensely connected to their world and time. Embracing our changing, evolving, diverse world is the way to create and share a resilient and innovating arts culture that is uniquely Canadian, perhaps for the first time in our history.
In a statement made on January 29th 2016, Canadian Stage Theatre announced they would be “opening [their] theatre in the coming weeks for a substantive discussion around the representation of Canada’s diverse voices in the theatre today”– a move sparked by the controversial season announcement.
Sorry y’all, but that’s weak.
The thing about community talks is that we have a big one about once a year, and several smaller ones within our little community bubbles. They have different titles (‘Why are our audiences disappearing?’, ‘Equity Symposium’, ‘Diversity and Inclusion Panel’ etc.), but they seem to boil down to the same thing: our industry needs more diversity at every level. How do we achieve this? By hiring diverse people, with a variety of cultural perspectives, ages, abilities, and identities.
You’d think that after years of events like this, we’d eventually be able to move onto another topic because we’d have gotten the idea. The elders in our community who have worked for decades to address inequity for artists of colour will testify to slight improvements, but there is still work to be done and other communities to include. (I speak from my place as a first generation Mexican-Canadian + queer + female presenting theatre maker and wish to include all of the communities that I participate in and those I do not. This is not just a race issue.) Part of that work is gathering the collective wisdom of our elders – and the wider community – so that new initiatives can build upon that knowledge, rather than consistently rehash it.
Joseph Recinos, Tijiki Morris and I, a group of emerging polycultural artists, have partnered with the PerformanceWiki to create a public online platform for investigating issues around diversity and representation in our Toronto theatre industry, created and shaped by the community itself. We call it Activating Abundance. It is a place we hope will generate solutions and turn them into action.
We want to hear your questions and your answers, and reflect together. Where are you at? What/who do you refer to when you have questions about representation in your work? Do you have a ‘way’ of thinking that helps you navigate muddy cultural waters? What do you like, what don’t you like? Who’s championing your cause, and whose cause are you championing? Our community needs to feed itself at all levels. I’m not only talking about Artistic Directors or Managers or heads of institutions – I’m talking about you. You are a leader in your rehearsal room, at your desk, in your office. Every single person who is invested in this theatre community, and in the future of our craft. This is a job we all need to take on. We all need to activate ourselves to become leaders of positive change in our environments.
Activating Abundance differs from a panel talk because it lives longer than 2 hours. It is a place to write down findings from panels and community conversations and contribute them to something tangible and useful. Although the document lives and grows on the internet, when you find something you like we encourage you to take it from the screen to the street. Use it. It’s yours.
This is not meant to replace face-to-face interaction – it will enrich it. We can discuss what we have read on the document in our rehearsal rooms, offices, and workspaces. This document is meant to provoke meaningful discussion that leads to positive action about this topic with everyone in the community, created by our community itself.
You can view Activating Abundance HERE. Tijiki, Joseph, and I are currently the main authors and we have focused on the intent of the document – explaining what it is, how we see the situation at hand, and why our community needs to work towards change. There you will find the beginnings of what we hope will be a useful, living document, as well as information on how to contribute (here’s a playlist of youtube tutorials that provide step-by-step instructions).
The response so far has already been incredibly enriching. Contributors have added some really poignant questions to ask ourselves as creators, like “what kind of norms are you supporting/challenging in your work?”, “how many of your performers are from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)? Where in the GTA?”. We’ve also gotten some great content on the nature of systems change – that it does happen, and should happen as more than just switching out folks in the same roles of power. And on the nature of identifying your theatre company’s mission: maybe it’s okay to say “we support and foster the works of the European diaspora”. It’s not a grant hotspot right now, but honesty is always in style. Maybe then we’d have a bit more clarity and transparency.
The kind of things I wish I’d known earlier. And now I do.
You are very smart, creative people, Toronto theatre community. We are one of the most diverse cities in the entire world, which means we are a mecca of possibilities. I’m certain that if we put our heads together and share our knowledge, we can make something really incredible happen.
Do you have questions? Feedback? Wanna help? Tweet me at @camilstown or email me at camiladiazvarela@gmail.com
When we explored this issue in Vancouver in the previous edition, it had more reader shares than ever before. When the issue began to hit the headlines in Toronto, it seemed imperative we continue to provide an outlet for artists to interrogate and explore what continues to matter. Certainly wherever we went – meetings, bars, running into people on transit – this is what people were talking about. We asked some of them to keep writing about it here.
Watching Kendrick Lamar’s performance at Sunday’s Grammy Awards (which culminated with a projection of “Compton” within a map of Africa), one can’t help to think of Beyoncé’s “Black Lives Matter” edition SuperBowl performance – and further back, Marlon Brando’s request that Sacheen Littlefeather reject the Oscar he was awarded for The Godfather. Each of these instances, and others, remind us that artists will take the space that’s given to speak about what is important to us as a community, as a society, as a species, even. When those spaces are restricted to particular histories or lineages, important truths will remain unspoken. Unheard. Artists need space. Change needs space.
In this edition, playwright, director and professor Djanet Sears explores bias and blindspots that allow old ways of thinking to continue unabated; Tapestry Artistic Driector Michael Mori expands on how increased diversity will increase the resilience of our institutions and culture; and SpiderWebShow’s Camila Diaz-Varela takes on how artists can collaborate to keep pushing forwards.
We are seeing mainstream presses shutting down. Journalists losing their jobs. If there is any silver lining to be found among the loss of these opinions, it is to be found in the self-publishing revolution that allow participants themselves to speak out. New spaces making more space for the conversations – like this one – that need to be happening.
Sarah Garton Stanley, Michael Wheeler & Adrienne Wong
When Canadian Stage announced its 2016/17 season programming at the end of January, artistic director Mathew Jocelyn was firmly criticized for not engaging a single person of colour in a key creative position (playwright, director, designer, choreographer, etc.) on any of the season’s 18 shows. You may be surprised, but I completely understand why he may have made such a programming decision. Moreover, I am glad he did this. I am glad because Jocelyn’s artistic direction is reflective of the vast majority of Canadian theatre institutions. Their tendency is to rely on the non-traditional casting of one or two actors of colour per season to address any diversity concerns.
Non-traditional casting is an important component of any theatre’s efforts to include artists from a wide range of backgrounds when attempting to have their stages reflect national and regional demographics. Non-traditional casting is an umbrella term referring to 4 specific approaches to racial and gender diversity in dominant culture plays:
Most theatres, however, subscribe to a curious mix of societal and colourblind casting, where (with one or two exceptions) actors of colour are asked to appear as people who look like they do in society, while at the same time are encouraged to leave the richness of their cultural histories at the stage door. Inevitably the characters they play are White people with Black/brown skins. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with that, diversity is also about embracing culture-specific or gender-specific voices.
When I was an actor (a very long time ago), one of the most outstanding experiences I ever had took place when I was cast in Other Female Parts (Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo), a series of monologues for women written and translated from Italian by Franca Rame and Dario Fo with Estelle Parsons, and directed by Darryl Wasek. Each of the three women cast played three different roles. Early in the rehearsal process I approached Wasek about the possibility of taking the monologue written about a jailed and tortured member of the Red Brigade (a left-wing paramilitary organization in Italy), and transposing it to a jail cell in apartheid South Africa, to play her as an ANC political prisoner. I also asked him about the possibility of transporting the piece about a working class Italian mother with a colicky newborn (and an unhelpful husband who spends most his free time watching sports on TV, or at the bar drinking with his friends), to Toronto with the character as a Trinidadian immigrant. He responded with excitement and encouraged me to pursue these explorations. As the only woman of colour in the cast, I felt the breadth of my cultural heritage was not only welcomed, but embraced. Those kinds of experiences are all too rare.
There are and have been valiant efforts made in the struggle for play equity (I can vouch for this personally). However, the enterprise of constructing a more diverse Canadian theatre suffers from pernicious anemia. As John Dyer noted at the No Boundaries arts and culture symposium in Bristol, UK,”[currently] we have diversity without inclusion. “Diversity is asking someone to a party,” Dyer explained, “inclusion is asking them to dance.”
A diversity of key creative personnel on a production brings a breadth of cultural knowledge. We are trained just like our White peers, and can not only render complex interpretations of works by playwrights of European descent, but many of us also have one foot planted in our own culture (or the culture of our parents), which can mean that the lens through which we perceive the world is larger. This is especially true of playwrights of colour. Our very perspective, as normative as it may appear, is a vantage point from which an audience can see the world from a new perspective, therefore widening the viewers’ aspect. Moreover, new perspectives can also attract new audiences, which can translate into added revenues. Besides, what is the aim of theatre if not to help us understand our lives, our society, and to assist us in envisioning a better world?
Hence my gratitude to those who boldly and publicly questioned Canadian Stage about its choices. I was thrilled when I had heard that J. Kelly Nestruck (The Globe and Mail) pointed out the blunder in at least two articles covering Canadian Stage’s season announcement. Still, I am even more indebted to the host of theatre practitioners who dared to speak out as well. Their courage remains under acknowledged. For most artists in the theatre, public criticism of a theatre company can be an act of career suicide. I would be pleasantly surprised to find any of those critics welcome at Canadian Stage in the foreseeable future. All the same, but for their fearlessness we would not be having this crucial conversation.
According to the 1987 seminal study The Status of Women in Canadian Theatre by Rina Fraticelli, women made up just over 10% of the key creative positions in the theatre. Thirty years later, while women count for over 50% of the students attending institutions offering theatre training, we number less than 30% of its creative leadership. Women playwrights of colour fare worst of all:
For example, women form 50% of Playwrights Guild of Canada’s membership, but they do not account for even one quarter of the nation’s produced playwrights (the numbers for women of colour are lower yet).
Most striking is the systemic nature of this kind of bias.
Quite frankly, I do not believe that Matthew Jocelyn set out to exclude people of colour from Canadian Stage’s roster of artistic collaborators. His decisions reveal what might typically be referred to as implicit or unconscious biases. That is, he most likely does not even know that they are there. Neither is he the sole culprit. This kind of occurrence is ubiquitous in our arts institutions.
For instance, let’s say that a board of directors predominantly made up of White males (as is common in this country) begins interviewing applicants to replace an outgoing artistic director. This board may be considered to be quite progressive thinkers. However, among all of the candidates they speak to (including men and women of all races, ethnicities, and sexual preferences), this board will likely be more impressed by the candidate who shares their experiences, their aspirations and their points of view. Moreover, they imagine that this particular candidate would run the theatre just the way they would. And that candidate would, more likely than not, be just like them: a White male.
Once appointed, this new artistic director, will read and see an enormous number of plays in preparing his new season. However, what will excite him and move him the most are plays that reflect his experiences, aspirations, and his point of view. He imagines that this particular play is the kind of work that he would have written. And that playwright would, more likely than not, be just like him: a White male.
These plays selected for the theatre company, written primarily by White men, will all more likely than not, feature more White male characters, (in the same way that my plays feature more Black female characters). The result: a season of plays populated by White male characters, featuring mostly White male actors.
The same systemic approach can be applied to the selection of a director, a designer, and other members of the artistic team.
No artistic director is going to admit to having a bias against women. No artistic director is going to admit to being against People of Colour. Moreover, for most artistic directors, the belief that neither race, ethnicity or gender has any effect on their artistic choices, will be genuine.
This is called a blind spot.
Blind spot: An area where a person’s view is obstructed. In a vehicle this is an area around the vehicle that cannot be directly observed by the driver while at the controls.
Blindspots: They are—for lack of a better term—bits of knowledge about social groups. These bits of knowledge are stored in our brains because we encounter them so frequently in our cultural environments. Once lodged in our minds, hidden biases can influence our behavior toward members of particular social groups, but we remain oblivious to their influence. Most people find it unbelievable that their behavior can be guided by mental content of which they are unaware.[i]
Blindspots reflect social and cultural attitudes we may not be aware of, that exist in our own psyches. If you unconsciously believe that men are better playwrights than women, not only will your programming decisions reflect this belief, but you will have no awareness that this belief system exists inside of you. However, over the last two decades, science has begun to develop a way to identify these hidden convictions.
Social psychologists Mazarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald have created online tests which measure a person’s automatic or unconscious response to various social groups (based on race, ethnicity, gender sexual preference, age, weight, etc.). The test is extraordinarily enlightening, it’s free, and participants are guaranteed anonymity: implicit.harvard.edu.
Will such a test solve the problem of all White, predominantly male theatre seasons in Canada? Likely not. There are a whole host of strategies which may help to bring play equity to the theatres in this country. But an approach that I find holds the most possibilities involves:
And if awareness is indeed the first step, the IAT test might just be a wonderful place to start.
Endnotes:
[i] Banaji, M. R., & Greenwald, A. G. (2013). Blindspot: Hidden biases of good people. New York: Delacorte Press.
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What do you do when you feel trapped and alone? You could walk out the front door, but you’re even less uncertain of what lies beyond.
Akosua is a young woman late of Ghana who has come to Canada to work as a nanny for Leila and Greg Tate in their beautiful Toronto home.
The couple insist she is a member of their family, but when they increasingly deny her pay she comes to a chilling realization: she is a prisoner.
Written by Andrea Scott and featuring Akosua Amo-Adem, Sascha Cole, Peyson Rock and David Christo. The play premiered at Summerworks in 2015 and was originally directed by Nigel Shawn Williams.
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In this, our final episode of Agamemnon, Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley interview Governor General award-winning playwright, Nicolas Billon. Nicolas talks about building his career, writing Agamemnon, and writing tips and insight into the life of a writer. We also talk to Sarah Kitz, the director of the original stage production of Agamemnon. At the end of this episode, we announce the next play to be featured on PlayME.
