Yesterday I was back with the folks from “Inventions That Shook the World” and spent the day next to things that were set on fire. Here’s a selection of pictures I took.
In Yesterday’s Toronto Sun, an article entitled PMO Frowns on Terror Play, the paper continued its campaign against the Summerworks Festival for daring to produce a play about one of the Toronto 18. The article quotes a representative from the Prime Minister’s Office as saying “”We are extremely disappointed that public money is being used to fund plays that glorify terrorism”. Of course, no one, not even the star or the representative, know if the play “glorifies terrorism” since they haven’t seen the play. This is just bad journalism. This is like a movie reviewer posting a review about a movie they haven’t seen. Of course, The Sun doesn’t care about journalistic ethics here, all they care about is restarting their old campaign against using public funds for art. The article also tries to make it sound like people in the arts community are afraid (due to the comment from the PMO) that arts funding will be cut as a result.
The reaction from the PMO has some in the arts community nervous that Frid’s play will become an excuse for more cuts to arts groups by the Conservative government, ”I would hate to see them use this play as an excuse to pull funding for anyone,” said a Toronto theatre worker who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisal by the Conservatives.
A Toronto theatre worker who asked for anonymity because of possible Conservative reprisal? Quite frankly, I doubt this person exists. No name given. A quote that is actually in line with what The Sun wants: a cut in funding as a result of this? The only reprisal that an artist might fear is having an arts grant application declined as a result of their comment. But since the Canada Council for the Arts is an arms length agency, which means that the PM (or any other government official) does not directly influence its decisions, there is no real reprisal an individual “theatre worker” might fear. Again: bad journalism.
The real hero of the piece? TD Bank, who refused to consider pulling their sponsorship, saying:
“The intention of our sponsorship of Summerworks is to encourage and support young artists,” said Matthew Cram, a TD spokesman. TD Bank is kicking in $5,000 to help cover Summerworks’ bills. The Royal Bank, whose corporate headquarters is also across the street from one of Adbdelhaleem’s targets, is also helping fund the festival.
I’ve been continuing my musings on a social network for entertainment industry professionals. The more I think about it, the more I am seeing that the current social networks do not serve the entertainment industry well. Sites like LinkedIn are work well for people in traditional industries, but for people like actors, dancers, and other entertainment industry professions, LinkedIn fails.
Social Networks like Linkedin or Facebook become too cluttered with other information and applications and don’t provide ways for people in the industry to properly connect. I guess the real problem is that they are not focused on what people in the industry might want or need. And why should they? Sites like Linkedin and Facebook aren’t really for us. They are for other people. People who have “normal” careers.
So, what would a social network for people in the entertainment industry be? What features should it have? A few that I can think of off the top of my head:
What other features should a social network for people in the entertainment industry have?
On Thursday, I was shuttled off to Whitby to film an episode of “Inventions that Shook the World”. Here are some pictures from the day.
The shoot took place at Trafalgar Castle. Two lion statues guarded the doors, so I snapped a picture of one of them.
I did a lot of waiting. I arrived when I was called (which was early) and waited until it was my turn. I waited a long time. This is what waiting looks like.
Here are some other shots from the shoot itself.
Years ago, just before I “left the business” for five years, I started a search for an agent. This was interrupted by the realization that a large scale project I produced had left me burned out and no longer passionate about theatre/acting. So I left it, giving up the agent search and telling myself that I would never go back to it.
Five years later, I tentatively returned to acting, telling myself it was a hobby and that I would stick with my day job and just do plays and things when it was convenient (usually when people asked me), and I didn’t bother to take up the agent hunt again, because…well, why would I if it wasn’t something I was intending to do as a profession?
Of course, that couldn’t last. The theatre bug, once it bites, is incurable. It might go into remission, but it will never truly go away. And once the passion for it returned, I had to admit that the “day job” I was working was not enough. Doing the occasional play or film was not enough. And so, recently I’ve been thinking about how to do more, and I’ve had to accept that really, if I want to do more acting, I need an agent.
Its been a while since I was in the market for an agent, and during that time, I could talk about being relatively new to the business. Now, I’m 40 and can no longer make that claim. If you are an unrepresented actor, later in life, what is the best approach for introducing yourself to an agent? Any suggestions how to go about this? Any suggestions for agents who might be in the market for a..well, a me?
Sometimes I read the Toronto Sun. Not because I like the paper, but because I really hate it. I think its important to know what the “other side” is saying, and to understand that there are people who actually believe what that newspaper prints. Case in point: this article from the online version of the paper, which references an article in yesterday’s print edition. The article outlines a complaint from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation complaining about going to the Summerworks Festival, specifically due to funds going to a play called “Homegrown”.
Homegrown is a play about one of the members of the Toronto 18, calling the play sympathetic to terrorists. The article uses this play as a springboard for the Sun’s familiar complaint about funding for the arts, and how the funding plays is destroying the fabric of our society – ok, this article doesn’t say specifically that, but its clear that the Sun is revving up their readers to be outraged about this “abuse of public funds”. Some choice quotes from the article:
The [Summerworks] festival receives more than $90,000 from all three levels of government including $35,000 from Heritage Canada. Homegrown received $6,000 from the city funded Toronto Arts Council for a workshop. The play’s writer, Catherine Frid, stressed Friday that the play isn’t condoning terrorism but is a “sympathetic portrait” of one of the men caught up in the terror bust.
[snip]
But Kevin Gaudet, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said tax dollars shouldn’t be going towards a “terrorist love-in”. “You want to put on a play? Fine. Hang up your shingle and ask people to pay for it … and if it has to do with sympathetic portraits of terrorists who want to destroy my country, I won’t go,” Gaudet said.
It is of course, important to note that the CTF:
objects to funding for all festivals from Pride Toronto to the Calgary Stampede, he said.“We advocate against all this type of funding in that context,” Gaudet said.
CTF is a conservative group that objects to most public funding of events. Of course, without the kind of funding they object to, there would be no Fringe Festival, no jazz festival, no TIFF, no Stratford or Shaw festivals, or really any cultural events whatsoever. The play that CTF is “objecting to” is an excuse for the old saw about the bugaboo of the evils of public funding for the arts.
Arts funding organizations from all levels of government need to fund shows based on their merit or their relevance, rather than on their political ramifications. This means that sometimes there will be controversial plays that are funded by the government. But this is not a bad thing. The arts should challenge political correctness, they should be controversial, they should spark debate. If nothing controversial can ever receive funding because the sensitive right-wingers at the CTF (which will always be offended because public funds are involved) or the Sun might be offended, then all funded art will be safe and boring.
The article itself may be familiar territory for the Sun, the most important part of the article are the online comments. Many of the comments are from people who are just as outraged as the Sun (and the CTF) wanted them to be. These are the people who believe that the arts are not worth funding. These are the people who think that artists are swimming in money, people who think like Stephen Harper does when he talked about funding cuts back in the last Federal election (“I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren’t high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up – I’m not sure that’s something that resonates with ordinary people,”*). In my mind, the comments say the most. These are the people and attitudes that artists are up “against” when election time comes, when people want to be outraged about “wasted government spending”, and how the arts are for the rich and not for “regular people” so why should we fund them? I’d consider the comments a “must read”, at the very least, to know what those people who disagree with arts funding believe, so that those of us who recognize the importance of funding can plan our response.
*Quoted from the Toronto Star, Sept. 24, 2008
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It’s love at first sight for the new girl with a tragic past and a serial killer that has one or two skeletons in his closet (literally). And nothing will keep them from each other. Nothing. This killer new musical has everything: horror, comedy, and a live rock band!
Phil appears as Lionel/Dad in this mad rock musical at the new Poor Alex Theatre.
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Actor, writer, geek, gamer, nerd, web guy and blogger. |
