Volume 5

Volume 5

#MelinaLaboucan-Massimo #MildredFlett #BonnieMJoseph

We spent summers where my maternal roots are, the lower Nicola Valley in B.C. There I learned I already knew people who had first hand experience with having a child plucked from the universe. This place I regarded as idyllic and friendliest toward children - a cluster of Indian Reserves in the interior - was the crime scape for that greatest of horrors. I felt the world shift beneath my feet, and an obsession planted.

Cultural Bad Habits

ES, I signed my name to that letter. I hesitated at first. It can be so thankless on the business side of the biz, I didn’t want to burst anyone’s bubble. I’m also not certain awards matter that much. Besides, I’m no longer entrenched in the business. Sure, I’ve won Jessies, lost some, and been ignored plenty of times as well. I’ve felt all the ups and downs of that ego train. In the end, I liked the letter and the point it was making. The punches were graceful like Mohammad Ali.

Where Art Meets Fuck You

What is the point of doing these quickly thrown together works? What actual good is placing our political questions onto a stage? What is the actual point when there are people who directly and actively work to address injustice? Maybe Wrecking Ball is not for anyone else but our community. Maybe it is simply our time, our space to say fuck you.

Frequent Fringer?

Audiences don’t just come in the form of paid ticket holders; audiences aren’t just people who read an article in the newspaper; audiences aren’t only coming to see their favourite local “celebrity”. Audiences are those people too, of course, and we love them. But audiences are also the media, family and friends of artists, funders of all stripes, artists both past and present and, most importantly, volunteers.

#CdnCult Times; Volume 5, Edition 7: AUDIENCES


Audiences are assholes

First of all audiences don’t come to the theatre (what the hell is wrong with them?) and when they do they don’t stay (why the hell didn't they just stay home?) and if they do come they let their phones ring (Is there no intelligence left in this world?) or worse, yet, they text! (I mean don’t they know they are not the centre of the universe?) What a bunch of jerks! Audiences are assholes! Like basically they don’t know how to do anything right anymore. What has happened to civilization?!

Audience – What does that even mean anymore?

So, what is it that is really bothering us? Is it that our audiences want to talk? They want to communicate with one another? Is it that they want to bring electronics into the theatre? No. The real problem we are facing is not that our audiences want to bring technology into the theatrical space – it’s that by doing so, they are disengaging with the performance that is happening right in front of them. They are no longer a part of the show. And that’s not a problem with them – that’s a problem with us.

Twitter Dramaturgy



Yes, reconciliation is difficult but the truth can also set us free so that the hard work of healing a country can also be joyful and meaningful. For me, the simplest way to do this is to engage with Aboriginal Peoples any way you can. So here's my 10 feelgood ways to make a better Canada.

LMDA 15 Keynote: Who are you Canada?

In a 1967 television interview the Canadian visionary Marshall McLuhan said you’re the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity. Echoing his sentiments somewhat, the poet Irving Layton said, “A Canadian is someone who keeps asking the question, ‘What is a Canadian?’” I think he was confusing Canadians with Dramaturgs but anyway, you get the idea.