SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER
So many variables account for who needs space, who
gets it, and where and why. Yvette Nolan riffs on the conundrum
of “spacing” in the arts communities.
Who knew that in the twenty-first century, one of the biggest
challenges facing the Toronto performing arts would still
be space? Yet, on a daily basis I find myself in discussion
about the lack of it, the affordability of it, the accessibility
of it. We always start with the obvious – the loss
of Artword, the Poor Alex, Tim Simms and the Theatre Centre
– and then we move on to the more subtle.
It’s not just that we have lost these spaces, (and
although things are not over for the Theatre Centre, for
instance, many of us are trying to secure space for a year
or eighteen months from now, and we cannot book spaces that
may or may not be there). The pressure that now exists on
the few remaining spaces has just gone up several degrees.
It reminds me of the scene in Norman Jewison’s film
Jesus Christ Superstar, when Jesus runs into the
lepers. He wants to help them, they want him to help them.
Easy. They swarm him, and as he is buried in lepers, he
yells “there’s too little of me… there’s
too many of you… leave me alone!” Yup. We small
homeless producing companies are the lepers. Things are
grim.
Then there is this other insidious side to the whole space
affair. The few houses that do have space to rent now have
a whole new wealth of potential renters lined up, calling
up, sending e-mail, trying to take advantage of connections,
however tenuous. The producers who run those spaces can
choose who they rent to, who they partner with, who they
share resources with, who gets seen. Of course those houses
have images, they have audiences and subscription bases
they serve, and the producers who run those houses quite
rightly can curate their spaces to not offend their constituencies,
to balance their own seasons. They can choose companies
to offer their audiences something different, whether that
is in style or culture or aesthetic.
Many, many of the companies who are homeless are Other,
set apart by the work we do: culturally specific work, or
genre-challenging work, collectively created work, or physically-created
work, work from image, in image, in dance, in new media.
We Other companies are not necessarily speaking to the same
audiences that those producers are speaking to, and that
can make us less attractive to the producer.
So we find ourselves in an extended audition process, a
cattle-call for companies, selling ourselves and our shows
to a likely, sympathetic producer. Maybe selling ourselves
short. Maybe I sell my show a little whiter, so that it’s
a little more attractive to the subscriber base at that
house. Maybe I sell it a little browner, participate in
the exotification of the work, so that it’s a little
sexier.
There’s been a lot of talk about the new Young Centre
for the Performing Arts, and a lot of hope that it will
relieve some of the pressure on the arts community. It will
likely help, but it is not going to be enough, and the Young
Centre comes with its own set of challenges: it is already
shared by two major players with very full agenda; it is
too expensive for many of the young, emerging groups to
rent; the associated costs may be prohibitive for some audiences
(my constituency cannot afford the surcharge on ticket prices);
the very location can be an obstacle to some communities
(hey, I work here, I know how much of a challenge it can
be to get here).
More space. We need more and more varied space. And as
the real estate market just keeps heating up, the spaces
we used to be able to find and convert evaporate, or transform
into condos, or event spaces at $2000 night. We need space
for everyone, for the avant-garde as well as the après-garde,
for the profane as well as the pious, for the emerging and
experimental as well as the established and the traditional.
Only when there is room for all of us can the art we struggle
to create be seen as truly representative of Canada’s
biggest, most diverse, most multicultural city.
Yvette Nolan is the Artistic Director of Native Earth
Performing Arts.
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