Common Ground seeks to amplify Prairie theatre artists with Mainstage Series
Edmonton's thriving theatre scene can mask some missing opportunities for second- and third-run shows, both in Edmonton and across the Prairies, which can limit the potential for playwrights and other homegrown talent to thrive or even remain in Edmonton, said Mac Brock with with Common Ground Arts Society.
"We have one of the most thriving creative sectors in Canada, not just on the Prairies, but across Canada," Brock told Taproot. "What you don't see a lot of is opportunities for that work to be presented for a second or a third time, because no work of art is done the first time it's in front of an audience, particularly in theatre. The last piece of feedback that you really need to get a show ready is an audience in the room. How is an audience going to respond to it? Shows go through gigantic transformations after their first run into when they get their second run. And it can be really hard to find those opportunities (on the Prairies)."
To build second- and third-run opportunities for playwrights in Edmonton and across the Prairies, including chances to tour a show, Common Ground is creating the Prairie Mainstage Series, launching in June. Brock said Common Ground is built around making theatre more accessible in multiple ways, and the series will feed into this. The initial plan is to stage two works: Banana Musik, which will hit stages in September, and is a play about aging and the dynamics in Filipino families, created and performed by Kris Alvarez and her parents, Jim and Susan, all of whom are from Regina; and Ecos, which will stage in late October. Ecos is a collection of diaspora diaries co-presented with Mile Zero Dance.
Common Ground is seeking to raise $10,000 by June 10 to launch the Mainstage Series. Tickets will go on sale later in the summer.
Brock said Edmonton's theatre sector is largely focused on premières or getting a show in front of an audience for the first time. This, he said, offers a double-edged sword type of scenario. "So much of (Edmonton's) work is around giving our artists their first opportunity to connect with an audience," Brock said. "That means that there is a really low barrier to access getting into the arts in Edmonton, but it does also mean there's a low ceiling, that it can be really easy to go, 'Okay, there aren't opportunities for me anymore.'"
Common Ground often hears from artists in Edmonton that, over the many years they work here, feel they end up on a circuit of opportunities for emerging artists and new work, but then struggle to graduate to the next step, Brock said.
But when it comes to missing opportunities, Brock said the idea applies beyond first-time playwrights and into which voices are elevated to tour beyond Edmonton and which aren't.
"Common Ground's background, and our mandate, is primarily to work with artists who are facing some type of barrier to working professionally in the arts. That can be artists who have disabilities, Deaf artists, artists who English isn't their first language, artists (who) culturally whose work maybe isn't always going to be programmed on the bigger stages in the city," Brock said. "The shows that you do see touring have a wide mainstream audience, but we have artists that are working in specific communities, in under-represented groups in Edmonton, that have some huge barriers to touring."
What this means, Brock said, is "a lot of those artists that are exciting, whose voices are needed in Edmonton, whose voices we're not seeing on stages, it means there's a huge percentage of them that are moving to Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and are leaving the Prairies."
Common Ground wants to offer opportunities in Edmonton, Brock said. Both offerings in the Mainstage Series are created by artists "who don't have a natural next platform" for where their work can go but deserve a much larger audience, he said. Applications are now open for another of Common Ground's opportunities, the RISER program. Common Ground's Found Festival runs July 9 to 13.
Clarification: Common Ground has increased its fundraising goal from $5,000 to $10,000. This story has been updated to reflect this.
