Linda Griffiths: Theatre Trends
Age of Arousal playwright on Canadian Theatre Yet to Come
Linda Griffiths - in candid conversation on the future of Canadian theatre, the curious development of niche audiences and ongoing challenges for thespians of tomorrow.
One of the most progressive and revolutionary female playwrights in Canada, Linda Griffiths has seen a lot of changes in the theatre over the years, from the choice of productions presented to its evolving audience, or what Griffiths labels "niche audiences". As Griffiths continues to mentor young actors, she is very concerned about their place in the theatre and wonders what the stages of tomorrow will bring.
What do you think of the future of Canadian Theatre?
"What is hard to watch is that, where at one time it was possible to bridge many areas of the population – I like to think in terms of an audience who can go from the groundlings to the top – and now there are "niche audiences" which have developed and I cannot say exactly why. There is an "art house" niche and that’s where Alien Creature ended up, along with Daniel MacIvor
"There's the "regional" niche, where things are developed at that level and never reach into the off-Broadway style places like Factory and Theatre Passe Murielle and Tarragon. They all seem so separate, and it is very hard to move past that."
"I have experienced it at times. But it seems less and less possible. Everything is very bitty. There are also huge numbers of young people. I am mentoring a few at the moment who want to enter and there just doesn't seem space for them. There are literally buildings to put it on in and as housing prices and all of that rise in Canada, it’s harder to find those warehouses and places that I grew up in. It’s even harder for them to find a spot, and there’s no money."
"The only place with any money is the corporate world. They are starting product placement in the theatre and I don’t know I feel about that. Of course, initially, I would resist it just because of my background. So I think that young artists in the theatre have a real challenge in terms of fitting somewhere.
The other niche is the "festival" niche – you get Fringe Festivals, SummerWorks – but that’s another niche that tends to bring it out to a wider audience. It’s just rarely possible and so there are a lot of semi- professionals."
"I was lucky, for what little I was paid, to be able to live as a professional for most of my life, and that’s unusual. There were opportunities for youth grants and all those kinds of things. It wasn’t easy, but I had an easier time of it than the younger artists coming up. I am very concerned about them. I am bringing a couple of people to the first reading of Age of Arousal and offering comments on their work because I think it’s so important. I got a lot of help when I was young, so I have to pass that on."
"So the future of Canadian theatre; I don’t want to say that I’m not the future because I’m not going to stop for a long time, but the future is also the younger generation coming up and they have a much harder time of it than we did."
Just to get people off the couch is a major accomplishment…
"Just look at what’s happening in Toronto. I was pulling in a really broad range of audience like the hipsters on Queen Street and the people from Rosedale, and there wasn’t that much going on. What was going on was the theatre. It was absolutely vital to the culture at that point. Now just look at NOW Magazine and it’s really hard to find that audience and lock them in for a subscription, which creates a very, very dead atmosphere in the room. The boards of directors are more and more conservative in those situations."
For highly controversial shows, it’s hard to predict what kind of audience you will get.
"I do believe that at one point in time there was a larger audience willing to take those chances (on controversial and provocative pieces.) I don’t mean to blame the audience. I think that we have failed in ways of bringing that kind of work in and making it vital as opposed to a niche thing. I don’t know what I mean by vital. I guess I mean accessible, but I don’t mean by playing things down either, nor dumbing things down."
Age of Arousal by Linda Griffiths continues at The Factory Theatre to Dec 16.
