One more for a Good Cause: Why Censoring Summerworks Means No More Flashpoints.

HI.  HOW ARE YOU?  Great, Great. Oh, Good, Good. You know, working and stuff. Same old same old. 


Buncha stuff, really. Ah, too much to go into, and you don't wanna hear about that.  So, one might say, why have I busted out of blogtirement (which I've been enjoying immensely, thanks much) after all this time?


Well friends, let me tell you a little story.

About fifteen years ago, I was a frustrated, unchallenged segment producer at CityTV.  My job was fun, but unfulfilling, because I knew what I really wanted to do was write.  But before I could take the ridiculous leap of quitting my job and going to write full time, I had to build up confidence.  So I wrote a one-act play. 


That play was called "Press'd." It was a little media-savvy potboiler about an fragile actor hot on the heels of a painful breakup, manipulated by his agent into doing a day of Press Junketry.  During the course of a day of canned interviews, he takes a grasping journalist and her idealistic cameraman hostage. And then, this being show business, everyone immediately starts working the situation to their advantage.


It was fun. It spoke to my world and experience.  It drew wonderful, large, enthusiastic crowds.  One of the best nights was when my then-boss, the irrepressible Moses Znaimer showed up.  That caused a bit of a ripple.


More importantly, I got to sit at the back of the theatre, and hear the jokes land. I got to hear people laugh where I wanted them to laugh -- "get" what I wanted them to get; gasp at turns they didn't see coming until I wanted them to.  

Long story short, it allowed me to see my work up "on its feet" in front of an audience, on a stage.  It gave me the confidence to think, "Maybe I'm not crazy with this writing thing."  It would be another few years before I quit that job, but the groundwork was laid. That show created my next career.


That groundwork, in fact, was laid for a lot less money that it otherwise could have cost me.  Because that first play of mine was presented under the auspices of a new theater festival called Summerworks.


Thanks to Summerworks, my cost to get that play up and running was only about $2000.  We made our money back at the gate, and even extended for a short run with another play that did well at the same festival, by a wonderful Toronto writer named David Widdicombe.


My play, Press'd, along with David's River Lady, (which was recently revived in Toronto) played into September from their launching pad at the Summerworks Festival.  And it was at that remount, the stars of both my play and David's met.


Mark Ellis & Stephanie Morgenstern were both working actors at the time -- Stephanie had been working as an actor for more than 15 years at the time, and had written and co-directed a short film.  From the moment they met, Steph & Mark clearly were destined for more than artistic collaboration.


Flash ahead to 2011, and Mark & Stephanie are the co-creators of Flashpoint, now finishing its fourth season, and one of Canadian TV's greatest success stories.

Summerworks went on to greater things as well. Over the years I would see many new works, and see new, exciting emerging voices there.  It was at Summerworks where I first saw Poochwater, an amazing play by Mike McPhaden, who I'd later practically DEMAND start writing TV.  He won the Dora Award for that show, too. It was a revelation. I'm sure McPhaden would credit a lot of his start to Summerworks.   There's also Chris Leavins -- Cute With Chris internet star, who wrote one of the sharpest faux memoir pieces I've ever seen. And Sean Reycraft's One Good Marriage was a fantastic, macabre story.  Sean's gone on to write many TV shows in both the USA and Canada, including Degrassi, The Vampire Diaries, 90210, and many others.


Summerworks, too, focused itself, becoming an important venue for new Canadian work -- for new generations of playwrights and actors to cut their teeth. The ten day festival and the shared-costs of presenting that many shows kept costs low enough for new writers to afford the fees and get that first chance to put themselves out there for an audience.  


I simply can't stress how influential, and how important, that Festival has been for the development of new voices in the Canadian Film, Theatre, and Television community.


Mark Ellis tweeted today, "NO Summerworks, NO Flashpoint..." -- and it's hard to dispute the fact. 


So now here's where the story gets ugly:


In the 2010 Festival, a play called Homegrown was presented. It concerned a woman's relationship with one of the "Toronto18."  


The Sun newspaper chain  (no link, cause really, fuck them)  ginned up a bunch of controversy -- without ever seeing the play in question -- by saying it "glorified terrorism."


It didn't matter that the work, flawed, naive, unpolished maybe -- as are many of the works presented at a festival like Summerworks -- really did nothing of the sort.  The narrative caught fire. It became more tinder in the fight to export U.S. style culture wars north.


(If you're curious to read what the play was actually like -- including some very fair criticism of it -- here's a link to a review.)


Flash ahead to today -- it's 39 days before the next Summerworks Festival.  
And this morning, the Department of Heritage cut 20% of their budget.  


Read the article about the cut and draw your own conclusions, but to me this feeds into a nice long narrative about what the Conservative Government does to organizations that espouse (or whom they say espouse) points of view that don't gibe with the good Conservative mindset.


What's lost in this -- in the noise from the Sun and elsewhere - is the good that Summerworks does.  Flashpoint alone has generated millions of dollars to the artistic economy.  Its early encouragement of me has taken me from a frustrated salary-worker to a freelancer who paid a whole stinking load of taxes last year, and for several years before that.  Many of us can tell that same story.  It, in fact, has invested in not just the cultural life of the country -- it's driven and sparked the careers of those who continue to create jobs, and wealth, as well as ideas and culture in this country. It is more than a good investment. It's low cost seed money for an entire industry.


It's a cause worth supporting, which is why I donated $1000 this morning to try and help Summerworks make up its $45 000.00 shortfall this year.


Don't let the playing of cynical politics be the last word.  Take a stand for artistic freedom, freedom of expression and the right to say things that maybe might not make a Conservative happy, but are things that are legitimate and absolutely essential if our country is going to remain a democracy where different points of view can be respected, and debated.


You don't have to kick in a grand, but can you afford $100? What about $50? $25 even?


Art creates wealth.
Art creates debate.
Art creates society.


Don't let creeping parochialism win.  Help save Summerworks.


Click here to make a donation.  (It's a charitable donation, which means you'll get a tax receipt back.)


Thanks for reading.  Oh and if you want to buy tickets to shows this year, that link is here. Please do both.  By investing in the shows, you might be investing in the next Flashpoint. And by helping the Fest, you'll give those artists somewhere to learn their craft, so that someday they may entertain you, spark your fancy or pique, or enrich your life.


Now, it's back to the shadows with me. Hope you're having a nice summer. I'm off to L.A. tomorrow, thanks for asking. That's another story, of course -- and, I'm happy to say, one that I'll be telling only in person at pubs and at parties. I remain, gleefully retired from the soapbox business.  


For now, anyway.