Please Keep Streaming Alive - A Little Plea from a Small-Town Canadian Theatre Nerd
Last night, I was fortunate enough to watch CCPA's Urinetown. This means I got to see my friend Shania perform in a show I also, admittedly, really love. This is something that would've never been possible if it wasn't for this crazy thing that's going on right now…because I do not live in Victoria…and theatre traditionally happens in one specific location (ps unsurprisingly, she was fantastic - and so was the rest of the cast. Little pitch: there's another show there today at 3 Pacific Time, and then a few more next weekend with a different cast...tickets are easy to find on CCPA's site)
As much as I hate the reason why I could see the show, I do have to say…can we please keep some of this streaming stuff around in the "new normal"?
I'm not saying to get rid of in-person shows or anything. I'm not even saying the recorded/streamed version needs to be super high quality if it kills the budget. Obviously, high quality's always nice, but it's not a total deal breaker if your other option is not seeing the show at all. (ps, CCPA also killed it in that respect, so congrats to that team - a lot of work must've gone into making it all smooth). I can totally see that it’s hard to legitimize spending the money/time on it when you really don’t know if anyone’s actually going to buy a virtual ticket just by making it available…not to mention I’m sure there are issues with performance rights in regular situations, etc. etc. etc.
But, as a person who seems to often be in the wrong place at the wrong time, streaming/recorded options are actually really lovely to see...ESPECIALLY for theatre school performances.
I know streaming/video has a touchy reputation right now because everyone’s completely mentally exhausted from it (full disclosure, there are very few things I watch/attend these days…for that very reason). I also know it takes a lot of effort from the actors perspective right now because there isn’t a full audience to play to, and, you know, the context isn't exactly chipper... But there won’t always be crisis-mode context surrounding virtual options, and it’s actually a pretty incredible way of making live performance more accessible.
Why is this extra important for theatre school performances?
We live in a big country, and geography is an expensive and time-consuming barrier. Many supportive family members never get to see their kid's performances at these schools, and some of these relatives are even paying for their education in the first place. If you're not in the same city, the travel aspect is way more of a barrier than simply the cost of a ticket. Many family and friends decide to spend that money on travel (if they can afford to travel at all) for when they are in a “real” show, even though who knows if/when/where that will be.
These productions are too often impossible to attend, even though they can sometimes be the most significant opportunity those students will have for a while.
School productions often allow students to be featured in ways they likely won't be in the early stages of their professional lives. These shows are legitimately designed to give as many students as possible an opportunity to shine in some way (this realistically doesn’t necessarily happen, but that’s a different soapbox that I’ll leave for another day). This is not uncommon to be a relative's last time to see their baby shine in a spotlight for a while (in case you hadn’t noticed, the average theatre school graduate doesn’t hop straight into a lead in a Mirvish show). For some students, this is the highest quality production they've ever been a part of, and it’s the first time they’ve been a part of something with this many professionally-minded artists. These shows may be the first time a hesitant relative can see the student's potential and drive in a higher-calibre context. It gives them a chance to see those students at their best, and just maybe, it’ll give them a chance to turn from hesitantly supportive into completely supportive.
Having a supportive base is crucial in this industry, whether they’re relatives or not, and it's severely unfortunate how many friends and relatives don't get the chance to see these monumental performances simply because of cost and logistics.
Ok, now - getting off of my theatre school soapbox and onto my regular soapbox.
There are tons of young, budding performers who don't have the luxury of living in areas with thriving theatre communities.
Newsflash: if you don't live in a city, there are very few (if any) options to see shows by professional/semi-/pre-(/whatever "taking this seriously" is called) Canadian performers. Yes, you can always find bootleg performances on YouTube. A balcony cell phone recording of Hamilton isn't that reflective of the average opportunity for Canadian performers, though. So instead, why not inspire them to aspire to work with some of the great companies and artists we have right here?
Full confession - I grew up in a small town, and I didn't know about the majority of the Canadian theatre scene until I went to college in Ontario…even there, it wasn’t exactly presented on a silver platter on day one. I was clueless half the time, and most people didn't even notice. I was noticeably obsessed with the industry, and I sounded smart about other things, so people often just assumed I knew stuff but cared more about my grades than external opportunities (confessions of a theatre school smarty pants? Hmm...probably not the next blockbuster, but maybe let’s workshop it). I even missed out on some auditions because they were apparently common theatre-kid knowledge. Little Miss "go-home-and-practice-instead-of-socializing" would not hear about things until she wondered why other students were absent on certain mornings. It wasn't just the auditions I wasn't in the loop about; I simply did not know these companies/opportunities existed in the first place.
Even though the internet is much more prevalent now than when I was a teen, there’s still a decent possibility that I wouldn't have known about many of these companies had I not gone to theatre school. Unless you have friends/peers/mentors in the industry, many things are entirely inaccessible and even potentially invisible if they're in another city…unless they’re popular enough for someone to try to illegally record and share them.
If you're not where theatre happens, the internet is your main window into the industry. If all the internet shows you are things in other countries, why wouldn't you assume that's where everything happens?
I know a lot of the online theatre/class world is painful and exhausting in context right now. Believe me - I hide from the internet world 95% of the time these days, so no judgement there at ALL. Once "normal" life starts coming back, however, and the survival-mode veil comes off of everything, this e-accessibility that's happening right now is actually really cool. I really hope all this progression doesn't get lost in the excitement of coming back and sharing space again.
We have this crazy awesome tool called the internet, so can we please keep using it?
(Ok - getting down off my soapbox and going back into my little hole in the wall - bye!)
Who wrote this???
Nadya is a female Canadian musical theatre performer…whatever that means in 2021. She is a graduate of Sheridan’s Music Theatre Diploma program, and also holds an MA in Music Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. This means she is highly certified in the essential skills of singing, dancing, and acting, and is debatably competent (but completely uncertified) in a crap ton of other random skills.
During The Great Pause of 2020, she returned to her parents’ basement, and has spent many more hours than ever before contemplating what she wants to bring to the world if she can’t just spend her days asking to be in other people’s shows…because that seems to not really be an option right now. She has also had the pleasure of starting all the classic pandemic projects: a YouTube series, a few books, a Red Bubble “store”, multiple Instagram accounts, TikTok, notebook designs, two blogs, too much self-eaten baking, and who knows what else will be next (actually, I think I do know, but that’s a tale for another day).
Maybe one day, all these things will amount to something, but really, who knows.
PS. if you’d like to chip in for Nadya’s tea fund, check out the Ko-Fi link below. No pressure, though - if you read this far, you’re probably a not-exactly-rich artist, too.