Berto_Tony_201307_PhD .pdf - University of Guelph

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terms of theatres accessing development funding I have outlined a few locations where
biases and political climate may enter into the process. Furthermore, given that MacIvor has
been well-established in the Canadian theatre scene for over twenty years, it is likely he is
well aware of circulating pressures that may inform how grant monies are disbursed. His
choices to develop the play at these institutions would suggest His Greatness was an apt fit
with the kind of projects for which each theatre has received its grants.
Commercial potential may also play into grants adjudication. While the Council
claims that it “believes . . . [in] freeing art from complete reliance on the marketplace”,
grants are based, in part, on a company's past successes and record (Canada “Background”).
When large companies like the Arts Club apply for grants, they have to inform the Council
of their previous uses of grant monies as well as describe their current plan, in terms of
programming, for the next seasons (large companies often apply on a three year basis). If
the expression of certain themes in the arts may lead to higher potential risk for sales, then
this concern may present itself in the development process. Ric Knowles comments that
"provocative subject matter with socially interventionist potential tends to be both
developed . . . and packaged . . . in ways that can blunt the provocation and subvert or
contain that potential" (Knowles, Reading 37). If a play is developed for a particular
market, where ideological affinities of audience and tradition are known, one might expect
these affinities to affect the development process. Plays with provocative subject matter,
such as expressions of gay sexuality, may appear to threaten the affinities of a certain
market, and that theatre’s potential to sell seats.
Most script development by theatres also takes into account the financial
considerations of the play's potential production. Playwrights usually hone their projects