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there, they will feel that TPM is a diverse and inclusive organisation where they are
welcome.
Other bridge building initiatives have included:
• A Naturists’ evening at the theatre – a performance where clothing was optional!
A huge hit – and a great publicity opportunity.
• Audience dramaturgy. The Buzz Festival is a new work and audience
development festival where the audience become participants in the play
development process. The audience is provided with background to each new
work and there is an interchange of views between the audience and artists both
during and after the play development sessions. With the artists always
ultimately in control of the creative product, but the audience engaged in a new
and intimate way, this has drawn positive reactions from both audience and
artists.
• Theatre Beyond Walls (a play on the company’s French name) is a pioneering
programme where stories from the community will be the starting point for the
development of new works. Artists will leave the building for a season to involve
local audiences in 12 locations around Toronto in the development and creation
of art works. Projects will include ”writers-out-of-residence” on the Toronto
Queen Street car; verbatim texts and interviews with taxi drivers as the starting
point for a theatre piece; and a play based on the homeless and mentally ill
people who will also take part in creating the work.
• The performance of Yichud (Seclusion), set in the orthodox Jewish community.
In all these projects there is a strong desire to develop community collaborations with nonartistic
organisations and communities. “We get to meet a community we don’t know,” said
McKim, “and they might get to meet a culture they don’t know.”
TPM is, through these and other initiatives (including social media to reach younger
audiences) moving to an approach based on dialogue and interactivity. It aims to encourage
people to create their own communities that reflect their own culture, and develop stories
that are meaningful to them.
“We hope this will be emblematic of a new way for a cultural institution and the city of
Toronto and the citizens to engage with one another to create something that is inspiring to
all of us and created by all of us.”
There is a big job ahead for us as cultural leaders, he adds. How can we be the purveyors of
the public’s ability to engage with art? TPM will continue to forge the path it has established,
buoyed by the response to the engagement activities undertaken to date, and those on
which they are about to embark.