Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly: Building an arts season is a fine craft, a logistical puzzle, a feat of networking, and an act of faith. What it is not, if you talk to the local artistic directors who so carefully curate the seasons you’ll read about in this issue of the Georgia Straight, is a random selection. Or a flight of serendipity. Or a reflection of one person’s favourite things. Well, okay, maybe a tiny bit of that last one.
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These people the article describes have an incredible amount of power in the industry they work in. For me, it's helpful to remember that for the most part they attempt to let their hunger for innovation drive what they pick for seasons rather than what they like the best out of a show or recital. I really liked the line that "art organizations should lead the public, not follow the public." It's like a fashion magazine, or some stylists and designers, who work to develop new trends as opposed to fashion brands like Urban Outfitters or H&M, who take major trends from innovative artists and spread them to the masses. On occasion, art leads the crowd movement, pointing a finger towards something we might be missing in our day to day lives. I agree with Redfern about the importance of choosing shows that might not make too much money but are extremely important to raise awareness (in any way) about a certain cause or issue that had been or is going on. There should be a balance between shows that are purely for entertainment value and shows that try to make a difference or change the perspective of their audiences.
In my opinion, artistic directors have the hardest jobs of everyone that works on any given production. I say this because they are responsible for picking what productions are exactly going to make up a theater’s season. You want to pick plays that are going to interesting to both produce and watch. The balance of this is critical because you are appealing to both your theater company’s staff and audience. However, it is really important to think about how much money it is going to cost to put on the productions, and how much you are going to make from audiences. You do not want to go bursting the budget trying to produce a play that is totally out of scope for you theater, and you do not want to do a show that no one is going to want to see. I already have a headache! I applaud all artistic directors for their work.
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