A 2021 WISH LIST
When will Edmonton's cultural scene finally return to its usual robust self?
It's Orthodox Christmas — sort of an extenda-play to the holiday season, where far more people than just we Slavs worldwide get a nice injection of reflection and hope in the brightening ( but still pretty dark) dawn days of early January.
Even without the post-lent pierogi spread, accordion music and elderly women cheerfully telling us we're the wrong weight, it's still a pleasant extra few days of peace, goodwill and gratitude. And so, summoning that ongoing communal spirit, I hope it's OK to pass along some of my hopes (and hopefully offer some) for our cultural ecosystem in 2021.
As you probably know, the pandemic ripped almost all regular audiences away from artists, even destroyed a number of local venues forever, and all without a single apology to creative workers, bookers, curators, owners and legions of associated support staff left to wonder, like Joy Division's Ian Curtis, “When will it end?”
But the dominant reality we'd do well to accept is that — as much as Rogers Place has been advertising last year's concerts with a 2021 swapped in on its outside LED screens — it may well be another year before we scream and cheer in a bowl together by the tens of thousands to our favourite international touring bands.
When will it end? To quote Brandt from The Big Lebowski, “Well, Dude, we just don't know.”
Minutes before the stroke of 2021, I was walking along the bottom of the Hill at Gallagher Park, a tiny group of happy, laughing tobogganers under the hazy, fullish moon and the Saturn and Jupiter waltz. The group was somewhat smaller than the 25,000-ish daily that show up for the annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival every fall — impossible under even the easiest of last year's restrictions. It got me thinking and hoping that the city's most famous music event, outright cancelled in 2020, finds a way to assert itself this year.
The chances of us having a perfectly regular folk fest are slim, says festival director Terry Wickham. To go ahead, “My belief is that a vaccine has to be widely distributed — the numbers have to fall dramatically in order for people to have confidence to gather in large numbers. Vaccination by Sept. 30 will likely not fit our timeline — think of the logistical challenges — but I will keep an open mind for now.
“If the festival can't go ahead, then I hope we can gather in smaller numbers, for example 250 or so, then I would hope we could set up some stages in communities and bring live music to people.”
Fingers crossed, this would be awesome — as even the small, front-yard and limited capacity Brass Monkey concerts around the city with artists like Arlo Maverick, Dana Wylie, Bill Bourne and Scott Cook, to name a few, proved last summer and fall. Basically, the second any number of us were allowed by the medical experts to gather together and hear music, we went for it — and here's hoping for way more.
The other Goliath event turned invisible was the Fringe, which understandably lost its midway — and theatre may well have to stay atomized, with small in-person audiences, once there can even be those. But what I hope for the theatre community is best demonstrated most recently by the examples of Varscona Theatre and Grindstone's holiday specials: seriously worthwhile-to-watch, filmed programming.
No pressure, but wouldn't it be something if another SCTV evolved out of the pandemic sea? It'd be like Connor Mcdavid getting to hold his own Stanley Cup, and I really encourage you to support theatre in any way they currently offer. Same goes for all the arts, of course — the symphony, bookstores, ballet, whatever — and we'll continue to keep you posted about ways to do that. If you have something going on, please reach out to yegarts@postmedia.com and we'll try and amplify you.
As far as local film production goes, from experience I can tell you for cautious filmmakers it's the ultimate nightmare of “hurry up and wait” for any typical production — few around here have access to Disney's virtual, 270-degree Stagecraft studio that can conveniently drop a computer generated crowd or location in behind the actors.
“To be making narrative right now you have to have a huge amount of money,” says local filmmaker Katrina Beatty. “In Calgary they're still running full TV shows — they're just spending astronomical amounts on PPE and testing.
“It's Alberta, so they're not going to stop work,” she says. “But everybody's reducing crews to the bare minimums. For producers like me, you're not going to be on set as just a producer — you figure out the three other jobs you can do. As far as innovation goes, I did a shoot in the summer where the director directed the whole thing remotely. They get patched in so they can see what the focus puller is seeing. It's not ideal circumstances, you have to have amazing communication.
“Most people are sticking to smaller staff, Telus Storyhive — a pretty popular funder here — anything you pitch for them, you have to do it with a crew of three people or less.”
I'll give Beatty the wish for this one, and she instantly responds, “Uncapped tax incentives — we've been asking for the same thing for years.”
To this I'll add, can't wait to see what films people come up with on the tiniest of scales — I have a feeling horror movies about isolation might be a thing.
On another positive note, Edmonton Arts Council's public art director David Turnbull notes, “I think it might be a record year, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 new projects.” The reason for this is the number of new LRT stations on their way, including international artist Shan Shan Sheng's Fluid Landscape at the impressive, elevated Davies Station at 75 Street and Wagner Road. Of all the arts, public art is probably the easiest to feel safe around — and my hope is for plenty more of it.
The longer this thing goes on, the longer it'll be before your favourite touring band will come through again.
And boy do I wish you and I could be in one of those giant crowds again, screaming our heads off, singing along to the same song.
If the festival can't go ahead, then I hope we can gather in smaller numbers, for example 250 or so, then I would hope we could set up some stages in communities and bring live music to people. Terry Wickham