They come from all walks of life to tread the boards

The Quebec government lavished spending on the arts in its budget two weeks ago. From free entry to province-run museums one Sunday per month, to money for daycare cultural field trips, to major boosts to writers’ and musicians’ funding organizations, the unexpected injection of tax dollars into culture has left players in the domain more or less gobsmacked.

Overall, cultural spending is getting an 11 percent increase, bringing the total in 2019 to $778 million. By any measure, that’s a heap of cash to support products intended for the amusement, enlightenment, education and entertainment of the Quebec masses.

Even before Finance Minister Carlos Leitao dug deep into his pockets for this relative embarrassment of arts riches, Quebec led the land in generosity to the arts community, despite the fact more artists may have starved during the years of austerity that paved the way for the current bounteous circumstances.

This is only natural in a place where culture, from poetry to TV soap operas to circus acts, are the well-spring of French language survival and perpetuation. Ontario, for example, does not have many (if any) TV shows that are specifically Ontarian to bolster the Ontario identity. Nor does it have magazine racks packed with hebdos chronicling every whim and woe of vedettes from home-produced movies and television.

Without government financial support, it’s a pretty good bet the vast majority of cultural endeavours in Quebec (and in the rest of the country, for that matter) would wither and die. Is there one performance theatre in the province that could survive on ticket sales alone? Even a monster gathering like Quebec’s Festival d’étè gets millions in government funding to anchor its budget.

(We won’t stray here into the issue of funding for English-language arts in Quebec, except to remind folks the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Quebec cut off funding for the Quebec Drama Federation last year, but then relented under pressure.)

Then there are the arts that get not a cent of government money. Community theatre, for one. In the interests of “full disclosure,” your scribe admits to a deep fondness for and occasional involvement in the Quebec Art Company, Quebec City’s long-standing English-language community theatre group - shunned is the word “amateur” and it’s dismissive connotation.

Back when the current edition of the QAC began nearly 40 years and 60 shows ago, Quebec City was a different place. English-speaking families were fleeing the province as political change brought uncertainty about the future. Theatre in English in the capital of an evolving French-language dominant province offered a refuge and distraction from the turmoil and anxiety.

For English-speaking families coming to the city from elsewhere in the country or world, the QAC provided, and still does provide, a welcoming vehicle for integration into the city and the opportunity to develop a network of friends.

The QAC, though, has changed. The company’s website notes in text prepared for a recent exhibit on Englishlanguage theatre in the old city, “as the demography of the greater Quebec City area evolves, the company hopes to draw increasingly from all linguistics groups, adding to its already diverse members and audiences.”

This inclusive performance tent is on full display with the current musical production, where about the half the cast are francophones, all of them young adults. The anglophones in the cast all speak French, with varying degrees of proficiency.

This produces the odd but delightful phenomenon where occasionally rehearsals for an English theatre production switch to French. The worlds of Shakespeare and Molière - or more like Lloyd Webber and Schonberg - come together in an English elementary school gym in Quebec’s capital.

Beyond language, there is the stunning diversity of backgrounds of people drawn together for the joy and wonder of singing, dancing, acting and staging a story told in music. Mailman, web designer, naval officer, Cegep and university students, translators, scientists, inn owner, youth counsellor, speech therapist, IT consultant, teachers and … well, you name it.

For all those who tread the boards for the unpaid love of the art, take a bow.