We got schooled!

3 May 2010

The word outreach is a familiar bit of theatre parlance but it’s also a real and vital goal for a lot of companies that share our interest in keeping audiences engaged after the final curtain. So why is this ideal so hard to realize? Too often it seems that “outreach” translates into little more than weekly “talkback” sessions. I don’t mean to disparage the talkback tradition – it’s a huge part of what we do and offers audiences an opportunity to share immediate responses to a piece and to ask questions about the creative process and motivations of the artists. But time limitations and initial audience trepidation invariably mean that the dialogue that occurs is cursory at best. The truth is – I didn’t realize how cursory until Kimwun and I had the chance to lead four full sessions of exploration, dialogue and creation with a group of Grade 12 Drama students at Streetsville Secondary School thanks to the generous support of The George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation.

We’ll be chatting a lot more about the workshop experience (developed in conjunction with our production of The Overwhelming) in the coming weeks as we expand our website’s Education section, but in the meantime, our experience in the classroom has me wondering – how can we expand upon this experience? With time and resources always in limited supply – how can we afford ourselves the opportunity to dig deeper?

We want our productions to be a springboard to larger questions about the issues and ideas explored on stage as well as an opportunity to evaluate how these issues impact our own lives. As we say in our grants “we believe that the experience of live theatre encourages people to engage more fully in the world” and to ensure that’s the case – we’ve worked to create diverse opportunities for engagement. Photo exhibits, pre-show chats, social networks, blogging, our work with schools and the aforementioned talkbacks are all a part of that process – and while we’re proud of our work in these departments – we’d love to find other ways of reaching out to our audiences and furthering their experience of the play.

What do you think?

We’d love to hear about experiences or opportunities you’ve had to go deeper into the experience of a theatrical production either as a performer or an audience member. What is genuine “Outreach”? We’d also love to hear from students and educators interested in exploring with us in future iterations of our Student workshop program.