#77 – Scott Dermody
Scott Dermody a Markham, Ontario native, he is now a Toronto-based theatre professional. He is the co-founder and creative core member of Soup Can Theatre and is the Youth Outreach Coordinator for the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). Scott’s career in the performing arts thus far encompasses on and off stage roles. He has been a Producer for most Soup Can Theatre shows, as well as having a crack at Directing (for Soup Can Theatre and V-Day Toronto) and Production Managing (Soup Can Theatre, Single Thread Theatre, and V-Day Toronto). Through Theatre Ontario’s Professional Theatre Training Program, Scott worked with and was mentored by Aislinn Rose, independent producer and Artistic Producer of Praxis Theatre. As an actor, Scott has played in classics, avant-garde multidisciplinary work, clown turns, children’s theatre, murder mysteries and a few short films. He has taught introductory theatre courses in GTA-area schools, and ran a theatre camp in Vaughan for two years. Scott holds a BA in theatre from Queen’s University.
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Transcript
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Phil Rickaby
Welcome to Episode 77 of Stageworthy. I’m your host Phil Rickaby Stageworthy features conversations in Canadian theatre with artists of all stripes from actors to directors to play right and more. If you want to drop me a line, you can find Stageworthy on Facebook and Twitter at stageworthypod. And you can find the website at stageworthypodcast.com. If you like the podcast, I hope you’ll consider leaving a comment or rating on Apple podcasts or Google music or wherever you get your podcasts. My guest Scott Dermody is a co founder and core member of soupcon theatre, and the door awards and Outreach Manager for the Toronto alliance of the performing arts.
So your your position at Tampa, you’re primarily focused on the doors is that? Do you have a specific focus? Are you are you more of a jack of all trades?
Scott Dermody
It’s kind of a split position. So technically, I’m the door awards and Outreach Manager. So a lot of my time around this time of the year is door focus strictly, but throughout the year, it’s all the ongoing door administration, but also our outreach programmes. So sometimes the hip ticks student discount programme as well as the city special programme. That position didn’t used to exist the combo of the two, it’s just because I was the Outreach Manager part time and then the existing door manager left and we were able to amalgamate the two positions into a full time position.
Phil Rickaby
Doras, is that really a Doras season? Or does it? Is it kind of like just sort of like an out when would a show have to open to be in contention for for a door?
Scott Dermody
For sure, yeah, there’s absolutely an official door season, which is actually, we’re right on the threshold now. So technically, by the rules in the eligibility handbook, May 15 is the flip over period, depending on when it falls in the calendar year. So as it stands, a production has to have at least 60% of its total run, plus the minimum number of performances for eligibility in the division prior to May 15. In order to be part of that current or year. If it has less than either of those, then it flips over into the next one. Yeah. So there’s a bit of a crossover period where Dodgers from both seasons are actually going to see shows that’s confusing. It can be but it works moderately well, I think.
Phil Rickaby
Well, before we get into, like, how it works forever, I actually would like to ask you a bit about your theatre background. How does where you come from in terms of theatre? And how did you end up working for Tebow? Sure. So
Scott Dermody
I am primarily trained as an actor. I went to school for it, I went to Queen’s University. And then when I graduated, moved to Toronto, I started doing the audition circuit and got an agent and start doing commercial stuff. And I really he did, it was just my own personal thing. I really hated the the whole film and television. I don’t know what to call it exactly, but it felt like a production line, you know. So I wanted to find a way to be able to support a theatre based career primarily. And I figured the way to do that was through administration or box office work. I originally got involved actually because I was simply looking for a job in the industry and I applied as a ticket seller at the to tix booth, which unfortunately is now no longer a thing closed last year but yeah, after doing a whole bunch of other odd jobs and jobs and things like that I applied there worked there for a year and then was recommended for the Outreach Manager position here worked as that for I guess about a year and a half and then the door manager at the time stepped down and as both positions were part time I talked to the executive director and we created a full time position as a result
Phil Rickaby
when did you before we get into like all the type of stuff even more curious about the what what sort of like drew you to theatre as a as a as a youth? What was it that made you love it? What was it that made you decide that that’s what you were gonna go to school for?
Scott Dermody
Yeah. So I was originally going to go into architecture, taking all these math and science courses and while I still feel that architecture and in Engineering is a fascinating field, I still enjoy observing it. It was basically my high school drama teacher, I think that that turned everything towards performing arts for me.
Phil Rickaby
How did that happen?
Scott Dermody
Ah, you know, I think it was the fact that it was, it was something so different. And I went to a Catholic High School. So, you know, there were a lot of things that perhaps in public high schools you could do in public high schools that you generally can’t do in Catholic high schools. But the teacher that I had was very adamant about pushing those boundaries about, you know, certain subject matter that is kind of taboo in the in the Catholic world. I think that that was a big part of it, that she was challenging me as an individual to to expand my horizons, I suppose. Broaden the worldview as it were. But
Phil Rickaby
how how? I mean, as somebody who was like looking at like an architectural career, how did and I’m sure that your parents were also looking forward to you seeing you in? How did they sort of take the news?
Scott Dermody
You know, what, they weren’t too bad about it. They were kind of like, but what do you get to do for money? I was like, we get it. Okay. You love this thing. But you better have a backup plan. Angel question. Yeah. So they were very supportive, overall, cautiously supportive, because they’re both my parents are both accountants. So you know, they come from a very practical standpoint on things but it? I don’t know it. It just seemed to work, I suppose.
Phil Rickaby
Well, I mean, that’s the important thing. Is that is that is that it works. Yeah, there’s, you know, I’ve been speaking, everybody has sort of like different varying levels of parental support. And sure, make that choice.
Scott Dermody
I think it’d be really hard to do without Oh, it is
Phil Rickaby
you basically have to, like just sort of put up with nagging hurdle? Yeah. I think it was talking to someone just a couple of weeks ago was like, Yeah, monster asks, When I
Scott Dermody
get a real job, right? Yeah. Yeah, now they thankfully I do owe them a lot of things because they were supportive, again, cautiously but supportive. And they did say it’s like, okay, if you’re gonna do this, you better be really good at something in it. Yeah. You’d be better distinguish yourself somehow.
Phil Rickaby
And did you win? When they said that? Did you have any idea what that was going to be? Did you
Scott Dermody
know, when your high school student, right, you’re like, okay, that means I’m going to get all the good roles. I’m gonna play Hamlet all the time, and blah, blah, blah. You never think about it in high school, whether whether you’re there’s administrative positions available that will actually help sustain your career as an artist.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, in high school, if you’d asked me when I was in high school, what is there? Well, you know, I’m going to be doing theatre and movies and right, I’ll be living in some fancy mansion. Like that was that was obviously it was going to happen for me, for sure. I think we all have those sorts of illusions. And I’m worth high school training side. Because nobody up to that point has really given us any idea of like, what is a career in theatre look like? It’s true. And
Scott Dermody
you know, what, the arts are always the first. Well, one of the first programmes to be hit when there are any kind of cuts? Oh, absolutely. You know, drama classes, dance classes, music classes, they always get the x first. And, I mean, we see the results of that where the, the theatre going public, for a long time has been dwindling, particularly as new technologies emerge, but the good news story is that it’s starting to turn around again, the audiences are starting to come back again.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, really, we’re gonna jump around to digital, Warren Sure. Do you? Are there numeric numbers that you’re seeing that sort of show that those audiences, the audiences are getting younger? And
Scott Dermody
so it’s well, to a certain extent, I mean, they tap have just released the Tampa stats report, phase four. That was at the arts advocacy day, at City Hall last November. And while I can’t quote stats right now, just because I didn’t think to bring that report in with me. Though, the previous three incarnations of the status report had all indicated that there was a major decline in ticket sales across the board and the audiences were, were leaving and part of Tampa’s mandate for a long time and still is, was to help turn that around to help, you know, bring audience development tools to the fore and marketing tools and that type of thing. And I don’t know whether it’s through our work or through just the fact that we’re through that massive recession or whatever. But the stats are proving that ticket sales have turned around not a lot. But they’re on an upward trend as opposed to the downward trend that they’ve been on for a decade or more.
Phil Rickaby
That is That is definitely good news. I mean, I think one of the, one of the aspects in the theatre world that sort of like, encouraged people to go to theatre sometimes is whatever is happening on Broadway. Right? Sure. And if there are shows that are massive there, there is sort of a trickle down as people sort of see it. I think,
Scott Dermody
sure. And you know, if those shows get a big enough profile, and then come to Toronto, that always helps of course, yeah,
Phil Rickaby
I can’t think of a show. Hamilton.
Scott Dermody
Sure. Hamilton, I mean, Warhorse when it came. Yeah, it was, it was a big hit, and things like that, that come through. Unfortunately, the number of sit down shows that stay for a long time is just a thing of the past these days. Well, that’s the
Phil Rickaby
sort of the sad thing, because you know, I was in theatre school in the age of Phantom of the Opera. And these shows, and, you know, we all thought this is how it’s going to be forever. Yeah, these shows will sit down and, you know, run for 10 years in a row. And you know, now I think a six month run is
Scott Dermody
is your lap. And if you got to six months
Phil Rickaby
when you moved over when you sort of like started doing the administrative thing. Did you find that a difficult transition? Did you go through any kind of
Scott Dermody
period? Yes, it’s, I mean, it’s a different approach to the work obviously. Although I guess it was tempered by the fact that I’ve already I begun producing work in university, through I don’t even know how that happened. It’s just through a series of odd coincidences. But because I had had some of that producing background and working more with, I suppose spreadsheets and numbers and contracts and things. It wasn’t as much of a shock. I suppose someplace, it really is obvious and apparent for me is my body. The dead desk job aspect is like, okay, you know, three days a week in theatre school, I’d be having like a three hour intensive movement class. And now I’m here sitting at a desk for the bulk of the time, we just find it’s just it’s very different to
Phil Rickaby
how quickly that those those those movement exercises go out the window as soon as you’re sitting at a desk for
Scott Dermody
a while. It’s true. I tried to keep a foot in that but it can be that we all I
Phil Rickaby
think any of us who who like work to jump desk jobs for any period of time, try to but there’s something about sitting the unfortunate things the lower part of one’s story. As the as outreach, what kind of what does outreach manager
Scott Dermody
that’s happened to a couple different things. So the two programmes are the hip fix programme and the city special programme now they hit Texas very much the public side of it, city special not so much city special is very much a subscriber base. So I’ll start with hip takes. Hip takes is five Villa tickets for students between the ages of 14 and 29. To go see theatre, dance and opera without that prohibitive burden of the ticket price. You know, the average theatre ticket price in Toronto is anywhere from 20 to 30 to $40, depending on what company you’re going to. And a big part of promoting that programme is going into schools talking to high school and university students about it, what shows are available and helping to promote the community in that way. But if we’re given enough time, by the teacher in the classroom, you know, we give that typical pitch of here the shows, here’s a great opportunity for you to go see these things. But then you also get into a conversation about why and why is it important to go see something that’s live? Why is theatre relevant today in a digital age? What about it excites us as individuals and then what excites them? What do they want to see on stage and especially for talking to drama classes? Sometimes they’re just there for an arts credit. Yeah. Which is fair. But to legitimise the fact that you can make a career out of this. It’s a patchwork career. Sure, but to have someone from the outside aside from the teacher saying, Yes, this is the thing that you can do, you might not make millions of dollars, but you can certainly put food on your table and make a living at it. So it’s it’s it’s trying to get rid of some of those preconceptions that may have been built up by their their peers or by their parents or anything like that. And perhaps open it up a little to them and then so that’s that’s primarily what we do with hip Texas is going to schools. City special is something a bit different where it’s primarily a ticketing programme again, where producers are providing these tickets and they’re reimbursed a certain amount from sponsorship from TD Bank, but we’re able to offer them at no cost to social service agencies. So we have a list of about I think we’re at 103, subscribing social service agencies throughout the city, that we send out a listing of all the tickets that are available in a given day, given month, whatever. They talk to their clients, and then booked tickets based on what’s available, and they don’t have to pay at all. You know, it’s to marginalised communities, we look at newcomer groups, refugee groups, women’s shelters, there’s quite a wide, wide range of organisations that are subscribed. But it’s that programme is really exciting just because these people that wouldn’t have access regardless. And Hip ticks and city special are two parallel programmes that we’re really proud of, they’re both 10 years old as of this year. And they’ve really taken off much because
Phil Rickaby
tech started. And I was already out of the age range, but it was, I mean, already at that point, we were, I think, in the theatres starting to see a decline in or an increase in the age of our theatre goer and incline of the of the of the audience numbers for sure.
Scott Dermody
Yeah. ageing population, right. Yeah. When you’re
Phil Rickaby
going to when you’re talking with with the students about, you know, about the theatre, what they want to see on the stage, what kind of things are you finding out from them about what they want to see in the theatre, as opposed to what they think the
Scott Dermody
theatre? Sure. I mean, a lot of what they want to see is they want to see comedy, they want to see action, they want to see some of the kinds of things that they might be able to get in film, that they’re not necessarily seeing on stages. And because I mean, the the crux of it, often I find is that, because Toronto is such a diverse city, and such a multicultural hub. The plays that are happening on stages don’t necessarily always reflect that reality. And so, you know, if you’re in one of the outlying regions, and you’re not seeing the stories of your culture being represented on stages, and why should I bother going? Yeah, a lot of companies are doing better at bringing in that that kind of work. But it’s, it’s, you know, it’s always an uphill battle. But they want to see their stories, they want to see what’s relevant to them. They want to see, you know, issues that millennials are facing. They want to see their whatever their cultural background they have represented on stage. Well, they want to see things that are accessible, not just museum pieces. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, I think I think that a lot of kids think, I mean, a lot of times in high school, your first exposure to theatre is Shakespeare. Sure. And you’re never really that enthusiastic about the Shakespeare that you’re seeing. And if that’s what you think theatre is, then that doesn’t really speak to old dead white guys. Yes. And that’s, I mean, and you know, the Toronto theatre, we do have a bit of a history of really doing doing a lot of the older white guys on stages. And, in fact, I know, the companies that get formed to perform those all day long, guys. And
Scott Dermody
sure, and there’s a certain value and
Phil Rickaby
I just think that we need to see an extraordinarily large, large amount of that particular theatre, the time’s right. In terms of the Douro. So the nominations are nice. It’s kind of the month before the
Scott Dermody
ceremony, generally. Yeah. So the nominations are always announced, usually one of the last days of May one of the first days of June depending on how the calendar falls this year, they’re going to be announced Tuesday, May the 30th, or 31st, whichever I’m not looking at a calendar right now. That Tuesday, starting at 10am, at the Sony centre, it’s, it’s always it’s always fun and exciting when they’re announced. And there will be a couple of ancillary awards also presented during that time. And then the awards themselves happen a month later. So June 26, Monday, June 26. We’re going to be at the Elgin theatre for the 38th annual dorm even more awards. The outdoor, no, no, it was for the past three years. It’s been that Harbourfront Centre. But that’s that’s sort of the tenure that we have at different locations. We try to move every couple of years just to get a nice representation of the city. Yeah, absolutely. Moving back indoors.
Phil Rickaby
How involved are you with the ceremony itself? Are you just like, the logistics of like the nominations and the awards themselves and you stay on By the way of the second year, primarily,
Scott Dermody
I’m looking at the logistics. I also do a lot of logistics of the ticketing and some of the VIP presenters for the day up for the actual creative show, we bring on a creative team. So there’s a you know, a director, usually musical director, and then the host and a writer. And we bring them all on. And they’ve been working already for about a month or so. So, this year, it’s going to be hosted by Roland Asia. And he’s going to be bringing his band the big time onstage, directed by Ed Roy, and written by a Diane flax. So it’ll be it’s a great team. And they’ve they’ve, Ed Roy has been directing it for a couple years now. I think it’s his third or fourth time around.
Phil Rickaby
So so as the Euro words, if you’re there’s a jury that goes to I guess they try to go to as many shows as they can. I mean, there’s a lot of shows that are up for can be considered for d’Oro. Yes. And so is their first on how does one become a member of that jury
Scott Dermody
a couple different ways. So every year, there’s a selection process, there’s a committee that has struck the door jury selection committee, and comprised usually of a couple type of board members and a few individuals from the community with at least one representative per division. And the working group is tasked with bringing a certain number of names to the table, just that they come up with. We also accept nominations from the community. So if you wanted to be a door juror, you would have to get to tap a member companies to co nominate you online via form. And there are a couple other ways that names can come to the table. But those are the main ones. It’s about a three month process actually to cast the juries where they start with a whole big pot of names. And then they work very hard to actually strike a balance of a number of different factors, you know, age, discipline, background, you know, a whole bunch of different things like that. It’s not always as balanced as it could be. But we do the best that we can to do that. Mostly, it’s in terms of availability of people, people that we’d really like to be on the jury to make it even that much more balanced, just aren’t in town, so they can’t commit. And once they’re cast, and we have just shy of 60 Jurors starting right around now. And we cast each division with approximately 12 jurors. So it’s broken up into five divisions, we’ve got the general theatre, independent theatre, musical theatre, opera, slash touring, and theatre for young audiences and dance. Each of those juries has 12 members, approximately. And they go to see just over 200 Productions in a year. Not all of them are seeing the same shows each jury, each division sees different shows, but and then varies widely in terms of the number of shows that they’re going to see.
Phil Rickaby
So in terms of like, is the is there an expectation layout for each jurors agency? Like do they have a minimum number?
Scott Dermody
There is Yeah, so they’re they’re expected to see all of the shows registered. But because the people that are on the jury are working professionals and they’ve got the jobs and things like that, it’s understood that they’re not going to be able to get to see everything. So while we expect 100%, there’s a minimum threshold that’s that’s met, so 85% of the total number of shows that are registered through the year. If you drop below that 85%, you might not be able to vote at the end of the year.
Phil Rickaby
And and then I guess at some point, they’ll have to sit down in a room and hash it out.
Scott Dermody
The funny thing is a lot of people coming in as a juror think that we do the voting in the room. And we don’t all the voting is done over email with Excel spreadsheets as the ballots, the meetings that we have through the year or to discuss the shows but not necessarily campaign for certain people to be nominated and things like that we we meet at least two or three times a year with every jury. And the bulk of those meetings is taken up with discussing the shows in as much detail as time allows, trying to get into as much of the artistic details and elements of the different categories as possible. I mean, the purpose of which is to be able to talk about the shows because jurors under confidentiality agreement, but also to gain a different perspective. Some because everyone’s coming with a different lens someone’s a designer sends an actor, someone across the table could bring up a point that I’d never considered about a lighting element or something like that. So it really helps to flush out how Each individual juror feels better.
Phil Rickaby
I’m sure that in the end, helps make the voting Well, in theory, everybody has a better understanding of what’s working
Scott Dermody
in the show. That’s the idea. Yeah, that’s the idea. And it also helps alleviate major surprises when the nominees are announced. Yeah. At least in the within the jury,
Phil Rickaby
find a situation where the conversation is happening. And somebody realises that they’ve missed a show that they really should have seen.
Scott Dermody
I mean, if someone’s mr. show, and the discussion goes on, they obviously, I’ve never really encountered a time where that specifically has happened is it’ll be like, ah, darn. Yeah. Unfortunate. Yeah. But
Phil Rickaby
so what what was the so I mean, in terms of like, thinking about the doors, I’ve heard people refer to them as, you know, Toronto’s Tony Awards, or I’ve heard the Tonys referred to as New York’s Dora awards occasionally, but what was the reason for starting like what’s the history of the doors? Why were they started and
Scott Dermody
yeah, it’s funny because I love when were referred to as the Tony Awards for Toronto, I suppose it’s it helps us a frame of reference for people it’s just the scale is so different. You know, the Tony Awards are televised and there’s there’s a huge commercial theatre market in New York, which we just simply don’t have you know, we’re more on comparison on the same level as say, a Boston or another city of that size. But that being said, you know, they were they were organised in in 1978. As as a way to to recognise outstanding achievements in Toronto theatre and recognising that awarding each other and recognising the work that is happening is important because it so often goes unrecognised you know, if something that is a box office hit isn’t necessarily an artistic masterpiece. Yeah, yeah. If if all the public is getting is what you know, the box office numbers or reviews, and not necessarily seeing what their peers are thinking about within the industry, then it’s a bit too skewed to the commercial end of things. But yeah, there was a there was a committee that was struck in 1978 headed by Milly drain and they got together with me see the the names here I have to actually read them because I don’t know them offhand. And and cue Ronald Brighton Bill Glasgow Graham Harley Leon major Sean Mulcahy Peter pare off. Heiner pillar, Susan rubes Pete’s are sorry, Pat Stewart and Sylvia Tucker. That was the original group of founders. And yeah, it’s it’s been chugging along ever since.
Phil Rickaby
I really was the artistic director of my theatre school. Well, there you go. So interesting. He didn’t exactly tell us about that particular part of his history from his office, that’s fine. Now at this time of the year, when you’re just about to do that crossover of juries, and I imagined that the voting will be starting very shortly
Scott Dermody
Sunday, this coming weekend. Yeah, the 14th of May,
Phil Rickaby
then decisions have to be made. And and then the the the nominations are announced. And then in a month after that there’s an award ceremony. As your focus shifts over to that, from the outreach. Is your day consumed with all of the with a lot of emails and planning or Yes, yeah.
Scott Dermody
By far, yeah, it pretty much eclipses any of the other outreach work that I can be working on at any time. And yes, the the intensity picks up basically this week, where we’ve got the jurors that are finishing up having their final meetings this week. And last week, the incoming jury’s having the orientation meetings a week and a half ago, and still a few of them happening right now. So it’s, it’s intense in terms of the amount of time that I spend in meetings. So as a result, the backlog of emails does end up happening. So I do forewarn anyone that I tend to work with run like okay, might be a little bit before I came back to, but it just picks up steam from here on in May is probably the most intense. Ironically, June is a little bit easier just because the voting is already done. It’s mostly prepping the show itself and monitoring how the ticketing situation is going. Yeah,
Phil Rickaby
exactly. it difficult to manage just because there’s five seats in The company wants as many people as possible from their company to be able to go. And
Scott Dermody
it’s not too bad to it depends on how its managed. We had a really great relationship with the box office at Harbourfront. Centre for the past three years. And, you know, we’re developing a very good relationship with the algorithm for this year. So it’s finding a method of working around our needs as well as the venue’s needs and finding the common ground in between, because the bulk of the tickets are cops. Yes, that’s true. The vast majority, whether it’s nominees, or sponsors, or other various and sundry VIPs, that are invited, the jurors themselves are invited for comps. So being able to manage the flow of that information and who’s getting access to those tickets can be critical. In because we’re going into a new box office, finding out okay, you work it a little bit differently over here. So we’re going to adjust and then being able to, you know, manage the pricing for for the nominee guests tickets, and then for the community at large. Unfortunately, it does mean that those tickets end up being a little bit expensive, you know, towards $100. All in. But that’s the reality of the situation is that because we’re, we have so many cops that are going out there in order to put on the show, we don’t have a choice but to charge a bit of money like that. Thankfully, though, we a couple years ago, there was a situation that came up where we a financial situation where we had to charge nominees, a nominal ticket price. It didn’t go over well, and the community will fully admit that. And we recognise that, you know, it was it was poorly received. So the following year, we said okay, well, we’re going to be able to offer nominee comps, again, it’s just everything else is gonna have to go up a little north to compensate. That’s the reality of the business, quite frankly. And I, personally, I was quite happy that we went back to the nominee comps, just because, you know, it’s it’s, it’s important to be able to get them to come to be there if they win the award. And if they have to pay. That’s a little. I mean, I know that other words do charge nominees.
Phil Rickaby
That is one of the things about about the doors. Is that is that you don’t have to buy your trophy. Yeah, should you win. And since we don’t make a lot of money, it is important that if you’re nominated, if you’re lucky enough to be nominated, you can easily attend. Yeah, in your pocket. So I actually think it’s like it was a few years ago that I realised that every award ceremony you see on TV, than the person who wins has to purchase that statue that I was very glad to learn that for the Dobro awards. You didn’t have to do it.
Scott Dermody
Unless you want an extra one. Yes. Because it happens, you know, two people share an award because the CO nominated not from different productions, but yeah, to lighting designers on the same project, for example. And that does happen where artists will purchase an additional one if they want to.
Phil Rickaby
Well, that makes a lot of sense. You’re sharing it with somebody that you use. Yeah, it’s hard to do the timeshare.
Scott Dermody
I got it for six months, you get it for six months. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
Is there a part of the door awards? That is your favourite part? I, you know, I
Scott Dermody
think it’s the sense of community that bringing all of these people to it’s not the whole community that can come on that night. Obviously, the people who are attending are typically the producers and the nominees in that given year. So the nominees tend to be different on a regular basis. But the fact that a large portion of the community is coming together on one night a year to celebrate the work that’s being done that part I love. The fact that it is celebratory. Yeah. There’s another event that’s attached to the door as the nominees toast, which happens about a week or two prior to the actual award ceremony, where it’s just the nominees and the jurors, and then the type of board of directors and they get together and we toast the nominees. And again, it’s that same idea of just celebrating the work that has happened in the past year, that we’re not just toiling away in obscurity, and seeing each other face to face because so often, it’s always emails, if we’re not working directly with someone on a day to day basis.
Phil Rickaby
There there are a few enough opportunities for the community come together. Sometimes when we refer to the theatre community, I sort of think to myself, how is it like what’s the community and we don’t get to get together, but it’s good that there are there are events like this that do allow us to come together. Another another event that I was really happy to see and to have, you know, people come together with edX, to be able to bring a lot of indie artists together, to learn from each other and to learn from panels and get resources about, about how to independently produce something that has become a very important part of being in the theatre. Absolutely. And
Scott Dermody
it I mean, especially for indie producers, I mean, I’m an indie producer, myself. And a lot of the time do you feel like you’re you’re working in isolation, you know, unless you are lucky to to be able to connect with people on a regular basis in person. But yeah, the MDX conference, the second year of putting it up, since it was reinvigorated from its former self. For years and years, it was it was a yearly event for a couple decades actually. And it was a full used to be a full weekend of workshops and panels and things like that, and eventually actually morphed into the type of trade series, which is an ongoing professional development workshop series, where we offer about between 40 and 50 workshops a year on a whole bunch of different aspects, anything from, you know, SEO optimization, or to first aid training to writing grants, a whole bunch of things like that. But it was felt that last year, when we brought it back as an actual event, that it was time that there is there’s a very strong indie community out there right now doing a lot of great work. And it seemed that there was this this hunger to, to get together again, and to talk about the issues that are on hand. I agree with
Phil Rickaby
that. Because I think that that as an indie producer, myself, you often feel like you are working away, alone, doing your best to make it make a go of it. It’s so important to to get together and realise that oh, wait, we’re all we’re all doing this. In terms of the relationship between Tampa and Indian artists? Do you find that it’s that it’s a hard sell for a lot of indie companies to join? Tapping?
Scott Dermody
It depends. I mean, it depends on why companies would want to join Tampa, we always think of the when. Okay, let me rephrase what I feel that Tampa is most publicly represented as is the door towards people, no, the doors, and it tends to be the carrot. Right. Yeah. But because of the other programmes that we have on offer, I think that the value of a tap or membership is much greater than just the doors themselves, you know, yes, there is a membership fee to be paid. And I understand that for a company who is on a very, very limited budget, it can be a big decision to make whether to do it or not. And you know, this year, I want to be door eligible next year, I don’t think we’re going to be able to afford it. But if you’re if you’re taking the whole package into consideration, you know, gaining access to steeply discounted tickets for some of the trade Series events or something like the the industry listings or some ticket offers that go out there for top members only access to the travel retreats and initiatives programme, which you can apply for funding to essentially bring in artists from outside or go yourself somewhere to do research, we can help pay for the flight component of going there. Or to have a retreat, if you want to have like an artist getaway for your company, you can you can use that application and do that news. It’s partially subsidised. So it depends on what you’re using it for. It’s it’s there are a lot of other programmes that we offer, and then gain access to the hip tricks and city special programme being able to get that extra outreach arm to be able to promote your show in locations that you would not have resources to get to discount media rates come along with that membership as well. And being able to be listed on the to night website or app. Actually the to night app is is a going concern. So it’s the doors are there. And they’re great, we love them. But it’s not the only thing that the app is about.
Phil Rickaby
Do you think that that type of subject gets a little bit of short shrift that people think the tappa equals the Torres and especially with some younger and more Indian companies that they don’t really see all the other benefits that are there. That’s it
Scott Dermody
because it depends. I mean, it would take, I mean, you have to look at our website and say, okay, oh, there’s all these other programmes. But if you if you don’t know that we do them anyways, why would you look there. So we do our best to try to to get the word out that we have all these other programmes. And to to dispel the notion that we’re just the doors. I think we’re successful to a degree in that it can be difficult to to communicate with people that we don’t know are out there yet, you know, if they have a brand new company, they just had a theatre school or something like that. And they know about the doors, but they don’t know about these other things. So it’s an ongoing challenge, one that we don’t have a silver bullet for, but it’s just something that we’re constantly working on. And hopefully,
Phil Rickaby
eventually, MDX helped to get that word out that there’s hope says happens in just the doorways.
Scott Dermody
I really hope so. And I think that kind of an event and the amount of promotion that goes into it, and the resulting discussions and social media chatter about it. I hope that it helps. Yeah, you know, because that word of mouth about something like that, that it gets people excited about ideas? Yeah, I would hope would translate into that, that greater understanding of what it is that we’re doing, and trying to do. And then there’s, you know, the advocacy component to where, I think, perhaps a lot of the Okay, I don’t want to generalise, but there may be a perception that they don’t realise that TEPCO does a lot of advocacy on the municipal level, to to increase arts funding and to get that per capita dollar amount, to at least match some of the other major cities in this country, because we’re on the bottom end of things, which is absurd. It’s kind
Phil Rickaby
of absurd being like one of the more major markets in Canada.
Scott Dermody
Yeah. And it’s, it’s to the benefit of our entire community for indie artists and any others to get involved in that kind of process. Absolutely.
Phil Rickaby
And I mean, in the artists have have a lot of skin in the game in terms of theatre spaces,
Scott Dermody
spaces, absolutely,
Phil Rickaby
you know, storefront losted space and get them one or two. And, like there was so like, there’s sort of there’s been attrition, as far as indie spaces go. And it’s hard to see that stuff happen when there’s like, a thriving, like community of artists that can pass through.
Scott Dermody
Yeah, it’s like, how do you how do you get? How do you boost an indie company to the point of sustainability when you’re working from project grant project? Grant? Yes. And in the project grants aren’t guaranteed thing, that never sure thing, and they’re they’re becoming fewer and fewer. As the competition gets higher, and the dollars that are available is lower? So yeah, it’s it’s, it’s a challenge. But we do know that city council has reiterated their commitment to the $25 per capita. It’s not there yet. I mean, in comparison to Montreal, who I believe just announced that they’re at $78 per capita, for art spending. It’s It’s like our executive director has likened it to pushing water uphill sometimes. But it’s slowly but surely getting better. It’s just a matter of pushing it just that much further.
Phil Rickaby
It’s just, you know, I mean, will change you change mayors different mayor’s committee, they have different, different priorities, and they go from some of the more hearts readily to some that that aren’t, generally vice versa. And, you know, we, you know, Toronto likes to imagine itself to be the Broadway of, of Canada, but we just aren’t yet. We, I think we could be, but we have to put more into the industry that had to become
Scott Dermody
Sure, yep, the investment absolutely has to be there. If Toronto wants to be a world class cultural leader, then that’s capital has to be there, the investment and the interest has to be there on the government level, on a philanthropic level, and on an individual basis, and it’s, it’s, it can be a real tough sell, when there are so many other priorities competing for space. Of course, it’s like how
Phil Rickaby
do you I don’t envy people who are in government trying to make those choices? Because it seems if you’re focused on one thing seems easy. Well, of course, you’re going to support this thing. When you have everybody saying that, how do you have choices?
Scott Dermody
And I know it’s hard to compare when you have like a social housing crisis, and we’re saying where and crumbling infrastructure. It’s, it can be hard to make the case for the arts, but i don’t know i If you look at any of the great civilizations in the past, a lot of them. When we look at them in history class, we judge them by their art Absolutely. So
Phil Rickaby
is that is that any any any civilization that’s been worth anything has had great culture? And it’s, it’s to our detriment if we if we devalue it? Sure, sure. Is there. I mean, as as you’re we’re sort of wrapping up the year sort of heading into, you know, you’re going to be focusing more and more, it’s going to be more emails in your inbox and more meetings, for the next few weeks. Just as in your person, as as outreach maybe is the last little bit of outreach that you can do before the doors take over your life? What is one thing that you want people to know about theatre in Toronto? Or about Tampa, in general, that they might not know already?
Scott Dermody
Sure. Well, I would think that for Tampa, specifically, I want people to know that we are open and transparent as we can possibly be. And we’re always willing to listen, we’re going through a big, it may not be out there too much in the wilderness yet. But we’re going to be getting the word out more and more this year that we’re going through a door review process, where six years ago, we did a door review that changed a lot of the processes and categories and definitions. Were doing the same again, this year, won’t be as much of a major change as six years ago, anticipate. But to know that we value feedback, we value critical feedback, usually we need to hear it from people. It’s one thing to say something on social media, like Oh, I wish the doors would do this and this and that. It’s quite another to pick up the phone and call one of us and say, Hey, why don’t you consider this and try to make this kind of a change and update, because that to us is much more valuable, because because you’re communicating with us, and we know what you want to thank them. If it’s just on social media, we might miss that because we happen to not be connected to you or something like that. So the critical feedback is is very important. And we strongly strongly want that kind of ongoing communication. And I guess what Toronto Theatre in general is, I don’t know if it’s something that people don’t necessarily know. But I, I always like to. I always like to push boundaries, and I like to be uncomfortable with theatre. I suppose I would challenge people to push their comfort level about what Theatre Dance opera, any of those performing arts disciplines can be. Because it’s too easy to sit back and do the same old thing. Yes, yeah. So that that would be my personal thing. But the Toronto theatre industry and I think there are a lot of groups that are doing that very well. So kudos to them and it but it should be more. So I think that’s my wrap up for that. Thank you.
Phil Rickaby
This has been a lot of fun. Thank you so much.
Scott Dermody
I appreciate it. Thank you