The boss submits to an in-depth interview
by Émilie Charlebois (Editor-in-Chief, The Charlebois Post - Toronto)
Throughout the past year The Charlebois Post has had the pleasure of discovering just how rich and diverse Toronto theatre is, while recruiting an amazing team of contributors who helped us officially launch The Charlebois Post - Toronto last month. And if we weren’t spoiled enough, SummerWorks is just around the corner; offering everyone in the city an opportunity to check out future award winning productions and the chance to party with the people behind them. The festival’s Artistic Producer Michael Rubenfeld took the time to tell CharPo-TO what SummerWorks has in store for its 22nd season of cheap thrills and quality, thought-provoking fun.
So to start, for anyone who isn’t familiar with SummerWorks, what would you say the festival is all about?
It is a performance festival that creates a space for artists, both emerging and emerged, to put up work that is pushing boundaries, asking complicated questions, taking risks, and is attempting virtuosity.
And for regular SummerWorks attendees, what sets this year apart from other years?
I guess I would say two things. The thing about the festival is that the programming in the theatre section is very much dictated by the work that’s submitted. As zeitgeist and subject matters start to shift, so does the kind of work that we end up receiving. The work is different primarily because what people are interested in writing about is different and changing. Also, each year’s jury is different and has particular tastes or interests in terms of what they think is relevant or not…so that would be the first thing. The second thing is that we’ve got our music series this year, which we’ve had for five years, but this is the first year that we’re including collaborations. We’ve curated these collaborations between musicians and performance-makers. For example we have this piece with Hawksley Workman and Christian Barry from 2b theatre. And we have this other piece with Buck 65, who’s a musician, and a dance-maker named Ame Henderson. That’s an evolution in our music series because usually the music has been straight up concerts; this year they’re filtered more through a theatrical lens than ever before.
