Authentic Canadian Theatre ... Continued

In Cahoots' January 2008 Newsletter, Jovanni shared his recent thoughts on cultural diversity and the Canadian soul, initiating a flurry of thoughts, opinions and new ideas from the community of friends it reached! Below please find Jovanni's initial message, his follow-up message, as well as a message from Beverly Yhap, Cahoots' founder.

Please join-in in this discussion by adding comments below! We'd love to hear and talk about what you think!

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From Cahoots' January Newsletter

By Jovanni Sy

Since I'm writing this on the Feast of the Epiphany, it seems appropriate to share a recent epiphany of my own.Last month, Cahoots took a group of artists for a wonderful playwriting retreat in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I met a number of people there who had never heard of our company before. And so, I gave the description of Cahoots that I recite by rote: "We develop and produce new Canadian plays that reflect our cultural diversity." I must have repeated this a dozen times but something about the thirteenth recitation just didn’t sound right.

For the first time, I wondered: why do I say “reflect our cultural diversity”? For the first time, those four words seemed strangely superfluous. I’m not that suggesting that cultural diversity isn’t important. Quite the opposite: cultural diversity is so intrinsic to the Canadian soul that my description felt tautological.In other words, doesn’t it make more sense for us to describe Cahoots simply as “a company that produces new Canadian plays”? In saying this, we are by definition saying that we are culturally diverse because Canada is culturally diverse. At least that’s what the most recent census and my own two eyes tell me.

Doesn’t it make more sense for, say, Unnamed Theatre to describe itself as “The place for Canadian theatre if Canada looked like Norway”? Or for Theatre Incognito to say “Our stage looks nothing like your life”? Perhaps the Redacted Festival should change its website to “Proudly celebrating the deceased white male playwright.”

Now, I don’t want to sound dismissive of these mandates. Indeed, many of my artistic heroes are Caucasian men mouldering in their graves. The point I’m trying to make is that these companies don’t feel compelled to describe their artistic missions in exclusive language. What do I mean by exclusive language? Let me share one of my favourite examples.

When I was growing up (and here I beg your indulgence: I’m turning forty this year so I may be prone to expressions like “when I was growing up” that make me sound like Grandpa Simpson), it wasn’t uncommon to hear people refer to “lady doctors”. Although there were a number of female physicians in the 1970s, they were rare enough that people felt obliged to add the qualifier “lady”. Thankfully, in the 21st century, if you were to say “lady doctor” people would look at you strangely, as if you had had a mind fart and forgotten the word OB-GYN. At a certain point, the term outlived its usefulness.

Which leads me to my New Year’s resolution. I think “reflect our cultural diversity” may have outlived its usefulness. I think its use may, in fact, undermine the bedrock notion that Canada is a land of many peoples. This year, I resolve that when people ask me what Cahoots does, I will say that we produce authentic Canadian theatre. I wish you a happy and creative 2008.