Performing arts season minus the performing
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The last Saturday at Arts Commons was a good one.
It was March 7 at 2 pm, I saw a matinee performance of Actually, presented by Alberta Theatre Projects, at the Martha Cohen Theatre. Matinees are always a little less boisterous than evening shows but Actually was different, for all the right reasons. It was well-written (by Anna Ziegler) , well-acted (Emma Houghton and Diego Stredel) and thanks to solid direction by Jenna Rogers, connected with the audience on every level.
Emma Houghton and Diego Stredel in Actually at Alberta Theatre Projects. Photo by Benjamin Laird. Set/Costume Design by Sarah Uwadiae. Lighting Design by Beth Kates.
Later that afternoon, we went to the bar at the Hyatt on Stephen Avenue. For a late Saturday afternoon in March, the joint was jumping. There was a wedding party celebrating. There was a fire burning. I had a chicken caesar salad and a couple of pints. My wife had a burger and a cocktail - it was date night. We blew a hundred bucks in the bar. We overtipped. (Seeing a good show will turn you into an over tipper.)
Then we made our way back to Arts Commons for the second half of a Saturday arts doubleheader to see a play called Men Express Their Feelings, presented by Downstage, which was essentially a comedy about masculinity.
As it turned out, it was a funnier idea than the play. But the idea was good!
I capped off Saturday on Sunday by catching a concert by saxophonist Frank Rackow and Syrian-Calgarian oud player Aya Mhana at a Mennonite church space on Centre Street - the show was a wonderful blend of klezmer, a Yiddish dance music, and Middle Eastern.
It was the very best sort of Middle Eastern musical peace treaty - hosted by Mennonites.
“A show that could exist only in Canada,” Rackow said.
What I didn’t know, what none of us knew, driving home that Sunday, was that was the last weekend there would be live performing arts in Calgary for a long while.
When it happened, it was the homestretch of the performing arts season. Things were winding down. It was hoped that festival season would wind things back up.
It was simply inconceivable that there wouldn’t be a fall season, a Honens Festival, a season-opener at Theatre Calgary - A Christmas Carol!
After all, for 30 years or so, there has always been A Christmas Carol, come hell or high water, or crashing oil prices.
September was for back to school, back on the ice for the local hockey heroes - and back to Arts Commons to see some shows, learn some new stories, hear some beautiful music and create some indelible memories.
Or, as it turns out, in this year unlike any there has ever been, none of the above.
For 10 years, I wrote about performing arts for the Calgary Herald. My second home, basically, was Arts Commons, where invariably, every night of the week except Monday (that’s the dark night for the arts), there were thousands of people scrambling up an elevator a little later than they planned to be, jogging in their dress shoes to catch the start of a show.
I was just as guilty as the rest of them, lead-footing it down 9th avenue at 7:17 pm, trying to time the green lights, praying that the city hall parking garage wouldn’t be full by the time I got there, because a lot of nights, over a lot of years, there was a good chance it would be.
No Performance Tonight
There is still art being produced and presented by Calgary’s arts community. Josh Dalledonne, who is the Producing and Engagement Associate for Arts Commons is presenting ArtsXpedtions, a variety of concerts this summer and fall.
The only catch is none of them will be at Arts Commons.
Instead, Arts Commons has been taking the show on the road, in various parks across the city, where performers have been popping-up on an hour’s notice to perform, basically for whoever is there.
“Engagement doesn't mean the same thing during COVID,” Dalledonne says.
“We’re looking at a deeper connection, even if it just means someone walking by a performance,” he adds.
Through the first four weeks, Arts Commons staged 15 pop-up concerts, at parks around the city, delighting dozens - including Dalledonne and some of the artists, who were thrilled to be back performing live, in front of people.
“The thing that struck me most is the deep kind of resonance that people feel after seeing one of these performances,” he says. I didn’t recognize how powerful it was to see a live performance again after how many months after we thought we wouldn’t see one for a long time, at least not like that.”
The challenge that the city’s arts community faces -- and this city and every other city around the world must contend with this fall -- is how to preserve all that’s been built by people like Dalledonne and the artists he’s been working with, the staff at Arts Commons and the Calgary Philharmonic, and Theatre Calgary, and One Yellow Rabbit, Alberta Theatre Projects, Downstage and all the other arts organizations that turn Arts Commons into their very own community gathering place throughout a year in the life of this city.
For Dalledonne, COVID has been a major disruptor and also an opportunity to get out into the community and bring live music to tens of community members.
What might the autumn bring? There will be digital engagement, he says. Everyone wants Arts Commons open again, but no one is quite sure when that might be.
But maybe there’s even a silver lining there, he says.
“I see this as this kind of bizarre window of opportunity -- to keep the summer vibe going in the winter months,” he says. “I do wonder if this is the winter where Calgary recognizes that you party outside in the winter.”
