Toronto: Part 1, SummerWorks Exchange

ML: This is going to be different. Neither of us are from here. Are we imposters?

PB: Isn’t everyone in Toronto kind of an imposter?

ML: Zing. But I know what you mean. We’ll have to be better anthropologists in a sense. 

PB: And not assume that just because we’ve come to Toronto often with other projects that we know what people like here, or what they find funny.

ML: Mostly I think we need to make sure that any conflict we may or may not feel towards Toronto as our country’s culture capital—

PB: I see what you did there.

ML: —doesn’t affect the game to much.

PB: As someone from Ottawa, I quite understandably have experienced some ‘conflict’ with this city.

ML: Do you want to say more about that?

PB: Not really—at least not on record. I think most artists in this country who live outside of the GTA see Toronto’s pull as problematic. I mean, we already have a card in the BC edition called “Chasing Toronto”—does that have an equivalent for this version of the game?

ML: Maybe something to do with New York? But you know, what’s kind of obvious already from talking to those artists we already know, is that despite Toronto’s reputation and culture often coming across as thinking itself different—a lot of the trends and language around performing arts seem consistent with what we’ve seen in Vancouver.

PB: As in, the same problems we’ve documented in Vancouver are here too. The really pragmatic stuff.

ML: Exactly.

PB: I wonder if comparisons like this are actually going to be meaningful down the road. Like, do they really teach us anything? Or are they just ‘neat’.

ML: I think after our residencies in Edmonton and Montreal, it’ll be difficult not to make comparisons.

PB: Have you tried the Theatre Centre Cafe’s banana bread? It’s really good.

ML: Dude. I’m vegan. Do you even know me?