Community isn’t an add-on to theatre. ‘Community outreach’ shouldn’t be code for ‘sell more tickets’. It also shouldn’t be code for ‘bad art’.

Community is essential to theatre, from creation to the witnessing audience, and it powers what I do. Love of people is the root of my work. This has taken form in many ways, from organizing a neighbourhood arts festival, to coordinating a community cookbook to fund Ottawa’s school breakfast program during covid, to leading a forum theatre troupe of actors with mental health issues, to community singalongs.

Below are a couple more recent examples.

OST All Ages Plays

I feel so lucky to be at the helm of these multigenerational plays at the Ottawa School of Theatre. With between 40-95 actors in each show, dozens of volunteers, and hundreds of audience members, the All Ages are a truly special east end event in Ottawa.

This short documentary was created by Patrick Thibeault in spring 2024.

CSArt Ottawa

CSArt Ottawa was a social enterprise that ran from 2016-2020, connecting local artists with local audiences. Based on the community-supported agriculture model of food distribution, community-supported art had subscribers pay in advance to fund artists as they worked. Artists would create a piece for each subscriber, and we would put on an event to celebrate each artist.

CSArt Ottawa supported multiple artistic disciplines, with subscribers receiving pottery, drawings, paintings, music concerts, theatre events, and poetry books over the course of 12 events in its history.

It was cool. It died a death of covid circumstances, but the idea is still great. I’d help anyone who wanted to start something like this again.

The first CSArt project was created by Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has since been replicated across North America.