Braden Griffiths as Donald Crowhurst in a collaborative production from Alberta Theatre Projects and Ghost River Theatre.
Flipping through the Fast Forward Weekly archives this week as we prepared to send the final paper to press each issue holds memories — familiar bylines from the early days like Lori Montgomery Nikki Sheppy and Anne Severson; page after page filled with arts coverage from the heydays when there was plenty of space and writers to cover books theatre visual arts and everything in between; and on to leaner days when regular contributors like Cadence Mandybura Kathleen Renne and Bryn Evans found their words squeezed into an ever-shrinking arts section. Although we couldn’t possibly name all those who have contributed to Fast Forward (really we couldn’t — we wanted to fill a page with the names of all the writers published in this paper but there were too many) they have been the backbone of this paper. They wrote about art theatre music film etc. because they wanted the arts to thrive in Calgary and they were determined to let people know what was happening here (believe me they didn’t do it for the meagre amount we could pay them).
More than 19 years after Fast Forward started publishing there is more happening in the arts community than we have room to write about on a weekly basis. For example last week saw the opening of new plays from The Shakespeare Company Ellipsis Tree Collective Alberta Theatre Projects and Theatre Junction not to mention a reading with Larissa Lai and Fred Stenson (among others) at Shelf Life Books and opening receptions for new exhibitions at Stride Gallery and Alberta Printmakers Society. Meanwhile in the coming week Theatre Calgary opens King Lear Lunchbox Theatre welcomes back Ivanka Rebecca Northan returns to Loose Moose the International Festival of Animated Objects begins its run Compagnie Marie Chouinard performs at The Banff Centre artist Larissa Tiggelers explores spatial perspectives in the Ledge Gallery and a story slam takes place at the Rose and Crown.
The sheer volume of events doesn’t mean Calgary is awesome at least not for everybody. Many artists struggle to get by in a city where expenses are only getting higher. Some people continue to use art they don’t like (I’m looking at you Giant Blue Ring) as an argument against using public funds to support public art in general (I’m looking at you Peter Demong). And there is an ongoing shortage of affordable performance space in Calgary — seriously are we still writing about this?
So what does the future hold for the arts in Calgary? I don’t know but one of many things that makes me optimistic is the willingness of members of the arts community to work together to achieve great things. The partnership between Arts Commons and artist-run centres fills the building’s hallways and video monitors with works of art while four larger galleries recently came together to present the massive Oh Canada exhibition. The High Performance Rodeo’s efforts to involve local theatre companies in the festival has resulted in an unprecedented variety of high-calibre multidisciplinary performances throughout the city each January. Most recently a collaboration with Alberta Theatre Projects enabled Ghost River Theatre to realize the full potential of its latest — and not to be missed — production The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst which is an example of powerful storytelling enhanced by the creative use of technology. Let’s hope this type of artistic co-operation and innovation continues.
Not every play or work of art has been successful and not every issue of Fast Forward has been memorable. In these pages there have been insightful and clever articles but there have been mediocre ones too. In the years to come I expect there will be impressive art exhibitions plays books and performances but there will be failures too. In both cases I hope the enduring legacy is what was discovered and achieved in the effort and I was glad to be a part of it.
