S7E4: Guy Lavallee of NorthwestFest

This episode we’re talking with Guy Lavallee, festival director of NorthwestFest, is Edmonton’s documentary and nonfiction film festival, and the oldest documentary festival in Canada. We cover how NorthwestFest is weathering the new world of online festivals, and about the history of the society, too. We commiserate on how volunteer roles have evaporated amid the pandemic, how certain things work really well online, and of course about the films at this year’s NorthwestFest, which runs May 6 to 16 and is viewable all across Alberta.
I Don’t Get It is part of the Alberta Podcast Network: Locally grown, community supported.
Links from the discussion:
> NorthwestFest line-up and tickets
> One of the band members of Fanny was interviewed on CBC’s q.
> Book Women Podcast (thanks to Edmonton Community Foundation for the Pod Power shout-out!)  
> The Pulse on Taproot Edmonton

S7E3: Body of Words with Nisha Patel & Sheri Somerville

We chat with Nisha Patel and Sheri Somerville about BODY OF WORDS, the collaborative performance piece that is being streamed online as part of SkirtsAfire Reimagined. We cover how their collaboration came about, what audiences can expect, and also how the pandemic has effected them, from performing poetry for an audience of one to how a ballet company safely rehearses in this wild new world.

Also discussed in this episode:
• Nisha’s open letter to Jason Kenney
• SkirtsAFire, running March 4-14
• Body of Words tickets
• Ballet Edmonton
• Writer in Residence (WiR) program at Strathcona Library

We are proud to be part of the Alberta Podcast Network. This episode is brought to you by NAIT’s Career Essentials podcast and Edmonton Community Foundation.

S7E2: The Look goes more than skin deep

Linda Grass stars in The Look, presented online by Northern Light Theatre.

Happy new year? Paul, Fawnda, and return guest Colleen delve into Northern Light Theatre’s online presentation of The Look by Alexa Wyatt. Note: At the 12-minute mark, there is a brief description of the END of the show. Skip ahead a minute to avoid the spoiler.

Show notes:
• The Look presented by Northern Light Theatre runs until January 31
• The Situation We Find Ourselves In Is This runs for one night only on January 30. Free!
• Nathan Fillion provides the narration for a delightful new Virtual Forest Tour 
• Metro Cinema is running an online retrospective of the films of Wong Kar-Wai until February 19
• Tim Mikula continues to add to his collection of politico paintings at ABLegGitShop. All for sale, too. 
• Theatre Network is running a book club (for plays!)

S7E1: Of holiday cash cows and pandemics

Is this a lonely pandemic street before me? Alberta Ballet’s Kelly McKinlay in The Nutcracker.
Photo by Paul McGrath

We’re back! And a little rusty. But we’re here to warm the cockles of your isolated hearts with a chat about what it means for performing arts companies to lose their big-box, holiday cash cows this year.

We’re proud to be part of the Alberta Podcast Network. Locally grown, community supported. This week our sponsors are Edmonton Heritage Council’s ECAMP Podcast and Park Power.

Some reading:
• Dance Magazine: Land of the Bittersweet: COVID’s Effect on Nutcracker
• Sarah Kaufman in Washington Post: Breaking pointe: ‘The Nutcracker’ takes more than it gives to world of ballet
• New York Times: Toning Down Asian Stereotypes to Make ‘The Nutcracker’ Fit the Times
• Clips of the new, freaky versions of other Tchaikovsky classic ballets: Alexander Ekman’s A Swan Lake and Mats Ek’s Sleeping Beauty
• Stream local holiday shows like Citadel’s A Christmas Carol, Shumka’s Nutcracker, and Alberta Ballet’s A Sugar Plum Dream

S6E35: Iso-Sterlings — Season Finale

Paul and Fawnda take in the Sterling Awards remotely, and reflect on the shortened theatre year in their season finale episode.

The winds of change keep blowing. What’s next for Edmonton’s arts scene? Will we start another podcast while we wait for performances to resume? Have you washed your mask lately?

I Don’t Get It is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network.

S6E34: Iso-interview: Natércia Napoleão

Actor Natércia Napoleão has shared a number of public letters that call attention to the lack of BIPOC representation in Edmonton’s theatres. Photo by Brandon Hart.

In the form of open letters on social media, actor Natércia Napoleão has been asking Edmonton’s theatre companies directly what their BIPOC representation looks like not only onstage, but off as well. In this chat we cover how social media can be used to call in — not necessarily call out — and how Edmonton theatre companies are responding to public questions about representation in their casts, staff, boards, and otherwise.

Links
• Makram Ayache’s post about the Sterling nominations
• Sterling Nominations Full List
• Internal Analysis of Inclusion & Diversity in The Sterling Awards report
• Natercia’s letters to the Sterlings, Citadel Theatre, Theatre Network, Teatro la Quindicina, Grant MacEwan Theatre Arts, and Freewill Shakespeare Festival
• The 3.7% Initiative in Edmonton (hosted in Edmonton by Concrete Theatre)
• Natércia’s Stuck in the House video (with Balki!)
• Globe & Mail article on a wave of Black female Artistic Leadership in Canadian Theatre

S6E33: Iso-Interview: Glass Bookshop

A selection of books by Black writers discussed in this episode, including Christina Sharpe, NASRA, and Dionne Brand. Photo by Jason Purcell.

We’re starting with something different this week. Off the top you’ll hear the voice of NASRA, an artist, poet, and producer in Edmonton, which was recorded live back in February. Listen up.

The guests on this episode are the founders of Glass Bookshop: Jason Purcell and Matthew Stepanic. In this chat we cover what they wanted to achieve in opening a bookstore, what it means to hold space when physical space is not a feasible option, and what you should be reading and doing to support Black artists now.

The events of the past days must be followed with continued action. Anti-Black racism is a terrible reality, and it is not spoken about enough, especially in white communities. Now is the time to listen, to educate yourself, and to take action.

Here’s the reading list discussed on the show (buy them here):
A God Dance in Human Cloth by NASRA
This is How We Disappear by Titilope Sonuga
An Autobiography of the Autobiography of Reading by Dionne Brand
In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina Sharpe
Policing Black Lives by Robyn Maynard
The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Indigenous Rights by Chelsea Vowel
Fifteen Dogs and Days By Moonlight by Andre Alexis

Links
Glassbookshop.com
Glass Bookshop’s Reading & Resources
Black Voices Podcast Playlist
APN’s From the Archive: Listening for our Time
What’s The Tsismis? episode with Gina Puntil
Sterling Awards Nominations full list

I Don’t Get It is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB.

S6E32: Iso-Interview: Ellen Chorley

Ellen Chorley (centre) enjoys a typical night at Nextfest.
This year’s festival goes online June 4-14. (Photo by Mat Simpson)

This year’s Nextfest—its 25th anniversary—goes entirely online. We caught up with Festival Director Ellen Chorley to talk about her career path and the wonders of the beautiful, multidisciplinary beast that is Edmonton’s festival for emerging artists. We also cover how she and Fawnda met a decade ago on the dancefloor at one of the legendary Nextfest nite clubs.

I Don’t Get It is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB.

Links discussed in this episode:
Nextfest.org
Ellen Chorley at Playwrights Guild of Canada
Send in the Girls Burlesque

S6E31: Iso-Review: TRACKS

The entry image for Tracks, by Vena Amoris Productions

It’s been a while, but we actually caught a local show to review! Vena Amoris Productions offered an online choose-you-own-route experience with Tracks. Fawnda and Colleen take the trip together—virtually, of course.

Don’t Get It is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB.

S6E30: Iso-Interview: Vern Thiessen

Along with the rest of us, playwright Vern Thiessen has been a lot of baking bread lately.

Vern Thiessen published an open letter to the nation’s professional theatre associations last week, encouraging them to seriously consider what they could be doing during the Great Pause, including reassessing their collective agreements and lobbying for changes to the Status of the Artist legislation. We cover his letter, the meaning of these agreements for working artists in Canada, and what post-pandemic theatre could look like for the foreseeable future (likely, it’s “G” houses). The Governor General Award-winning playwright also offers some advice on letter-writing—which we should all be doing more.

Links discussed in this episode:
• Vern Thiessen’s publications at Playwright’s Guild of Canada
• EPL’s Writer in Residence Susie Moloney
• Tracks, the final show of Fringe’s Off Season series, running May 19-24
• The Georgia Straight profile on Canada Council CEO Simon Brault 
• The Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA, is busily planning a summer season of live theatre with substantially reduced seats, no intermissions, audience face masks, and one-person shows. 

Don’t Get It is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB.