The BC Touring Council (BCTC) coordinates and hosts a number of network meetings both on-line and in person throughout the year. Meetings for facility managers, job alike (i.e. box office, front of house, marketing), artist/artistic companies and agent/managers are held in-person annually at Pacific Contact.
BCTC also coordinates meetings for facility managers twice per year, hosts regional meetings, block booking, and monthly Town Hall meetings via Zoom for members and guests.
Illuminate Town Hall
The Illuminate Town Halls will feature guests from the arts and culture sector who engage in fascinating conversations about topics influencing our sector. There will also be an opportunity to hear updates from the sector, discuss current events/trends and learn the latest about BCTC’s programs and initiatives.
Click on the event below to view the details of the meeting and a video recording.
This is the recording from the Illuminate Town Hall on Wednesday, January 17 at Noon
Topic ➤ The Whys and the Hows of Theatre for Young Audiences featuring Daune Campbell & Marnie Perrin Hear from colleagues who program or produce Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). They discuss:
- How to re-think your season to include children and families.
- What makes a great TYA show;
- How they find the performances they present;
- How they make their shows financially viable;
- How they build audiences, including where they market and promote shows;
Dave (he/him) is a playwright and producer who has dedicated his life to developing intelligent, theatrical plays for young people that foster conversation, and give agency to young minds. He is Co-Artistic & Managing Director of Carousel Theatre for Young People. His plays for young audiences include Out in the Open, tagged (Dora nomination), Celestial Being (Jessie nomination) for Green Thumb Theatre, and Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls (Jessie award, Dora nomination) for Roseneath Theatre and Carousel. His work has been produced across North America, as well as Israel, Poland, Ireland, and Germany. Outside of theatre for young people Dave’s notable plays include Elbow Room Cafe: The Musical, Lowest Common Denominator, and the award-winning My Funny Valentine. His first collection of plays called CISSY: Three Gender Plays is available through Talonbooks. He is a two time recipient of the Arts Club’s Silver Commissions program where he is currently co-writing a show about hockey and drag. He is the Associate Artistic Director of Zee Zee Theatre, a Vancouver-based theatre company he helped found which for the past 15 years has amplified voices from the margins with a focus on 2SLGBTQ+ work. Dave played a vital role in revitalizing the East Vancouver queer nightlife through a decade of events at The Cobalt, and his weekly West End drag shows under the name Peach Cobblah. He is a proud queer dad to an incredible five year old.
Daune (and her alter ego Duane) became the Tour Coordinator at Axis Theatre in 2011. Since, she has blossomed into the Managing Producer she is today. Daune continues to pursue an administrative and performance career. She was formerly the Managing Co-Artistic Director of Shameless Hussy Productions for ten seasons and is currently back as a performer, touring in the acclaimed production of LOVE BOMB.
A graduate of Studio 58, Daune has performed in many venues across Canada and the USA and is an avid supporter of theatre for young audiences. She is thrilled to be a guiding force for the Axis Theatre team and is grateful for all the help along the way.
Marnie is an artistic director and theatre professional who has specialized in creating memorable experiences for children and families for over twenty-five years. As the artistic director of Surrey Civic Theatre’s children and family series Surrey SPARK Stages, Marnie shares her passion by advocating for high quality TYA work and curating innovative performances for children that are just as enjoyable for adults. Marnie began her career acting in children’s theatre, performing as a stilt-performer, and working as the performance coordinator for Public Dreams Society’s large scale community events. In addition to her work with Surrey Civic Theatres, Marnie has developed programs for underserved youth focusing on life skills through performance and has commissioned “theatre for the very young” and intergenerational family projects with Foolish Operations Society. Marnie believes that as children grow and form their brain circuitry they should be set up for life with the magic and possibilities of the best performing arts experiences possible.
This is the recording from the Illuminate Town Hall on Tuesday, February 14 — Click Here to Watch
Engaging Youth Demographics: how festivals and event producers across British Columbia can engage South Asian international students in their programming as volunteers and team members with Harpo Mander, Executive Director of 5X Festival.
Harpo Mander
Harpo is a visionary and a cultural producer. She is the Executive Director of 5X, a charity serving young, hybrid South Asians in Metro Vancouver. She’s a proud kid from Surrey who is giving meaning to what it means to be South Asian in the lower mainland. She’s passionate about the third space bicultural, hybrid identities like herself occupy. Her tagline is “Building the world I want to live in”.
Join Maggie as she shares observations from recent trend-related conversations with Volunteer Managers from across Canada. She will present three modern trends (Volunteer Recession, Tech Trends, and EDI), and share some concrete examples of how some Volunteer Managers are creatively responding to them. Towards the end of her presentation, Maggie will open up for questions and a larger discussion on how volunteer leaders in BC Arts & Culture can respond to these trends.
Maggie Stewart
Bio: Maggie Stewart (she/her/hers) is a dynamic and interactive speaker with nearly 10 years of experience in volunteer management. She brings a wealth of expertise, a mindset for innovation, and knowledge from 7 diverse post-secondary credentials, such as certificates in volunteer coordination, management skills, and a Bachelor of Sciences Degree.
She is currently the Manager, Volunteer Services at the Vancouver Aquarium, and the Chair of the BC Regional Committee for Volunteer Management Professionals of Canada (VMPC). She received the Emerging Leaders Award for Volunteer Managers in 2017 and Valedictorian Award for her graduating cohort in 2022. Many of her program designs (such as the C Change or Health & Safety Hero Programs) have been widely recognized and used as models for other organizations.
In her spare time, Maggie enjoys quiet date nights with her partner, patios with friends, taking her nieces and nephews to their sports, and trail walks with her Golden Retriever, Rio.
Illuminate Speaker Series – Fall 2023
BCTC hosted the Speaker Series featuring invited speakers from the arts and culture sector who engaged in fascinating conversations on various topics affecting and influencing our sector. The Illuminate Speaker Series provides a platform for arts and culture leaders to share their insights and experience with our community, spark ideas and inspire attendees.
Edmond Kilpatrick
Contemporary dance is often considered confusing or inaccessible to new audiences. It is common to hear how it is “difficult to understand” or “what does the choreographer mean?”. As some uninitiated contemporary dance audience members grapple to understand intellectually what is happening on stage, they may be missing what is happening in their body. This presentation illustrates how contemporary dance’s great power is its ability to speak directly to our body through the dancer’s body and our experience of the dance work has the power to speak to us in embodied ways and illicit meaning from our own experience with the potential to be profound and even unnameable. We will explore how and why this can happen.
(Presented in partnership with Dance West)
Edmond Kilpatrick is a movement educator that has grappled with making meaning through movement for 33 years. First as a dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ballet BC, Wen Wei Dance and many others as an independent contemporary dancer and choreographer. Also as a teacher of dance and later as a Pilates instructor. He has a Master of Arts Education degree from Simon Fraser University where he explored using movement and dance as a means to disrupt embodied prejudice. His laboratories have been the dance studio, stage, and video.
Some quotes from participants of the session…
I find it enthralling to imagine all the emotion that is individually and collectively felt and thus projected by the dancers.
There’s really compelling new research that shows audience members’ heart beat sync up when watching performance.
Nigel Baker-Grenier
The Gitksan Nation has a rich and distinct art form which is expressed through song, dance, and visual arts. In this lecture, Nigel will describe how Gitksan dance is grounded in the laws, oral histories, and potlatch system of the Gitksan. Colonization has systematically undermined these practices on a tangible level, through measures such as the potlatch ban, and on an intangible level through cognitive imperialism. In this context, the Gitksan have persevered to pass on their artistic traditions during times of adversity. Through the hard work and love of our parents, grandparents, and ancestors, our art forms have not only survived but are flourishing. This process is enmeshed in broader Indigenous initiatives of resurgence and decolonization. It is also a reflection of the cyclical nature of creation in the Gitksan word-view, which re-enacts through the earth’s cycles of renewal.
Nigel Baker-Grenier is a lead dancer for Dancers of Damelahamid, an Indigenous dance company based in Vancouver. He has developed and performed numerous works including; Spirit Transforming 2012, Flicker 2016, Talking Past Each Other 2018, and Mînowin 2019. Nigel has toured nationally and internationally as an artist. He has also assisted in organizing the annual Coastal First Nations Dance Festival.
Nigel belongs to the Gisgahaast clan from the Gitxsan Nation. He is also Mushkegowuck (swampy Cree) from Churchill, Manitoba. During his upbringing, he was immersed in song, dance, oral history and law from his communities. Nigel is an Associate at White Raven Law and an Adjunct Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in the History Honours program at the University of British Columbia and a Juris Doctor from the Peter A. Allard School of Law.
Dani Fecko
This is an invitation to explore a more ethical and equitable approach to relationships in the performing arts industry and build them upon ethical, equitable, and transparent practices. How can our work always take each party’s interests and needs to heart? How can we better communicate the true costs and opportunities for all sides of an engagement: what do an artist, an agent, a manager, a producer, a presenter, an arts worker, an audience member and a community need in order to thrive and how can we achieve that outcome in every situation? Join Fascinator Management Executive Director in a collective conversation about how to reconsider the way we engage with each other.
Dani Fecko is a first-generation Canadian settler of Czech and Slovak descent who lives on the traditional, unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is owner of Fascinator Management, an agency and consultancy whose clients’ contemporary performance practices are informed by their diverse lived experiences. Fascinator consults and coaches internationally and nationally, providing curated connections, network program design, tour and producing guidance and strategic planning.
Dani has trained as a stage manager and worked for multiple companies locally and has tour-managed across North America, and Mexico. She was Managing Producer of Boca del Lupo, and spent four years as Associate Curator at the PuSh Festival. She lives with her piano-playing husband, Angus Kellett, and their fish, Hyfinn as well as many pandemic plants.
Past Town Hall Guest Speakers
January 25th Town Hall meeting featured Robyn Stewart, Women in Music Canada joined us as a special guest speaker.
Robyn Stewart
Robyn Stewart is an 20-year music industry veteran, accomplished organization and event director, currently the Executive Director of Women in Music Canada. Her experience reaches all areas of event management and talent buying, with her strongest skills lying in financial management, complex logistics, government relations and fund development and partner relationship building. With strong financial acumen, Robyn has managed project budgets up to $3 000 000, meeting and exceeding expectations. Among the projects she is most proud of; Executive Director of Western Canadian music Alliance, Celebration Sites Manager; Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2010, Entertainment Buyer; PanAmerican Games 2015, and her current roles above, which allows her to support developing artists and engage in passion projects including working towards gender parity in the music industry on an international level. As a board member and one of two official festival partners with KeyChange, gender balance initiative in Canada, Robyn a key contributor to projects forwarding the advancement of underrepresented genders in music and of is an extreme supporter of the music industry and emerging talent in Canada and brings this passion to every project.
February 22, 2023: Building new audiences in a new world
Town Hall Meeting featured Stevie Tea, Lost Chair Society
Stevie Tea
Stevie is a former Director of Marketing at Weavik – a web2 and 3 product house. He has taught businesses and theatres, via Trimmed Creative how to create campaigns and content to target younger demographics/tracking leads to retarget. He has led workshops for presenters and artists at local theatres and events like Contact OnTour/Ontario Presents. Stevie believes digital and in-person audiences don’t need to compete but built up together.
Stevie is also a co-owner and producer of Lost Chair Society, an indie publishing and production house launched in late 2022, working with Video Game companies, Music Directors, and Digital Creatives.
Town Hall Meeting featured Akhil Jobanputra, President, Indian Classical Music Society of Vancouver
Akhil Jobanputra
Born and raised in Burnaby, Akhil Jobanputra started his journey in the Indian classical vocal form known as khayāl at the age of three. He currently studies under the tutelage of masters Dr. Pandit Arun Dravid and Pandit Arijit Mahalanabis. As a performer, Akhil has been featured in various venues and events across Canada, the United States, India, and the United Kingdom. As an educator, he teaches 40+ students locally and internationally with an interdisciplinary approach to pedagogy. At the age of twelve Akhil founded the Indian Classical Music Society of Vancouver (ICMSV) with the goal of bringing communities together, promoting various local events across organizations, and cultivating a refreshed attitude towards event curation. The organization’s initiatives and events are geared towards three primary goals of increasing awareness, accessibility, and education around Indian classical music. As a volunteer-run not-for-profit, ICMSV organizes concerts, conferences, workshops, lectures, and community gatherings both independently and through collaborations and provides a platform for local and touring established and emerging artists.
Please visit www.akhiljoban.com; www.icmsv.org for more information.
September 28th Town Hall Meeting featured Guest Speaker, Naomi Brand, Co-Founder, All Bodies Dance Project
Naomi Brand
About Naomi: Originally from Tkaronto (Toronto), Naomi spent ten years dancing on Treaty 7 territory (Calgary), before relocating to the unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), S?l?ílw?ta? (Tsleil- Waututh), and x?m??kw?y??m (Musqueam) people in 2013. She holds both a BA and an MFA from the University of Calgary and a DanceAbility teaching certificate from founder Alito Alessi. As a performer, choreographer, writer, and facilitator Naomi has cultivated a unique artistic practice that spans work with professional dancers to a community-engaged practice with diverse populations. She has danced in the works of many respected Canadian choreographers and her own choreography which ranges from works as a soloist, to large ensemble pieces have been featured in numerous venues and festivals across Canada as well as in Poland, Italy, Uruguay, and Croatia. In recent years her practice has been focused on values of access and inclusion as she strives to make dance within a context that both creates and speaks to community connection. In addition to her role as Co-Founder and Artistic Director of All Bodies Dance Project, Naomi is also a Community Arts Programmer with the Vancouver Park Board and a faculty member at Langara College. Naomi is the recipient of numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Art Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award.
http://allbodiesdance.ca/about_naomi.html
October 26th Town Hall meeting featured Kym Gouchie from the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation that joined us as a special guest speaker.
C.A.R.E. was created by Doug Cox & Mark Greenhalgh with Kym Gouchie & Maria Dunn to offer a safe space where people can come together in a virtual grassroots sharing circle format. Each session features Indigenous guest speakers who share their personal stories and valuable knowledge about Indigenous issues that coincide with the topic for each session. Past speakers include Norman Retasket, Meeka Noelle Morgan, Phyllis Webstad, Brenda Wilson, Raven & Paul Lacerte and Curtis Clear Sky. For more information, follow C.A.R.E. on Facebook.
Kym Gouchie (photo Stephanie Seaton)
About Kym: A respected elder-in-training of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, also known as Prince George, BC, and with ancestral roots in the Cree and Secwépemc Nations, Kym Gouchie is fostering change through her music and art. Her music and storytelling bring awareness to First Nations and social justice issues, promoting reconciliation and community building while reminding us that we are all in this together. Her stories are a testament to the human spirit, weaving together threads of her own journey from personal tragedy to triumph.
Kym’s traditional hand drum, acoustic guitar, full-bodied voice and authentic storytelling make her a powerful force. She performs solo and creates various formations, bringing in amazing collaborators on vocal harmonies, cello, keys, mandolin, banjo and electric guitar. Indigenous-folk, and country tones alongside poignant and inspirational lyrics capture the hearts of young and old — her eloquent performances have a lasting impact on her audience, instilling a message and always uplifting. Throughout the pandemic, Kym has been called upon by organizations nationwide to offer Indigenous insight that act as a healing bridge, connecting hearts and minds for positive growth.
November 30th Town Hall meeting featured Laura Simpson, CEO and co-founder of Side Door joined us as a special guest speaker.
Laura Simpson
Laura Simpson is the CEO and co-founder (along with artist, Dan Mangan) of Side Door, a platform marketplace founded in 2017 which became an epicentre for lockdown-era livestream concerts in 2020. Side Door just got a $500K offer on ‘Dragons’ Den’ to grow the platform and connect more artists with curators, venues, service providers and audiences to make booking, ticketing and payments easy, fair and transparent.
Laura has spent much of her life serving the needs of artists and promoting live performance. Since 2007, she has worked with Music Nova Scotia, the Halifax Jazz Festival, the East Coast Music Awards, CAPACOA and the Halifax Pop Explosion. She has hosted house concerts (The Syrup Factory) since 2011. In 2015 she went to Los Angeles for four months to mentor with the former president of Warner Bros Records. Upon returning, she evolved The Syrup Factory into an artist services company which still thrives today and is managed by her partner, Sarah Jamer. She believes experiencing amazing live art in intimate community settings leads to stronger human connection, greater empathy and improved mental health.