Tweed & Company

Tricia Black, Danielle Leger, Mark Lesage and Mike Lee

Tim Porter: Artistic director, performer Tweed, Ontario

How has the pandemic affected you?

I had four musical theatre performance contracts this year that have all been cancelled, and our company, Tweed & Company Theatre had to cancel the entirety of our season, including a touring production of our smash hit musical HASTINGS! to six cities across Ontario.

What has brought you joy during this time?

I have taken great joy in spending the majority of my time renovating an original home to Tweed, built in 1887, which has a large addition on the back specifically designed for use by the theatre company. The idea of finally having our own shop/storage/rehearsal/storefront space is incredibly exciting, and will lead to big changes with the company in future.

What professional opportunities are you seeing for the future?

Hard to say at this point. My hope is that I will be able to return to some semblance of my life as a professional per- former in the coming years, but the industry is so up in the air. We have had many fantastic discussions as an organization about how this could actually inspire future work, or push our boundaries to more immersive performance, possibly socially distanced performance, new venues, etc. We are also partic- ularly inspired by the huge drive for change in our society that is surrounding this pandemic, and are making renewed efforts to provide more opportunities for black identifying artists of colour, our indigenous communities, and all underserved and marginalized peoples and performers. It is a difficult time, and hard to wrap your head around how quickly the world is evolving, but we are excited and hopeful to see a more pro- gressive and functional society evolve from all of this.

How have you made technology work for you?

We are currently working with some of our regular performers, and some of our shows that we were bringing in this season to collaborate on virtual performances, and still stay present and active for our audience. These collaborations have been new and exciting, and it's an adventure just like any live performance. We don't plan on making a future of virtual performances (by definition live theatre doesn't happen on a screen, and we need that audience as our final character in a show), but it has been a fresh opportunity to engage with our artists and our audiences in a different way.

tweedandcompany.com

Cast of Hastings! during their 2018 tour