OTL Blog

All is not well at the Edinburgh Fringe, and like in North America, there is considerable discontent amongst artists on the street regarding an increasingly corporate festival. It seems that most artists go into an unreasonable amount of debt to play at the Fringe, while at the same time a deceptive new system,  the re-branded “Edinburgh Comedy Festival”, steers audiences and critics to a small area comprising four venues (Underbelly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Assembly) where  comedians with deep pockets are trying to make it big. It’s near Bristo Square, a place with an obnoxious amount of visual pollution, including a giant inflatable upside-down cow.

With any semblance of balance gone, artists are complaining that the Fringe has “lost its edge,” with The Guardian reporting that the Fringe “has become an angrily disputed territory, so threatened by commercialism, some believe, that the future of the entire annual international event is in danger.”

According to Fringe veteran Tommy Sheppard, who now runs  comedy venues at the Fringe, “The ‘pay-to-play’ system means that the rich kids always win. No matter how funny a working-class kid is, if they can’t ask mum and dad to give them five grand they are not going to be able to come up here to perform… As a venue we want to share the risk with them.”

Interestingly, while there is no infringement festival here yet, there is a movement called Free Fringe that actually encompasses three distinct non-corporate Fringe Festivals, including the beloved Forest Fringe in a recently re-opened venue called the Forest Café, which is located in a rather non-descript building just around the corner from our lodgings on Riego Street.

I learned about this fascinating dynamic by chatting with artists on the street, many of whom were promoting their shows. One Fringe veteran named Benjamin Crellin, who overheard my conversation with another artist, chimed in and gave me a comprehensive picture of what is happening.

He plays at the Free Fringe now and explained that, outside the Forest Fringe, there are two competing versions: the PBH Free Fringe (named after organizer Peter Buckley Hill) and the regular version (run by Alex Petty). Unfortunately it seems that both organizations, according to Crellin, do not get along well and are the result of a philosophical and organizational split. I took note, promising myself to investigate further when time permits.

Not to be upstaged by the word on the street, the World Fringe Congress also began officially today in an ancient Veterinary College-cum-Fringe venue called Summerhall, on the boundary of a massive park called The Meadows.

Before arriving, however, I had to print up information for the infringement festival to distribute at the World Fringe Fair on Saturday (and for the public in general). After a relatively sleepless night creating the documents, I am pleased to report that I now have a stack of infringement materials including a small booklet, the ethical sponsorship criteria, and even an article from The Watch about the Halifax Fringe threatening legal action against students at King’s College, Nova Scotia, for attempting Fringe theatre without their permission (the students wisely switched to the infringement model).

Whilst creating these materials I summarized, for the first time, a comprehensive list of corporate behaviours that the infringement shuns, and wrote:

To safeguard Fringe integrity, the Infringement Festival promises:

NO Unethical sponsors                                  

NO Conflict-of-Interest sponsors                    

NO Visual pollution/corporate spam        

NO Pay-to-play fees                                      

NO Box Office “service charges”                   

NO Trademarking (™)                                    

NO Legal threats for using the word “Fringe”  

NO Censorship                                              

NO Kicking artists out                                    

NO Banning political artists                            

NO Favouritism                                              

NO Security guards/bag searches                 

NO Hierarchy or corporate structure              

NO Naming rights/cross-branding              

NO Corporate manipulation/interference      

I figured while this message might not be popular amongst Fringe delegates, at least it might cause them to reflect on their own attitudes towards corporate involvement in their festivals.

In any case, the World Fringe Congress kicked off with a keynote speech by Ruth MacKenzie, the director of the London 2012 Festival, an event where she curated artistic works as part of a “Cultural Olympiad”. She recognized and joked about the irony of giving a keynote about the usually open-accesss Fringe while she curated works for a living. She spoke about the importance of our work as leaders of Fringe Festivals.

At a reception following the address I met all sorts of Fringe delegates from around the world, with almost 50 festivals now represented. I willl be honest in saying I was relieved to be the only Canadian festival present. It seems the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF), who has locked the word “Fringe” into a trademark in Canada, was not in attendance despite having over a dozen Canadian “Fringe” festivals and several American ones. The only CAFF representative was their American vice-president, a very nice man named George Wallace from the Disney-sponsored Orlando Fringe. I told him that there was nothing personal between us and that the cultural war being waged between CAFF and the infringement festivals could be put on the backburner during the Congress.

I enjoyed meeting delegates from other Fringe Festivals all over the world and am pleased to report that all of them were friendly, open-minded, and seemed to genuinely have their hearts in the right place. Many of them represented new Fringe Festivals, demonstrating that there is an explosion of new festivals being created right across the globe, especially in the United States and other parts of Europe, such as Amsterdam, Stockholm and Poland. I was especially relieved not to see any faces from the Montreal and Toronto Fringe festivals, given that they often bar me personally from entering their festivals and even call the police sometimes.

Following the reception, we were invited to a night of up-and-coming comedians at the Dirty Martini Lounge, presented by the Fringe Comedy Academy. While the jokers were pretty funny, I was exaughsted. I left after the first set, hell bent on a good night’s rest. Wandering the dark and winding streets of Edinburgh on the way home I realized that this is going to be a potentially game-changing visit: if only a handful of people embrace the infringement concept, it’s quite possible Edinburgh will have its own infringement festival in the near future!

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Read more from this series:

Preview: World Fringe Congress to welcome infringement festival

World Fringe Congress Report #1: First Impressions

World Fringe Congress Report #2: The word on the street and Congress opening

World Fringe Congress Report #3: Retaining the Fringe Edge or Show me the Money!

World Fringe Congress Report #4: World Fringe Fair, Open Spaces and Members Only Clubs

World Fringe Congress Report #5: Searching for the Fringe and Reflections

I have arrived in glorious Edinburgh, Scotland, in the midst of both a strong downpour and the world-famous Fringe Festival. The city can only be described as beautiful, with its mediaeval architecture, quaint pubs and shops, and surprising nooks and crannies in every winding lane. While it’s tempting to just soak it all in by wandering endlessly through the ancient town, I have a mission and limited time. I am here for the World Fringe Congress, which begins today, representing the infringement festivals.

My first impressions come from the documentation I picked up at the Tourist Information Centre in Edinburgh Airport. Comparing the programs of the Edinburgh Fringe and the Edinburgh International Festival that it originally protested against in 1947 is an interesting exercise, especially when it comes down to the sponsorship pages. Both programs’ sponsorship pages look very similar, each having a whack of questionable corporate “supporters”. Studying both sponsorship pages, it is very difficult to differentiate which is which.

Remarkably, there is even some corporate sponsorship overlap between the two festivals: a dodgy bank called “Virgin Money” actually sponsors both events simultaneously. Meanwhile, the original festival includes seriously problematic corporations like British Petroleum, responsible for the never-ending oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, whereas the Fringe promotes corporations like Deuchars beer, criticized for selling out a local Scottish brew to multi-national corporate interests and then destroying competition by flooding the market with its product.

The Fringe program also includes a message from the elite-sounding Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill, the current “Chair of the Fringe Society’s Board”. She claims that the Fringe “can only happen with the wonderful support of corporate sponsors, public funders, and…generous individuals,” ignoring the fact that the first Fringe Festival of 1947 had none of these questionable and monied supporters, and yet still succeeded on the wits of the artists alone. Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists such as David Icke allege that the Baroness has been involved in scandals and cover-ups.

Whatever the truth, one thing is certain: red flags are going up at the Fringe regarding the people and corporations entrusted with financing a festival that was originally a grassroots effort without any funding whatsoever.

Fortunately, this year also sees a more critical perspective coming from corporate media outlets, spurred by long-time Fringe performer Stewart Lee complaining in The Guardian that the Fringe is suffering a “slow death” due to excessive commercialization. Other notable arts journalists such as Siobhán Kane of The Irish Times have picked up the same theme in their analysis, reflecting on the corporatized Fringe as evidence of the “cultural bankruptcy of late capitalism.” Still, both journalists also suggest that there is hope and Lee believes the spirit of the Fringe is still out there somewhere, however hard it may be to find.

On a more positive note, organizers of the World Fringe Congress have been extremely helpful, friendly, and welcoming. They have put me up in a nice student flat (apartment) on Riego Street, complete with a kitchen, washer/dryer and internet connection. Nearby is the imposing Edinburgh Castle, looming high above on a rocky escarpment.

I will be sharing the space with a few other Fringe Festival representatives, but they have not arrived yet. I have spent much of the night creating infringement information to hand out at the World Fringe Fair on Saturday, and, despite a lack of sleep, I look forward to the opening of the Congress tomorrow.

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Read more from this series:

“Infringe every day” was the mantra on everyone’s lips. The words were also prominent in performances, on posters and political buttons, and even on the enormous Trojan Buffalo that greets those arriving at the festival. A light-hearted take on the Trojan Horse, a deceptive weapon from antiquity that put adversaries into the heart of enemy territory, the Trojan Buffalo not only symbolizes the entire festival but heralds a new chapter in the cultural war being fought in Buffalo, and indeed across much of the planet.

At stake is the artists’ right to create and perform in an environment free from corporate manipulation and interference, and the 21^st Century infringement movement promises to reclaim the culture and put a stop to parasitic corporate behaviours that compromise authenticity and agency in the arts. Having co-opted and neutered many authentic events, this corporate worldview continues pressuring the arts to transform into marketing opportunities for corporations. The most obvious example is the once-activist Fringe Festival, which is actually now trademarked in many jurisdictions, including Canada. The disturbing trend has even resulted in some of the Fringe Festivals being named after corporations, effectively devastating the original purpose of the movement and compromising the event.

In stark contrast, the Buffalo infringement festival provides an authentic experience by serving up the real goods: boundary-stretching, mind-boggling and unfiltered arts straight from the community. Promising 11 days of “Art Under the Radar”, with over 800 performances and events in the 2012 edition, the normally-underground arts are exploding all over the city in a brilliant display of the empowering magic. Organizers proudly boast that “the annual Buffalo Infringement Festival provides artists and audiences of all backgrounds the chance to come together, take chances, push boundaries, and explore uncharted territory because exciting art can happen anywhere, anytime, without a blockbuster budget.” The proof is in the pudding: with the largest infringement festival to date anywhere, Buffalo provides evidence of what can happen when a community takes the culture into its own hands. Despite having a history of neglect, Buffalo is brimming with creative potential and the artists are forging ahead with a powerful new movement that reclaims spaces for culture and puts artists first. Simply put, it wasn’t only amazing –  it was off the hook!

I went with Montreal-based Optative Theatrical Laboratories to perform three different shows and to take in what is arguably the greatest arts festival on Earth. With buskers on every corner and performances in every venue, the historic neighbourhood of Allentown transformed into what is essentially an infringement carnival – it became impossible to walk down the street without being overwhelmed by the vast amount of arts unfolding everywhere the eye turned. There was everything on offer from lively busking music, street theatre, block parties, and guerrilla film screenings, to burlesque shows, poetry, dance, random acts of infringement and even a Philosophy Stand run by a man named Magnum Opium where paradoxes are sold for only 75 cents.

With so many shows and events on offer, it was impossible to catch everything amongst the incredible array. Festival-goers could enjoy everything from theatrical performances like 420: The Musical and Incident at Deer Lick to dance and burlesque shows like Euphraxia and Metamorphosis and Thank God for Lesbians to hot latino music from Clandestina y La Raza Cosmica, which played at the 9th Ward, a show-bar in the basement of a massive church saved by the wrecking ball by famous musician ani difranco.

A plethora of visual arts in galleries was even complimented by graffiti arts, including one large mural that will promote the infringement meme year-round.

The artists and organizers are friendly and welcoming and the vibe is charged and entirely positive: it’s a model arts community with a strong activist flavour that dances circles around Montreal’s much-hyped but increasingly corporate and bland scene.

Complimenting Buffalo’s outstanding arts scene is a remarkable arts journalism matrix whereby reporters tend to go above and beyond the call of duty to see and report on as much as possible. Colin Dabkowski of the Buffalo News is a case and point: not only did he write an edgy and detailed preview of the Buffalo infringement festival, but he has been on the ground every day, writing both recommendations for each of the eleven days, often followed up with reflections at the end of the day. He even produces thoughtful video interviews with the artists he met, including one about the history of the infringement festival with yours truly.

Compared to the dysfunctional Montreal arts journalism scene where the infringement festival is blacklisted by various art critics and even the word “infringement” brings on shudders for large swaths of corporate media, in Buffalo the scene is harmonious. Buffalo arts journalists not only do their jobs professionally by reporting on all the arts (in Montreal they tend to only report on corporate artists and festivals), but they go out of their way to get to the bottom of a story. Instead of just plugging their pals, regurgitating press releases or writing nice words in exchange for wine and cheese, junkets, schmoozing with “celebrities” and other corporate favours, they engage with all artists and are actually part of the scene.

The Occupy Movement also played prominently into the festival this year, with various performances and events at the highly-activist Burning Books, such as Activist Theater by PUSH Buffalo, an organization that promotes sustainable housing in the city. Other performances also took place at Occupy House, a run-down building inhabited by members of Occupy Buffalo (at the request of the owner, who is in the process of renovating several homes in the area).

With arts and activism coming together so intimately at the festival, an unprecedented vibe is created whereby artists and spectators take ownership of this special and unique event in order to empower themselves. In the process of reclaiming the culture, infringers constantly challenge the relentless corporate status quo brought on by the mainstream and offer us a more human vision of the future: a place where people come first and corporations are firmly regulated to serve, instead of exploit, us all. Accomplishing this seemingly impossible goal begins with very small steps, and the “infringe every day” meme is a good place to start because it’s loaded with hope, agency, and cultural resistance.

When enough members of a community embrace this activist vision and mission, cultural miracles like the Buffalo infringement festival become entirely possible! There can be no denying that infringement is the answer to the increasingly dysfunctional and corporatized arts being witnessed in places like the trademarked Fringe festival and cities, like Montreal, where administrators have allowed corporations to transform once-vibrant arts scenes into insidious marketing opportunities. Having attended the incredible 8th annual Buffalo infringement festival, I can only hope that the movement continues to spread, reclaim culture and empower other communities and artists across the globe.

The Montreal infringement festival, sometimes described as “the anti-Fringe”, has been invited to the first-ever World Fringe Congress, a gathering of the leaders of 40 Fringe Festivals  – and one infringement festival – from 13 countries across the globe.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, now the largest arts festival in the world, will be hosting the unique event this year from August  16 – 19, 2012. Set during the Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland, the purpose of the Congress is “to create a lasting network and a real sense of how Fringes can work together to achieve all our aims”.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has humble, yet controversial beginnings in 1947. It all started on the heels of World War II, when a group of local Scottish artists were snubbed by a new festival called the Edinburgh International Festival that refused them permission to play there. In retaliation, the artists played on the “fringe” of the elitist festival, a term that was officialised the following year (1948) after journalist Robert Kemp wrote: “Round the fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before … I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings!”

What began as an artistic protest against elitism and exclusion soon blossomed into a global movement, with Fringe becoming an artistic genre that signified true independence: edgy, Do-It-Yourself performances that challenge the status quo, often through bold irreverence, experimentation, and controversy.

Not only did the Edinburgh Fringe eventually grow much bigger than the original elitist festival, but the movement also spread to many other countries, where Fringe Festivals sprouted up to meet the cultural and activist needs of various communities around the world.

The Fringe concept became especially popular in Canada, with the first festival appearing in 1982 in Edmonton. By the early 1990s, over a dozen Canadian Fringe Festivals had come into existence and organizers began meeting to find ways to consolidate the artistic movement. On September 26, 1994, they founded the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) , allegedly to to “safeguard the integrity of Fringe Festivals”, amongst other noble-sounding objectives.

In 1998, the CAFF trademarked the word “Fringe”, allegedly to “preserve…“Fringe” ideals and principles,”  however, according to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, CAFF actually trademarked it for financial purposes, including the selling of Fringe-related wares and services:

WARES:   (1) T-shirts, caps, brochures, programs, posters and mugs.   (2) Bookmarks, calendars, decals, collectible cards, greeting cards, notepads, diaries, pens, glasses, mugs, tumblers, memo pads, key chains, bumper stickers, adult and children’s clothing, – namely shirts, pants, woven shirts, polo shirts, fleece shirts, sweaters, tank tops, sweat pants, shorts, scarves, hats, caps and sun visors, umbrellas, hand held fans and cushions.

SERVICES:   (1) Presentation, the advertisement and the promotion of theatre productions.

Unfringe-like? It gets worse. Canadian Fringe Festivals and the CAFF also frequently threaten legal action against students and independent artists who attempt to use the word “Fringe” without their permission. Furthermore, Fringe artists have been complaining for over a decade about the unfair treatment they receive at CAFF-sponsored Fringe Festivals, including everything from excessive fees to play, censorship, conflict-of-interest sponsors, corporate spam visually polluting Fringe sites, the expulsion of artists from the Fringe for criticizing sponsors, and even the banning of political artists and physical aggression by Fringe security guards. Worse still,  some of the Canadian Fringe Festivals have even sold naming rights to questionable corporations.

For example, the Saskatoon Fringe was recently renamed the “PotashCorp Fringe” after a $40 Billion corporation that extracts natural resources to make fertilizer. The industrial process causes untold environmental destruction, and PotashCorp has been criticised for damaging ecosystems and importing minerals from the illegally occupied Western Sahara. Meanwhile, the Montreal Fringe Festival is named after St. Ambroise beer, and there is speculation that the Toronto Fringe Festival will soon be named after the TD Bank, following a series of close collaborations between Fringe administrators and bankers.

Needlees to say, the corporate takeover of the Canadian Fringe Festivals has resulted in angry artists petitioning for the festivals to protect the original Fringe concept and return to its activist and community-based roots. The media is taking note of the brand damage too, with Montreal Gazette editor Lucinda Chodan noting:

“I was here in Edmonton when the first Fringe was launched. I’ve followed it through the years, and frankly, the Fringe in general has become more mainstream, sometimes just plain silly. The edge isn’t there anymore.”

Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, Fringe veterans are complaining about similar issues of corporate manipulation, with journalist and performer Stewart Lee describing the situation as the “slow death of the Edinburgh Fringe”.

Likewise, Deborah Pearson, a Torontonian who moved to Britain in 2005, has been very successful overseas with a performance collective known as the Forest Fringe. In 2007, she founded a venue by that name at the Edinburgh Fringe – as a “totally independent, not-for-profit space.” In 2010, Stage magazine listed her and her artistic partner Andy Field as two of the 100 most influential people in U.K. theatre. Ironically, in Canada, Forest Fringe would be illegal and subject to lawsuits due to trademark infringement. In Canada, Deborah Pearson’s success would have been blocked by corporate interests.

Like it or not, with all the corporate influence and interference, the Fringe Festival certainly isn’t what it used to be.

Enter The World Fringe Congress, and event organized by the World Festival Network. This organization “acts as a liaison between festivals and implements cross-festival ideas and relations, such as award schemes, tours and funding opportunities.” They also offer “consultancy, start up and advice to new festivals.” Both organizations were founded by Holly Payton, an arts administrator with plenty of experience at the UK Fringes. According to her profile:

“Holly has worked in the festival business since 2001, rebranding the ‘Brighton Festival Umbrella’ and founding the Brighton Fringe, which she then managed for 7 years. She has worked as a Festival Venue Director and in the Senior Management Team of Edinburgh Fringe Society as well as for many UK international Festivals.”

When questioned whether the World Fringe Congress would be a good place to debate questions about corporate influence on the Fringe Festivals, especially in Canada, and to discuss the future direction of the Fringe, Payton replied:

“…the Congress will recognise that there are many models of Fringe and many different ideas within it, without recognising any one model, concept or Fringe as more valid than another.”

With 40 Fringes and 1 infringement festival in attendance, it could make for a lively discussion. Despite the fact that CAFF claims 21 Fringe Festivals from Canada and the USA, there are also festivals in countries as diverse as Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, France, Hungary, China, South Africa and Brazil, to name a few. World Fringe provides a list of all Fringe and infringement festivals in the world, including a world map, on its website. Fortunately not all Fringe Festivals follow the corporate model promoted by CAFF, meaning that with no Fringe hegemony or ideological struggle in place, as in Canada, there could potentially be rich discussions amongst the various invitees concerning topics of great concern.

The Fringe in the 21st Century faces a stark choice: the more it allows corporate interference at the festival, the more it damages its value as a Fringe. The choice is whether to allow the Fringe to fade into a mere marketing opportunity for corporations, where artists must pay to become commodities, or whether to put the full power of the Fringe back into the hands of the performers and to empower them, in the spirit of those brave artists who created the Fringe in the first place.

While in Canada the Fringe is firmly locked in a trademark, complete with all its restrictions against artists and following criticism, there is hope the other festivals won’t be led astray down this same destructive path.

Like it or not, the Fringe is a very delicate brand. Corporate interference such as marketing and visual pollution, pay-to-play fees, naming rights, and trademarking are the very antithesis of the original 1947 Fringe. Signifying underground, edgy, artistic, independent, and Do-It-Yourself, the Fringe relies on its own authenticity to succeed. When these slippery corporate concepts are applied at the festivals, it can only damage the Fringe’s image and disempower the artists, which is why a discussion needs to be had amongst stakeholders about where the line should be drawn in regards to our increasingly endangered Fringe.

The infringement festival, created after artists were kicked out of the Montreal Fringe,  offers a solution. It has created a mandate designed to empower artists and communities and prevent corporate interference at the Fringe, complete with a guide for seeking ethical sponsors.

The infringement model has proven successful in places as far afield as Ottawa, Toronto, Regina, Nova Scotia and Bordeaux, France, who all staged individual infringement festivals, and in Montreal, Buffalo, Hamilton, and Brooklyn where the festivals are permanent. Buffalo’s 8th edition just enjoyed over 800 performances of “arts under the radar”, making it the largest infringement festival to date.

Furthermore, not only is there strong media coverage about infringement and its history, but there are strong connections between the infringement and newly-formed Occupy movement, demonstrating that progressive politics can indeed take centre stage in the Fringe Arts. People wishing to establish an infringement festival can consult an online Do-It-Yourself Guidebook and receive support from the Global Infringement team.

For those who heed these warnings and are interested in reforming the Fringe, the infringement criteria can be seen as a blueprint to transformation, safeguarding artists while keeping unethical and damaging corporate practices at bay. If the Fringes fail to take this message into account, it could very well be a case of history repeating itself, ironically with the Fringe now cast in the role of the exclusive and elitist festival that it had originally protested against.

If Holly Payton and the World Fringe Congress fully intend “to create a lasting network and a real sense of how Fringes can work together to achieve all our aims”, they need to note that there seems to be two competing aims that are diametrically opposed: one that supports Fringe arts for the original cultural purposes, and one that wants to exploit the Fringe brand for corporate reasons. All Fringes need to decide which of these visions they choose to support, because the two aims cannot be reconciled any more than those of organic farmers and McDonald’s. Simply put, one is grassroots, human, activist and authentic, whereas the other is manipulative, corporate and sometimes even parasitic.

While there is hope the World Fringe Congress can provide a place for the important conversation that needs to take place about the ongoing corporate threats to the Fringe, the danger lies, as always, in corporate manipulation. If those subscribing to the corporate model try and influence, or even co-opt, the more activist Fringe Festivals present at the event, it could very well end up as a mere PR exercise for the corporate Fringe model – and not the urgent debate that needs to take place before even more damage can be done to the cherished and endangered Fringe. The real question that needs to be asked is: where do we draw the line?

With the infringement festival in attendance, represented by myself, Donovan King, at least one voice will be present to argue on behalf of  the authentic Fringe, a place where activism and arts take centre stage, and where corporate manipulation and marketing are dismissed and relegated to shopping malls and the like, where they clearly belong. At the authentic Fringe, artists and community must come first.

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The 8^th annual Buffalo infringement festival runs from July 26 – August 5, 2012, and this year Optative Theatrical Laboratories (OTL) will be in attendance for the entire duration!

The Buffalo infringement festival is a both world leader in grassroots arts management and the largest arts festival in Western New York. This year, OTL will be presenting three distinct and interactive performances: Infringement Therapy, Occupy Theatre!, and Car Stories. As with all OTL creations, artists and audience members are encouraged to join in the shows as “spect-actors” and are welcome to become actors in the performances.

All OTL performances take place at  Nietzsche’s (248 Allen Street) or The Melting Point (the space in front the building). Signs will be posted to advertise all performances.

Nietzsche’s (248 Allen Street)

Infringement Therapy involves a theatrical journey whereby a team of infringement doctors prescribe various “therapies” to clients in order to de-brainwash them. Performances begin at The Melting Point in front of Nietzsche’s (248 Allen Street):

Saturday July 28, 6 – 8 pm

Sunday July 29, 6 – 8 pm.

Pay-what-you-can / Donations

Occupy Theatre! is a special, one night only event, that brings infringers and Occupiers together to reflect on arts activism by providing an open mic for speeches, music, and reflections. After a successful performance in Montreal, Occupy Theatre! now comes to Buffalo. Performance is at Nietzsche’s (248 Allen Street):

Wednesday August 1, 8 – 10 pm

Pay-what-you-can / Donations

Finally, CAR STORIES, the show that sparked the creation of the infringement festival, plays for three days towards the end of the festival. As always, collaborators are welcome to play in the show and OTL is looking for cars, stories, and people to flesh out the performance. Please contact Donovan at optatif@gmail.com if interested in participating. Performances begin at The Melting Point in front of Nietzsche’s (248 Allen Street):

Thursday August 2, 5 – 8pm

Friday August 3, 5 – 8pm

Saturday August 4, 2 – 5pm

Pay-what-you-can / Donations

OTL is thrilled to take a road trip from Montreal to Buffalo, New York,  and is very proud to add its three small performances to the hundreds of others that make up the Buffalo infringement festival! With over 800 peformances this year, the Buffalo infringement festival is expecting a red letter year! Read more about it in the Buffalo News!

Montreal’s summer festival season is heating up like never before! At play this year are two very different types of festival. The first is the typical Montreal staple: carefully stage-managed and highly corporate “festivals” that promote different brands, such as the F1 or Just For Laughs Festival. The second, joining in this year, is the festival of cultural resistance that has burst onto the streets of Montreal: it’s a loud, carnivalesque, and often chaotic theatre involving hundreds of thousands of activists who are demanding a more just society.

Massive street protest against Law 78

Amidst the clanging of the casseroles, sea of red squares, and Occupy masks, the Infringement Festival, Montreal’s infamous countercultural event, is celebrating the veritable explosion of arts and theatre activism in the city with over 50 performances!

For its 9^th edition, running from June 14 to 24, the Montreal infringement festival is joining the masses in using the arts to challenge the neoliberal agenda and reclaim the culture! Celebrating Freedom of Expression, activist performances and a broad range of eclectic, independent, and controversial art of all forms, the Infringement Festival is modelled on the original 1947 Edinburgh Fringe, which was an artistic protest against corporate elitism and exclusion of local artists.

At the infringement festival, artists and audiences of all backgrounds are invited to create a charged environment where people come together to take chances, push boundaries, explore uncharted territory, and to do so without corporate interference or having to pay any fees. Designed as an arts democracy, the Infringement Festival empowers communities, artists, and audiences to take charge of the culture and use it as a tool for social justice.

Set mostly in the Plateau and Red Light District (Quartier des Spectacles), this year the festival features over 50 shows and events, including street theatre, experimental performances, visual arts, music, spoken word, strange picnics and activist films. Some performances include Occupy Montreal’s Chorale du Peuple & Mr. Parker Quebec, the Candyass Cabaret and Red Light District Walking Tour, the Smoke ‘n Mirrors show, infringement therapy, Pyrometheus (fire arts), Sirène by Jacqueline van de Geer and the Dumpster Dive Art Drive vernissage. The activist venues are Café Cleopatre, the Fresh Paint Gallery, L’Escalier, Midway Tavern, Barfly, Concordia Co-op Bookstore and the outdoor Place Émilie-Gamelin. With so many acts playing on its various stages, the infringement festival is the perfect complement to the arts activism being carried out on the streets!

Velma Candyass performs – with red squares!

(photo by Georges Dutil)

The past year has witnessed widespread oppression against the population in the form of anti-democracy Law 78, bans on masks, attacks on students’ rights to affordable education, and ferocious police brutality. Exacerbating the problem is the ongoing corporate takeover and Disneyfication of the city, including the needless demolition of Montreal’s Lower Main by a corporate developer, an irreplaceable part of Canada’s most endangered National Historic Site. Add to this the rapidly rising cost of housing and food (while wages remain stagnant), over 30,000 homeless people living on the streets because the government refuses to care for them, and a myriad of other problems associated with disaster capitalism, from feelings of anger and hopelessness and increased radicalization amongst the citizens and state-sponsored violence against the protesters. The common denominator in all these attacks against the public is a neoliberal agenda designed to bolster corporate power and profits at the expense of people and democracy.

Montrealers, never people to turn away in the face of adversity, are fighting back with creative flair. As a result of the government’s attacks against the population, there has been an explosion of arts activism in the city. The protests have been occurring on a daily basis since 13 February 2012, when students began boycotting their classes after the government attempted to nearly double the cost of their tuition. On May 18, the government passed Law 78 to try and limit the students’ rights to protest, but the plan backfired and now the general population has joined together to create the ongoing  festival of cultural resistance.

Protest “angel” tries to calm riot cop

Everyone from elderly grandmothers and entire families to students, eco-warriors and even lawyers are marching to demand entrenched rights and freedoms be respected, to show solidarity, and to demand social justice and a better future for the generations to come. They are banging on casseroles in the tradition of the charivari from New France, holding nude protests in the streets, sporting red squares and wearing (now-banned) masks. They are protesting with various forms of cultural resistance to challenge the neoliberal policies being imposed from above on the population. Theirs is a festival of cultural resistance on a scale never-seen-before in Montreal.

 Nude Protest against the F1

Colliding with this new festival of cultural resistance is Montreal’s famous tourist draw: the so-called festival season. Every year various corporate festivals take over the city, often at the expense of taxpayers. The government’s rationale for these expenditures is that the festivals attract tourist dollars, and the concept is so ingrained in Montreal that the city even created a Place des Festivals in the heart of the rebranded Quartier des Spectacles to solidify Montreal’s brand as a true festi-ville.

The heads of these corporate festivals are generally unimpressed with their new competition, and are demanding that the protests avoid their festivals or stop altogether. For example, Gilbert Rozon, head of the Just for Laughs Festival has come out in favour of Law 78 and tuition hikes while simultaneously trying to blame students, instead of the government, for the unrest in the streets. He even met with students to try and bolster his pro-government position, to which they responded that they would attend the festivals to inform festival-goers about the dire situation facing all Quebecers.

Entering the fray next was the F1 Grand Prix Festival, considered Canada’s largest tourist attraction. In this case, true one-percenters such as pampered billionaire Bernie Ecclestone and race car driver Jacques Villeneuve lashed out against protesters, revealing that their priorities lie not in social justice, but rather in making money at all costs. The two scandalously turned a blind eye as pro-democracy protesters were slaughtered by security forces in Bahrain, the site of another F1 car race. “I can’t call this race off. Nothing to do with us,” said Ecclestone at the time, demonstrating the F1’s complicity with a regime that shuns democracy and uses deadly violence against its own citizens.

When Montrealers protested against the F1, police were deployed to beat them back and intimidate them with helicopters and a massive police presence. During the race day itself, citizens were politically profiled by police and security forces, sparking criticism by student leaders because it’s illegal.

Police arresting F1 protester

Like sore thumbs, Rozon, Ecclestone and Villeneuve have differentiated themselves from the vast majority of Quebec’s artists, entertainers, and producers, who clearly support the red square and resulting festival of cultural resistance. In fact, over 2600 Quebec artists of all stripes recently spoke out after Quebec Minister of Culture, Christine St. Pierre, suggested the famous red square worn by the bulk of progressive Quebecers symbolizes “violence and intimidation.” She made the comments after Fred Pellerin, a famous Quebec poet, storyteller and singer, declined an award due to the democratic crisis in the province. Given the fact that the red square actually signifies unsustainable student debt, or being “squarely in the red”, she later apologized for her ridiculous and distasteful statement.

Student leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois with red square

Even the once-activist Fringe Festival appears to be on board with the other corporate festivals, having actually re-named itself after a corporation (St. Ambroise Beer). The “St. Ambroise Fringe Festival” now hopes that instead of using the arts for social change, that the activists will drop the struggle to “come in and buy more beer” – in order to support their corporate brand, presumably. Meanwhile, following incidents last year whereby political artists were banned yet again from the St. Ambroise Fringe Festival, their Public Relations machine has been in overdrive trying desperately to persuade the public that they do indeed represent “Freedom of Expression” and an “unbeatable neighborhood feel,” despite the fact they were caught on video blocking artists and censoring their critical message.

For years people have been making demands that the St. Ambroise Fringe Festival stop exploiting artists and return to its activist roots, and for years the St. Ambroise Fringe has been ignoring them. While there were hopes that the new Fringe Manager (appointed in 2010) might listen, she dashed those hopes last year when she authorized exclusion against unwanted artists.

In addition to having her security apparatus harass, ban, and intimidate artists, the Fringe Manager also “filed a police report” against them after they presented her with a free trip to the Buffalo infringement festival, in the form of a giant cheque. The hope was that she would accept the opportunity to learn about more responsible arts management and then apply them at the Fringe (eg: artists pay nothing at the Buffalo infringement festival, whereas she charges them approximately $500 – 700 to play).

Activists present Fringe Manager with giant cheque

Astonishingly, despite using both the Montreal police force and her own security apparatus to suppress her critics, the Fringe Manager actually tried to paint herself as the victim of intimidation in the sordid affair.

The question arises as to why the corporate festivals detest the festivals of resistance so much, and why they feel so threatened by their very existence. The activists, after all, do not typically disrupt the corporate festivals, but rather raise awareness at them to inform the public about the dire political situation in Quebec. Furthermore, why do the corporate festivals seem to be firmly on the side of the government? Beyond the obvious fact that the government largely subsidizes the corporate festivals, they also have several other things in common:

1. They receive a lot of funding from corporations.
2. Every year, they privatize public space and fence it off for their events.
3. The occupied space is tightly-controlled, in the same way shopping malls are.
4. They employ security guards to search bags and keep out “undesirables”, such as homeless people, activists and political artists.
5. They are heavily involved in sales, corporate marketing and cross-branding.
6. They expect visitors to buy the products they are marketing.
7. As with banks, every year their prices and policies are “tweaked” to maximize income.
8. Select “administrators” often earn a lot of money, while most workers are often paid little or nothing at all. Sometimes artists must even pay to play.
9. Festival-goers may watch shows but cannot perform or actively participate.

10. They contribute to the gentrification of neighbourhoods and the Disneyfication of culture.

Despite the use of sophisticated PR techniques to sell these festivals to tourists and the public, whether these corporate festivals are actually good for the culture is questionable. Whether or not their spokespeople are credible enough to merit being listened to is also worthy of discussion. When the majority of Quebec’s artists loudly support the activists’ right to protest, why should anyone care what pampered billionaires, wealthy race car drivers, and questionable producers have to say about the real issues on the streets?

F1 Billionaire Bernie Ecclestone

Historically, festivals were celebratory community events that highlighted some unique aspect of the community. Their purpose, in addition to celebrating specific themes and providing entertainment, was to offer people a sense of belonging and as a means for unifying the community. Simply put, authentic festivals were organic and designed to meet human needs. They were certainly not designed as marketing opportunities for corporations.

Corporate festivals operate under a very different premise from authentic festivals. Their objective is to co-opt something meaningful (such as Jazz music or once-activist Fringe theatre) in order to transform it into a corporate opportunity for marketing, branding, sales and advertising. The problem is that the more a festival is taken over by corporate interests, the less authentic it becomes. As the ads blossom all over the place, the artists and event become compromised, playing second fiddle to the corporations. Public space is privatized and security guards begin searching bags. The warm and quirky community vibe of the festival’s past is soon replaced with an often Disneyfied atmosphere where consumption is encouraged and critical thinking is unpopular. In a nutshell, these corporate festivals signify the commodification of culture and, as such, should be looked at with a critical eye.

In contrast, the festival of resistance in the streets and the infringement festival are both wide-open events. Anyone can participate, as artist and/or spectator. These festivals do not select the performers, charge participants to play or censor any message – plus they are both festive and activist at the same time. They provide participants with the tools to celebrate their activism by using the arts for social justice, on the stages and the streets.

In one final irony this year, infringement festival artists managed to break through the St. Ambroise Fringe Festival’s security cordon in order to give a speech on the stage. This was made possible because ELAN (English Language Arts Network) was holding a community “schmoozer” event and had invited them. With the activists permitted access to the St. Ambroise Fringe, festival-goers were treated to free red squares, being handed out by “Dr. Anonymous,” and an activist message on the stage about the endangered Lower Main and the infringement festival’s Red Light Walking Tour and 50 other acts.

Activists gain access to Saint Ambroise Montreal Fringe stage

Despite jokes that “the sky would fall” if the activists were permitted to speak on the St. Ambroise stage, the inclusive event demonstrated the exact opposite. It showed that by being inclusive, the St. Ambroise Fringe Festival can learn a lot from the infringement festival about current cultural issues, and can generate solidarity in the community instead of antagonism. If the Fringe wants to rescue itself from its corporate conundrum, whereby an activist community festival has been transformed into a corporate marketing opportunity, it needs to begin seriously dialoguing with artists about what the community actually wants and start making amends for its past mistakes.

Meanwhile, the infringement festival is excited to provide a forum for arts activism, where artists can perform in a safe environment, away from the riot police, and where a dialogue about politics is encouraged – and challenging the status quo is au courant.

The Montreal infringement Festival runs from June 14 – 24, and details about the performances can be found on the website.

One final reflection? Painted onto the sidewalks in the Quartier des Spectacles are both red circles and red squares. Ironically the red circles were painted on by city workers to signify the brand of the entertainment district, at the expense of the taxpayer.

Sidewalk near Berri-UQAM metro in the Quartier des Spectacles

The red squares, on the other hand, were painted by activists, illegally. Ironically, despite the fact it is the exact same act of painting red shapes on the sidewalk, the circle is advertising to officially brand the entertainment district, whereas the red square, a potent symbol of cultural resistance, expresses disapproval of the same government funding the Quartier des Spectacles. Like the shapes on the sidewalk, the corporate festivals and the festivals of resistance both share traits of festivity, but differ in politics, purpose, and vision of the future. That one is both permitted and entrenched while the other is often declared illegal should be cause for considerable reflection.

A dramatic funeral for a prominent National Historic Site, presently being demolished, was held in Montreal on Sunday, May 27, 2012.  There was an outpouring of grief by over 40 mourners and funeral-goers for the Lower Main, an irreplaceable part of The Main National Historic Site, one of Canada’s most endangered heritage zones.

Led by Burlesque Queen Velma Candyass and Father Anthony (played by Donovan King), the somber funeral included two large coffins (one representing Montreal culture, the other heritage), a procession of over 40 mourners, and a lone tuba player from the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble.

Photo © S.E. Amesse 2012

Beginning in front of the fabled Café Cleopatre, the procession moved south down the Main past the Monument-Nationale, then turned west on Réné-Levesque, before heading north on Clarke Street. The ceremony was held behind the devastated Victorian heritage buildings in full view of the the terrible damage being wreaked on the site.

Photo © S.E. Amesse 2012

Media at the funeral was thick and included various TV and radio stations, newspapers and bloggers, podcasters and photographers. Television reports appeared on CTV News and the CBC (from 5:42 – 7:21), radio reports on CBC,  CJAD, and CKUT (Monday June 4th in the 1st hour of The Monday Morning After beginning at 19:45), a podcast on rabble.ca, and news reports from The Gazette, Forget The Box, Rover Arts, the OTL Blog, and Montreal Open File. Talented photographer Stéphanie E. Amsse also published an album of the somber occasion.

During the ceremony mourners lamented the loss of  a National Historic Site that actually did not need to be demolished at all. The circumstances surrounding the demolition were described as “Shameful” by Heritage Montreal’s Dinu Bumbaru: Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay ignored federal guidelines to protect the commemorative integrity of the National Historic Site and municipal by-laws on building maintenance in order to hand over the site to his friend, developer Chrstian Yaccarini of the Angus Development Corporation.

Together, they attempted to expropriate the immigrant businesses and performance venues in a National Historic Site devoted to the themes of immigration, small business, and entertainment. They succeeded in shuttering Main Importations, Montreal’s first Middle-Eastern grocery store, in displacing the famous Montreal Pool Room and Katacombes, and they also shut down other small businesses. The final nail in the coffin was allowing a strategy of demolition-by-neglect to effectively destroy the Victorian architecture, hence reducing a once-vibrant National Historic Site to a pile of rubble.

Photo © S.E. Amesse 2012

Funeral-goers listened to Father Anthony condemn the authors of this crime to “eternal damnation”, for their sins against Montreal’s culture and heritage: Mayor Gerald Tremblay, Montreal Minister of Culture Helen Fotopulos, and developer Christian Yaccarini. No other politicians were present at the funeral from municipal, provincial, or federal parties, depite being invited to support Montreal’s culture and heritage. Not surprisingly, the politicians were also largely absent during the fight to protect the National Historic Site or to save the historic Café Cleopatre, signalling a very broken democracy indeed.

The crowd took holy communion, then proceeded to the Midway Tavern for the a tearful reception. Overall, it was a very sad and devastating day for Montreal’s culture, heritage, and soul. It could have turned out so differently if only politicians had listened to the alternative Urban Plan presented by the Save The Main coalition, which would have seamlessly incorporated a rejuvenated National Historic Site in to the rebranded neighbourhood –  as its star attraction. Sadly, greedy corporate interests won over common sense and decency, and the casualty is very serious.

Several days after the funeral, Dinu Bumbaru of Heritage Montreal and Phyllis Lambert of the Canadian Center for Architecture rallied to make a final plea to the politicians not to destroy the cherished site that is so important to Canadian national identity. Failing a miracle (such as getting the politicians to listen to reason), it looks like the needless destruction of the cherished National Historic Site will continue unabated.

A funeral for will be held on the Lower Main, beginning in front of Cafe Cleopatra, on Sunday, May 27th at 3pm. It’s being planned by artists, heritage activists and community stakeholders to lament the loss of unique part of Montreal’s heritage and culture.

The dramatic funeral is in response to a cultural disaster that has been unfolding on the Lower Main over the past several years, which is about to meet its tragic and illogical conclusion. Like a slow-moving train-wreck, on Monday, May 14, 2012, workers began demolishing an irreplacable part of the cherished and endangered Lower Main, a National Historic Site, after years of cultural war that saw corporate developers and unscrupulous politicians battle artists, heritage activists and community stakeholders.

The story began several years ago when Mayor Tremblay, like many of his predecessors, decided to “clean up” the Red Light District. Unlike during Mayor Drapeau’s regime, where whole blocks of the historic neighbourhood were demolished to build the suburb-like Habitations Jeanne Mance, Tremblay made a decision to “rebrand” the entire neighbourhood as the Disneyesque Quartier des Spectacles. Through a scheme of radical gentrification, it would become possible to simultaneously create a corporate Entertainment District while attacking the original “Red Light” culture, which ironically had made the historic neighbourhood so famous in the first place.

The rebranding scheme set off a wave of wholesale demolition, whereby historic theatres and performance venues, such as the Spectrum, Le Medley, and Saints, were slated for demolition. Rising out of the ashes are questionable glossy buildings that, architectually and vocationally, are completely disconnected  from the historic neighbourhood.

St. Laurent Boulevard is a National Historic Site, defined  as “a group of buildings, structures and open spaces which share uncommonly strong associations with individuals, events or themes of national significance”.  Furthermore, according to the policy, the historic corridor must have a “sense of history: intrusive elements must be minimal, and the district’s historic characteristics must predominate and set it apart from the area that immediately surrounds it.”

Ignoring the National Historic Site that cuts across the island he governs, and totally disregarding Parks Canada’s protective policies, the Mayor authorized developer Christian Yaccarini to expropriate and demolish a block of historic 19th Century heritage buildings. The intention was to demolish the irreplacable heritage buildings between the Monument-Nationale and Sainte Catherine Street, including the celebrated Cafe Cleopatre, in order to build a glossy corporate office tower.

This flagrant disregard for Montreal’s culture and heritage, by the Mayor himself no less, sparked off a cultural war of unprecedented proportions.

A colaition of artists and stakeholders called Save The Main was formed, and after a protracted battle that involved everything from public consultations to legal challenges to lobbbying politicians and even pleas to heritage buff Prince Charles, the artists and activists won and the Cafe was saved.

In an effort to convince the Mayor that there were better solutions to the wholesale destruction of Montreal’s culture and heritage, artists from the Save the Main coalition presented an alternative Urban Plan that would seamlessly incorporate the priceless heritage into the rebranded “Quartier des Spectacles” , while staying loyal to Parks Canada’s policies on commemorative integrity. They also created a popular walking tour of the district to highlight its fascinating history.

In retaliation, the Mayor permitted Yaccarini to use an unethical strategy of demolition-by-neglect to ensure the destruction of the remaining heritage buildings, disregarding both Parks Canada’s policies to protect historic sites and Montreal by-laws on building maintenance. The artists’ worst fears were confirmed.

Instead of listening to stakeholders in the community, the Mayor opted for a top-down approach, earning him more scorn from artists while fast-tracking the destruction of the heritage site. Meanwhile, Helen Fotopulos, the Montreal Minister responsible for Culture, also turned a blind eye to the community. At the provincial level, Quebec Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre greenlighted the demolition of the buildigs.

Despite last-minute pleas from the Save The Main coalition, Heritage Montreal, The National Theatre School and Phyllis Lambert of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Mayor still refuses to listen to the stakeholders and experts and he won’t budge. Failing a miracle, the irreplacable historic site will soon be reduced to a pile of rubble, and be followed up with an empty lot. Adam Bemma has been filming some of the artists and activists’ last thoughts before the demolition, and has been speaking on CKUT Radio about the scandal.

Mayor Tremblay has made it crystal clear that he has no regard for Montreal’s heritage or living culture. As such, with no options left, the artists and stakeholders have little choice but to plan a dramatic funeral for Montreal’s culture and heritage.

Please spread the word that those who wish to participate should email Save The Main organizer Donovan King (optatif@gmail.com) with the word “funeral” in the subject to get involved. Below are some details of the tentative plan…

Also, it’s never too late to contact Quebec Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre via her website to demand that the demolition order be reversed immediately. Please ask her to consider Save The Main’s alternative Urban Plan in order to preserve the heritage, while enhancing the cultural value of the Quartier des Spectacles by highlighting our own world-famous Prohibition and Red Light history.

***

Dear Funeral Processioners,

In lieu of the destruction of our beloved Lower Main, an irreplaceable part of our National Historic Site, we have set a date for the funeral of Montreal’s heritage and culture.

THE FUNERAL

Will be held on

Sunday, May 27th , 2012

At 3 pm

The Procession will begin

in front of

Café Cleopatre

The Funeral Procession is seeking:

1)    Flamboyant “red light” burlesque artists to be led by a Burlesque Queen

2)    People wearing black clothing, the more formal the better

3)    An orchestra, such as the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble to play music

4)    Someone to play GERALD TREMBLAY with a mask

5)    Someone to make similar masks of HELEN FOTOPULOS and CHRISTIAN YACCARINI and people to play these roles.

The Main National Historic Site has been the epi-center of a cultural war being fought in Montreal, and it is again the focus in the latest salvo. At stake is the city’s cultural future. Artists and activists demanding cultural integrity have been battling corporate interests hell-bent on Disneyfication, and this time the corporate side is attacking again. The potential casualties include people living and working in the neighbourhood, historic buildings, working artists, and the colourful heritage of Montreal’s old Red Light District.

After losing the fight to expropriate the historic Café Cleopatre to the artists trying to save it, the Angus Development Corporation is now rumoured to be plotting the “Demolition-by-neglect” of an entire block of heritage buildings. Having bought out and boarded up all other nineteenth century buildings on the western block of The Main between Sainte Catherine and the Monument Nationale, Angus Development Corporation is not properly maintaining or heating them, which caused city officials to declare them dangerous and close off part of the street. Montreal’s Minister of Culture, Helen Fotopulos, is now suggesting that the buildings may be dismantled for potential re-use in the future.

Heritage Montreal has called on the City of Montreal to prevent the demolition of these historic buildings, adding their voice to artists from the Save The Main coalition, who recently presented their own official urban plan to save the buildings and promote tourism at the same time.

If the “Demolition-by-neglect” strategy is permitted by the Tremblay administration, it will effectively ruin The Main National Historic Site and prevent tourists from enjoying Montreal’s colourful Red Light heritage in the Quartier des Spectacles. If the historic buildings are razed, The Main National Historic Site will lose its commemorative integrity, as is already happening on the historic corner of St. Laurent and Ste. Catherine Streets. Once famous globally for its illicilt reputation, the Angus Development Corporation recently built the architecturally questionable 2-22 on the South-East corner, totally distorting the integrity of the historic neighbourhood.

The message from artists and activists is that these irreplaceable buildings should be protected and redeveloped responsibly, and if the Angus Development Corporation is unwilling or incapable, another developer should be found. At stake is nothing less than commemorative integrity of The Main National Historic Site, including the historic Monument-National on the southern end of the block, home to Canada’s National Theatre School.

Please demand that the historic buildings on the Lower Main be saved and redeveloped responsibly. Ask the politicians and developer to follow the artists plan instead of the destructive corporate strategy, by writing letters to:

Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay – geraldtremblay@ville.montreal.qc.ca

Montreal Culture Minister Helen Fotopulos – hfoto@videotron.ca

Christian Yaccarini (Angus Development Corporation) – CYaccarini@technopoleangus.com

Occupy Wall Street has put theatre activism into the spotlight like never before. Conceptualized by Vancouver-based Adbusters Magazine, the Occupy Movement kicked off on September 17 by taking over New York City’s Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street in Manhattan. The initial encampment consisted of a small tent-city, including everything from kitchens to libraries to performances spaces for theatrical and democratic expression. Daily expressions of anger and outrage were directed at Wall Street bankers, economic injustice and corruption, and a system that favouritizes the richest 1% at the expense of the other 99%.  As the outrage magnified through social networks first, and traditional media outlets later, the protest went viral and over 900 other Occupy camps appeared in various cities across the world.

Unlike many of the more conventional movements of the past, Occupy is unique in several distinct ways. It is leaderless, democratic, highly inclusive (with the central slogan being “We are the 99%”), community-building, DIY (do-it-yourself), it targets corporate oppression and it has staying power. It is also extremely theatrical.

Indeed, the central symbol of the movement is a mask; the infamous V-for-Vendetta mask signifies “Anonymous“, an anti-oppressive Everyperson, whose computerized voice frequently expresses solidarity with activists and encourages their important work.

Born in this Occupy movement are several new techniques that fall into the category of theatre activism, or the use of drama and theatricality for activist purposes, such as awareness-raising or direct intervention.  Here’s a list of some of the latest theatrical innovations to come from the Occupy Movement, as well as some dramatic strategies for the future.

MIC CHECK: This voice projection technique was allegedly created after megaphones and other projection equipment were prohibited at Zuccotti Park. To project the voice, a speaker announces “mic check”, which is repeated by the crowd, then proceeds to relay a message in sentences, which the crowd repeats it in unison and at a high volume, in order for everyone to hear. The mic check technique has since moved on to corporate locations where it has been used by activists to challenge corporatist discourse and help unionization drives at places like Walmart.

ROBIN HOOD TAX: Occupy protesters have been demanding a “Robin Hood Tax” on speculative corporate transactions – $1.3-trillion that’s sloshing around the global casino each day – to “fund every social program and environmental initiative in the world”. To theatricalize the message, roving bands of actors dressed as Robin Hood have been taking the message to financial districts around the planet.

TENT MONSTERS: One of the central reasons encampments of the Occupy Movement have been consistently attacked by police forces across the globe is because they allegedly broke anti-camping by-laws and other ordinances against staying in parks overnight. Politicians across the world have tended to agree that activists may express themselves so long as they do not occupy space, viscerally challenging the core message of the movement by invoking insignificant by-laws. In Melbourne, Australia, Occupiers created an ingenious “tent monsters” plan, a scheme that transformed tents into costumes and a playful  performance that left the police outwitted.

HUMAN RED CARPET: This holiday season, several dozen Occupy DC protesters rolled out the human red carpet for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s holiday party at their Washington, DC headquarters. The Chamber is the nation’s largest corporate lobby group. As guests entered, protesters shouted, “You walk on our rights, now walk on us!” encouraging attendees to trample on the activists laying underneath the red carpet painted with “99%.” A man dressed in business attire encouraged the participants to walk all over the people, suggesting they do so on a regular basis.

BANK THEATRE: Activists have re-appropriated Danger Tape and created “Occupy Tape” and “Foreclosure Tape”, then went about, playing anti-corporate ninjas, and “foreclosing” banks as theatrical gestures of culture-jamming. Meanwhile, in London, England, Occupiers actually managed to occupy a real bank by citing the UK’s liberal squatting laws, and created The Bank of Ideas as an anti-corporate community space from the failed UBS banking enterprise.

Here are some further suggestions to continue facilitating theatre activism and the human right to Freedom of Expression within the Occupy movement and beyond:

SPEAKER’S CORNER: One good way to ensure police cannot harass or molest protesters is to install a Speaker’s Corner, preferably a permanent one with the blessing of city officials. In Montreal, where Occupiers took over Square Victoria until evicted by police, McGill University Professor John Gradwell has intensified calls for a permanent Speaker’s Corner. While Montreal Cultre Minister Helen Fotopulos has been promising one for years (since the beginning of the Iraq war, in fact), there has been no action despite recent announcements that a Speaker’s Corner would be opened on Mount Royal, at the Gazebo, to honour author Mordecai Richler. Inexplicably, when Occupy protesters showed up to try and use the area to express themselves, they were evicted yet again by the police. Is the Culture Minister merely paying lip service to a permanent Montreal Speaker’s Corner? Ask her – Helen Fotopulos can be reached at hfoto@videotron.ca.

INFRINGEMENT FESTIVAL: The infringement festival draws together like-minded artists and activists for creative performances and events that challenge the oppressive status quo, all in a community setting that is free from corporate interference. Originally designed to protest the corporate takeover of the Fringe Festival (the words “fringe” and “fringe festival” were actually trademarked in Toronto in 1998), the infringement festival now exists as a tool to empower artists and communities in several cities such as Montreal, Buffalo, Brooklyn, and Hamilton.

Given that the Fringe Festival has been excluding and censoring artists who object to their questionable financial policies, the infringement festival offers a much-needed antidote and alternative to this glaring corporate takeover of activist culture and arts. For information on empowering your community by starting your own infringement festival, see the help guide book. For those in Montreal, the 2012 infringement festival will run June 14 – 24, and  organizing meetings will be held at 7pm every Wednesday in 2012, at L’Escalier, starting January 11th. Artists and activists are all welcome!

With the Occupy Movement in its infancy, acts of cultural resistance will continue to develop and pioneering strategies of theatre activism are bound to emerge. These are very exciting times for activism – and theatre!