By the time August rolls around, it’s hard not to feel as though you’ve pretty much reached Music Festival Carrying Capacity. But every year, it seems like another tenacious (or foolish) impresario tries to launch a new endeavour.
This week, the SummerWorks festival — the juried, slightly less overwhelming counterpart to the Fringe — throws its hat into the ring with its inaugural music series, which kicks off Friday (Aug. 8) with the slightly curious pairing of rugged alt-rocker Matthew Barber and madcap pop entertainer Bob Wiseman. It’s the first of nine carefully curated double bills at the Theatre Centre (100-1087 Queen W.).
SummerWorks artistic producer Michael Rubenfeld, who dreamed up the music series, admits there’s a pragmatic component to throwing pop into the mix — namely, it’s a clever means of reaching out to demographics who wouldn’t necessarily be drawn to a left-field theatre fest. But, he adds, the kernel of the idea actually came from a dude enmeshed in the local indie-rock community.
“I met [Middle Child Music and Baudelaire label founder, as well as current Outside Music guy] Evan Newman at a party, and he told me he’d really liked one of my plays, Spain. I was surprised that he’d seen it,” Rubenfeld laughs, “and he insisted that there were tonnes of people who were really into indie-rock who’d also like theatre.
“That conversation stuck with me, and when I got the job and started thinking about how to run this festival and expand the audience, he was one of the first people I talked to.”
Unsurprisingly, Newman-affiliated outfits like Barber and the Sunparlour Players (who cap off the music series Aug. 16 with adorable kalimba queen Laura Barrett) are part of the SummerWorks music roster. As Rubenfeld explains, though, the acts were specifically chosen based on their focus on theatricality and storytelling — crucial qualities in a theatre-based fest.
Along with Sunparlour Players (whose lead singer, Andrew Penner, Rubenfeld lauds: “Some people think they have to play themselves; in real life, Andrew is mild-mannered and soft-
spoken, but he goes psycho onstage!”), the line-up includes performers like folky singer/songwriter Evalyn Parry and jazz/cabaret innovator Claire Jenkins, both of whom are as celebrated for their theatrical work as they are for their musical talents.
Rubenfeld explains, “I wanted people who are thoughtful and have something to say in both the form and content of their work. As a fan and as a programmer, the music I love and am inspired by is made by people who ask good questions in their art.”
He may be right in arguing that there are many things that the two modes of artistic production can learn from each other. Still, you have to wonder, will the music aspect merely dilute the aim and focus of SummerWorks?
“It’s a good question, and one that I’ve thought about a lot,” Rubenfeld concedes. “I guess it’s supposed to be first and foremost a theatre festival, but it’s always incorporated different aspects. There used to be more performance art because the former artistic producer was really into performance art. The last artistic producer was more into theatre, so it shifted back into that mode.
“I feel like my job as artistic producer is to incorporate things I love — in this case, both theatre and music — within my vision. Of course there’ll be backlash,” he laughs. “But as long as people are engaged with big questions, I’m doing my job.”