A prototype zine researched and designed for the Toronto Fringe Festival that showcases the impact of the Theatre Entrepreneurs\u27 Networking and Training program. The zine is a major output from “Mobilizing Social Innovation to Train the Next Generation of Theatre Entrepreneurs,” a multi-year collaboration funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada via the College and Community Social Innovation Fund.https://source.sheridancollege.ca/fhass_creativehumanities/1003/thumbnail.jp

Eidoo, Faizal

Ferguson, Jacquelyn-

German, Brittany

Li, Lynne

McFarlane, Brandon

Miller, Robin

Qamar, Ayesha

Torres, Aura

Webb, Victoria

Whang, Sarah

Zantingh, Taylor

English

SOURCE: Sheridan Scholarly Output Undergraduate Research Creative Excellence

Sheridan College SOURCE: Sheridan Institutional Repository Creative Humanities Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences (FHASS) 2-27-2022 Inside TENT Faizal Eidoo Sheridan College Jacquelyn- Ferguson Sheridan College Brittany German Sheridan college Lynne Li Sheridan College Brandon McFarlane Sheridan College, brandon.mcfarlane@sheridancollege.ca See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://source.sheridancollege.ca/fhass_creativehumanities SOURCE Citation Eidoo, Faizal; Ferguson, Jacquelyn-; German, Brittany; Li, Lynne; McFarlane, Brandon; Miller, Robin; Qamar, Ayesha; Torres, Aura; Webb, Victoria; Whang, Sarah; and Zantingh, Taylor, "Inside TENT" (2022). Creative Humanities. 4. https://source.sheridancollege.ca/fhass_creativehumanities/4 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Zine is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences (FHASS) at SOURCE: Sheridan Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Creative Humanities by an authorized administrator of SOURCE: Sheridan Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact source@sheridancollege.ca. Authors Faizal Eidoo, Jacquelyn- Ferguson, Brittany German, Lynne Li, Brandon McFarlane, Robin Miller, Ayesha Qamar, Aura Torres, Victoria Webb, Sarah Whang, and Taylor Zantingh This zine is available at SOURCE: Sheridan Institutional Repository: https://source.sheridancollege.ca/fhass_creativehumanities/4  TENT (Theatre Entrepreneurs’ Network and Training) was created by the Toronto Fringe Festival to address a growing need for a program that would provide the next generation of theatre artists with the skills and network necessary to build sustainable careers as entrepreneurs. Be-fore TENT was developed, no such program existed in the Toronto theatre climate.   Since its inception in 2014, TENT has provided over 140 emerg-ing artists with free intensive training in entrepreneurial skills needed for producing their own work such as budgeting, marketing, fundraising, and grant writing. Past workshops have also included community outreach, mental health and wellness, anti-oppressive practices, and our program-ming will continue to grow and adapt with the city and our participants.   TENT recognizes that emerging artists don’t have equal access to the guidance and mentorship essential to success and therefore invests in the future of arts and culture in Toronto by breaking down the barriers that create that inequity. Currently approximately half of our participants receive $500 bursaries to attend the full-time program.   For the past five years, the program has connected emerging artists with mentors and industry professionals. Past guests at TENT have included established and celebrated “artrepreneurs” from Canadian Stage, Why Not Theatre, Cahoots Theatre, Factory Theatre, Obsidian Theatre Company, Theatre Passe Muraille, Nightwood Theatre, and Soulpepper Theatre as well as theatre critics from the Toronto Star, and Now.  The future of TENT is in community-building; the program creates, trains, and cultivates a circle of future arts leaders and equips each art-ist with the essential skills and connections to make their work a reality. TENT Artrepreneurs think critically, collaborate with each other, and share resources in order to create meaningful art on their own terms.  Running TENT costs approximately $80,000 per year. In the past, the program has been partially funded by RBC, but program directors must apply annually, and funding is never guaranteed. No funding for the 2020 iteration of the program has been confirmed.    Our mission is to ensure the TENT program fortifies the arts and culture sector of Toronto by starting, much like The Toronto Fringe Festival, at the grassroots level and empowering artrepreneurs to make meaningful art and cultivate a community where connections are built and sustained beyond the twelve days of Fringe.  For more information about TENT, the Toronto Fringe Festival, or our fundraising initiative, contact morgan@fringetoronto.com.Setting the StageTHE T.E.N.T.  In addition to the critical training opportunities TENT has been providing to emerging artists over the last five years, the feedback we hear from alumni time and again is that the impact of the connections forged with mentors and peers is invaluable.   “TENT set the foundation that I am now able to continue with and build upon, not only in terms of the practical skills but also with the important connections made with Toronto’s Theatre Professionals during the program,” Vince Deiulis, from TENT’s 2017 year.  Deiulis describes his experience meeting and listening to the guest speak-ers TENT had in his year:  “Conversations and round-table discussions with folks like Jiv Parasram and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, really opened my eyes about our responsibility as storytellers at this particular moment in time. Why, as theatre creators, we are tasked with creating important, relevant and entertaining works with an eye on ensuring that the work is inclusive, accessible and respectful.”eiulis’ experience speaks to how TENT is all about creating connections where everyone leaves the program with a newfound support network. After completing TENT, participants feel more confident in their ability to forge their own path in the industry. Another member of TENT’s 2017 year, Mirka Loise describes how TENT impacted her:  “Through the TENT program I met an artist named Jocelyne Lamarche who remains a very close friend and collaborator to this day. I assisted her in the development of a play for youth, produced one of her shows, and we are now working on an illustrated poetry collection together. Reflecting on this ongoing relationship reminds me that as an emerging artist, the most valuable thing I can do is connect to like-minded peers; most of the artistic opportunities I get come from word-of-mouth, built through these relationships.”  In the arts, collaboration and mentorship are vital to success. For both Deiulis and Loise, their time at TENT opened up opportunities for them to form relationships with like-minded people and even meet peo-ple who encouraged them to think about things differently. It is TENT’s mission to inspire and encourage emerging artists, like Deiulis and Loise, to develop a community within the industry, learn from leading profession-als, and develop exciting new theatre productions.  IMPACT I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is passion-ate about theatre, specifically if you’re interested in creating your own work, but really anyone who wants to know the nitty gritty of how a theatre project gets made and, just, you know, the amount of people we got to connect with, both our peers and established producers, it’s just so invaluable” — Nikki Haggart “So where does the money GO?BursariesRushPassesMentorFees SpaceFeesT.E.N.T.DonationsFacilitatorFeesAnnie Clarke When Annie Clarke began the TENT program, she wasn’t sure which path to take in her career. “I had been in Toronto for less than a year, pursuing acting and trying to soak up as much of the Toronto theatre scene as I possibly could. I didn’t go into TENT knowing much about producing, much less identifying as a pro-ducer—I just wanted to learn as much as I could and meet people.” Four years later, she’s an independent theatre producer and a Communications Producer with Generator.  Annie describes TENT as “a crash course in Toronto indie theatre.” Of her experiences in the program, her favourite was the Self-Producing workshop with Julie Tepperman and Aaron Wil-lis. “The self-producing workshop definitely had the most lasting impact for me. Being introduced to this concept was pivotal,” says Annie. “Identifying producing as an interest led to my participation in later programs where I developed my skills and began produc-ing one-off events. Within two years of TENT, I was being hired as a producer on full-length productions.” Annie is grateful that TENT provided the turning point for her that it did. It provided guidance for her when she was unsure of her place in the Toronto theatre community. TENT workshops provided her with the foundations she continues to draw on and build on today.   Now that Annie is more established in the theatre industry, she is reflecting on what can be done to make early career devel-opment opportunities more widely accessible. “I feel very lucky to have been part of TENT, but I was only able to participate because I could afford to not work for the two weeks of the program. I would love to see participants be compensated for their time.” Annie sees donor support as a crucial step to removing this finan-cial barrier for young artists. “There is an expectation that young people need to give their time away for free in order to work in theatre early in their careers, and I’m really interested in changing that. Financial support in those early years is so crucial.”  T.E.N.T. Alumni Annie’s passion is evident in her perspective on what it means to be an ‘Art-repreneur’: “I think that there is a real entrepre-neurial spirit running through the Toronto indie community - a real get-it-done attitude. I find that really invigorating, even though in reality what it looks like can be really exhausting. I think being an ‘Art-repreneur’ means thinking about your work like a business, being strategic and finding a way for your artistic practice to be financially sustainable.”  Vancouver-born and Toronto-based, Annie Clarke is currently working as an independent producer, actor, as well as Communications Producer at Generator, a mentoring, teaching, and innovation incubator. Annie’s days consist of copywriting, grant-writing, website main-tenance, newsletter creation, and graphic design. Annie has a B.A. in History and English: Drama and Theatre Concentration. Represent-ed by M2 Talent, Annie has acted in numerous plays and has many positive industry reviews to show for it.www.annie-clarke.com@annie_mkyAcknowledgmentsStudents of Sheridan College:Faizal EidooJacquelyn FergusonBrittany GermanLynne LiRobyn MillerAyesha QamarAura TorresVictoria WebbSarah WhangTaylor ZantinghSpecial thanks to Creative Humanities Faculty:Glenn CliftonPatrice EssonBrandon McFarlaneMichael McNamaraJennifer Phenix

Inside TENT

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Inside TENT

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SOURCE: Sheridan Scholarly Output Undergraduate Research Creative Excellence