SUMMERWORKS - August 1, 2002

The crops just keep getting better and better in the SummerWorks harvest.

Now in its 12th year, the annual theatre festival has grown into a somewhat different entity than when six Toronto groups decided to inaugurate a second hot-weather stage carnival in 1990.

These companies hadn't been picked in the Fringe lottery that year, you see; their wares were all ready but they had no shop window to display them in.

So they began their own festival, drawing in other companies – chosen by lottery – and offering Toronto audiences a chance to see strictly home-grown talent. In the early days, that local source of material was one of the distinguishing features between SummerWorks and the July-timed Fringe, which intentionally adds national and international companies to the mix. As a result, there was a real grassroots feel to the August SummerWorks Festival that its larger counterpart didn't aim for.

Over time, SummerWorks has become the second-largest fest of its kind in the city, after the Fringe. Even so, its dimensions make it easy to grasp. This year it features 43 works presented in two locations, Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson, two venues) and Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst, three venues). Compare that with last month's Fringe, which saw more than 120 productions spread across town, from the Tarragon Theatre down to Factory. Sometimes too much choice is overwhelming.

Along the way, SummerWorks has become a vital organ for the development of new works and new artists.

That development has been encouraged by Franco Boni, now in his third year as the festival's artistic producer. But he has also been redefining SummerWorks, giving it a different edge. A director who began his career at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Boni also ran the Rhubarb! series of developmental works at Buddies and is still its director of youth initiatives. In both capacities, he's facilitated the creation of new work and the fostering of fresh talent, involving both established artists and up-and-comers, often teens.

From his first year, Boni began moving away from a strictly lotteried selection by inviting groups into the festival and choosing others from the lottery bin. This year he's instituted a juried aspect even to the lottery; scripts were vetted by a committee before they were thrown into the pot. By next year, there won't be any random draws to select SummerWorks participants – every production will be adjudicated in some way.

"Toronto needs a festival where artists can come either to workshop their material or to try out a classic that wouldn't usually be produced by a midsize theatre," says Boni.

"I'm not going to pretend that everyone shares my taste as far as the pre-selected shows go, but I do try to choose a range of artists and draw in different communities.

"This year there are two pieces that are Italian-Canadian, two from the black Caribbean community, a Chinese piece, a Persian script and one from Mexico City that ran there for 10 months and has been translated and adapted for SummerWorks."

Which brings up another change that Boni has instituted this year. Not all the shows are local. In addition to The Arts Of Escape from Mexico, Boni has brought in productions from Dundas (Frieze Of Life), Peterborough (Grace), Kalamazoo, Michigan, (True Story) and British Columbia (The Black Box).

The last is definitely a show to check out. Presented by Theatre SKAM, The Black Box links three different stories about our ongoing fascination with the idea of flight. Why check it out? Theatre SKAM made quite an impact with its Toronto premiere, Sean Dixon's mythic piece, Aerwacol, a few summers ago. That production, like this, features Camille Stubel in the cast.

Check out NOW's Web site for ongoing SummerWorks updates, including features as well as mini-reviews of SummerWorks productions. Both NOW's August 1 print edition and our Web site offer a preview of the festival, and fuller reviews will appear in the August 8 edition.

The SummerWorks hotline is 416-410-1048.