Partnership & Vision – Digital Stage

Partnership

Meet the six Canadian companies who are working together to produce Digital Stage:

Urban Ink (Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl’ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples/Vancouver) – Uplifts Indigenous and diverse voices through storytelling and performance.
Eastern Front Theatre (Punamu’kwati’jk/Dartmouth – Mi’kma’ki) – Developing, producing and promoting the work of Atlantic Canadians since 1993.
Neworld Theatre (Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl’ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples/Vancouver) – Creates, produces, and tours new plays, collaborating across differences with diverse communities.
Prairie Theatre Exchange (Treaty 1 Land, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Dakota and Red River Métis nations/Winnipeg) – A centre for theatre and performance practice, a home for artists from the Prairies and beyond.
The Cultch (Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl’ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples/Vancouver) – A diverse and innovative arts and cultural hub, creating meaningful, impactful connections across communities.
Theatre Passe Muraille (Anishinabek, Wendat, Haudenosaunee and the Mississaugas of the Credit/Toronto) – Breaks down walls by pushing against boundaries, supporting independent artists and marginalized voices.

Our companies vary in size, geography, and artistic approach. We are all leaders in our regions known for creating opportunities for diverse artists and audiences, including those whose work diverges from traditional performance models. Together, we share the labour and resources needed to reach a national audience through our new platform for digital performing arts that is cooperative, not competitive.

All Membership Fees collected on Digital Stage are split equally between the six participating partners. Please consider contributing by becoming a Digital Stage Member (it’s pay-what-you-choose). If you would like to make a donation or support the work of a particular company please follow the above links to their websites.

As we scale up the project, we look to forge relationships and new partnerships with companies in every province and territory in Canada, prioritizing companies with Indigenous and diverse leadership. All companies involved will contribute to governance, resource sharing, marketing and promoting the platform sectorally. If you are a Canadian performing arts company with an investment in digital performing arts and storytelling, we’d love to hear from you.

Vision

We view digital performing arts not as a substitute for in-person performances, but as distinct opportunities for artistic innovation and community engagement, and envision an arts ecosystem where they live side-by-side. Our platform is the first of its kind for the sector, placing producing companies in direct relationship with a national and international audience, who can discover the work of arts companies outside their regions.

Our Story

The great pause of live performance was a catalyst for artists experimenting in the digital realm and the digital transformation of our arts sector. Producers across Canada created a plethora of high quality and innovative digital performing arts and we started to dream of a way to showcase these pieces on a digital stage.

With funding from The Canada Council for the Arts, we built a team to move this vision forward, sharing staff from The Cultch: Kris Boyd – Technology Director, Laurel Green – Digital Partnerships Producer, Cameron Anderson – Digital Content Director, from Urban Ink: Cheyenne Scott – Community and Outreach Producer, as well as representatives from each of the six partner companies.

Through monthly partnership gatherings, we collected data, shared resources, and co-designed Digital Stage. Here, audiences can experience work from across the country that they might not otherwise get a chance to see, and artists can watch, learn from, and be inspired by each other’s work, sparking collaborations across regions. We invite presenters nationally and internationally to watch work on the platform, enabling curatorial decision-making without needing to travel.

Our new governance model gives agency for partners to weigh in on how the website should function and curate which projects they want to feature on Digital Stage. Each of the partner companies are coming from a different level of experience with digital storytelling and production. These are those who experimented with bringing the indie stage to homes, who created work with their communities, and those who dove into adapting their plays into feature films. Today, one piece is featured from each of the partners across this spectrum.

There is a desire for Digital Stage to be a space for not only Indigenous works to be highlighted on this site but also for Indigenous audiences to engage with the website in a meaningful way. This continues to be ongoing work for Digital Stage to investigate protocol in the digital realm. We are excited to share this prototype with you and are enthusiastic for the growth and evolution of Digital Stage. We hope you enjoy these thoughtful and innovative digital pieces and come back to see what these partners have to offer next.