RANT: The State of the Arts in Ottawa

I find theatre and dance in Ottawa so expensive. I suspect it may be because the key demographic of mainstream arts consumers is older civil servants with secure salaries. In Calgary, although rich with oil execs and bankers, the arts seem far more accessable due to things like pay-what-you-can preview nights, or low cost rush tickets at big shows at the Jubilee. I have found these things to be few and far between in Ottawa. I have volunteered at Great Canadian Theatre Company for the past 2 or 3 years so that I can see shows for free. Because of the high prices however, I have seen little else in the way of dance and theatre here in Ottawa.

It is unfortunate, because with a key demo of theatre-goers (I've seen the studies) being older, wealthier, white folks - it tends (especially in Ottawa) to lead to unfortunate productions of tired things like Agatha Christie's Mousetrap being the order of the day. I find little challenging material here. Where are the small companies doing controversial and challenging works? Recent works in Ottawa have included things like Dangerous Liaisons. Not exactly cutting edge or fresh. Blah.

It must be a combination of the key demographic plus the drain of Montreal and Toronto so close by, but it makes me sad. Ottawa is such a diverse city, but it's not reflected in theatre and dance. The theatre plays it safe, and leaves me unchallenged and uninspired. There may be slightly more challenging stuff happening at the NAC, but I can't afford to see anything there.

I am going to make it a priority to try to check out some of the Sanctuary Series dance shows and La Groupe Dance Lab shows - again, expensive, but I should at least see some more stuff before being all grumpy about it.