Happy New Year from PACT

• 2025 is going to contain some great art and brilliant theatre. We are going to have those spine-tingling moments of wonder. 

• I know 2025 is going to have plenty of challenges. That’s okay. We can do hard things. 

• I’m going to mess up at some point – hopefully not too impactfully. 

• There will be a Canadian election, and PACT is going to have to work with whomever is elected.  

• There will be a new head of CAEA appointed, and we’re going to work with whomever that is.

Here’s what I don’t know. 

• Changes to the health, wellbeing, or circumstances of my family, colleagues, or friends. 

• How a jury will respond to any particular application for funding. 

• What global, social, environmental, or economic situations will be instigated or play out, and how those will directly or indirectly impact my community. 

• What new technologies and platforms are going to advance over the next 12 months and how those will impact/improve/disrupt my life.

Here’s where I see opportunity.  

• Audiences are getting sick of the algorithm telling them what to watch, and some PACT theatres have started to see their community attendance reignited.  

• We are seeing more partnerships and collaborations than ever before.  

• Regardless of political priorities and policy changes, we continue to centre our values of inclusion and welcoming in our work, not because we think they check a box for a jury, but because that is the kind of work that excites us and our communities.

I know there are many other things we could add to each of those buckets, but seeing them helps me put some things into perspective. 

PACT’s membership is incredibly diverse, but we are united by a shared commitment to how we want to make theatre, as an expression of our care, commitment, and skill. In the year ahead, as you experience those successes and challenges – known or unknown – please feel free to reach out to me, our team, or our board, to keep us updated. We want to know and stay connected. We may not have speedy solutions, but we are here to walk with you.

I’ll close by echoing my comments from last year: In case no one has said it to you recently, what each of you contributes matters a great deal. It matters a great deal to your communities, and to all of us as a sector.  Sharing stories, asking questions, engaging audiences, building connectedness, sparking creativity – theatre matters a great deal. Please never forget that.

I look forward to working with you in the year ahead.

Sincerely,

Brad