Racial diversity in Canadian Theatre has come a long way in the last three decades, but has a longer way to go. Works by artists of colour now grace many stages in the country, but they still only play on the fringes of our performing arts scene and are largely contained within a few major urban centres. This situation is particularly worrisome from an Asian-Canadian perspective, considering the direction of our nation’s rapidly changing demographics.
The Wuchien Michael Than Foundation was established to help address this discrepancy. We rolled out the first of our funding programs in 2013, focusing on the creation, development and production of new works by Asian-Canadian playwrights. While the results of our first 10 years were encouraging and gratifying, it was time to pause, take stock and retool.
Our mission – the development of Asian-Canadian theatre – remains steadfastly unchanged. We decided, however, to move away from the targeted funding of individual theatre projects to a broader support of theatre companies that have the demonstrated capacity and willingness to showcase and develop Asian Canadian theatre in their programming and development activities.
Towards this end and starting in 2023, we have shifted all our funding resources into the new WMTFoundation Grant program. Under this program, each selected company will receive $7000 per year for 3 consecutive years to be used how ever it deems appropriate. Grants will be reviewed every 3 years and, if deserving, could be extended repeatedly.
The following are some of our criteria for the awarding and renewal of grants:
- Production and development of new works by Asian-Canadian playwrights
- Degree of involvement of Asian-Canadian artists in projects
- Development of emerging Asian-Canadian artists
- Co-production of Asian-Canadian theatre projects with smaller companies
- Support and nurturing of theatre collectives with Asian-Canadian principals
It is our sincere hope that the continuing development of Asian-Canadian theatre will eventually become an essential element of each participating company’s DNA, and that this paradigm shift in our approach will provide a sustainable and clearer path to enhancing the Asian-Canadian presence in our country’s theatre scene.
