Having been asked to write something about my past relationship with Mixed Company Theatre is like trying to re-cork a djinn that’s escaped from a bottle after 1,000 years. Where do I start? How do I start?

Do I start at the beginning or track back from the present?

Firstly, I must state how extremely privileged I feel to have been just a small part of MCT’s success for more than thirty years now. I have watched, and occasionally participated in, MCT’s growth from its origins as a collective company doing artist-led issue-based productions, to a community-based company doing issue-based theatre for social change. Community-based work that is now created with, for, and sometimes by, the very community that the project’s issues impact.

So, in the spirit of collective creation towards social change, I am taking this opportunity to share my part in the history of Mixed Company’s Cobblestone Theatre projects.

In 1990 I had just finished a 3-year community-based project with Second Look Community Arts, directing and facilitating a Forum Theatre production on AIDS, sex, drugs, and consent with street youth. This project culminated in the award-winning film What’s Wrong With This Picture?. It was then that I was approached by Simon, because of my Forum Theatre experience, and asked to participate in MCT’s ongoing work with the homeless community called Scat Cabaret. The cabaret, at that time, was a loosely organized drop-in, assembled and moderated by Simon, for anyone with performance skills or artistic aspirations from the homeless community. It was an opportunity for isolated people to present and validate their creativity on a public stage.

But Simon saw great potential in the various and numerous talents that consistently performed at Scat and asked if I could help him/MCT towards creating a full stage production by this community about their stories of survival. Having recently learned and trained on Forum Theatre, Simon sought my help to create MCT’s first Forum Theatre production about homelessness on Toronto streets. Simon would direct while I worked with the cast to collectively create/write the scenes and plays in a Forum Theatre structure.

Thus, the Cobblestone Theatre project was conceived.

For societal context, MCT’s Cobblestone Theatre was spawned during the Premier Mike Harris Ontario Conservative government’s ‘Common Sense’ era (1995-2002). This period in Ontario saw homelessness peak (over 20,000 homeless families), financial support for social programs and shelters cut, along with massive government deregulations that led directly to deaths caused by unscrupulous private ownership of former provincially-run infrastructure maintenance.

Dollars over services.

The formative years of Cobblestone saw exponential growth in participants, imagination, audiences and venues and (surprise!) funding. By 1994 MCT had acquired sufficient funds from a variety of agencies to expand the project from a four-week voluntary project to a 12-week process with paid honorariums for the participants. MCT was also able to hire theatre trainers with their own specialties to train the now core group of between 8 to 10 Cobblestone Theatre members – Ruth Howard to train in set and costume making, Tony Nardi to train in commedia dell’arte style, Fiona Griffith to train clown, etc.

And MCT was able to link to Toronto Public Health to provide social support links towards financial aid and housing for participants.

Governments at all three levels began to recognize that homelessness was a real and critical issue and began to support social agencies with special grants. This also allowed Cobblestone Theatre a certain autonomy from MCT where the core group members were given more responsibility towards the next production. Training and support by MCT was so efficacious that one show was completely devised and written by Cobblestone Theatre member John Burgess (The Legend of Harris Hood).

By 1995, Simon had recognized that Cobblestone was comprised of two branches; the adults, whose housing insecurity revolved around mental health issues, and the youth, whose precarious housing derived from family crises, sexual identity, drugs and addictions. He then took the astute initiative to inaugurate MCT’s Cobblestone Youth Theatre; two companies with the same issue (homelessness) yet with divergent causes. This was a bold endeavour as it split funding for one project into two until new funding sources – specifically for youth homelessness – could be found.

Productions by Cobblestone Theatre: Home Street Home; No Fixed Address; Mr. We’ve Been…; The Drug Circle; The Legend of Harris Hood; Conspiracy; Dire Streets; Zen and the Art of Homelessness; Not Out of the Cold; Just Another Day

Productions by Cobblestone Youth Theatre: Living On Chaos Street; Spare Change; Wild Child; Swept Away; Runaway Dreams; Voices; A Place of Your Own; Street Song

Inter-generational productions: This City of Angels; The Three Loonie Opera

In 1995 the Ontario Conservatives were elected as government and the remainder of the 1990s saw erosion of funding to social support agencies, as well as the Arts. This directly affected how MCT could create and process the Cobblestone projects. Now, due to budgetary constraints, MCT could no longer afford time for collective development. Playwrights (Rex Deverell or myself) would write the scripts in consultation with Cobblestone members and the plays were written for a limited number of actors – meaning Cobblestone members had to audition for each show – and honorariums were reduced. The creation and rehearsal time was cut from twelve weeks to three (which included performance runs!). Costumes, props and set-pieces were re-cycled through productions and pennies were pinched; whatever necessary for ‘the play to go on’.

What never diminished was the will of Cobblestone members and MCT to endure.

Despite 1998 being officially declared the Year of Homelessness and the federal government’s singular injection of funds to do a ‘deep’ examination of the homeless issue, the only thing that decelerated the slow demise of the Cobblestone project was a special grant for a tour of Cobblestone Youth Theatre’s production of Wild Child. This production became the poster-child for political manipulations. Radio and television interviews, magazine articles, national awareness and praise for government intervention on the issue, a performance at the National Mayor’s Conference on Homelessness…

Yet, here we are today, thirty years later and there are tent-cities in urban parks. Food Bank usage has tripled and families are still being torn apart. The only thing that has changed is terminology; homelessness is now a ‘housing’ issue.

Over time, the core members of Cobblestone found support or drifted away or passed away. The various support agencies found some restored funding once the Ontario Conservatives were deposed and were then able to provide more programming which drew from Cobblestone’s profile. Community Arts funding still had not developed enough to provide sufficient financial support for Cobblestone at that time. Attrition took its toll and Cobblestone slowly came to an end in 2012.

However, during the 20 years of Mixed Company Theatre’s Cobblestone Theatre projects (1992-2012) societal impacts were made. Because of the influence of Cobblestone Theatre’s exposures and presentations, policies for shelter programs changed, education in alternative schools adapted and training for social workers in local community colleges were modified to reflect the present realities of the people they were serving.

Cobblestone Theatre projects helped bring a face and voice to the previously invisible multitude on Toronto streets; Theatre had made a social change.

Written by MCT’s Associate Artist, Luciano Iogna

My connection to Mixed Company Theatre (MCT) started when I was in my undergrad at York University in Theatre. I was doing a research project archiving the history of a Canadian Theatre organization and decided to focus on MCT. I had the opportunity to interview Simon and go through material to understand the evolution of MCT and its extensive history of community-engaged arts. Through that project, I became fascinated with MCT’s process and impact on communities, so I kept volunteering for a bit, helping to organize documents in the office, and jumped at the chance to apply for a marketing internship with the company coming out of school in August of 2020. 

In my time as a marketing intern, I learned so much about how to promote community-focused arts programming. I was fortunate to then have my role adapt after that internship to involve project coordination, so I began to see firsthand how our programming impacts community members directly. Being involved in workshops and performances, I could see how much it meant to communities to have a chance to give voice to their experiences and work together to find new ways of approaching their challenges. Some of the most impactful learning I have had in getting involved in these projects has been about how to adapt processes I use in coordinating the logistics of projects to better support community needs. I am constantly looking for ways to remove barriers, so everyone has a better opportunity to participate and find it very rewarding when I can do that. 

When I first arrived at MCT, the company had already transitioned the key elements of the Forum Theatre process to work online so much of my work initially was focused on virtual programming. Resiliency through Virtual Action was the first project I coordinated and the first time I saw our entire process from start to finish with a community group, ending with the community performing their own stories online. I was deeply touched watching the groups work together each week to develop a bond, share personal experiences, and support each other as they prepared to perform their stories.  

I have found it fascinating seeing how this process can adapt, based on the project – like when we sometimes have the community perform the final presentation, and then sometimes it’s professional actors. Or when we have used our FT methodology in research projects. In those, I’ve seen how adaptable our facilitators are in setting activities and questions for the group that feed into the specific research objectives but are still flexible to respond to what the group brings to the conversation. 

Two-Sided Mirror is the project that I’ve worked on the longest with MCT and it’s been a unique journey in that the workshops and feedback reading were all done online, and then it was performed both in-person and virtually. There were lots of ups and downs as I navigated and learned how to coordinate for in-person performances again. Fortunately, we had a great team working collaboratively to coordinate, book, and manage each presentation to make the tour a success. 

I am very grateful for all the opportunities I have been given at MCT to learn and then in turn mentor and support volunteers and interns who have worked with us. I have loved collaborating with the incredibly talented artists, facilitators, staff, Board members, partners, and interns to develop and deliver programming. Seeing groups have a chance to “rehearse for reality” is a truly special experience that I’m excited to see continue into the next season and beyond. 

Written by MCT’s Project Manager, Maranda Tippins