Budgets, budgets, and more budgets
I love budgetting. I know it’s weird, but I get this strange thrill of playing with the numbers in microsoft excel and making the numbers add up the way that I want them to. The moment things balance is a really magical moment for me. But I know that is not everyone’s experience with budgets and I was excited today to hear what other people were learning and what stuck out to them. It was so wonderful to hear people realize that budgetting could be an artistic endeavour and not just an isolating, frustrating process.
One of the exciting parts of today is that I had a chance to have lunch with my artist mentor, the lovely Renna Reddie, and talk about what I want in life, how she’s ended up where she is now, and what will make our partnership a success. I was quite delighted when we looked at the time and realized we had to leave RIGHT NOW so I could get back to the workshops. To me that’s a sign of a good conversation!
And there’s nothing like seeing three shows to kick off a festival! Yup, I had a three show day today. I saw Your Side, My Side & The Truth at 5, My Pregnant Brother at 7, and France or the Niquab at 9. They were three very different shows and I can’t wait for tomorrow morning when we will get to discuss My Pregnant Brother as a group. As I sat watching it tonight, I flashed back to the first time I saw that show, just over a year ago, at the Neanderthal Arts Festival in Vancouver. I was there as an usher and was sitting directly in front of the brother referred to in the title, as well as their mother, as they watched the show for the first time. It was a really moving experience, because I don’t know if there is anything that exposes you more than the moment that the person your work is about sees your work for the first time. Even when it is created with their permission, the first time they see it there is a special electricity in the room. Which made this time watching it almost a let down. But I can’t wait to hear what everyone else thought!
To wrap up the night, we all headed over to the official SummerWorks opening night party which included a tonne of performances – music, live art, and things I’m not sure how to define (I heard from a friend a story of a unique hand washing, for example) – but was mostly an opportunity to get to know the other SLIP participants better as well as to network with other people connected to the festival. Other than being overwhelmingly warm I had a great time and was not ready to leave at midnight, but tomorrow will be another action packed day and I don’t want to miss a moment of it because I’m too tired.