Miriam Fernandes brings global experiences to her new role at Why Not Theatre

Miriam Fernandes brings global experiences and equitable perspectives to her recent appointment as Co-Artistic Director of the trailblazing Why Not Theatre company, founded by Ravi Jain in 2007. “I feel that I have my dream job,” she beams during a warm, candid afternoon Zoom conversation about her new role and contribution to two of Why Not’s key initiatives, the ThisGen Fellowship and Riser National expansion. 

During this protracted pandemic moment, Why Not has maintained steady forward momentum by pursuing its mandate to make work, share resources, and provoke change. “It’s a company that is so exciting,” Fernandes enthuses, because it has continued to innovate, diversify and create opportunities for theatre and artists, locally and nationally. For this reason, it is a perfect fit for her. Fernandes trained at Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, studied at SITI Company in New York and then started a theatre company in Norway. Given her international experiences and connections, joining the leadership of Why Not was a logical next step: “It is a company in Toronto that is part of an international conversation and leading that international conversation in Canada.” The company’s vision for its ThisGen program – to make work that is part of an international context and to support Canadian artists with access to that international world – “is really exciting and meaningful, and something that I am passionate about!”

Why Not’s 2021 ThisGen Fellowship supports BIPOC, Female, Trans, and Non-Binary artists in getting to the next stage in their careers through training and mentorship from international faculty at the height of their craft. Forthright about the huge role that mentorship has played in her life and artistic career, Fernandes has played a significant part in creating and developing ThisGen. She explains that what makes it unique is the opportunity to work with a mentor “who maybe looks like you, and somebody who has had a different experience and doesn’t look like all of the leaders that have dominated the Canadian arts scene for so long,” 

That fresh perspective is invaluable. “So few Canadian artists actually have the opportunity to tour their work internationally or to be at international festivals. Because of Ravi’s connections, because of my connections, we’ve been able to develop relationships at Why Not.” This year’s mentors span the globe, from Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, Sweden, and the United States, and include Akram Khan, Crystal Pite and Wesley Enoch. Mentors are paired up with the 2021 cohort of artists from across the country, whose applications were accepted in English and ASL.

Mentorship is magical precisely because Why Not is a process-driven company: “The focus is on building this relationship, and it will result in artistic work that you could call ‘product’. But even that is the process.” As one example, she describes an “amazing” dialogue between Toronto-based choreographer Esie Mensah and her mentor, UK-based choreographer Akram Khan. “In their first conversation together, Akram talked about collaboration and process, and in collaborating with different artists who are not from your discipline. He talked about how he loves to collaborate with writers and poets and visual artists, and how the process of that changes the product because of who he’s in conversation with.” 

What especially excites Fernandes about ThisGen’s process is diversifying the participants in  these conversations: “It is not just happening between artistic directors who are at the top in Canada. It’s happening on so many different levels, and giving Canadian artists access to different kinds of people” – and through that, different kinds of thinking. And this is critical “because we can often get stuck in a little Canadian narrow version of what’s possible”. Fernandes notes that, “especially for BIPOC artists . . . there’s an emergence right now, with a focus on BLM and on equity. While in the arts, historically we’ve been part of a minority, we’re part of a global majority. And those are the artists who are making the most exciting work around the world.” Why Not is pursuing a simple, powerful premise: provide Canadian artists access to that work in order to shift the process, and in turn change the product.

The current pause from live performance and from the “normal craziness that we’re in of touring our work and creating products” has given the company time to reflect on what has changed. And this has reinforced the importance and urgency of this push: “This question of change that has come out of COVID, but that was really propelled by the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd, has challenged us all to think about what lasting change looks like. What does it look like when it’s not from a white-centered perspective, and it’s not continually replicating the models that we know?”

Fernandes stresses that Why Not’s commitment to artistic development is a longer term commitment not limited to the ThisGen mentorship program. It’s about ongoing relationships that translate into developing work with other artists, working on residencies with artists, and pairing up artists with institutions in their own communities, “not just in Toronto but all over the country. It’s about supporting them to be leaders in their communities because those communities need them.” This is the premise of Riser National.

Similar to the ThisGen National Program, the Riser National expansion offers Why Not a way to be a national company, albeit in a different way. “Historically, when companies talk about going national, it looks like them touring their work across the country. And that company, usually from a big city, is able to set up shop, take those artists from Toronto or from Vancouver, tour them across the country, and share that art – which is absolutely important, but doesn’t necessarily create a long-lasting impact on that community.” By contrast, Riser National attempts to support communities with growing themselves. “With Riser, we take senior companies, we take a system of resources that’s already in that community, and make the connections. We try to amplify that support by taking senior companies and underserved artists, and connecting them together. 

“This model has really revolutionized how the independent artists have been able to create and amplify their work in Toronto.” Its success led the company to consider how to share that idea and model with other communities to help that kind of work to thrive in their communities. For example, at Riser Edmonton, Why Not’s local partner is Common Ground Art Society, whose role Fernandes likens to a “connector, the elbow piece” between the independent artists and the institutions. Edmonton is the first Canadian city in the Riser Nation expansion, and local artists are in the process of submitting applications. Why Not is also in conversations with other Canadian cities to be part of the project. 

Audiences might think of Riser strictly in terms of the productions that are created. But once again, Fernandes underlines that the “really integral component of Riser” is the year-long mentorship program for the companies producing their shows. “They meet on a regular basis and get mentorship in producing, in PR, in touring, in creating a budget for their show, in talking to presenters about their work… All of these things that people have to fumble around and learn by themselves. Riser not only creates a way to reduce the cost of your show and a community model to produce that production, but also a community to learn and to grow and to sharpen your skills with. So when you do produce your show, and you’re talking to all these presenters, you have a touring budget, you have a tech writer, and you know what all of those things are, and you’re ready to go. It’s in the same light as ThisGen. It’s an accelerator.”

Last spring, the cancellation of Riser 2020 dismayed Toronto audiences and the producing companies. All four were in the final stages of rehearsals when the shutdown was imposed. (Read an interview with Vince Deiulis about Theatre Nidāna’s Gods Like Us, which was one of the shows scheduled to be performed as part of Riser 2020.) The expansion of Riser heralds a welcome optimism for the eventual post-COVID revival of the arts. Asked about this time of shutdown, Fernandes pauses to turn the question over. “How have I been?” she muses, before allowing that the “one good thing that’s come out of this year is that it’s forced us to slow down.” While she regards this stillness as precious, she has continued to work. She and Jain are co- writing their adaptation of the classic Indian myth, the Mahabharata, which was supposed to premiere at the Shaw Festival last summer. They took time away from the script, then came back to finish an entirely new and wholly satisfying draft: “That’s been like a huge gift because the world has changed, we’ve changed, and the story that we’re going to tell is going to have a different resonance and be in a different context.” 

Looking ahead, Fernandes ruminates about post-pandemic life for artists and the arts world. In her experience, financial support historically goes to arts institutions. In the meantime, artists must find their own ways through to the other end of an endurance contest like the pandemic – and not have been forced to change professions in the meantime. “So I’m thinking about – and we at Why Not are thinking about – how we continue to support our communities, so that we come out with a strong, diverse, equitable group of people on the other side of this, who are going to help lead this conversation forward?” 

Rather than provide an answer, she offers her thoughts as reflective questions: “It can’t help but humble us, this time. And the cracks in our society have continued to reveal themselves to us over this year. So How will we treat each other on the other side of this? is really a very important question. And what is the role of the arts in that? How do we change the story? How do we change how we see each other?”

As vaccination rates increase and a possible fall return to live performance tantalizes, Fernandes’ questions hang in the air. She’s clearly ready – and Why Not is busy laying the groundwork – to help us to answer them inclusively, collaboratively and supportively. 

© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2021