Down the street from the Club District, perched between Queen Street West and all that is Mirvish, lies a haven for actors, filmmakers and writers. The Centre for the Arts opened its doors in January 2003 determined to assist artists in all facets of their work.
John Boylan, the Centre’s founder, created the non-profit organisation on the belief that the Centre belongs to everyone and yet has no ownership in the traditional/business sense of the word. The mantra of the Centre is ‘Unity through action’ and behind its doors lies an open space where all types of artists can come to meet, study, practice and discuss their work without fear of judgement or discrimination.
Director of the Centre, Boylan has been immersed in the arts for decades, having been a professional actor for 31 years and graduating from the prestigious National Theatre School in Montreal. He has appeared in over 60 films and countless commercials. His repertoire grew to include teaching ten years ago and since that time he has taught in Canada, the U.S. and Ireland, including a stint at the world-class NYU grad film school and also instructed the first-ever on-camera acting class at the Yale School of Drama.
The idea for the Centre came from Boylan’s many years of working in film, television and theatre, where he and his fellow artists agreed that there was an overwhelming need for this type of space in Toronto. The Centre has since grown and now hosts a larger number of programs and projects including acting classes, film screenings, casting calls, open forums and independent theatre productions, just to name a few.
The physical space at 129 Spadina provides a home base for the theatre company Dogtooth and also hosts a summer film camp. The latter allows experienced professionals to give back to the community, including economically disadvantaged youth, as 30 percent of the camp’s participants were subsidized during the summer 2003 session. Guests professionals included actor Maury Chaykin, (Dances With Wolves, Whale Music) and director George Bloomfield (SCTV, Due South).
The Young Company was formed within the Centre during the summer of 2003 by PJ Lazic and Justin Tensen and has since expanded to include half a dozen core members and over 20 informal members. It functions as a self-sufficient unit that includes young actors, writers and film-makers that collectively brainstorms every few weeks to come up with new artistic vehicles for its members. Three plays are currently in development, including Easy, which was presented at a past Toronto Fringe Festival (the first play to be co-produced by the Centre, Sugar, made its debut at last year’s Fringe and received much praise from critics), Pigeonhole by Michael-Patrick O’Hare, and an original play by Young Company member Matt Austin that is scheduled to debut at the end of January.
On the last Friday of every month, the Centre hosts a night of independent film screenings to showcase the talents of young Canadian filmmakers. Ilir Pristine and Peter Sobchak run the event, creating an environment where films are presented in a non-pretentious and open atmosphere and they try to include a question-and-answer period at the end of every screening where the filmmakers’ brains can be picked. Ilir, himself an up-and-coming young filmmaker, notes that the philosophy of the Centre filters through every facet of its existence, especially the film screenings, where actors, writers and directors all meet and network, treating each other as members of a community. He also characterises the Centre as “a professional home”, and praises its acceptance and support of any individual who walks through its doors.
The focus on filmmaking continues with the Centre’s latest lovechild, Running Towards Tomorrow. This independent short film was written and directed by Matt Hilliarde-Forde, who along with having written/directed a number of other independent films has worked on the Toronto-shot series Queer As Folk and was also once a correspondent for the CBC. He teamed up with a variety of Canadian talent, including Gemini winner and president of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Joan Hutton to shoot this project over three days at the beginning of November. RTT, as it has come to be known, was made possible thanks to funding from Bravo!FACT, a division of the CHUM empire, as well as donations of time and skills by the cast and crew.
Alda Neves, the film’s producer, describes the film as a hybrid of Tom Tykwer’s brilliant Run Lola Run and Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. Its plot details a day in the life of Marvin, a young man who finds himself out of luck and out of time, trying desperately to outrun the variety of obstacles that he is presented with one rainy day. When asked how the Centre for the Arts contributed to the production of RTT, Neves comments that the film’s cast and crew wouldn’t have come together without it.
“RTT is a blossom for the Centre, and will be a calling card for future grants and projects,” she says. Neves adds that the philosophy of the Centre is integral to its success and was what initially moved her to action. Post-production of the film will continues, with an expected screening date in the next few months.
As the one-year anniversary of the Centre appraoches, Boylan and his family of actors and artists are excited at the prospects for this new year. A recent move brought the Centre to its current location from its old home on College Street, and everyone involved is excited and optimistic about the new address. They look forward to adding a variety of programs and events to allow more people to become a part of the Centre, including the indispensable volunteers that help to run the various programs, such as students from nearby U of T and George Brown College.
The members of the Centre take pride in the belief that we are all each individually responsible for the future of the arts in Canada, and they have joined forces to actually do something about it. Listening to their message, determination and spirit, it’s clear that this group is capable of helping to make that future a very bright one indeed.
