LET'S GET DIGITAL: Unwrap Theatre reaches new audience, helps 'balance out the timelines' for racialized community during time of racial tension
The concerns were two-fold.
First came COVID-19, which effectively shut down the world, including Unwrap Theatre. The registered charity based in Waterloo Region, which supports the development of original works of theatre, film and dance by Canadian artists, primarily relied on live productions prior to the start of the global pandemic.
Like most companies, when COVID hit, a pivot was required.
"A bit of a radical idea but let's try and see if this can maybe become a platform where we can kind of recharge our mission of helping artists develop," Alten Wilmot, Founder and Artistic and Managing Director of Unwrap Theatre, recalled thinking at the time.
The idea Wilmot was referring to was the company's plan to take things fully digital -- and social. Rather than putting together time-consuming and costly live performances, Unwrap Theatre would instead focus on new programming such as short-film presentations and smaller-scale works which would be presented solely through the digital realm. The likes of YouTube, Instagram and Facebook would effectively replace the in-person theatre seat. Suddenly, content was available to the public 24/7, and capable of reaching an entirely new audience - specifically the younger Gen-Z demographic.
Still from film “Femme+” featuring Caitlyn Macinnis. Click the image to be directed to the film on YouTube.
"It allowed (the artists) to create projects in a shorter time span and allowed us to create a greater quantity," Wilmot said. "The reach that these projects were having was much greater than the large-scale projects that we were doing before, especially as a company that, we're still kind of in our start-up phase and figuring out what we're doing and getting our foundation laid."
Around the same time as the pandemic's initial wave, George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by police in Minneapolis, bringing racial injustice and movements such as Black Lives Matter squarely into the mainstream media across North America and beyond.
The Floyd matter had a profound and immediate effect on 23-year-old Wilmot -- who was born to interracial parents -- as well as many other Unwrap Theatre artists, staff and board members who were Black.
Wilmot said he and others in the Black community found the constant barrage surrounding the Floyd case -- on social media, on the mainstream news, even on unprompted ads through Google -- to be "overwhelming."
"Dealing with the whole world publicly debating our existence and identity and our rights and all these things that, for a Black person in that time, (it was) quite heightened emotionally and there's a lot of trauma attached to that," Wilmot said. "What we within the company on a personal level were finding: A longing for art as a way to help us navigate those feelings and ideas and emotions."
Unwrap Theatre set out to "balance out the timelines" and provide "a sort of healthy escapism" during this time of racial and political unease.
Enter Project Gen-Z.
"Something that still engages with the 'Blackness' that's ever so in the limelight or being focused on, but in a positive way. That was where we wanted to lean in," Wilmot said.
Through the help of Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF), Unwrap Theatre in 2020 applied for and received funding through WRCF's pilot Racial Equity Fund ($5,000) and pilot Arts Grants Fund ($9,200). The Racial Equity Fund is meant to help advance racial equity in the community by supporting organizations that are led by and serve people across Waterloo Region who are, Indigenous, Black and people of colour. The Arts Grants Fund was established in 2020 to assist small- to medium-sized arts organizations and collectives as they responded to increased costs and/or revenue loss due to the pandemic.
Unwrap Theatre used the funding from WRCF to roll out Project Gen-Z, aimed at introducing and delivering contemporary theatre, film and dance to a younger audience, while also attempting to shine a more balanced light on issues affecting racialized community members.
Still from film “I'm With You, Not With You” featuring Alten Wilmot and Sierra Holder. Click the image to be directed to the film on YouTube.
"It didn't necessarily need to be joyous content, but to provide content that allowed people to engage with what this time was bringing on emotionally and theoretically as a Black person, as a person who isn't Black," Wilmot said. "And allow them to sort of remind that 'Blackness' isn't synonymous with trauma and violence and debate and radical change and activism and all these things that were all of a sudden gaining a ton of media attention."
As part of the project, the theatre group in 2021 created nine productions ranging from 10-minute short films to full-length digital plays and a full-length movie. One film, called Black Daughter, used story, text and dance and followed a character that was grappling with having a Black child while child services was determining their fitness to raise a child. Another short film, Tides Across My Heart, includes a photographer putting together an installation while weaving in footage of a dancer engaging in movement surrounded by various landscapes. This creation, according to Wilmot, was intended as a "sort of light, almost meditative film that was just a chance for whoever happened to be scrolling ... for them just to sort of be still and breathe and find a calm and inspiration to keep going, and to find a gratitude and appreciation for life."
Wilmot said the cash infusion from WRCF, which went towards costs associated with overall production and salary, was a complete game-changer.
"The funding really gave us a chance to experiment. With that support, the risk was a lot lower. We had less reliance on ticket sales as a revenue stream. We were able to take risks and try things out," Wilmot said. "We really pushed ourselves. But we found it really helped us ... as this company that is sort of starting out and sort of focusing and distilling and defining what it is that we're offering as a charity -- not only what we want to offer, but what's connecting with the community and what's needed and what's really taking off.”
"By being able to engage with this broad spectrum of work in this medium, it sort of allowed us to do that. I think we found throughout the year, 2021, a sort of operational foundation. We were able to figure out how we could do this work in a way that was lean and sustainable and within our capacity at present, and what was required for it for the future both in terms of tasks, people, goals, evaluation, funding, marketing," he added. "It really helped us go from sort of guessing and starting at nothing to having a solid foundation which we can then grow from."
Wilmot said Unwrap Theatre has started to jump back into live theatre but plans to continue its focus on digital offerings -- thanks to the springboard provided by WRCF.
"The flexibility in terms of understanding that, as projects develop, they may change -- whether it be out of necessity or just better ideas as it grows," Wilmot said. "That sort of happened with us and WRCF was supportive of that and recognized that we were still doing the same work that we set out to do.”
"It's a bit more complex than just 'who's buying?' That support has been so incredible and we're so grateful to have been able to connect with this foundation. And it's a relationship that I can see continuing into the future as well.”
To learn more about Unwrap Theatre, visit https://unwraptheatre.ca.
The Arts Grants Fund and Racial Equity Fund are both accepting applications in 2022
For more information visit the links below:
Arts Grants Fund: wrcf.ca/artsgrants
Racial Equity Fund: wrcf.ca/racialequity
Note: This story was written prior to Cambridge & North Dumfries Community Foundation and Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation unifying to become Waterloo Region Community Foundation. Although the funding was provided through KWCF, we have updated the organization name to WRCF throughout the story. This is one example of our historical impact on community.
