Interview: Naomi Campbell on Luminato Festival's Digital Shift, Timely Works, and What Theatre Could Look Like In A Post-Pandemic World

Since early March, Toronto's theatre scene has been upended due to social distancing rules in place because of the pandemic. For many companies, this meant putting shows, concerts, and seasons on hold, but for Naomi Campbell, the Artistic Director of Toronto's Luminato Festival, it meant having to reimagine what the festival could look like in such strange times.

"Immediately we started to think about what we were going to do - some people were starting to cancel, but not very many people in June had cancelled yet. Negotiating that, and what would it take if we did want to cancel - who do we contact, how do we pay people, what kind of terms do we pay people on - all those sorts of things took up the first week.

"We officially cancelled to the public on March 26th, but we didn't announce it until we had spoken to every person that that was going to affect. All the artists, producing companies, anyone who thought they had a job with us this summer, and all of our partners, sponsors, donors, everyone...we were trying to do it as well as we could, and as responsibly as we could. And then it was sort of like, okay - now what?"

What came next was the slow shift to digital, which is something that many artistic companies have done since March, all in their own ways.

"We thought we should still make some kind of offering. It's not a festival in the same way a live festival is, since the conditions are completely different, our ability to present work in so many of the ways we normally do is nonexistent, our audiences can't come out and be with us in public...I mean, most of the people who work at the festival have long careers in performing arts. We're used to creating work for crowds of people to experience in close quarters. But it didn't feel right to not do anything, we wanted to honour the artists who wanted to keep working on something, and the audience who has the expectation of something coming from us in June." There was also a great deal of uncertainty around what June would even look like in Toronto, compared to other countries where the pandemic had hit earlier.

"We didn't know, but we took the gamble and spoke to the artists who were supposed to be in the festival and offered them the option of participating if they felt up to it. If they didn't that was fine, we committed to paying their fees regardless, but we also offered them the opportunity to make something specific or join in a conversation or to be engaged with the festival in some way."

Luminato has long been a festival focused on showcasing International Artists, but with the limitations in place, the team had to adjust accordingly when guest artists were unable to travel in for the event. The result was to land on showcasing international talent through a Canadian lens.

"In this case, almost all of the artists involved are Canadian, although not necessarily locally based. I think we decided that through the virtual festival we have this incredible international reach because anybody anywhere can watch, so why not just show them where we are, which is here, in Toronto. And thinking about next year, we really don't know what the conditions will be. Maybe everything will be back to normal - I feel like that should be in quotation marks - but maybe it won't. We don't know if social distancing will be required, we don't know if there will be a second wave in the fall or winter, so one of the things we're thinking is that yes, we have a tradition of bringing in international art, but we can celebrate the artists all over the world who live in Toronto and really support them, really showcase them. So I think while you'll find next year that there will still be an international element to the festival, the artists may actually be from here."

Campbell and her team didn't want to sacrifice the quality of Luminato's previous, large-scale programming during the transition from live to digital which presented a whole new fleet of challenges. From deciding on what archival footage was well-suited to an online presentation to creating new work with artists, specifically for an online audience, they still wanted to maintain what makes Luminato special year after year.

"The only items we're sharing from the vaults of previous festivals are all different kinds of really high-quality videos. We're doing some stuff live, some pre-recorded, lots of live hosting, some panels, parties on Friday and Saturday with performers and DJs, so there's a whole range of activities over the course of a really short period of time. It's all really an experiment, but I think it's going to be fun, and I think there's some important work in the mix."

That important work comes from Campbell's goal to keep programming as true to what had been planned for the 2020 festival, however there were a few instances where the timeliness of works became more and more obvious as the June 11th start date got closer. During our conversation, one specific piece came up - the presentation of an excerpt from HENRY G20.

"We were intending to present it in full, live under The Bentway. It's a retelling of Henry V set during the G20 protests in Toronto, at what would have been exactly 10 years after. It's all about the relationship between the police and the protestors, and the kind of powers that the police have.

"We had set up a panel to follow that, which was going to be called 'Activism After the Pandemic,' but about ten days ago we changed it to 'Activism During the Pandemic,' because obviously, it doesn't stop, and it isn't stopping." Not only is the piece timely, but previously planned panels and events were easily adjusted to reflect the current state of Toronto, Canada, and North America as a whole.

"We have some artists, like Syrus Marcus Ware, who was originally on that panel and who is one of the founders and main organizers of Black Lives Matter Toronto - so that sort of thing feels incredibly timely, and I'm really glad that we're doing it. Our late-night program on Friday is with Unit 2, Black Lives Matter Toronto & Tea Base, and is also a fundraiser for Regis Korchinski-Paquet's GoFundMe campaign. It feels like all of the players were already involved; it's just that the focus is a little sharper than it might have been."

With the allowance of these and other subtle shifts, it seems as if the move to digital might have also brought some flexibility to Luminato. So how have these changes affected Campbell throughout the process of moving from a live festival to an online weekend of events?

"I'm glad - because it's digital it actually allows us to be nimble, to change a little of the program, to add to it, to put some different context. The fact that we have live hosts throughout the weekend means that we can reflect. This panel that we're having on Saturday, I can't say what exactly it's going to be about, because I don't know what's going to happen between now and Saturday. So that feels like something that we don't have the capacity to do in live performances.

"The fact is, with those conversations, anything that is live is going to be about the moment. In the festival we have live discussions and panels, but I feel like this is a bit more...you know, we can keep on top of it in a way we might not have otherwise. Especially the marketing - if you're doing something live, you would have a brochure or a program, but that would've been printed six weeks ago!" Campbell laughed. "Thankfully we hadn't sent it to press yet, so we saved a bit of money there!"

As for how a completely digital Luminato Festival might affect future festivals, Campbell believes that this year's challenges have also presented some opportunities that might not have been explored without the limits they had to work around.

"I'm curious to see, I mean we won't know who's watching exactly, but hopefully we will be able to attract an audience from a broader geographical area. Maybe some of those people will want to come and see us in real life next year, or the year after. I also imagine that next year there will be a stronger digital component than there ever has been before, so there will be lots of things to learn.

"I feel like we can't go back on this time; we can go back to live performance but there will be expectations around doing something in digital regardless. The tools - we'll be better with them than we were going in, and we'll just know better how to go about doing something like this. It may be a platform we end up using from time to time between now and next year's festival - maybe every couple months we'll do a presentation, or a talk...I don't know. It opens up a bunch of doors that previously felt like 'oh, we don't have the knowledge, or the capacity, for that.' Well, now we do! And we also know who we should bring in, and when we should bring them in if we want to take on a project as ambitious as this one."

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Luminato Festival Toronto runs June 11th to 13th online at www.luminatofestival.com

Visit the site for more information, schedules, or to access programming throughout the festival.

Follow Naomi Campbell's work with Luminato Festival Toronto on Twitter @Luminato, Facebook, or on Instagram @luminatofestival

Photo credit: Taku Kumabe