Darcy Hoover, Toronto Centre for the Arts Marketing Co-ordinator

A new mandate at the Toronto Centre for the Arts has it shaking up its programming

BY: Jason Roberts

Entertainment seekers in Toronto looking for a different kind of live theatre experience can expect to find it at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, home to the smash hit musical Jersey Boys. Beginning this year, a new mandate introduces an eclectic lineup of shows performed by members of what Darcy Hoover, the Centre’s marketing co-ordinator, calls “the city’s underserved arts community.”

The mandate, developed by Hoover, was born out of an idea to program 28 straight days celebrating Black History Month. Instead, it became a yearlong commitment to feature new works from diverse artists. In addition to serving the interests of emerging artists, Hoover says other goals for the initiative include building new audiences and reaching out to music programs at high schools and colleges.

Single Black Female, Members Only! An Erotic Poetry Show with Mr. Dwayne Morgan, and Jay Martin’s Uptown Comedy Series (featuring comedian Eddie Griffin) are just a few of the performances that have already been featured at the sprawling uptown theatre this year. So far, audience feedback to the new shows has been terrific, says Hoover. And the artists performing at the Centre, he adds, are having an immensely positive experience as well.

The Toronto Centre for the Arts will also host an innovative new live jazz series as part of the lineup. Under the direction of in-house music director and jazz musician-composer, Ron Westray, the series will run for two evenings (Thursday and Friday) every month from April through July, and then again in the fall. Westray will host the series and considers it to be a music laboratory of sorts, welcoming unknown artists to perform on an open mic and bringing together the interests of traditional jazz music lovers with equally devoted fans of hip-hop.

The two evenings of jazz performances will be very different from one another. Thursday nights, entitled Westray’s Swing House, will focus more on playing “real jazz,” as Westray puts it, and will feature well-known Toronto jazz names. Friday nights, entitled Westray’s Jazz Hop, will be more dramatic, geared toward a younger crowd and focused on a fusion of “unknown possibilities between jazz and hip-hop,” according to Westray. Performances on the latter night will also be interactive, with a talk show-style band, and concerned with picking out new talent from an array of rappers, turntablists and singers.

Thanks to a partnership with York University’s CHRY community-based campus radio station, the Westray series will be heard over radio airwaves and online via webcast.

Hoover says he is completely ecstatic for what the new initiative at the Centre means for young, emerging black artists. Traditionally, up-and-coming performers were scattered across the city in much smaller, less welcoming venues. Now, with Hoover’s new directive in place, he says a home base for these artists has been created, allowing them to perform in front of new audiences.

- For more information, please visit tocentre.com