For the past 12 years, TACTICS Theatre Company has supported new local work in Ottawa. While this milestone is certainly something to celebrate, this will also be TACTICS’ final Sunset Season.
Four performances from May 9-10 in LabO will help TACTICS say thank you and farewell.
“The idea was to create a platform where independent artists could actually work on a more professional, larger scale, and especially bigger shows that maybe wouldn’t be in a festival,” says former artistic director of TACTICS Theatre Bronwyn Steinberg. “We’ve had kind of a bunch of different formats as we’ve done different iterations of TACTICS—I always wanted it to be in response to what the community needed.”
Steinberg, who started TACTICS in 2013, was the artistic director until 2020, stepping into a more administrative role after moving to Calgary to become the artistic director at Lunchbox Theatre, a role she still holds.
“When I started the company, there was a lot of opportunities at the Fringe, and then of course there was GCTC [Great Canadian Theatre Company] and the NAC [National Arts Centre], but it kind of felt like there wasn’t really anything in the middle,” says Steinberg.
Production of Nuit. Photo provided.
TACTICS did it all—some years had a full subscription series with shows running from November to May, some years were more of a festival style where all the shows would happen over a few weeks. TACTICS also introduced a development series, where shows that weren’t quite ready could still be performed.
Steinberg says that this development series created a pipeline so that independent artists could work towards building on scale. They also introduced the green room series, a series of workshops and social events to help create more of a connection with the community.
“Over the course of the 12 years, we grew into three different programming streams: the main stage series, the development series, and the green room series,” she says. “I’m really proud of everything we accomplished, but like I said, it was always intended to be responsive to the needs of the community and responsive to the needs of the people actually doing it.”
Steinberg remembers moving to Ottawa in 2008 to get her MFA in directing at UOttawa. This was a transformative time for Ottawa Theatre, as Steinberg recalls the scene really finding itself among local independent artists.
“Fresh meat started in that time, undercurrents started in that time, TACTICS started in that time, the Gladstone changed hands and started having a whole bunch of independent companies producing together there,” she says. “Suddenly, there was this vibrant theatre ecology that I was really excited about and excited that TACTICS was a part of it.”
TACTICS Sunset Season Schedule. Photo provided.
However, one of the biggest blows to independent theatre has been the COVID-19 pandemic and the rebuilding efforts many local companies have done, or are continuing to do. In addition to Steinberg’s move westward, it became difficult for TACTICS to continue forward.
“Unfortunately, with the reality between the pandemic happening the same exact year we transitioned, and the realities of how tricky it is for organizations to get into a stable place in terms of funding and operating, we kind of ran out of steam, and weren’t able to build the capacity for it to move forward,” she says.
However, that’s not stopping TACTICS from performing some long-awaited pieces in their final Sunset Season. All projects were submitted to TACTICS around two years ago and were kept in the company’s back pocket while navigating internal hardships.
“We wanted to find a really nice mix of different kinds of projects that were happening and support artists at different points in their journey,” she says. “Over the last couple of years, struggling with finding and trying to get things off the ground, we’ve kept in touch with them. So when we decided we were doing this final festival to say farewell, I reached out to those artists to see if they were interested.”
And interested they were, as TACTICS Sunset Season will feature three projects in LabO and a fourth performance, which acts more as an installation, which will run in a different space adjacent to the theatre.
Poster for The Coven. Photo provided.
Despite the hardships and the difficult decision to close, Steinberg is also hopeful for the future of local theatre amidst the uncertainty across the arts community.
“Live performing arts across the country has had a struggle to come back—and also with the economy, the cost of living and inflation, people are really careful about where they spend their money. Unfortunately, that translates to it being a lot harder for new local independent work to make a name for itself,” she says. “That being said, we always grow and evolve and change, and we’re still here. I think there’s something kind of amazing about seeing something live and seeing things created by people in your community is a really different and important experience that I think people do appreciate.”
While the curtains might be closing on TACTICS Theatre, Steinberg remains excited for the future of independent theatre in Ottawa.
“Maybe it’s okay for TACTICS to have run its course, and then leave room for whatever’s next and for a new vision that will hopefully be inspired by what we did at TACTICS, but also be responsive to the new needs of the community and artists who are running it.”
Make sure you check out TACTICS Theatre’s Sunset Season from May 9-10 at LabO. You can purchase tickets online here. For more information about the performances, make sure to check out TACTICS Instagram account.
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