Wonder In The Park: An Interview with Michelle Urbano
By Jeff McGilton
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Michelle Urbano stands with a microphone and addresses the audience. Behind her there is a lit bandshell and two musicians onstage. Photo by Kat Rizza.
Picture a public park that is close to your home, one that you frequent, or one that you grew up visiting as a child. Now imagine that you are tasked with animating it with an artistic event, and in a way that directly engages the community. What would you create? What feelings would you hope to invoke?
Artists across Toronto and its surrounding areas have been fielding these questions this summer through a multitude of events that make up a season of Arts in the Parks. Each summer, through the support of the Toronto Arts Foundation, Toronto Arts Council, and Park People, artists and art collectives pair with community groups to fill selected parks with a myriad of different artforms, benefitting both the creators and event attendees.
Hoping to investigate the nature of outdoor arts and the impact they can have on a community, I sat down with Michelle Urbano, the newly appointed Artistic Director of Crossroads Theatre and a participating Arts in the Parks artist, for coffee at El Almacen Yerba Mate Café in Weston. Under Michelle’s guidance, Crossroads will present three offerings in Little Avenue Memorial Park this summer, featuring the work of Animacy Theatre and Theatre Direct, the Weston Silver Band, and Clay and Paper Theatre.
To get the ball rolling, I ask Michelle about a fond memory she has experiencing art outdoors. She admits, “I immediately thought about a time where I was on the [Toronto] Island; my friends and I were taking this little path through a forested area, and all of a sudden, there were these giant sculptures and puppets. There was no signage for them, there was no explanation as to why they were there, it was like this secret that you only knew if you took the desire path. These giant, giant sculptures were so whimsical, and a little bit haunting, but not in a negative way, just like, what are these beings, suspended in the trees?”
She continues, “When I think about my art, I think about the creation of the feeling of wonder, and that totally had that. It made me think, what are they doing here, who put them here, who are they, what do they signify? It brings up so many feelings, this boost in your imagination, and this excitement and wonder that I think is awesome. Really transporting you into a different world, that’s what it felt like.”
Expanding on this transportation, Michelle notes some of the other benefits of experiencing art together. She explains, “Art offers respite, joy, reflection, [and] fresh perspectives. Whether or not you go by yourself, or talk to another human while you’re there, you still had this intimate connection with other people while experiencing [it]. I think community is the opposite of isolation, and anything that can bring people together is healing in that way.”
Two young audience members sit in the park and watch the performance in front of a speaker and brick building. One of them wears fairy wings. Photo by Kat Rizza.
Speaking of art as a communal act, I ask Michelle what she thinks makes for a strong community. She states, “If folks have needs that are not being met, then they cannot participate. They cannot be the healthiest versions of themselves; emotionally, physically, [or] mentally. Creating spaces for people to come together and have their needs met so that they can be at ease together, I think, is community care.”
In hopes of meeting these needs, we speak about the inherent accessibility of public parks, and the effect they can have on the art being presented. Michelle mentions, “Public parks, in their definition, are spaces where people go to be free, to gather, to meet, and play. [They] already carry that meaning of relaxation and wonder, so it really is fitting to put free art in and allow people the opportunity to interact with it in that space. There are no walls, no doorway, no limitations to who can be there. Connecting our performances to the park, I think, vitally means that our work is for everybody.”
Hosting performances in public parks also establishes a connection to the environment. She states, “We so infrequently stand with the ground under our feet. It feels like stepping outside of life a little bit, and into this really calm, beautiful, green space. That immediately gives you a sense of relaxation. And I like the ability for people to walk by and join in; there’s that open invitation throughout the entire event. And we get a lot of our audience from passersby. We didn’t do it with the Weston Silver Band, but with Finding Home, we had two days of rehearsal in the park, and the amount of people we were able to tell about the show because they just regularly pass through that park—it is a regular route for people, so people are used to going there already. It’s that space where they’re already going to relax, to gather, to rest. So, it’s a beautiful place to put some art in for people to enjoy.”
Further expanding on her commitment to inclusion, Michelle mentions a new ‘access venture’ for Crossroads in the form of an Access Box. She describes, “In our Access Box, we have tissues, earplugs, fidget items, and a white board, so that anybody who might be non-verbal can write and communicate with us. Everything in there is free; if you need something, it’s there for you to take.”
Audience members sit in the park on mats and lawn chairs to view the performance. Two performers onstage hold a large set of fish bones. Photo by Kat Rizza.
We have a laugh when she brings up the hesitancy that comes when offering something for free, and the attendees who are more open to accepting it than others. “Adults are so hesitant around the Access Box, and children just understand. And they’re not there taking a thousand things—like at the concert last week, every once in a while a child would walk up, grab a pair of earplugs, and walk back. No questions. Children just naturally understand this. They aren’t worried about what other people are thinking, who is watching, what it means to take a free thing. I don’t know what goes through peoples’ minds, but it’s very interesting to see how differently children interact with the Access Box than how adults do.”
I mention that this might be a result of a culture of commodification, and a subconscious feeling that free things come with strings attached. She replies, “Right. And immediately, that creates anxiety, a sense of do I belong here, and stress about am I allowed to interact with this because I haven’t paid? The amount of stressors that money puts in front of access to the arts is huge, so it’s great to be doing something without that there.”
In addition to being a free space for people to gather and build community, we speak about arts in parks as a tool to gain perspective. Michelle notes, “A lot of people say when you have a problem you’re working through, the best thing you can do is step away from it for a little bit and come back with a fresh perspective. I think the arts do that for us. No matter what the art is, whether political or not, transporting you out of your daily life, away from your stressors, away from the difficulties you’re having, gives you a fresh perspective on your life when you return to it. It is that movement away from and return to that allows us to gain a fresh perspective on what we’re going through, allows us to dream different things for ourselves, [and] break out of patterns.”
Before heading off for her call time for the Weston Silver Band performance, Michelle brings it back to the importance of art as the facilitator for creating moments of wonder. “There is a connection between our imagination and our ability to experience hope. [In] being transported to a state of wonder, we are opening ourselves up to new possibilities; we can become dreamers, we can see different ways of being, we can imagine the world differently. And when the art is for everyone, that means everyone has that ability to experience the wonder and dream. I think that’s so important, for that to be everybody’s gift.”
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Crossroads Theatre had three offerings through Arts in the Parks as a part of their Summer in the Park programming: ‘Finding Home’ by Animacy Theatre/Theatre Direct, the Weston Silver Band, and ‘Art Ambulance’ by Clay and Paper Theatre.
While the first two performances have passed, Art Ambulance will be presented at Little Avenue Memorial Park from August 23-25. For more information, visit us here.