Guest: Tom McHale
Industry: Theatre
Project: Outliers Theatre Collective
In this, the final episode of Constraints, Tom McHale of the Outliers Theatre Collective and I talk about the creative drive needed for the project of independent theatre and the post-project-blues that is common to all creative activities - this podcast included. Theatre was a fitting industry to end this series with, as every interview felt like a live performance. Stay subscribed to this podcast for announcements about future podcast projects from Hi-Fi Handiwork Inc. related to project management and creativity. Learn more about The Outliers Theatre Collective at outlierstheatrecollective.ca, instagram.com/outlierstheatrecollective, and facebook.com/outlierstheatrecollective.
Guest: Rebecca Rogers
Industry: Film
Project: Financing an Independent Film
Well, we’re almost at the end of Constraints - just one more episode left after this one. So it’s fitting we get a guest from a repeat sector to allow a bit of a deeper dive into a particular creative industry. Rebecca Rogers shares the details and challenges of the development and finance phases, and describes how creativity is as much a part of those as in the production and post-production phases. Learn more about the expansive producing chops Rebecca has at www.rebecca-rogers.com.
Guest: Reverend Joe Hopkins
Industry: Streetsville United Church
Project: Expanding the Circle
When each generation is so different and geographical distance creates varied cultures that then intermingle through immigration, how do religions communicate in a way to appeal to everyone? Reverend Joe Hopkins faces that challenge in just one region of the Greater Toronto Area, and shares his navigation of a new vision statement, enlarging his circle of followers, and preparing for the United Church of Canada’s 100-year celebrations.
https://streetsvilleunited.ca/
https://youtube.com/@streetsvilleunitedchurch8286
Guest: Jesse Singh
Industry: Stand-up Comedy
Project: Making it in Canada
What obstacles could there possibly be to making it in stand-up comedy? Interestingly, being Canadian doesn’t actually help. Jesse Singh discusses this further, and describes what ‘making it’ actually means. Follow Jesse on Instagram and TikTok @punjabitimbit and listen to his comedy special Baby Goat on most streaming platforms.
Guest: Cheryl Thompson
Industry: Academia
Project: Writing an Academic Book
Dr. Cheryl Thompson’s new book, Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Slavery, Conflict, and Freedom 1812-1897 comes out this month, and we discuss the creativity inherent in finding the story that ties together facts in an authentic and truthful way.
Find out more about Dr. Thompson’s work at:
www.mobaprojects.ca
www.drcherylthompson.com
@theblackcreativelab
www.linkedin.com/company/mobaprojects
Guest: Serkan Özkaya
Industry: Conceptual Art
Project: David Inspired by Michelangelo
What is a conversation about constraints when it comes to creating art? Well, like the advice you get if you don’t like the weather in the Maritimes, just wait five minutes. From time, to cost, to scope, it’s not a matter of whether Serkan Ozkaya’s artistic vision will be realized. No matter the how, when, or how much, it will happen.
https://serkanozkaya.com/
Guest: Jagger Gordon
Industry: Culinary Arts
Project: Feed It Forward
Chef Jagger Gordon has dedicated his life and career to saving food from being needlessly wasted and is building an empire that includes restaurants, markets, programs, books, and whatever other tool he can use to spread the message about the inordinate amount of food that is thrown away each day. And it’s working. Combining a clear vision, dedication, and energy he is proving that when it comes to food rescue, if you build it, they will come.
Visit these links to learn more, get involved, and contribute:
https://myhouseinthejunction.com/
https://jaggergordon.com/
https://feeditforward.ca/
https://www.instagram.com/feeditforwardofficial/
Guest: Edison Chung
Industry: Protest
Project: 2019 Hong Kong Protests
Don’t think protest movements fit in a podcast about project obstacles in the creative industries? Well, challenging our understanding of what a creative industry is, is one of the mandates of Constraints. In the wake of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party’s decision to disband, participant of change Edison Chung describes the “shared emotion” that brought 2 million people out to the streets of Hong Kong to protest in 2019.
Guest: Gillian Steinhardt
Industry: Film & Television
Project: Music Videos
Sometimes you just aren’t given the freedom of creativity on a particular job that you would prefer; but when you love the process of dressing an actor to help them realize their character, you learn to advocate for your vision no matter the circumstances. And when the freedom is there? Well, that’s why Gillian does what she does.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0826062/
https://gilliansteinhardtjewelry.com/
Guest: Nick Dagan Best
Industry: Astrology
Project: Following His Passion
Do historians work in a creative industry? Their product is the narrative of historical events told through their unique perspective, and in as much as there is creativity required to produce each unique explanation, so too can we say that the output is creative. For Nick Dagan Best, his calendar mind has always viewed Astrology as a way to narrate history, and over the last thirty years, has made a career out of his passion for viewing the world through the lens of the position of the stars and planets through time. His obstacle? Society’s ever-changing perspective on his passion.
https://www.nickdaganbestastrologer.com/
Guest: Dave Bidini
Industry: Newspaper Publishing
Project: Creating the West End Phoenix
On this, the inauguration day of President Trump, I speak with Dave Bidini, founder of the West End Phoenix- a Toronto local print newspaper- about the constraints of funding and promotion in an age when the importance of alternate news outlets from reliable sources is more important than ever. Recorded on site at the WEP headquarters, I could feel the sense of community that is the foundation of all that WEP represents. Subscribe to the West End Phoenix wherever in the world you live; and if you're in Toronto, join their town hall on The Future of the Continent on January 25, 2025.
Instagram: @westendphoenix
www.westendphoenix.com
Guest: Karuna Scheinfeld
Industry: Fashion
Project: Clothing Brand
Sometimes the drive for creativity is bigger than the satisfaction of attaining great heights and accolades in your creative industry. For Karuna Scheinfeld, this meant leaving her role of Chief Product Officer at Roots to pursue not only her own unique line of clothing, but a business model that challenges the way the fashion industry operates.
https://fourobjects.com/
https://www.instagram.com/fourobjects/p/C12qgIQMZnK/
Guest: Jenn Doan
Industry: Gaming
Project: Fall Cry 6 Stranger Things Extension
For a podcast about project management, we don’t actually have a lot of project managers on the program. That’s why it is a pleasure to have Jenn on, who is not only a PMP (project management professional), but works in a newer sector that had to determine its own optimal project management approach. Part story-telling, part software development, part movie-making, the gaming production process is fascinating not only from a project management perspective, but for anyone wondering how this multi-billion dollar industry manages itself.
Guest: Pierre Alexandre
Industry: Performance
Project: Self-Identity
Whether he’s on stage with legends like Gloria Estefan and Cher, performing across Europe in various Broadway Musicals, or on RuPaul’s Drag Race Holland as Love Masisi, Pierre Alexandre, known as Pierry as a child, has always looked for the play in his performance career. On this episode of Constraints, he shares an exclusive, inspired by an epiphany that unites him with his authentic self and marks a new trajectory in an already impressive career.
(@constraints_podcast) • Instagram photos and videos
Creative Industry: Software Development
Project: A Software Project with a Hard Deadline
It was very cool to speak with one of the co-authors of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, Jon Kern. As I argue in this episode, he is a true rock star of project management and he proves it as he explains how agile project management is a true art of balancing the constraints of scope, time and budget by understanding the client’s vision - sometimes better than them. He is based in the U.S. and we spoke through Google Meet, so the sound is not studio quality, but I hope that’s overshadowed by the content. Find out more about Jon, who is a consultant at the Adaptivist Group, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonkern/ and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonkernpa/
Creative Industry: Fashion
Project: Entrepreneurship
To kick off Toronto Fashion Week, we present Toronto fashion pioneers, Jennifer Halchuk and Richard Lyle. Constraints have constantly shifted over the more than three decades that these two have been partners, but they have successfully navigated the landscape of the Toronto fashion scene by keeping various pies in the air from starting their own label, to opening an iconic boutique shop, to working in the film & television sector. They carved their own unique path from their days at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, and they’re not done yet.
Creative Industry: Charitable Organization - Film
Project: Implementing a Vision
At its November 13 to 15 meeting, Toronto City Council will vote on whether to adopt Culture Connects: An Action Plan for Culture in Toronto (2025-2035). This episode’s guest, Maxine Bailey, was on the city’s external advisory panel for the action plan’s development. She also co-founded the Black Artists Network in Dialogue (BAND), which showcases Black cultural contributions nationally and internationally, and is on the advisory board for the Luminato Festival Toronto. She shares with Louis her many insights on the challenges she faced establishing and realizing her vision as the executive director of the Canadian Film Centre, in the wake of the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.
Creative Industry: Documentary Filmmaking
Project: Mbira Talks
It’s no secret that time constraints can help motivate the creative process - a deadline is often a great motivator. But as Adrienne Amato learned, sometimes value can come out of time extensions. In her case, set-backs allowed aspects of her documentary about the Zimbabwean traditional musical instrument, the Mbira, to reveal themselves and enrich the film in ways that wouldn’t have been possible if everything had gone to plan. Also, since working as a therapist gave Adrienne the freedom and flexibility to pursue her love of film-making, it is fitting that we release this episode four days after the UN’s World Mental Health Day.
Creative Industry: Outdoor Public Art Festivals
Project: Ai Weiwei Installation at Nuit Blanche
How do you stay true to an artist’s vision when tasked with rebuilding one of their works? Well, that’s a tricky question given the best of circumstances. What about when the art piece is a sculpture made up of thirty-two hundred bicycles assembled outdoors? Let’s also make it thirty feet tall, about twice the height it’s ever been. And let’s say the artist is under house arrest on the other side of the world and you don’t speak the language of the install crew that’s been sent to work with you. That and more is just what Joe Sellors was up against in 2013 when Ai Weiwei’s sculpture Forever Bicycles was featured in front of Toronto’s City Hall as part of Nuit Blanche. The answer, like I’ve seen in many projects with a lot of risk and uncertainty, lay in a project manager’s ability to build relationships and engage in open and effective communication - and Joe was up to the challenge.
Creative Industry: Publishing
Project: Book Tour
In a changing society where self-promotion through social media is the norm, some of the responsibilities typically taken on by the publisher have been shifted to the author. Claire Humphrey shares how she had to redirect her creative energy to tackle all three project constraints. She shares her experience working with a small support staff for finding the right venues at the right stages of the book launch, finding her own affordable travel and accommodation solutions, carving out time for touring while maintaining an income to survive, and dealing with the inevitable surprises that all projects bring. Claire Humphrey, is the author of Spells of Blood and Kin and multiple short stories.
Read more about Claire at https://clairehumphrey.ca.
