Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. It's an honour to speak to you today.
I'd like to present to you a case to consider heritage sites as a platform for immersive experiences, a means to support the next generation of artists and a way to build Canada's performing arts and entertainment industry.
There's a clear generational shift in how people relate to narrative entertainment and to each other. The generation that grew up with the Internet didn't just consume content: They participated in it. They built worlds in Minecraft; they co-wrote fan fiction, and they adventured together in virtual worlds. Audiences no longer want to watch. They want to play a part.
We're seeing this behavioural shift in performing art and entertainment everywhere. In music, Jacob Collier, who's lauded as the modern-day Mozart, sells out concert halls, conducting audiences in live vocal harmonies and producing viral content that reaches millions.
In film and TV, Netflix opened Netflix House last year, with permanent venues where fans can step inside their favourite shows and films, from being a participant in Squid Game to a Hawkins resident in Stranger Things.
In theatre, Punchdrunk transformed a 100,000-square-foot warehouse into a fully immersive set. Sleep No More broke the fourth wall and invited audiences to wander freely and follow characters throughout. This ran in New York and Shanghai for over a decade.
These are not fringe experiments. These experiences have entered the mainstream.
What is the opportunity for Canada?
Disney Experiences—a division with parks, resorts and cruises—posted record operating income of $36 billion last year. They built artificial worlds at enormous costs and became a global destination. Canada already has the real thing: Casa Loma, the Village at Black Creek heritage park, Hatley Castle and 1,000 more across the country. These aren't theme parks. They're authentic heritage sites with real stories.
For over 11 years, Secret City has shown what becomes possible when you merge site-specific storytelling with escape room game mechanics and immersive theatre. We've built a world-class, cross-disciplinary creative team of producers, writers, directors, actors, designers and technologists.
In the tunnels and towers of Casa Loma, you get to play World War II U-boat researchers, join Rocco Perri's prohibition gang or sign up as constables recruited to find Canada's beloved Detective Murdoch. At Old Mill Toronto and Peter Pan bistro, we're reimagining dinner theatre where you get to interrogate characters, investigate your meal as part of a puzzle and try to solve a murder.
We've partnered with Fort Edmonton Park and Heritage Park to launch Canada's largest outdoor escape room as part of their nightlife activation, and we recently launched a family-friendly, screen-free video game called “Lost & Found” at the Village at Black Creek, in which players take on quests from townsfolk as if playing a live RPG.
While we take kernels of history and develop them into more modern narratives, the heart of our stories celebrate our values, culture and what it means to be Canadian. We attract tourists and locals alike, as well as a younger and diverse audience who might not have visited these sites otherwise. The good news is that they keep coming back.
Over the last decade, we've shown that when you activate a heritage space in a way that gives people agency and buy-in, they feel a deeper connection to the stories we tell, the places they're in and the people they're with. You make these places matter to a new generation; you make it profitable, and you create ambitious careers for creatives.
What I'm asking this committee for today is to imagine Canada as a global destination for immersive, location-based art and entertainment where stories come to life not behind a preserved velvet rope, but embodied and experienced. To take practical steps towards this vision, I'd ask this committee to consider updating funding programs so that they include this form of participatory performing arts, to invest in the infrastructure needed to make these heritage sites fit for this purpose and to develop partnership frameworks for artists, organizations and businesses to have shared risk, shared reward and a win-win.
Canada has a rare advantage to meet this new generation where they are. We already own the most compelling stages on earth, and we have a rare opportunity to lead what comes next.
Thank you.