May Antaki earned her business degree at Concordia because, even though she wanted to work in the arts, she first wanted to gain business knowledge.
Armed with a three-year Metcalf Foundation grant, the trio initially planned on covering any onstage performance — opera, comedy, even ballet. Eventually they narrowed the focus down to theatre proper, and began to plan Intermission.
To differentiate their publication from existing ones in the city, the team of three opted against the “outsider looking in” approach to arts journalism, handing the pens and notepads to the people actually on stage or in the wings instead.
At the end of last year, Torontoist magazine nominated the nascent magazine as one of its 2016 heroes, an affirmation that Antaki and her co-creators had quenched a thirst readers had not yet realized they had.
Today, Antaki discusses the value of her education at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business and what motivated her and her teammates to start up Intermission.
How did you get from doing a BComm in finance to focusing almost exclusively on writing and editing?
May Antaki: “My aim through business school was always to work in the arts. I wrote a lot as a kid. I got my business degree because I wanted have the knowledge of finance and accounting and marketing to be able to do my own projects. It’s a skill that’s lacking in the arts world, I think.
After graduating, I worked in the film industry and the publishing world a bit, and then in 2015 I got together with Philip and Maija to start Intermission.”
How you did you get involved with the project?
MA: “I knew very little about theatre. I had seen the odd thing at [Montreal theatres] the Centaur or the Segal Centre growing up, but it wasn’t a part of my world.
Philip is the captain on one of my softball teams — I’m actually on two. We were out for drinks after a game on a Friday night, and he said, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about starting an online magazine. I know you’re an editor. Do you want to join?’
I told him I knew nothing about theatre. He asked me again if I was interested, and I told him I was, and he said, ‘Great. It doesn’t matter.’”
Publisher Philip Riccio addresses the crowd at the Intermission launch party in Toronto in November 2016.
Photo: Dahlia Katz