SHIFT Theatre is back this weekend with its signature 1-Act Festival, and it’s taking things up a notch. This year, the festival, which presents one-act plays by local playwrights and theatre-makers, has moved from the Cultch’s Culture Lab to its new digs at the Firehall Arts Centre, and has focused its ninth season on female-created work, while also expanding its scope to include musical guests and workshops for a more festival-type atmosphere.
The weekend will consist of nightly performances of the juried plays, and one matinee, as well as a yoga workshop and curated readings on the Saturday, with donations being accepted for the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre.
“Each evening, all four performances – Swan Song, Almost a Stepmom, Fall-Out Picnic and Dream Interlude – are all locally developed, original, written by a woman who is on stage speaking her own words,” says SHIFT artistic director Nicole “Coco” Roberge.
We caught up with Roberge to find out more about the female focus, and putting “festive” back in festival.
Where did the decision come for this year’s focus of ‘female created’?
From me! [Laughs]. When I received about 20 submissions from playwrights for the festival, I looked at all of them and there was just such an impressive number of powerful female voices, and I am personally very keyed into, I guess, to creating a platform for emerging and under represented playwrights. Also I would like to see more roles for women on stage that are empowered, non-victimized roles, so yeah, it was not a decision going into the submission process that was made in advance, [but it] emerged as a theme. So it’ll be different next year!
What is a one-act play?
A one-act play is basically a performance that lasts between 10 and 60 minutes and doesn’t have a break, so the narrative is often truncated. It’s theatre for the modern attention span! [Laughs] Every single night an audience member will see all four shows in under two hours, so you’re definitely getting bang for you buck.
How is this year different than what you’ve done in previous years?
We are just finalizing the workshop that we’re going to put on Saturday in the Firehall studio, and we’ve got a reading that afternoon with some brand new plays by more women, so huge difference. We want to put the ‘festive’ back in festival – it’s gotta be a party, it’s gotta be a celebration for the community to share together. So there’s music before every show, there’s ruckus busking – curated busking in front of the Firehall – right on the sidewalk, and then after each show there’s also post-show music out on the twinkly-lit patio.
What kind of atmosphere are you hoping to achieve?
The tag line for this year’s festival is ‘Empowered women, empowering words’, and I think that says a lot. But further to that I think it’s just as important to remember that our company is called SHIFT Theatre – we want to shift focus, shift perceptive and it’s a festival, it’s gotta have a celebratory atmosphere even though, at its foundation, the festival this year we have a message to send about women voices. And of course the festival not just for women, it’s for everybody!
• Shift Theatre’s 1-Act Festival runs May 26-28 at the Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Donations to the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre will be accepted throughout the event. For tickets and info visit ShiftTheatre.ca
