FFWD REW

Watch out for the little guys

Smaller companies bring big ideas to the stage

URBAN CURVZ

This year marks Urban Curvz’ fifth season advocating “a theatre ecology that celebrates the excellence of its female practitioners.” Their successes have included four Betty Mitchell Award nominations this year including the Fast Forward Weekly Reader’s Choice Award.

“I think that not only are our plays engaging for our audience but the characters and the stories are also enticing for the artists who come to work with us” says artistic director and founder Jessica Dollard. “We provide a space where emerging and established female artists can work together mentoring and learning from each other.”

Urban Curvz is kicking off its theatre season with R.M. Vaughan’s Camera Woman – a show based on the life of film director Dorothy Arzner and directed by Kathryn Waters.

Thematically the show “resoundingly hits the feminist mark” according to Waters. “We meet Arzner on her fictional last day of filming and learn that she’s trying to feature a lesbian kiss on screen. Vaughan [the playwright] uses this hypothetical conflict to explore how Arzner’s identity as a woman or a lesbian [could] overshadow the value and merit of her art.”

Urban Curvz is remounting Lindsay Burn’s popular The Vajayjay Monologues directed by Vicki Stroich but be prepared for something different. “Not only did Lindsay Burns rewrite the piece for its run at the New York fringe last year but because it is so filled with pop culture references and is so topical it needs to be rewritten constantly to remain relevant” says Dollard.

SWALLOW-A-BICYCLE PERFORMANCE CO-OP

According to Mark Hopkins co-artistic director of Swallow-a-Bicycle (alongside Charles Netto ) it’s a community-oriented theatre company dedicated to the creation and presentation of innovative and challenging performances.

The Flood: A Disaster Story kicks off the season early at Epcor Centre’s Motel (August 27 to 29). Part musical part puppet show and part surrealistic fantasy and comedy The Flood was written and directed by Michelle Kennedy.

Freak Show (Jan. 7 to 9) is part of One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo. The three-day show is a site specific tour of the Epcor Centre and the Glenbow which “puts a wide variety of freakish multidisciplinary performances” into non-traditional spaces.

i-ROBOT Theatre (May 6 to 15) is a project involving an assembly of artists of various disciplines who will collaborate to develop an original full-length performance based on i-ROBOT Poetry by Jason Christie.

“We also try to create and nourish communities” Hopkins says. “We encourage audiences to stick around after our shows to create a dialogue among the audience and between audiences and performers. We also throw parties and ancillary events like picnics and movie nights to provide a casual and non-threatening atmosphere for different groups to intermingle and interact. We want to create an environment for people to engage with the culture of their city to talk about art and society and life.”

THEATRE ENCOUNTER

Watch for this company’s rendition of the classic Everyman at Vertigo Studio (Feb. 24 to March 6).

According to co-artistic director Michael Fenton the play is a morality tale written in the 15th century. The company chose Everyman because it is “one of the most significant pieces of Western dramatic texts; a story that is universal in its exploration of suffering to reach enlightenment.”

The rehearsal process for this production will be ensemble-driven — the company is known to have drawn out rehearsals. “Each show is worked on for over a year in advance and rehearsals with the performers is usually from one year to six months which is quite substantial compared to the typical three week rehearsal process that most houses abide by” says Fenton.

FORTE MUSICAL THEATRE GUILD

One of Calgary’s newest theatre companies Forte was formed a year ago. Artistic director Joe Slabe believes the time is right for a musical company like his to connect with Calgary audiences.

This season Forte is remounting but this IS my day job… (Dec. 1 to 12) from last season as well as presenting the Canadian premiere of Austentatious (March 1 to 13)— co-written by Slabe (alongside Matt Board).

Austentatious started as a lark when I was studying for my master’s degree in musical theatre at the University of London” says Slabe. “A bunch of my classmates and I decided to write a show with parts for ourselves and stage it in a fringe theatre in London.”

For Austentatious the troupe brought the themes of community theatre and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice together; it turned out to be comedic gold. Austentatious went on to do well at the Philadelphia Fringe then at the New York Musical Theatre Festival (the cast featured Stephanie D’Abruzzo who was nominated for a Tony Award for her work as Kate Monster in Avenue Q ) and went on to rave reviews including in the New York Times . Last February the musical hit returned to London’s Landor Theatre.

MAPLE SALSA

Don’t let this company fall off your radar — Maple Salsa recently toured Mexico City with its provocative production Neruda Nude and will hit Calgary’s stage again in the new year with The Dali Hours (April 29 to May 8). According to artistic director Javier Vilalta the show is an “ exploration of time and childhood based on the artist’s philosophies on time.”

“In this new production devised by our own ensemble the presence of Salvador Dali takes the form of a young boy who transits through the different stages of childhood in a journey of symbols images games and dreams” Vilalta says. “Audience members will have the opportunity to be part of several recreations of Dali’s famous paintings and learn more about the abstract artistry his anxiety for the scientific and above all his eternal quest to conquer time.”

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