Bringing Bilingualism to undercurrents festival: In Conversation with Alain Richer
For its thirteenth season, this beloved Ottawa festival is just getting sweeter: undercurrents has gone bilingual.
For its thirteenth season, this beloved Ottawa festival is just getting sweeter: undercurrents has gone bilingual.
“There is a gap between the pre-AIDs semi-closeted gay culture, the post-AIDs LGBQT+ culture, and the rise of identity politics. I thought, I have something to say about this!”
There are children who are going to leave this show and realize that all you need to shrink or grow are a couple of chairs.
“A character in the play says, ‘We want theatre to reflect our people’. Well, I’m a Torontonian. I was born and raised here. Why am I not seeing myself on stage?”
YPT has crossed the theatre/comedy barrier for an imaginative retelling of Snow White with an all-star double cast spanning both genres.
“If I was trying to change the world, Canadian theatre spaces are probably not the most efficient way to do that..but the liveness of theatre and the beautiful communal experience just cannot be replicated anywhere else.”
“Relaxed performance kind of calls that into question and throws it on its head and says, ‘well, says who? Says who that’s what it means to be a good audience member?’”
“It took many occasions of being in micro-aggressive, racist, sexist, unsafe situations that led me to realize that this was not the kind of industry I wanted to be in.”
“We need to demand different structures, dream different structures, build structures. And that desire is expressed, I hope, in the shows we’ll see onstage this season,” says Kitz.
“I thought, if I’m going to take up space in this experience, then I have a responsibility to tell this story.”
“I’ve been given the wings I need to succeed. The work is good. The work is fruitful.”
Hot on the heels of last season’s jaunt through Czarist Russia, Uncle Vanya will play the Streetcar Crowsnest from September 6 to October 2, with a stunning cast of #theaTO favourites.
“This festival feels like a huge opportunity for us to figure out how we’re going to build back,” says Eveleigh.
If you go to a theatre, your aim is to take in, and enjoy what you’re watching, signed Bryan. It needs to be accessible for all of that.
No, she’s never been to Tibet, no, she doesn’t speak the language, yes, she’s from Quebec.
“Audiences tend to focus on the loveable parts of Pearle. But there are deep and dark parts, too. I wanted to make her go through it,” says Justin Miller, creator of Pearle Harbour.