This year’s Brave New Works Festival is set to be a ‘place of convergence’ for Hamilton artists
iPhoto caption: Photos of Karen Ancheta and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard courtesy of Theatre Aquarius.
Hamilton has a bustling arts scene, from spoken word to visual art — but, historically, up-and-coming theatre creators have often left town, opting to grow their craft in Toronto and beyond.
For that to one day change, Hamilton artists need stepping-stones: spaces in which to hone their craft and forge connections with audiences and fellow creatives.
Enter Theatre Aquarius’ annual Brave New Works Festival, now in its third year. The festival brings together artists from a myriad of disciplines to present in-process projects and exchange ideas. Running from June 6 to 8 throughout the Aquarius building, this year’s lineup will feature 14 performances, discussions, and installations, all open to the public at pay-what-you-will prices.
For Brave New Works co-curators Karen Ancheta and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, this year is partly about widening the festival’s lens — in terms of what’s presented, yes, but also where its creators are hailing from. In the past, Brave New Works’ primary purpose has been “to support Hamilton talent,” said Ancheta in a Zoom interview. “But this year it’s a little broader, which is super exciting.”
“We’re excited to be working with people who are in Brampton, or Brantford, or St. Catharines,” explained St. Bernard. “It’s that sort of ‘outside Toronto’ horseshoe where… there’s such a rich strata of talent that’s not necessarily on the mainstages.”
“So people are either coming home or coming from outside the city to explore what’s here,” said Ancheta. “And I think it’s exciting that this festival is about pieces that are growing. We’ve got 20-, 40-, and 60-plus- minute pieces, all at different stages of development. And people can come here to do that, when in the past, they [went] away.”
One of the festival’s most eclectic offerings is Sunshine – a VR Musical, written by Kath Haling and produced by Perfect Pitch and Global Musicals, a co-producer of Six. “People can put on a VR headset and experience a 13-minute musical that’s being developed in the U.K. right now,” said Ancheta. “And, in addition to that, [Sunshine director] Christopher Lane will be doing a talk on VR in our lobby. I think a lot of people have questions about VR, and he’s going to talk about… what’s happening across the pond, and answer all the questions about VR in theatre.”
There are a fair number of development opportunities available to Ontario playwrights, from programs run by local not-for-profits to grants. Less so for designers. That’s why Ancheta and St. Bernard have made an effort to showcase design in this year’s festival, including an installation by Josh Arcari called Trigger Based Lighting Networks, running in the theatre’s coat check.
“I think the design stuff is really important to bring into these in-progress spaces, because often design gets added on, or dresses up the play, but actually it’s a really strong creative force if it’s involved in development as well,” said St. Bernard. “I think it’s really stimulating to bring these different collaborative processes into the early stages of creation, and for artists in our community to be thinking ‘how would I write for this discipline?’ Or ‘how would I write a play that takes advantage of this design effect?’
“And that’s one of the reasons why… the work we’re presenting is brave and new,” she continued. “Like, I’m thinking about Jan Jennings doing comedic burlesque [in her piece Juicy XXL]. That’s not a shape that I conceived of as an option for me, in creating. So I’m excited about, both with the design and some of the content, how we’re all expanding what we perceive to be the limits of the container we’re pouring into.”
In addition to the full-length presentations, which run anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes, it’s become tradition for Brave New Works to involve a cabaret of 10-minute performances from a varied range of artists.
The seven cabaret offerings this year include a presentation from “an Indigenous youth group called Piindigen, who’ve been working at Theatre Aquarius with Shane Pennells and Carly [Anna] Billings,” said Ancheta. “We also have a snippet, just a snippet, of a musical called Red Tide by Nam Nguyen and Wilfred Moeschter. And we’ve got Madeleine Brown, who has been exploring standup comedy and thinking about making it in a more theatrical form. So there’s all this experimentation that’s happening… I think it’s going to be a fantastic evening.”
“The cabaret is a real place of convergence,” added St. Bernard. “And that’s one of the values of it for me. When I meet artists, I like to meet them through their work, and then immediately with a drink. Seeing someone’s work, and then being in community with them: it’s a deeper engagement, for me. And less explaining, like: I’m not gonna explain what I do, I just did it, it was that. And I saw what you did, and I liked it. And now we’re going to talk about how the world could be better.”
On top of all the other exciting programming, play readings are still a pillar of Brave New Works. This year’s lineup features nine.
One highlight is Open Heart Arts Theatre’s Show Home. “Carlyn Rhamey is a fantastic storyteller-artist-educator in Hamilton, and that play came out of her beautiful mind,” said Ancheta. “It focuses on art, and people living in congregate care. [Open Heart Arts] does beautiful work in the community, having professional artists and people in congregate care come [together] on a regular basis to create. So this will be a result of that.”
“I’m gonna mention Mariló Núñez’s Foxy: Tales of an Urban Zorra,” said St. Bernard. “It’s a really great play, bringing some of that magical realism excitement into the mix, with… a large cast of Latinx performers. I’m excited about that and Koli Kari, Ganesh Thava’s play. [It’s] heading for the Toronto Fringe, so there’s going to be a little more hoopla — it’s already in the process of lifting off the paper.”
St. Bernard said Show Home, Foxy, and Koli Kari, along with Brefny Caribou’s Savage is a Word in the English Dictionary, are “fuller offerings” that have been in development for a while. There will also be newer works from Jennifer Walton, Lili Robinson, Michael Kras, and Tommy Taylor.
Despite the uniqueness of each piece being shared, Ancheta and St. Bernard see an ambitious, forward-thinking spirit coursing through the whole lineup. “I’m excited for the performers and writers to share [their work] at whatever stage they’re at,” said Ancheta. “They’re brave, and they’re really hungry for the feedback that will help them push further, closer to the finish line.”
“With all of these pieces, there’s something really about perspective,” added St. Bernard. “There’s something about not just risk and performance, but risk and experience… These are stories that I could not know if you did not tell them to me. And I think that’s an important piece of broadening the voices in theatre.”
Brave New Works Festival runs June 6-8 at Theatre Aquarius. You can learn more here.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Fabian Hammerl.
In A a | a B : B E N D, choreographer Aszure Barton aims to rebuild dance from the inside out
“It’s so easy to over-intellectualize dance in general, but B E N D is about hearing and moving to cool-ass music together,” says Barton ahead of the show's run at the Bluma Appel Theatre.
iPhoto caption: Elinor Holt and Ellen Close in 'How Patty and Joanne Won High Gold at the Grand Christmas Cup Winter Dance Competition.' Photo by Benjamin Laird.
“We’re living in a world right now where failure is not an option,” says actor Elinor Holt. “And a lot of times people would rather not try anything at all, rather than try something and risk failing at it.”
iPhoto caption: Jane Spidell as Bettye, Kevin Bundy as Jim, and Noah Beemer as Steve in 'Twelve Dinners.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
With TIFT’s Twelve Dinners, actor Steve Ross makes the leap to playwright-director
"I love sitting with the actors before rehearsals and discussing, especially when they ask questions,” says Ross. “I love the blocking and staging. I love directing my own work, but find it challenging."
iPhoto caption: Manus Halligan in Dan Colley's adaptation of 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings'. Photo by Ste Murray.
A contemporary Gabriel García Márquez adaptation touches down in Toronto
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings has toured internationally since 2022, with a shifting cast of performers. Halligan and Beaman, the original actors and co-adaptors, will reprise their roles for the Toronto premiere.
iPhoto caption: 'Narnia' in rehearsal. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
"What emerged for us was this idea of life cycles,” reflects Narnia adaptor-director Fiona Sauder. “‘What happens when you get stuck in one season [of life], and what happens when that season comes to an end? [What things] have to die and fall away in order for new things to grow?’”
iPhoto caption: Jordan Pettle, Janelle Cooper, and Monique Mojica in CHILD-ish. Photo by Jae Yang.
Tarragon’s upcoming show gives audiences a verbatim taste of children’s wisdom, wit, and weirdness
The first inklings of CHILD-ish came to Drake in 2017. “I got to an age where I started having a lot more kids in my life,” he said. That “got me curious about what adults can learn from kids: playing with and flipping that power dynamic of who’s the learner and who’s the teacher.”
iPhoto caption: Lauren Gillis and Alaine Hutton in 'Public Consumption.' Photo by Eden Graham.
REVIEW: Lester Trips’ stylish Public Consumption captures the internet’s profound emptiness
Rather than directly representing online life, Public Consumption speculates — with virtuosity — about how the digital world affects our bodies. And the show's findings are by no means comfortable.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Elana Emer.
REVIEW: Icarus Theatre’s DNA paints a disturbing mural of teenage rebellion
While director Erik Richards’ tendency toward snappy, thriller-esque pacing doesn’t suit all of DNA’s more intimate moments, it adds electricity to the drama’s group scenes, bringing playwright Dennis Kelly’s reflections on groupthink and collective grief into clear view.
iPhoto caption: Olivier Normand in 'The Far Side of the Moon.' Photo by Li Wang.
REVIEW: Lepage’s ethereal The Far Side of the Moon is insomniac theatre
The Far Side of the Moon begins and ends with a large mirror on stage, and the show extracts enigmatic power from the tantalizing question of whether its protagonist is losing himself in his reflection, or moving toward self-discovery.
iPhoto caption: 'Kokuho' still courtesy of TIFF.
REVIEW: During this year’s TIFF, two films depicted theatre as a vessel for transcendence
Of the several performing arts-adjacent selections I took in, most affecting were two dramas: Lee Sang-il’s Kokuho and Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. In both period pieces, theatre creation serves as an emotional outlet for an artist navigating devastating loss.
iPhoto caption: Cyrus Lane and Kirstyn Russelle in Barrie run of 'Blackbird.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Talk is Free Theatre’s Blackbird offers a close-up look at two detailed performances
Emerging director Dean Deffett has concocted a tight, straightforward production, primarily of interest as an intimate character study.
iPhoto caption: Sleman Aldib and an audience member in 'The Opposite.' Still from a trailer by Spectrum Associates.
REVIEW: Kitchener’s biennial IMPACT Festival crackled with urgency
Most of the six works I viewed tackled urgent topics, from the convoluted Canadian immigration system to the Palestinian experience of displacement: explorations that line up with artistic director Pam Patel’s curatorial statement, which discusses how IMPACT ‘25 “unpacks what it means to survive, to resist, and to seek refuge” through a global, Indigenous-focused lens.
Comments