Choosing between theatre festivals is like choosing between chocolate and vanilla ice cream — you really can’t go wrong. That’s how I feel about this weekend’s indie theatre-going options. Regardless of your mood — whether you’re jonesing for dark or light — you can get what you need at either the New Ideas Festival 2010 or the WriteNOW! Festival of New Works.
The Alumnae Theatre Company’s New Ideas Festival is entering its third and final week, so if you haven’t already taken a peek, this Saturday marks your last chance. The festival has been around since ’89, and its mandate has always been to give playwrights, actors, directors and technicians the chance to showcase never-before-produced short scripts. Every New Ideas show was selected for its merit by a blind jury, so the calibre of the work at this fest is usually high. You’re also guaranteed experimental theatre, so be prepared to laugh or cry — or do both at the same time.
You can get some New Ideas tonight, or tomorrow night at 8 p.m. for only $15. The best part? The shows have already been selected for you. This weekend, a compilation of 6 shorts (ENVIA!, Sleeper, Who is Lieserl?, Heat, Prisoners and Buff) have been strung together for your viewing pleasure for a total run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. There’s also a 2:30 p.m. matinee tomorrow, as well as a staged pay-what-you-can reading of Weightless by Kelsey Blair at noon, just prior to the matinee.
In a similar vein, pivotal(arts) theatre company, a small, Toronto-based troupe founded by University of Guelph theatre alumni, is presenting its fourth annual WriteNOW! Festival of New Works at Bread & Circus. This fest is all about new shorts that break traditional theatre boundaries, and all the participating artists are emerging Toronto folk. WriteNOW! has sold out in the past three years, so it’s safe to say that these guys are doing something right.
Tonight at 7:30 p.m., feast on Dating Yourself, a look at finding love in the gay world, followed by Up in the Clouds, a mix of fantastical fairytale and an urbanite couple’s mundane troubles. Tomorrow, also at 7:30 p.m., check out The Four Minute Mile and Crime Scene. Seats are cheap at $15 for a full night of one-act double features.
In anticipation of this weekend’s fun, I’m going to celebrate with an ice cream cone — and I’ll make it a chocolate-vanilla twist, so I can be sure to sample everything all at once.
Leanne Milech is a lawyer turned freelance writer. She reviews theatre, publishes children’s books and spends her free time hunting for Toronto’s best cultural escapes. Her column appears every Friday here on lawandstyle.ca.