Every year, the Advance Theatre Festival features new works by racialized, female-identifying, and gender non-conforming playwrights. Zahida Rahemtulla (The Wrong Bashir, The Frontliners) is curating this year’s lineup of five stage readings at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.
Running from January 26 and 30, the festival will unveil playwrights’ works that address a wide range of topics, including immigration to Canada, bonds formed during war, and the commodification of identity in the arts. Learn more about each play and playwright below.
I Have a Dream in Chinese
Irene (Fan) Yi wrote this solo show, which revolves around a Chinese immigrant woman travelling on a flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver. According to the festival website, the character “navigates the turbulence of micro aggressions, state surveillance, workplace erasure, and the haunting grief of a city left behind”.
“Blending poetic monologue, surreal memory, and bureaucratic absurdity, the play explores what it means to carry two names, two histories, and the unbearable silence of trying to belong,” the website notes.
Yi is a bilingual director, dramaturg, and performer with master’s of arts degrees from the University of Ottawa and Indiana University. Daisy Mengru Jia is directing and serves as dramaturg for the stage reading of I have a Dream in Chinese, with Huirui Zhang Su as the performer.
Far and Free (Malayo at Malaya)
Playwright Abi Padilla has written this comedic script, which is set in the Philippines when it was under martial law in the 1980s.
“Filipino twins, Farah and Francis, move to Canada and struggle to let go of their first romantic loves and their activism as they seek a safer, ‘better’ life,” the festival states in a news release. “Questions continue to haunt them. How can they love freely if their motherland isn’t fully free?”
Padilla, a graduate of Studio 58, immigrated to Canada from the Philippines as an adult. Last year, Ruby Slippers Theatre premiered her first full-length play—Grandma, Gangsta, Guerrilla—which featured her in the title role.
Anjela Magpantay is directing the stage reading of Far and Free (Malayo at Malaya), with Zoë Autumn as dramaturg. Padilla is one of the performers along with Jason Asuncion, Yorlene Bernido, Edward Escobal, Argel Monte de Ramos, and Ted Angelo Ngkaion.
Just Like Paris
Playwright Marcia Johnson has set this play in Lethbridge during the Second World War. A nurse named Gwendolyn leaves her fiancé Donovan and their baby in Jamaica to work at a camp housing 12,000 German prisoners-of-war. There, she meets a Japanese Canadian couple working on a beet farm after being forcibly displaced from the West Coast along with 22,000 other Japanese Canadians.
“Through unexpected connections, the play explores resilience, prejudice and the bonds formed in times of war,” the festival states.
Johnson is an actor, writer, and dramaturg based in T’Karonto. Her earlier work, Serving Elizabeth, has been staged at Stratford Festival, the Belfry Theatre, and other locations. Johnson also wrote Binti’s Journey, Perfect on Paper, and Say Ginger Ale.
Elaine Avila is directing the stage reading of Just Like Paris, with Vicki Stroich as dramaturg. Yoshié Bancroft, Miranda Edwards, Damion LeClair, Luc Roderique, Mason Temple, and Colleen Wheele will be the performers.
Bella Luz
Playwright Alexandra Lainfiesta’s Bella Luz is about a Guatemalan dancer, Sumailla, seeking permanent residency in Canada. It’s billed as a magic-realist play that takes place in three locations simultaneously: “Major global city in Canada”, a.k.a. “Here”; the southern Guatemalan city of Antigua, a.k.a. “There”; and the realm of “Immigration System Game Shows”, a.k.a. “Nowhere”.
“As she navigates a bureaucratic obstacle course staged like TV game shows, Sumailla’s choices in Major global city in Canada’s stunt industry, where she is cast to play stereotypical Latina roles, directly impact her family dynamics in Guatemala and her eligibility to remain in Canada,” the festival website states.
Lainfiesta was born and raised in Guatemala and has a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Victoria. She has won several acting awards and performed with major theatrical companies across Canada.
Jane Heyman and Carmela Sison are co-directing and serve as the co-dramaturg for the stage reading of Bella Luz. Lainfiesta is one of the performers along with Genevieve Fleming, Bob Frazer, Manuela Sosa, and Rosa Stewart.
Roald Dahl Doesn’t Care About You
Sewit Eden Haile’s play is centred around three young women in a writers’ group who submit pieces to a prestigious writing competition.
“When a new addition to the group throws off the dynamic, they’re forced to address biases and the part they play in the commodification of identity in the arts,” the festival website states.
Haile is a Studio 58 graduate whose first play, pretty girls, was included in Langara College theatre program’s FourPlay festival. She has performed in Green Thumb Theatre’s 500 Words, Theatre Replacement’s East Van Panto: Robin Hood in partnership with the Cultch, and Studio 58’s Blood Wedding.
Arthi Chandra will direct the stage reading of Roald Dahl Doesn’t Care About You, with Quelemia Sparrow as dramaturg. Rachel Drance, Brynna Drummond, Alexis Hope, and Marlee Michael Pearl will be the performers.
Ruby Slippers Theatre presents the Advance Theatre Festival at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts from January 26 to 30. For more information, visit the Ruby Slippers Theatre website. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Instagram @PancouverMedia.
