Fifteen years supporting women in theatre

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This article was published 21/08/2017 (3275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a month, Sarasvati Productions will be empowering female writers at their annual theatre festival.

This year has been filled with milestones:  the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the 50th Canada Summer Games, and for Sarasvati, its 15th FemFest. 

Sarasvati has premiered more than 30 brand new plays over the years through the festival and FemFest 2017: Coming of Age will represent the growth and the development of the festival. 

The theme revolves around growing up, maturing and accepting oneself. Artists will take the audience on a journey exploring how people move forward as individuals and as a community. 

“Some of them we started by supporting their development and readings and then doing full productions, so I think we’ve really seen a blossoming of artists and work that has come out of FemFest over the years,” Hope McIntyre, Sarasvati Productions’ artistic director, said.

“It’s been amazing to see how those individuals have gone on with their careers since originally being part of the festival.”

Joseph Abetria is a costume and set designer who lives in the North End and is coming back to FemFest for the second time to design this year’s full production, Two Indians. He recently returned from an apprenticeship at Stratford Festival where he was an assistant designer for the play Romeo and Juliet.

He graduated from the University of Winnipeg’s theatre honours program with a focus on design and production in 2014. During Stratford Festival he practised his talents in a bigger scale and said working FemFest is like a “walk in a park.”

“It’s the same skills that you use; you just get to sharpen them every time you do something, so it was easily transposable on designing for FemFest.”

Two Indians is a play written by Toronto playwright Falen Johnson about two Mohawk cousins who meet in a Toronto alley to recreate a ceremony from their childhood. The play is directed by Sonya Ballantyne, an Indigenous film-maker McIntyre is mentoring to direct stage theatre.

“When we started looking at producing (Two Indians) we had this dilemma: there are not any professional, available Indigenous directors in Winnipeg,” McIntyre said. “We want to find ways to support not only emerging artists but artists who are lacking in the mainstream theatre right now.”

Abetria said he’s grateful to be working with Ballantyne because she has the resources to help him accurately reflect Indigenous culture.

“It’s great that I get to work with plays that usually wouldn’t be put on just because statistically it is usually men who produce and less women,” he said.

Lorraine James is one of the artists involved with the Bake-Off, an event where playwrights are provided with a list of topics and have to write a play in eight hours. James is one of the actors who will be performing.

James, who’s been involved with FemFest since the beginning, has auditioned to several theatre companies in Manitoba and has yet to perform with them. She said FemFest is a significant event for both playwrights and actors who don’t get to perform elsewhere. 

“Some actors start off at FemFest, and they might do bigger theatres. Others don’t get roles at the Manitoba Theatre Company or Prairie Theatre Exchange, and they might have a lot of stage time at FemFest or Sarasvati Productions.”

The actress from The Maples said her hopes at FemFest are always to be entertained and to watch what her colleagues are doing.

“There’s a lot of originally written stuff in FemFest that you won’t find at local theatres. Other local theatres will have well-established playwrights and… there’s always a place for a writer who’s looking to debut their brand new stuff, especially if they are brand new themselves,” she added.

Other shows playing during FemFest are Watching Glory Die produced by Nova Scotia’s Mulgrave Road Theatre and written by Judith Thompson, and Tomboy Survival Guide, written and performed by award-winning author Ivan Coyote, will be presented at West End Cultural Centre (586 Ellice Ave.).

FemFest runs from September 16 to 23 at the Asper Centre for Theatre and Film (400 Colony St.). Tickets are $15 to $20 for single shows, and a full festival pass is available for $50. For more information go to www.femfest.ca