“Festivalizing” Performance: Community and Aesthetics through the Lens of Three Festival Experiences

Abstract

Although the history of Canadian theatre has been greatly shaped by the existence of the long-established Stratford and Shaw Festivals, a new creative energy is coming from a crop of alternatives to them. These newer festivals are an increasingly important part of the Canadian performance landscape, in part precipitated by a renaissance in performance-creation work by independent artists and performance collectives who eschew the “season and theatre building” model of performance. Instead, these creators favour fluid creation methodologies and presentation arrangements that are well suited to the fluidity of a new festival model of presentation. Over the past decade, a whole network of festivals has been set up across the country to embrace such work, anchored by now venerable festivals such as One Yellow Rabbit’s twenty-three-year-old High Performance Rodeo. Some of these festivals are high profile; Vancouver’s PuSh Festival and the National Arts Centre’s Magnetic North Festival have provided important national stages for new work. Others, like Calgary’s Mutton Busting Festival and Toronto’s RED Festival, happen on a smaller scale and in local settings. Although these smaller festivals tend to be more temporary in nature (both the festivals just mentioned are now defunct), they provide necessary opportunities for new and adventurous work to be developed and seen.