Between June 6th and 11th Eastern Front Theatre’s Stages Festival brought an infusion of excitement and connection with over fifteen theatre shows, works in progress, and special events to the Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth.
The Stages Festival started in Dartmouth as the On the Waterfront Festival back in 1993, and it has gone through many different iterations and names over the years, moving from Dartmouth to Halifax, and back again, but it has always been focused on showcasing new Atlantic Canadian work at different stages of development.
This year, as theatre artists and audiences alike are still emerging from the Covid-19 Pandemic it is interesting, but perhaps unsurprising, that so many of the works Artistic Director Kat McCormack and General Manager Elsa Pihl programmed at Stages were interested in exploring the different ways that folks connect with one another, and how technology can be used to enhance or change the ways we interact with one another. XOST (Secret Theatre)’s Alone Together was a Self-Generated AI Performance accessible remotely through an app, Heist’s Frequencies used a VR headset, along with music, and a deeply personal narrative to create a mixed-reality theatre show, Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim’s Asses Masses created a video game that the audience played communally over multiple hours. There was also a Family Stage, which featured programming specifically designed for children of all ages.
New this year was the addition of an Industry Series, produced by Richie Wilcox and Dustin Harvey, which sought to empower theatre professionals and nurture the creation of new projects, and to provide space for artists, presenters, producers, funders, and supporters to meet and foster future collaboration and partnerships. A creative cohort made up of community members from other provinces (Vancouver, Calgary, and New Brunswick), and Iceland were also brought into this series to help build bridges between different theatre communities, and to encourage conversation and idea and information sharing, as we all confront similar challenges in rebuilding after the last four years.
It’s hard to gauge the “state of the Canadian Theatre”, the “state of the theatre within Nova Scotia or the Halifax Regional Municipality” at this strange juncture of time, as folks are still just starting to return to their in person jobs, and hobbies, and interests, and as the cost of living across the country is simultaneously soaring, but even before the Covid-19 pandemic I had felt really optimistic about the direction that the theatre community here was heading, that we all seemed to be excited about creating more inclusive spaces, and building bridges between ourselves and other communities within this city, and theatre communities elsewhere in the country and the world. I saw this vision really beautifully reflected at Stages this year.
The barriers and challenges for creating theatre here are numerous and daunting, but I really believe that it is through us all working together, listening to theatre community elders, and folks who have faced and overcome the same obstacles elsewhere, that we can all make sure that the future of theatre, dance, music, and all performance and multidisciplinary arts here can and will thrive. The love and care and resilience, expertise, knowledge, skill, and passion among theatre makers in Nova Scotia is immense. The work that I saw at Stages this year showed imagination, optimism, resourcefulness, heart, and a firm eye on the future. It is great to have the festival back in Dartmouth, and it felt really nice to be looking forward with excitement and hope for a change.
