b current, Canada’s hotbed for culturally diverse artists announced a week of new theatre development for the 13th annual rock.paper.sistahz festival. The festival runs until May 18th at the Daniels Spectrum building.
The festival offers a Lunchbag Series, Free (donations welcomed) during the week. The series includes panels on writing successful grants, playwriting from poetry, and working as a director. These lunchtime talks are held at Aki Studio Theatre. Full details on the series can be found here.
A highlight of this year’s festival is the inaugural 23 hours live!, a live performance marathon featuring 14 new plays performed over 23 hours by award winning and esteemed artists, many rooted in the culture and experiences of the Black Diaspora. The 23 hours live! marathon features trey anthony’s Black Mothers Don’t Say I Love You, Michaela Di Cesare’s 8 Ways my Mother was Conceived, Ngozi Paul’s The 1st Time Project, Catherine Hernandez’ I Cannot Lie to the Stars that Made Me, and Amanda Parris’ The Other Side of the Game. The marathon runs from May 17 at 1:00 pm to May 18 at 12:00 pm.
From the looks of it, the 23 hours live! marathon will also have some films screenings, curaged by Lucius Dechausay, from 3-6PM on Saturday, May 17. And more films from 4-7AM on Sunday, May 18.
The marathon also features a late night dance party with DJ L’Oqenz, burlesque dancer Dainty Box, early morning yoga, children’s story telling with Juno winning dub poet and reggae musician Lillian Allen, and a pancake breakfast with new artistic directors Jajube Mandiela and Ngozi Paul.
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| Jajube Mandiela and Ngozi Paul, artistic directors (photo credit: Wade Hudson) |
Mandiela and Paul join b current as the new artistic directors after the departure of founding artistic director ahdri zhina mandiela, who was with b current from its inception 23 years ago. Originally founded as a place for black artists to create, nurture and present their new works, has grown to support artists from all diasporas. For over 22 years they have been creating space for diverse voices to be heard, with a focus on engaging the communities from which those stories are rooted.
b current‘s annual rock.paper.sistahz festival has been the springboard for numerous award-winning new works over the past 13 years, and many have gone on to further development and main stage productions, including: wise.woman by Rebecca Fisseha, Virgin by Joan M. Kivanda, and Dora-Award nominated Obeah Opera by Nicole Brooks. Be sure to catch some of these new works this weekend. These are stories for all.
For full details on b current’s 2014 line-up, visit bcurrent.ca.
