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Intrepid Theatre launches festival showcasing new works

A four-week series designed to showcase works either entirely new or new to Victoria debuts this week.
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Black & Rural is part of the first-year Incoming Festival, produced by Intrepid Theatre. SARAH RACE

INCOMING FESTIVAL

Where: Metro Studio, Intrepid Studio, SKAM Satellite Studio, and the Baumann Centre
When: April 27 through May 14
Tickets: tickets.intrepidtheatre.com

Intrepid Theatre’s UNO Festival came to an end last year, following its 25th anniversary edition. The Victoria company has replaced the festival of solo performance with the Incoming Festival, a four-week series designed to showcase works either entirely new or new to Victoria that debuts this week.

“There’s something exciting about ending something when it’s still going well, and then starting something new,” said artistic director Sean Guist.

The first-year festival features everything from traditional theatre and storytelling to comedy, opera and dance. There’s also a vocal looping workshop, audio installation involving music and stories, and co-presentation with Pacific Opera Victoria that closes the festival May 12-14. “It runs the gamut of disciplines,” Guist said.

The combination of emerging and established artists participating this year includes dancer/choreographer Christopher House (New Tricks, April 27-28), Vancouver’s Pi Theatre (Black & Rural, May 4-5), and Ottawa’s Trophy (Remixed, May 5-6), among others.

Guist wanted to give local artists a chance to première their new work, while encouraging touring artists to visit Victoria for presentations that would not otherwise pass through the market. To help facilitate, a range of companies have come to the table, some of which are new to the Intrepid Theatre fold. Among the partners and collaborators this year are Theatre SKAM, Impulse Theatre and Visible Bodies Collective.

The plan for future editions is to blur boundaries to a greater degree, according to Guist. “My hope is that the festival grows and we get more partners and more interest. I’d love the Spring to become this hotbed for new work and experimentation in the city and with other arts groups. That’s really where my long-terms goal for this festival is.”

Intrepid Theatre’s calendar now includes OUTstages (which takes places in January/February), Incoming Festival (April/May), and the Victoria Fringe (August/September). The company is programming year-round, and Guist believes that by creating the Incoming Festival, the company’s offerings are now stronger on the whole.

The way UNO Festival was configured led to confusion on occasion, he said. “Certain audience members have a certain view of what solo show is, which they felt was a Fringe show with one person with a microphone on a stool. That’s not what UNO Festival was. There was a bit of disconnect between what the festival was actually delivering and what expectations were — and that was not always in our favour.”

One of the few festivals in Canada dedicated to new works, Incoming Festival is second only to Stages Festival in Halifax. Intrepid Theatre experimented with the idea in 2021, with six artists presenting new works over two cabaret nights. “We tested the theory, to see if there was an appetite from audiences and artists to do new work. And there was. So we built on that.”

Guist was instrumental in starting OUTstages, B.C.’s first dedicated queer theatre festival, so he’s familiar with ground-up infrastructure. He remembers the process of building the audience for OUTstages from scratch being an arduous but rewarding one. He expects a similar trajectory with Incoming Festival.

“Shows have to start somewhere. What we’re trying to give audiences is a chance to see it here first.”

mdevlin@timescolonist.com