FemFest 2010 A Rousing Success

Our audiences have told us that they loved the works programmed at FemFest 2010! We owe a huge thank you to all of the artists who worked so hard, to our dedicated volunteers and all of our supporters. FemFest is a huge event for an independent theatre company and we couldn’t do it alone. We continue to hear from all the artists involved and those attending that it is a necessary and important festival.

As we recover from this year, we are already planning for FemFest 2011: Staging Inspiration. Check out the newsfeed on our website, www.sarasvati.ca, where you will find the call for submissions to FemFest 2011.

We also have some remaining copies of the much anticipated anthology Generation NeXXt: Contemporary Scenes for Young Women. This is a valuable resource for all female performers, for educators needing scenes for use in the classroom and for theatre-lovers. There are 16 scenes by women playwrights and they cover an array of topics, from comedic to dramatic. If you are interested in purchasing a copy for the great price of $18, call (586-2236) or e-mail us at info@sarasvati.ca .

We’re also slowly getting photos up on facebook!

Finally, we aren’t resting easy as we are currently touring our forum theatre piece No Offense… to high schools throughout Winnipeg and surrounding areas. This show was original created and done as a staged reading at FemFest 2009, then premiered as a full production at FemFest 2010.

Braiden Houle, Mary Black and Ashley Chartrand in No Offense...

Response to she at FemFest

It was a captivating performance.

In she, Jamaican-Canadian artist d’bi.young takes us on a politically-charged narrative that peeks into the lives and struggles of black Canadian women and challenges patriarchal, colonialist ideas of what it means to be a woman.

She is a play in development by the young artist from Toronto, who works in a genre she calls biomyth monodrama, which, as she explained after the performance, mixes biographical truths with poetic license to create a symbolic but deeply personal performance.

This play was rich, earthy beautiful and sincere. young’s physicality was expert. She was captivating as she tumbled around as an energetic young child, and carried her energy throughout the performance, as she introduced us to a variety of captivating women, interspersed throughout a flowing rhythmic monologue. young’s body and voice moved to an enchanting internal beat throughout the performance.

I thoroughly enjoyed she and the discussion with the audience that took place afterward, during which young asked for feedback to help her continue to develop the piece. With more work, she can only get better as young works to perfect her piece, and I’m excited to see what young has in store for her audiences in the near future.

-Sandy Klowak