FemFest Workshops Advance Artistic Growth!

Are you trying to juggle being an artist and working to pay the bills? Are you an actor who needs some inspiration? Perhaps a writer with material to test out? FemFest isn’t just about seeing great new plays by woman playwrights. A big part of the mandate for FemFest is to develop the skills of emerging artists in our arts community. One of the ways we take on this role is by offering workshops facilitated by our guest artists each year. This year we have a few fantastic workshops that are open to artists at every stage.

Kim Zeglinski in Mittelschmerz

Artist-with-a-Dayjob: A Self-Producing Workshop Facilitated by Kim Zeglinski
Sunday, September 13 1-3pm
Registration just $15!

If you are a person who wears many hats in life, have a love of theatre, are interested in auditioning, writing, and/or self-producing, but just can’t seem to reach that point where you can quit your dayjob, this is the workshop for you. Kim Zeglinski is a busy teacher, wife, mother, and a self-produced writer-performer and actor. She has participated in theatre and other artistic pursuits while maintaining a teaching career and family for over a decade. This is your chance to pick her brain. The workshop will include an autobiographical presentation of Kim’s life-juggling act, as well as extended time for Question and Answer.

You may not be able to do it all, all of the time; but you CAN give your all, to one thing at a time.

Acting on Impulse Facilitated by Jani Lauzon
Sunday, September 13 3:30-6pm
Registration just $15!

Once upon a time, in lands far and wide there was oral culture and a theatrical practice in every day life. These were exciting times, engaging young and old alike in the art of living. Then we became….actors. Join award winning Metis actor Jani Lauzon in this crash course that strives to remind us of the importance of spontaneity and impulse to re-engage the most important concept in storytelling: using our mind/body/spirit to create relationship. For without that, there is no life and without life, it’s not theatre.

Work It Night!
In partnership with ACI Manitoba
Sunday, September 13 6-9pm
Free!

FemFest is a great place to come to present your work in progress, and we’ll work it! Playwrights bring your plays, we’ll read them out loud. Actors bring your audition monologues, we’ll observe. Filmmakers bring your rough cuts, we’ll watch them. Writers bring your poems or short stories to read, and we’ll listen. Visual artists showcase your work and share your process. Anyone can bring anything they are working on and have up to five minutes to present it, ask for reactions, or get constructive feedback from everyone present.  E-mail info@sarasvati.ca to register.

Care To Dance? With the Cast of The Dance-Off of Conscious Uncoupling!

With this much talent, you know this show will be great! Rehearsals have begun already for FemFest. We have met a few times this week with the fresh cast for Frances Koncan’s The Dance-Off of Conscious Uncoupling. One of the best parts of staging a play set at a High School Prom is that we get to work with some very talented young actors this year, as well as some old friends. This week, we want to introduce you to the Dance-Off cast members but sharing a couple of quirky questions and answers. And each of these actors are involved in the Fringe this week, so don’t miss your chance to see them in action!

A Short Intro to the Artists

What makes you ROAR? A key part of the FemFest mandate is not only to provide a space for female playwrights, but also to use our voices on stage to call attention to some very important issues. The staged readings of the shortlisted plays submitted for FemFest this year are a fantastic chance to see the work of emerging artists.
We are in the midst of casting for FemFest 2015 and we think it’s time to ask some of our artists who are participating in the Shorts! play readings to tell us a bit about themselves and what they want to roar about!

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Tragic Comedy or Comedic Tragedy?

Take dress-up, dancing and someone being taught a lesson and see what comes out! These were last year’s Bake-Off ingredients, beautifully handled by the playwrights. This week we hear from guest blogger Terrie Todd about her journey of taking a script from last year’s Bake-Off and workshopping it into a full length play.

Nearing Perfection: A workshop in progress

Workshop presentations are exciting ways for an audience to take part in the development of a new work! We love offering artists the chance to develop something truly unique and the opportunity to test it out in front of an audience at FemFest. This year, Monique Marcker and Andraea Sartison will workshop an ongoing project called #perfect, about the prevalence of social media in the lives of teens. Andraea is our guest blogger this week, as she tells us about the rewards and challenges of putting together a community-generated multi-media performance.