The Cultch spotlights theatre artists' brave works at inaugural Warrior Festival, April 16 to May 11
Pulitzer Prize finalist Dance Nation headlines the festival, which features fierce and funny works of theatre, comedy, and circus
SPONSORED POST BY The Cultch
(From left) Amanda Sum, Nathan Kay, and Rukiya Bernard in Dance Nation. Photo by Emily Cooper
The Cultch has just announced the inaugural Warrior Festival, which will take place across all three Cultch stages from April 16 to May 11.
The brand-new festival will feature five innovative, status-quo-toppling shows from some of Canada’s most groundbreaking artists and companies. These powerful, courageous works of theatre strengthen acts of defiance with radical joy. They embody the spirit of the new Warrior Festival—an event created to spotlight the brave, liberating, and political work of theatre artists.
The Warrior Festival will begin with Katey Hoffman and Cheyenne Rouleau’s sketch-comedy show Lxdy Parts: Babes, featuring true stories and special guests, at the Vancity Culture Lab from April 16 to 19. Known for their irreverent and bodacious comedy, Hoffman and Rouleau return to their popular series with brand-new life experiences after becoming parents.
Cheyenne Rouleau (left) and Katey Hoffman in Lxdy Parts: Babes. Photo by Owen Wong
Close on its heels, the festival’s headlining show Dance Nation, a play written by Clare Barron, will fill the York Theatre from April 23 to May 11 (newly extended dates that were just announced). This finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama will make its Vancouver premiere with Mindy Parfitt’s The Search Party, an award-winning local company known for its impactful stagings of contemporary works. Following a team of pre-teen competitive dancers fighting to win nationals, this exploration of ambition, adolescence, and friendship is a raucous theatrical experience that features an ensemble cast of Vancouver’s best actors.
Dance Nation workshop. Photo by Lisa Wu
Quebec-based acrobatic duo Agathe et Adrien will join the festival for a limited run from April 24 to 27. Their show N.Ormes literally flips the script on gender conventions in the circus world. The production is a unique opportunity for audiences to get up close and personal with the artists at the intimate Historic Theatre.
N.Ormes. Photo by Thibault Caron
Finishing off the festival with laughter and conversation, Toronto’s Bad Muse Collective will present Love You Wrong Time in the Historic Theatre, while Zee Zee Theatre will bring Every Day She Rose to the Vancity Culture Lab. These two personal and political shows—which will both run from May 1 to 11—examine perception bias and stereotypes through the lens of friendship and shared experience.
Maddie Bautista and Deanna Choi’s interactive show Love You Wrong Time, featuring music, true stories, bar games, and stand-up comedy, serves as a battle cry in the wake of mass violence against Asian femmes. Every Day She Rose takes place after the Black Lives Matter protest at the 2016 Toronto Pride Parade, when two best friends find their racial and queer politics aren’t as aligned as they first thought.
Deanna Choi and Maddie Bautista in Love You Wrong Time. Photo by Helen Yung
Tickets to all Warrior Festival shows are now on sale from $29. Guests who purchase tickets to more than one show will save 20 percent, while those who purchase a festival pass for access to all five shows will save 30 percent. All pass-holders are also invited to the Warrior Festival Party, a post-show celebration at The Cultch on May 2.
Come and be a part of the Warrior Festival at The Cultch, where joy is an act of resistance and every artist is a warrior. Cue the rebellion—the show is about to begin.
Full details can be found on the festival webpage.
Post sponsored by The Cultch.
Ivy Charles (left) and Jeffrey Follis in Every Day She Rose. Photo by Tina Krueger Kulic
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