Andy Curtis and Denise Clarke in last year’s High Performance Rodeo presentation of Kawasaki Exit.

For avid theatre-goers, festivals are like a buffet (the high-end kind that provides gustatory flutters of anticipation, not the crappy version where you risk food-poisoning). Filled with tempting, and sometimes unfamiliar treats, you get to sample a little bit of this and that, all on one plate.

The following is a roundup of Calgary’s many theatre festivals. Some have been around for close to three decades, while others are still babies.

ENBRIDGE PLAYRITES FESTIVAL OF NEW CANADIAN PLAYS — ALBERTA THEATRE PROJECTS (February 2 to March 6, 2011)

This is one of the old-timers of Calgary’s festival scene, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The Enbridge playRites Festival has a national reputation for debuting new Canadian plays, many of which go on to grace other stages. Besides offering four mainstage works over the course of about a month, the festival includes new play readings and panel discussions.

This season’s four main plays are: Morwyn Brebner’s Heartbreaker; Trina Davies’s The Romeo Initiative; Mieko Ouchi’s Nisei Blue; and 300 Tapes, by Public Recordings, co-produced with ATP and The Theatre Centre.

HIGH PERFORMANCE RODEO — ONE YELLOW RABBIT (January 4 to 23, 2011)

The High Performance Rodeo is also celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Curated by Michael Green, the High Performance Rodeo — “Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts” — is the largest of its kind in Western Canada

The Rodeo runs throughout most of January, offering Calgarians ample opportunity to get in from the cold and take in the various offerings — theatre, music, comedy, dance, film and visual arts — from around the world. One of the Rodeo’s highlights is an original piece by the “Rabbits,” as the OYR creation ensemble is affectionately called.

The Rodeo is known for its experimental and unconventional offerings. In recent years, however, it has developed partnerships with more conventional outlets such as Theatre Calgary.

One Yellow Rabbit will announce the full Rodeo lineup in November.

IGNITE! 2011 — SAGE THEATRE (June 9 to 11, 2011)

Sage Theatre’s Ignite! began in 2005 as a festival for emerging theatre artists. More recently, however, it has branched out to become a weekend-long, multidisciplinary event that takes over the Pumphouse’s two theatres, as well as its lobby. Several original plays remain at the festival’s core, but performances by emerging musical artists, a dance series and an art exhibition complement the theatrical offerings. Festival director Ellen Close says the reason for the multi-disciplinary focus is to provide opportunities for emerging artists of all stripes, and to allow festival-goers an essentially “risk-free” chance to sample artistic mediums they may not experience elsewhere. The more than 100 participating artists also receive professional mentorship.

OLD SCHOOL FESTIVAL — MOB HIT PRODUCTIONS (June 9 to 18, 2011)

Mob Hit will return with its sixth annual Old School Festival in June. Part of the Festival’s mandate is to tell classic tales in new and innovative ways. Last June, Mob Hit staged a Bollywood version of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

This season, a new work by John Knight — Queen Anne's Revenge: The Rise and Fall of Blackbeard the Pirate.

UPRISING — DOWNSTAGE (November 18 to 27, 2010)

Downstage’s Uprising festival describes itself as a “festival of new political theatre.” Entering its second year, Uprising is a newcomer on Calgary’s festival scene. Its mandate is “to offer artists and audiences a place to congregate and share vital discussion on some of the urgent issues facing our society.”

Three Canadian plays will share the festival bill including Meg Braem’s Potentilla, Devon Dubnyk’s whiteNOISE, and The Opposite of Dismal: A show and tell, presented by Verb Theatre and The PBC.

The festival also features a reading of the winning entry from the Uprising National Playwriting Competition, also in its second year. (An earlier incarnation of the competition started in 2006 as the Canadian Peace Play Competition, helmed solely by the Consortium for Peace Studies at the University of Calgary.)

CALGARY REGION ONE-ACT PLAY FESTIVAL — PUMPHOUSE THEATRE AND THE ALBERTA DRAMA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION (March 16 to 19, 2011)

The One-Act Play Festival features several — usually original — works by members of Calgary’s amateur theatre community.

The winner of festival goes on to represent the city in the provincial one-act play competition. Last year’s winning entry — Almost a Love Story by Louis B. Hobson — also placed first at the provincial level and had a successful run at this year’s Calgary Fringe Festival.