Ian Martens

Helen King (l), Joleen Ceraldi and Jillian Danielhoto in Salome’s Clothes, by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard.

DETAILS

IGNITE! Calgary's Festival for Emerging Artists
Pumphouse Theatre
Thursday, June 11 - Saturday, June 13

More in: Theatre

“Fill your basket.” That’s the advice Rylan Wilkie recalls from one of his instructors at Montreal’s National Theatre School as he embarked upon his career as a professional actor.

Now, eight years later, Wilkie is sharing his experience and insights with young artists at Sage Theatre’s fifth annual Ignite! festival, which provides emerging artists with professional mentorship and an opportunity to showcase their work. Co-produced by Pumphouse Theatre, the festival features seven one-act plays, bands performing on each of the festival’s three nights, a dance series, two staged readings, as well as a visual arts display in the lobby of the Pumphouse.

“Coming out of school, companies don’t know who you are. Any opportunity to have your work on stage is a bonus,” says Wilkie, parroting his teacher’s earlier advice.

Festival director Ellen Close, also a graduate of the National Theatre School, says Ignite! encourages learning by doing.

“We really put an emphasis on process. We encourage artists to take risks and try new things,” she says. “We think of ourselves as a bridge between that really scary place of just graduating from school and then wanting to transition into the professional world.”

Considering Sage’s reputation for provocative theatre, the multi-disciplinary nature of Ignite! might seem surprising. “Of course, our expertise is theatre, but I think it’s important for emerging artists in different disciplines to be making connections with each other. Our aim is to nurture the sense of an emerging artist community,” says Close. “Besides, it also makes for a great festival experience. Even if you’re a bit of a neophyte when it comes to arts, you can experience a wide range of arts within a very short period of time.”

The Karl Schwonik Trio, a young jazz ensemble, opens the music portion of the festival on the evening of Thursday, July 11. Brock Geiger, whose album Invitation will be released this summer, plays Friday night, and the festival wraps up Saturday with Mary Sioui and Rodney Brent on guitar, banjo and mandolin.

The core of the festival, however, with its more than 100 participants, remains the play series. Forty-five scripts from across the country were submitted, but only seven were selected by the reading committee.

Christopher Duthie’s n00b is about a teen’s obsession with video games. It’s based on the true story of Brandon Crisp, the 14-year-old Ontario boy who ran away from home when his parents took away his Xbox.

Jon Lachlan Stewart’s Big Shot tells the story of a young boy’s murder on Vancouver’s skytrain, as he’s pitching his death to the audience as a movie.

Then there’s Meg Braem’s The Josephine Knot, a story about family belonging, which takes place at an elderly woman’s wake as various relatives pick over her possessions.

Braem, who first studied theatre at the University of Victoria, is finishing her master’s degree in playwriting at the University of Calgary. “It’s totally scary to be graduating; scary and exciting,” says Braem. “School is such a lovely safety net. But now it’s time to create and to absorb what I learned.”

Another of Braem’s plays, The Year of Falling Down, was in last year’s festival. “Doing Ignite! last year, when I was new to Calgary, I was like, ‘OK, I can really make a home here. There’s a community here for me,’” she recalls, crediting the experience with putting her in touch with other young artists. “I’ve never been to another festival that is so supportive in terms of mentorship,” she adds.

Close agrees. “There’s a great hunger in the Calgary community to mentor emerging artists. Artists are very conscious of the support they received when they were starting out. Now, they’re keen to be a resource to younger artists,” she says.

When one sees real talent, and there’s an opportunity for it to grow, says Wilkie, who appeared in Alberta Theatre Projects’ NiX and East of Berlin this past season, one wants to embrace it and nourish it because it only makes the community stronger.

Jeff Kubik, a regular contributor to Fast Forward Weekly, also has a play at this year’s Ignite! called Secondhand Tapes. It deals with a teen who is starting high school and, in trying to find his place in the world, becomes addicted to pornography.

Secondhand Tapes will feature Geoffrey Brown, who just graduated from Mount Royal College’s acting program. “Calgary is the best place to be in Canada as a young actor,” says Brown. “It’s one of the easiest places to make something with yourself and a few other artists and put it up somewhere. There’s positive energy in this city towards doing that.”

Brown, who is working with mentor Andy Curtis of One Yellow Rabbit fame, appreciates the mentorship process. “It’s one thing for a bunch of young artists to sit around and say, ‘You’re on the right track,’ but it’s another for an experienced artist to see it and say, ‘You’re on the right track,’” he says.

Another play, called Tiny Replicas by Dave Deveau, is about two men who want a baby and to experience all that’s involved with creating a new life.

Pam Rocker’s Heterophobia explores a world in which being gay is the norm and being straight is a deviance. “I think it’s enough of a twist that it helps people explore a sense of empathy for people in that situation,” says Close.

Finally, Salome’s Clothes, by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, tells the story of a single mother whose remarriage disrupts the lives of her two young daughters.

Each show, which must be shorter than one hour, gets a $300 budget, something Close says encourages creativity on the part of the designers. As for Wilkie, he says he’s just looking forward to the festival. “It’s great to be around that energy, to feel that ‘Let’s throw it to the wind and have fun’ mentality.”