Here’s what’s happening at Axis Theatre in our 2021-22 season!

Last season we acquired a new vocabulary in the office: “We are pivoting our approach. Please pivot to the new normal. Everyone is pivoting to online. Pivot with respect!” Theatre swiveled from the stage to audio plays, twisted into filmed and live-streamed presentations. And how does one film a live performance? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Fortunately, with the aid of some very talented filmmakers and crew, Axis Theatre found a new genre to conquer - an approach we might not have taken had our touring activity not pivoted itself into the other.

TH’OWXIYA: THE HUNGRY FEAST DISH, by Joseph A. Dandurand is now a stand-alone film. Across Canada, over 45,000 young people and those who love them watched it between April and June 2021. So, with a successful Digital Now application through the Canada Council and three scripts to work with, we aren’t stopping there.

KWI’AH: THE GIRL WHO HEALS, a new script by Dandurand, is a Kwantlen First Nations tale about a girl who heals. LEARNING LESSONS, the winning script from our 2020 YOUNGPlays competition, shares a lot of lessons. Whether the characters learn from them or not, you’ll have to wait to find out. Our beloved SOMEBODY LOVES YOU, MR. HATCH is also going digital, and spoiler alert, by the end everyone loves Mr. Hatch. These theatre/film hybrids will be premiering at staggered intervals in our 2021-22 season.

And what would be an Axis season without some awesome workshops on offer? This fall we have two! Multimedia 2Spirit artist Jay Havens will instruct a rawhide rattle making workshop over two 1-hour sessions. We send the materials, you tune in virtually and voila, you will have a new musical instrument and some Indigenous history we bet you didn’t already know. Then in November, Frank Rader, master puppet and mask maker, will take 20 participants through his unique and exclusive full expressive mask creation process. Regardless of the expression you choose, all will walk away with a full expressive mask and some mad mask-making skills to boot.

The new year is somewhat dependent on the state of the world BUT if all goes our way, SOMEBODY LOVES YOU, MR. HATCH will be the first of our productions to leave the nest. There are planned appearances coast to coast - BC & the Maritimes, with some prime US dates in Detroit and Atlanta. Hope they open that border by May 2022.

Our littlest ones will not be left out! We are co-presenting the final run (insert tears here) of Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia’s THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR in February 2022. There are daytime group shows during the week and public shows on the weekend and we have all our toes crossed that we can be a part of the final journey for this production, which has entertained children all over the world and most importantly, 10,000 of our own young people in Vancouver.

We are feeling good here at Axis. We are keeping up our “normal” operations, developing four new, original plays, and finding new ways to support our local artistic community - providing employment, like through our hugely successful Commedia in the Park project in the summer of 2021, which was a combined educational and performing opportunity for emerging professionals.

We cannot do any of it without the support of Axis Theatre’s Board of Directors, those who give us money and our loyal patrons. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And vote today! It’s September 20th! When you do, please keep the arts in mind. Now more than ever we need you!