Annette Loiselle and Amanda Goldberg, SkirtsAfire Festival. Photo by Brianne Jang

By Liz Nicholls 12thnight.ca

SkirtsAfire, the multi-disciplinary 12-year-old festivities that celebrate and support women in the arts, is having a a transitional big-M Moment.

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Founder and artistic director Annette Loiselle, the veteran actor/director whose bright idea SkirtsAfire was in 2012 — motivated by the striking imbalance of opportunities for men and women in the theatre profession — is moving on. Her production of Beth Graham’s new play Mermaid Legs, the mainstage commission that’s the centrepiece of the 2024 edition, opening Feb. 29, is her SkirtsAfire grand finale.

The incoming artistic producer of a festival that started small and got big is Amanda Goldberg, the freelance director whose riotous production of Twelfth Night alternated with Romeo and Juliet at last summer’s Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Goldberg has done much of the curating of this year’s edition, from 85 applications, working for the year in close collaboration with Loiselle and general manager Brianne Jang.

“It’s been a great anchor this past year,” the ebullient Goldberg says of her new gig. ‘Founder syndrome’, the potential difficulty of re-steering an organization indelibly associated with the dream of one person, “just hasn’t happened,” she says happily.  “Annette has been so gracious and supportive…. Just a best-case scenario.”

“It’s been a great fit … it’s definitely a company where I see my values mirrored to me. A company I would have built myself!” “A great learning experience, and a great team…. So much potential! I want to do so many things. And it’s finally being in a position where you actually can’t do it all; you pick some things and strive for those.”

What’s happening at this year’s festival? Goldberg explains. For one thing, the opening ceremony and SkirtsAfire’s annual A-Line Variety Show are happening at a new venue, Walterdale Theatre. The Feb. 29 show is curated, says Goldberg, “so you can have a little taste of everything you can see at the festival.”

Expect to clap eyes on clowns of diverse stripe, for example, as part of Comedy Night (March 9). There are movement pieces that expand the definition of dance — “from Euro-centric classical ballet to South Asian dance, to aerial to acrobatic,” all part of SkirtsAfire’s Embodyment program (March 8 and 9, Théâtre Servus Credit Union at La Cité francophone).

Off The Page “is our way of supporting new work every year … basically theatre plays “two more immersive projects, This Is Canada created by Elsa Robinson and The Lost Sock Society created and performed by Louise Casemore and Christine Lesiak. Goldberg is particularly pumped about La Vieja Astronauta by Alexandra Contreras. “An old woman wants to spend her last few days of life in space,” as Goldberg describes. “All done through movement and projections. The March 7 program at La Cité francophone also includes new theatre work by up-and-comers Amanda Samuelson, Lita Pater, April MacDonald Killins.

The Shoe Project

SkirtsAfire’s partnership with Workshop West in presenting The Shoe Project continues this year. The Edmonton branch of a national initiative of a dozen years ago,  it gathers the stories of immigrant and refugee women. And, following the truism that to understand someone you must walk a mile in their shoes,  we learn of their journeys to Canada, and their struggles to adapt to a new country, a new language, a new identity — through a pair of shoes. Mentored by the notable Canadian playwright Conni Massing, the writers share their own stories in performance March 2 and 3 at Walterdale Theatre.

New this year? A collaboration with another expansive festival, SOUND OFF, “Canada’s national festival dedicated to the Deaf performing arts,” in its eighth annual incarnation. In Speaking Vibrations (March 6 and 7), a multi-disciplinary performance collective from Ottawa, we meet four women discovering their own stories — through dance, song, spoken word, ASL with “creative captioning,” and using the innovative vibrotactile technology Edmonton audiences experienced, in Carbon Movements, at last year’s SOUND OFF.

SkirtsAfire’s traditional partnership with the Old Strathcona Business AssocIation takes a new form, in its annual goal of drawing people to Whyte Avenue. Found Poetry, an interactive installation of blackout poetry, happens at assorted locations. “We print poems on sandwich boards around Whyte,” as Goldberg explains, “and invite people to black out what they want (or change the previous black-out)” and thereby create their own poetry, on the spot. “A beautiful idea, an experiment in connecting with audiences, in seeing what people will actually do…. And we’ve wanted to incorporate more literary arts!”

“It’ll be fun. Hopefully, it’ll start a conversation.”

In Nehiyaw Nikamowina ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ, conversation with the audience happens in Cree. It’s an immersive and celebratory Cree language song and dance concert by and starring the mother-daughter duo of Cikwes and and Cheyenne Rain LaGrande (March 5 and 6, Walterdale Theatre).

Music and workshops are on the SkirtsAfire roster, too. Check out skirtsafire.com for the full schedule, and tickets.

The experience of a tough year for the theatre industry year has had its revelations for Goldberg: some of her ideas are “big-eyed, bushy-tailed and unrealistic,” as she acknowledges. “But some are valuable, and I don’t want to discard them….” The ex-Montrealer arrived here with degrees in both acting and theatre creation, and the founding of an indie theatre (We Are One), on her resumé. And she added a U of A master’s degree in directing in 2022.         

In her four years here, there have been some disappointments, she says. Among them — and Loiselle is a striking exception — is that “I don’t feel I’ve connected to women leaders in the industry … mainly because not many of them exist.” And mentorship, along with multi-disciplinary collaboration, is one of Goldberg’s principle themes in leading the festival. “I do want to show the next generation of theatre artists there is opportunity for them and we can move the pendulum together!”

“So much potential. So much I want to do, and it’s finally being in a position where you can’t do it all,” she says cheerfully. “It’s pick some things, and strive for those.” In her three-year plan Goldberg hopes to break out of the budgetary model in which SkirtsAfire alternates producing and presenting theatre, every second year. “My goal is to produce,” she says. “We want to focus on local artists, and to have a hand in creating and developing the work in Edmonton.”

And then, to propel that work farther afield. “I’d love for SkirtAfire to have the national recognition it deserves,” by way of productions that venture forth beyond Edmonton. “Extending the life of a show in multiple provinces” is, she thinks, “the way forward for our industry … a bigger resources network.”

She’s already thinking about a possible mainstage production for the 2025 festival, a fusion of dance and theatre about a group of 13-year-old competitive dancers, in which the ensemble, as prescribed by the playwright, should consist of performers from ages 17 to 75. “A multi-generational perspective of girlhood, so exciting!” she says. “It’s so rare to see women of all ages getting to work together.”

Eventually, she says, SkirtsAfire should have “some kind of new work development process…. We shouldn’t just be taking submissions; we need to support playwrights through the development process as well.” Ah, and the festival should aim for “a bit more year-long visibility,” she thinks.

“I want to see this city succeed. And I want to be part of that!”

Have you checked out Behind the scenes at Mermaid Legs? 12thnight’s PREVIEW of Beth Graham’ new ‘surreal theatre dance fantasia’, the mainstage production at SkirtsAfire, is here.

SkirtsAfire 2024

Where: Gateway Theatre, Walterdale Theatre, Westbury Theatre, La Cité francophone, Chianti Cafe and Restaurant

Running: February 29 to March 10, full schedule at skirtsafire.com.

Tickets: skirtsafire.com