I Know You Are But What Am I?, SOUND OFF Festival of Deaf Theatre. Photo supplied

By Liz NIcholls, 12thnight.ca

We know how to get festive in this theatre town. It’s a two-festival week in Edmonton.

SOUND OFF, the influential six-day national festival of Deaf theatre with homegrown origins, returns to its birthplace with a ninth annual edition (through March 9).  The brainchild of the versatile actor/playwright/director Chris Dodd, SOUND OFF is dedicated to Deaf performing arts and artists — and theatre that’s accessible and welcoming to both Deaf and hearing audiences. Multi-disciplinary and multi-lingual (ASL and English) it gathers performances from across the country, B.C. to Quebec. And they happen both live (at the Fringe Arts Barns) and online.

This year’s lineup features five main productions. Sthena’s Broken Curse, a “family-friendly adventure” as billed, stars a misunderstood monster. 100 Decibels, a physical comedy mime troupe from Winnipeg, is bringing their new show, Deaflix and Chill. All We Can Do Is Trust, originally written in English by Vancouver-based hearing artist Kelsi James and translated into ASL, explores asexuality. I Know You Are But What Am I?, created by Deaf dancer and choreographer Cai Glover of the Montreal company A Fichu Turning, captures the experience of someone disoriented by the disabling world after losing his hearing.

Upside Down, Imago Theatre. Photo supplied

There’s a four-show digital lineup, including Fable Deaf, starring four Saskatchewan actors between the ages of 12 and 74, and Upside Down by Montreal’s Imago Theatre. And the festivities include panel discussions with Deaf artists, Deaf-led workshops, staged readings of plays by Deaf playwrights.

And, yes, there’s SOUND OFF’s perennially popular improv collaborations with Rapid Fire Theatre: a SOUND OFF edition of Maestro online and a SOUND OFF Theatresports, where Deaf and hearing improvisers go head to head. The Deaf improvisers, you won’t be surprised to learn, are formidable players since they’re expert, of worldly necessity, at physical theatre.

SOUND OFF runs at the Fringe Arts Barns and online through Sunday. Full schedule and tickets: soundofffestival.com.

Dance Nation, SkirtsAfire Festival. Photo by Brianne Jang, BB Collective Photography

SkirtsAfire, a multi-disciplinary festival, devoted to celebrating the work of female artists, is back Thursday for a 13th annual edition at a variety of Strathcona locations. And on the mainstage, Amanda Goldberg’s production of Dance Nation, the Alberta premiere of a play (by American writer Clare Barron) that takes us into a group of 13-year-old girls, hoping for a big win in a national dance competition. Find out more in the 12thnight preview: the director, SkirtsAfire’s new artistic producer, amplifies her ideas about the play, and the festival. SkirtsAfire runs March 6 to 16. Tickets: skirtsafire.com.