Tag Archives: Edmonton festivals

Thinking big: the Citadel’s Collider Festival is back with new plays for Size Large stages

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Think big or go … wait. There’s a mantra not often heard in Canadian theatre, where “size matters,” another multi-purpose catchphrase, almost always really means “think smaller.” Thinking big is the agenda of Collider, the festival … Continue reading →

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All grown up at 31, and forever young: Nextfest, the festival of emerging artists, is back this week

Posted on June 1, 2026 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca All grown up, and forever young. That’s Nextfest, the 11-day multi-disciplinary festival of emerging artists that’s been asking “what’s next?” ever since it got dreamed up at Theatre Network in 1996. It’s back Thursday at the … Continue reading →

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Expanse, the festival that celebrates bodies in motion, is back

Posted on March 18, 2026 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It starts with bodies, all bodies, in motion, and moves onward and outward from there. Azimuth Theatre’s ever-expanding Expanse, their signature movement arts festival, is back Friday, with a 10-day edition dubbed Intersections. Community engagement, “the … Continue reading →

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Celebrating the work of women in the arts: what’s on at SkirtsAfire 2026

Posted on March 4, 2026 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca SkirtsAfire, Edmonton’s 10-day multi-disciplinary festival devoted to  celebrating the work of women in the arts, is back Thursday for a 14th annual edition, dubbed ‘The Maps We Make’. And as usual the festivities are an A-line … Continue reading →

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Fun at camp: Freewill goes for the bold strokes in As You Like It. A review

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The first hint that Freewill Shakespeare’s As You Like It will go for the bold strokes is that Orlando (the magnetic Braydon Dowler-Coltman), in ball cap and sunglasses, roars up to the stage, to an overture … Continue reading →

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The sound of Silence: a new opera at NUOVA Vocal Arts, a review

Posted on June 24, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Silence. Now there’s a puckish name for an opera. With Silence, NUOVA Vocal Arts has taken in hand an expansive, richly imagined 1999 play by the English playwright/screenwriter Moira Buffini. This new addition to the opera … Continue reading →

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Get festive: it’s a four-festival weekend on (and above and near) Edmonton stages

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca We sure do know how to get festive in this town. It’s a FOUR-festival weekend on (and above and near and beyond) Edmonton stages. So a toast is in order. •At the Exchange Theatre in Strathcona, … Continue reading →

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The rise of RISER: a new works festival from Common Ground

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca RISER has risen. Again, and in a new, expanded form. Edmonton, where theatre is the leading arts industry, was always the right place for the visionary national initiative — launched by Toronto’s Why Not Theatre — … Continue reading →

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Bodies in motion: Azimuth Theatre’s Expanse Festival is back with a 20th anniversary edition

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Its birth, 20 years ago, was dance. And gradually, Azimuth Theatre’s nimble, well-named Expanse Festival, returning Friday for an anniversary edition, has expanded the frontiers and expectations of dance to embrace “movement arts” and “body-based performance.” … Continue reading →

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What to see at Find Your Fringe: some thoughts to get you started

Posted on August 10, 2024 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The Fringe is back, starting Thursday, in the town where the continent’s fringe phenom began. Yup, the biggest and oldest Fringe festival on the continent is a bona fide grassroots Edmonton invention, crazy, improbable, irresistible. And … Continue reading →

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