Anxiety: Nov. 24-Dec. 4

Theatre Yes presents ANXIETY
An immersive performance installation with creators from across Canada

(Edmonton, AB) Theatre Yes presents ANXIETY, at La Cité francophone (8627 91 Street) November 24 – December 4, 2016. Tickets are on sale now at TIX on the Square (9930-102 Avenue, Sir Winston Churchill Square; by phone 780.420.1757 or online www.tixonthesquare.ca)

Our personal, secret catalogues of small terrors can move us from the rational to the irrational in mere moments. The way we choose to deal with our fear shapes our lives and the lives of those around us. Our choices to act or not act based on our irrational need to protect ourselves can take us to the heights of joy and plunge us into the depths of despair. Theatre Yes’s ANXIETY will challenge audiences to explore the underbelly of these phenomena as they journey through this one-of-kind immersive performance sculpted by Edmonton playwright Cat Walsh and scored by renowned sound artist Gary James Joynes in collaboration with some of Canada’s most inventive small-scale companies. Each of the six guest companies will be contributing 10-minute immersive performance installation-style pieces that examine anxiety, its mechanisms and how it shapes our lives. Northern Light Theatre (Edmonton), Theatre Skam (Victoria) and Outside the March (Toronto), LoHiFi Production (Halifax), Curtain Razors (Regina) and Théâtre à corps perdus (Montreal) will be on-site to install six creations that are not to be missed.

Heather Inglis Artistic Producer of Theatre Yes says: It is thrilling to collaborate with like minded artist from across the country in this groundbreaking collaboration that will be a true adventure for Edmonton theatre audiences.”

The project will wrap-up with Theatre Yes hosting the first ever Canadian Small Theatre Summit —a series of discussions between the participants in ANXIETY about how to advance and promote small- scale experimental theatre in Canada. The summit will be facilitated by Sarah Stanley, Associate Artistic Director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre.

Theatre Yes creates access points to national and international cultural conversations via the production of unique and challenging works from Canada and the world. In 2013/2014 Theatre Yes brought the critically acclaimed National Elevator Project to Edmonton and received a special Sterling Award for Outstanding Innovation in the Theatre. Theatre Yes is about risky, challenging, contemporary theatre that takes audiences to places they have never been before. (theatre-yes.ca)

Anxiety runs November 24 – December 4, 2016 at La Cité Francophone. Tickets are on sale now at TIX on the Square (9930-102 Avenue, Sir Winston Churchill Square; by phone 780.420.1757 or online http://www.tixonthesquare.ca). This is an interactive immersive theatre experience that will involve walking, standing and entering small spaces to view performances. Expect water-based haze, low-light and challenging content. Expect the unexpected.

LoHiFi Productions (Halifax)

Since 2009, Halifax’s LoHiFi has been crafting theatre, film, and performance art that draws audiences into richly detailed worlds. Whether it’s an epic journey across a card table, a 40-foot glowing jelly fish swimming across the night sky, or Salvador Dali as a hardboiled detective in love with a singing banana, Chris Little and Theo Pitsiavas flip our understanding of the familiar to create surprise and spectacle.

Théâtre à corps perdus (Montreal)

Founded in 2003, Théâtre à corps perdus was born from a desire to evoke what we won’t talk about, that which leaves us without a voice. Our creations explore the troubled zones of being: the urges that tug at us, the lies that we tell ourselves, the difficulty to speak. Our approach questions the theatrical ritual, mixing reality and fiction, either by speaking through testimony, or by orchestrating theatrical experiences in significant urban settings. Playing with the architecture of bodies in space, we try to awaken mysterious otherworldy imprints to evoke what moves us, here and today.

Outside the March (Toronto)

Outside the March is a Toronto-based theatre company led by Mitchell Cushman. The company creates theatre that is immersive, site-engaging, new, wide-reaching and communal. Since 2009, Outside the March has invited audiences to play in kindergarten classrooms, parade with Queen Elizabeth along the Danforth, tinker in garages, congregate in churches, venture out on a 911 paramedic call, and share the spotlight onstage at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

Curtain Razors (Regina)

Curtain Razors is a Regina based company dedicated to restoring theatre as an essential art form that invites artists and audiences to participate in the creation of live and communal events. We are committed to cultivating a space in Saskatchewan where local and innovative interdisciplinary artists can conceive, incubate, develop, and present original work that achieves a world-class level of excellence. Live. Here. Now.

Northern Light Theatre (Edmonton)

Northern Light Theatre is dedicated to producing intimate and affecting work that speak to the modern audience of the urban human condition, the failure to find security and the loss of the dreams held by all for love and happiness. They challenge both artist and audience by producing and developing provocative scripts, language rich texts that are dark, poetic and funny- reflecting a complex world, and lead us to question our hierarchy of values.

Theatre SKAM (Victoria)

Founded in 1995, Theatre SKAM’s mandate is to create a living, contemporary, professional theatre; to provide varied and provocative theatrical entertainment for audiences in Victoria and on tour; and to employ emerging theatre artists. Working to create dialogue and partnership with like-minded arts practitioners, community groups and local experts, we’re known for our sense of fun as we create theatre that is innovative and entertaining, and above all – never boring.