Victoria Maybee, Centretown News
Arts Court is now the home of undercurrents theatre festival.Home to dozens of artistic performances every year, the 144-year-old Arts Court building is welcoming yet another local theatre festival to its timeworn halls with the addition of undercurrents.
Celebrating its fifth anniversary this month, undercurrents is an annual festival that showcases original and independent theatre performances from around the city and the world.
The festival is undergoing a shake-up in both location and leadership this year with the transfer of ownership from the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Hintonburg to the Ottawa Fringe Festival at Arts Court, resulting in nine shows instead of the usual six or seven.
Eric Coates, the artistic director at GCTC, says the decision to hand over the reigns to the Fringe just made sense for his company.
“We were really weighing how we can use our resources most effectively here,” he says.
“My primary goal at GCTC is to put more resources into our main stage work so I can create more work for artists with contracts that will give them a better income. To do that, we had to eliminate some expenses.”
The actual hand-over was pretty seamless, Coates says.
Patrick Gauthier, who co-founded undercurrents five years ago while he was working for the company, took over the festival this year while at his new position with the Fringe.
Gauthier says it was important for him to take on undercurrents, as GCTC would have had to put it on an indeterminate hiatus if not.
“We looked at our schedule and how the undercurrents’ mandate and the Fringe’s mandate of open, accessible theatre aligned and thought there was a really great fit at Arts Court for it,” Gauthier says.
While the festival’s former operators won’t have any artistic input, Coates says they contributed by donating weeks of assistance from their production manager to make sure the festival’s re-birth ran smoothly.
Despite the shift for the festival, not much will be different, according to Gauthier.
“The spirit of the festival remains the same. It’s still a showcase for the best independent theatre in Ottawa and across the country so that’s not changing, but we have more flexibility with the space here,” he says.
Arts Court’s main theatre can seat 130 people, whereas the GCTC theatre previously used could only accommodate 70. The new space also features a small studio theatre, so two performances can go on simultaneously.
Karen Balcome and Geoff McBride, two local artists who wrote and performed their piece “Far & Near & Here,” say the change-up is a chance to broaden their reach.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to connect to a new audience,” says Balcome, a Centretown resident.
Undercurrents runs Feb. 12-21 at Arts Court.