It’s ON! Wildside media round up.

The 24th edition of the WILDSIDE FESTIVAL is up and running!

Four of the five Wildside shows have opened and are now streaming 24/7 from their individual web pages: Whiteface Cabaret, Black Balloon: Leila, 453 St-Francois-Xavier, and Night Cows. 

“Outside the capital, Trump has called for a demonstration of thousands of supporters to yell and protest, promising that it will be ‘very wild’. […] For wild times I much prefer to view the Centaur Theatre’s annual Wildside Festival”

Byron Toben, Westmountmag.ca
Todd Houseman in a screenshot of The Whiteface Cabaret

Read the reviews on Westmountmag.ca

BLACK BALLOON: LEILA AND WHITEFACE CABARET
By Faith Langston

MOONCOW THEATRE CO’S NIGHT COWS AND THE BAKERY’S SKIN
By Jacqueline van de Geer

“The cutting-edge celebration of performance is finding new ways to flex its creativity as it prepares to go online only.”

Theatre critic Jim Burke, Montreal Gazette, takes an in-depth look and speaks with Wildside curator, Rose Plotek

LIVE Streamed @ Centaur

Every night this week, Leslie Baker’s 4-part live stream, SKIN, premiers a new episode at 8 pm, Monday Jan. 18th through Thursday Jan. 21st. The four episodes will repeat in the same order Monday Jan. 25 through Thursday Jan. 28 and all four episodes, wrapped into one, will be online from  January 29th to 31st .

Leslie Baker on set for SKIN – photo credit potatoCakes_digital

Catalyst @ Centaur – Meet the Future!

We’re saving the newest addition to the festival for the closing weekend. Saturday and Sunday Jan. 30th and 31st at 2pm, tune in to Catalyst @ Centaur on YouTube / Facebook / Catalyst webpage. Each afternoon, four playwrights will read excerpts from their works-in-progress receiving dramaturgical support through Centaur’s Catalyst initiative, followed by a short interview with Wildside curator, Rose Plotek.

Each of the [Wildside] artists has really taken the challenge in a new direction and embraced the restrictions and possibilities that this [the pandemic] has offered them.

Rose Plotek, festival curator
Catalyst playwrights will read excerpts of their plays on Jan 30 & 31st.
“Best of all, in the short term, a streaming — and entirely free — version of their annual [Centaur Theatre’s] Wildside Festival is being presented from Jan. 12 to 31, including ‘five fresh, hot-off-the-press creations, each with a uniquely distinct lens on the world today.”

-Lorraine Carpenter explores “theatre from the edge”. Cult MTL

CKUT Upstage

Wildside takes over the airwaves on CKUT 90.3FM‘s UPSTAGE for two consecutive weeks as host Sarah Deshaies talks to Wildside curator, Rose Plotek, and two Wildside creators:

“People can go on this journey that is fantastical.”

– Katey Wattam, Night Cows (CKUT interview)

Upstage Jan. 7 Katey Wattam and Leslie Baker
“Ultimately it’s about how to have a meaningful life.”

– Leslie Baker, SKIN (CKUT interview)

Upstage Jan. 14 features Sophie El Assaad and Greg MacArthur, as well as Amelia Sargisson who is one of the Catalyst playwrights.

Let’s GO CBC

Sabrina Marandola and Rose Plotek explore presenting ‘outside-the-box’ theatre during a pandemic.

Radio-Canada Culture Club

“Ne boudez pas votre plaisir. Allez faire un tour…vous serez charmés.” 

“C’est magnifique[…]carrément hypnotisant” – Night Cows

“Vraiment original […]une excellente conception sonore et réalisation.” – 453 St-François-Xavier

Ariana Cipriani, Radio-Canada Culture Club