FIND festival ignites creative sparks on stage

by Ann Tanner

Sparks are flying at the Phoenix Theatre, where the third annual Festival of Innovative and New Drama (FIND) 2005 is underway.

The departments of theatre and writing are again collaborating to present two plays and eight staged readings over the next several weeks.

In That Elusive Spark, running March 8–19, Victoria playwright and UVic grad Janet Munsil and director Linda Moore explore the magnificence and fragility of the human brain. The play was inspired by the true story of New England construction foreman Phineas Gage who, in 1848, survived a freak blasting accident that drove an iron spike through his skull. The incident changed the course of modern medicine and still serves as a reminder of the enduring and fascinating debate about how the mind works and what it means to be human.

Real life connections also influenced the production of Caryl Churchill's powerful play, Fen, which opened the festival in February and runs until March 5. Director Yasmine Kandil, a master's student, spent two summers teaching drama to street children and youth garbage collectors in her native Cairo. She sees parallels between the lives of the "garbage boys" and the women landworkers depicted in Churchill's play. "We see the harshness of their lives but also their dreams, their courage and their day-to-day joys," she says.

FIND 2005 will end with three evenings of staged play readings at the Phoenix on March 18, 19 and 20. Eight new plays written by students in the department of writing and directed and acted by theatre students will be presented in back-to-back fashion. Audience members can take in one, two or all eight plays in a single evening and enjoy a Phoenix-style coffee house in between readings.
For tickets and information, call the Phoenix box office at 721-8000 or visit www.phoenixtheatres.ca.