DATELINE DESI
SAWITRI THEATRE GROUP PRESENTS THE SHORTS THEATRE FESTIVAL 2022
Image credit: TIMA MIROSHNICHENKO on Pexels.
A new name and an expanded festival this year to celebrate the linguistic diversity and talent that exists in Mississauga through short theatre plays ranging from 10 to 45 minutes in duration. The festival takes place at the Maja Prentice Theatre, Mississauga from April 15 to May 15, 2022, and will serve to bring the community together and foster a greater understanding of the differences and celebrate the spirit of resilience and resonance of our shared human experiences.
Conceived, curated and created by Co-Founder and Artistic Co-Directors Jasmine Sawant and Shruti Shah, The Shorts Theatre Festival 2022 has been born out of the Hindi Shorts launched in 2018. This initiative was envisioned as an incubator space for emerging writers of short plays, emerging actors who are also often new generation artists working alongside established professional artists to explore, experiment and engage in the creation of short, dramatic scripts and hone their skills as artists performing in their language of comfort. Many of these talented emerging actors are also newcomers to Canada and the opportunity to perform in their language immediately serves to make them feel welcome.
The Shorts Theatre Festival 2022 schedule:
April 15, 16, 17: Punjabi
April 22, 23, 24: Hindi
April 29, 30 and May 1: Marathi
May 6, 7, 8: Gujarati
May 13, 14, 15: Malayalam
The Punjabi Shorts are in association with Punjabi Arts Association and the Malayalam Short are in association with the Atam Arts Collective.
Founded in January 2003 by Artistic Co-Directors Jasmine Sawant and Shruti Shah, Sawitri Theatre Group is an award-winning, incorporated not-for-profit organization that presents original, challenging and exciting works featuring established professionals as well as emerging artistes. Sawitri Theatre strives to educate, entertain and heal through theatre arts that are South Asian in character, origin or topic and foreground women as well as issues of social or political importance. Winner of the 2016 Martys Award for excellence in theatre, Sawitri is a preeminent producer and presenter of South Asian Theatre in Mississauga, and the Mississauga Multilingual Fringe Festival launched in 2021. It is known to take risks, bringing unique theatre experiences to its audiences, producing plays in some of India’s many languages, including English. Operationally, Sawitri Theatre Group is supported by The Open Space, Nitin Sawant, and the unstinting support of family, friends and volunteers and is partly supported by the City of Mississauga through an annual operating grant. The Shorts Theatre Festival 2022 has been generously funded by Canadian Heritage.