Let’s Get Digital!
Alberta’s Digital Fest is back for its third year and will be running from April 3rd to April 30th, 2023.
This year’s festival offers a wide range of digital storytelling from recorded stage performances to short films, podcasts and cartoons, all made by local Alberta artists.
Digital Fest is a celebration of the creative potential of digital media and aims to bring together a diverse range of artists from all over the province.
The festival provides an opportunity for emerging talent to showcase their work and engage in meaningful conversations about digital storytelling.
All pieces available online until April 30th, 2023!
Digital Fest Exclusives
Click on the “+” below to learn more about each piece, and stream online!
What will Sue do when she is overcome with anxiety as she meets the ultimate dilemma at the office birthday party? Will she just Cut the cake? Or take the cut cake and RUN.
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece?
This piece takes inspiration from a lot of different things! It plays with the paradox of how the silliest of things can have the most debilitating effects.
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
– Company: Thomas Kassian-INSTAGRAM: @t.kass- Lauren Brady – INSTAGRAM: @lauren_brady_- DIRECTOR & EDITOR Thomas Kassian- CHOREOGRAPHER & WRITER Lauren Brady- PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Zac Strom- OFFICE WORKERS Candice Holloway, Hamna Tahir, Roxie Malone, Brynn Kassian, Douglas MacDonald, Gavin Wilkes.- SUE Lauren Brady
Special thanks:
Tara Cheyenne Performance, Creative Cottage, Festival Of Recorded Movement
Get Tickets Here!
Drag is art, liberation, and joy.
Follow the tracks of a drag queen’s first transformation, putting the freedom that comes from expressing yourself on full display.
The heels may hurt, but the joy is real.
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece?
This piece takes inspiration from the real life experience of witnessing the evolution that comes changing outside to become free inside.
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
– Bianca Banique Bret Jacobs
– Dishwasher Andrés Moreno
– Director Andrés Moreno
– Assistant Director Gabby Moukhaiber
– Cinematography Arthur Mah
– Choreography Andrés Moreno
– Camera Harvey Li
– Sound Editing Arthur Mah
– Editing Arthur Mah
– Make up CJ Rowein
– Hair Abyss
– Costume Andrés Moreno
– Executive Producer Morgan Yamada
– Executive Producer Sue Goberdhan
– Producer Andrés Moreno
Special thanks:
Evolution Wonderlounge, CJ Rowein, Nightshade Corsets, Abyss, Canada Council for the arts and Edmonton Arts Council.
Get Tickets Here!
Gods, Santeria, fantastic creatures, and magical natural beauty give life to these stories. Through theater, storytelling, and digital animation, the audience will enjoy the antics, adventures, and tricks of the lucumí gods or orishas, characters originating from Cuban santería, a meeting point between the Catholic and Yoruba religious traditions of Nigeria.
Emí Laará: it’s a play for all audiences trying to tell the world:
“I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me.”
― Kwame Nkrumah
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece?
My piece is my cultural strategy to defend my triple cultural identity. My identity as an artist, as a Cuban artist, and as an Afro-descendant.
Also, my main goals with the project are:
To show and share aspects of Afro-Cuban culture that only a few know about.
It will help to eliminate stereotypes about Cubans and their traditions.
To share the wisdom of Afro-Cuban culture.
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
– DIRECTORS Hebert Poll Gutiérrez And Rodolfo Ortega Arnaíz
– GENERAL PRODUCER: Rodolfo Ortega Arnaíz
– PRODUCTION COMPANY : Imaginante S.C (Mexico)
– STORYTELLERS : Marcela Romero,Marconio Vázquez,Pilar Flores Del Valle
– CASTING DIRECTOR : Anna Salas
– PLAYWRIGHT: Hebert Poll Gutiérrez
– SCREENPLAY: Hebert Poll Gutiérrez And Anna Salas
– DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY : Christian Rios Llavot
– SOUND DESIGN : Victor Nava y Mata
– EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION: Arturo Batiz Lozano
Special thanks:
Afrocuba Folkloric Group of Matanzas. With their music, they conquered the Afro-Cuban gods.
Erik Olivera, for his paintings coming from the soul.
To my black gods and my mother, Gladys Felicia Gutiérrez. For giving me strength, health, and wisdom from the Alem, the world beyond time.
Get Tickets Here!
Honouring the Children is a dance film that uses spoken word and dance to honour the children who survived residential schools and those who didn’t. An orange jingle dress which is a healing dance and words to envision healing for the future. A traditional Anishnaabe jingle dress song is shared by Brock Stonefish.
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece?
This piece takes inspiration from the real life experience of witnessing the evolution that comes changing outside to become free inside.
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
Filmmaker/ Videographer/ Editor – Rick LIberte (Metis)
Choreographer/ Spoken Word – Sandra Lamouche (Cree)
Drummer/ musician – Brock Stonefish (Lenape)
Special thanks:
Calgary Arts Development; Banff National Park
Get Tickets Here!
Ray and Cora are two unlikely friends who met when they washed up on the same floating iceberg near Nunavut. They became friends who decided to move in together to share resources (and friendship!)
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
– Ray: Michael Vetsch
– Cora: Kijo Gatama
– Doug: Michael Vetsch
– Wallaby: Michael Vetsch
– ART DEPARTMENT
– Animation: Cristian Jonsson
– Backgrounds: Micah Jonsson
– SOUND DESIGN*
– Andrés Moreno *Special thanks to Salem T
– SOUND TECHNICIAN
– Selina Painchaud
– SCRIPT BY
– Andrés Moreno
– EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
– Sue Goberdhan
– Morgan Yamada
– PRODUCERS
– Andrés Moreno
– DIRECTED BY
– Andrés Moreno
Special thanks:
Crunchy Animations, and the Canada Council for the Arts for the original funding of this project, and to Fringe Theatre, ATB Arts Barns, Azimuth Theatre and our community for your support.
Get Tickets Here!
Sweat and passion are the key ingredients to endurance. It takes grit, stamina, and belief in yourself. In this short film, Tatiana Duque’s mesmerizing movement mixes with Lady Vanessa Cardona’s words in conversation with each other, personifying the perseverance necessary to make a life in the arts.
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece?
This piece is inspired by familial wisdom, salsa dancers and most of all my home Colombia. This love letter to Colombian artists is an opportunity to explore my diaspora and transforming that energy.
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
– CAST Tatiana Duque – SCRIPT BY: Lady Vanessa – DIRECTED BY: Andrés Moreno – CREW: Arthur Mah, Gabby Moukhaiber, Harvey Li – PRODUCED BY: Sue Goberdhan, Morgan Yamada, Andrés Moreno – EDITING BY: Harvey Li – MAKE-UP AND HAIR BY: OMD4 Makeup & FX, Ashley Skrocki
Special thanks:
Lady Vanessa, Alpacalypse Productions, Playhouse Theatre, Grindstone Theatre, Azimuth Theatre, Canada Council for the Arts for the original funding of this project, and our community for your support. and Edmonton Arts Council.
Get Tickets Here!
A young man discovers a statue in the woods, on the outskirts of a medieval village. If given a rose, the statue will come to life and dance, before turning back to stone. After discovering this, the young man grows desperate to bring the statue to life, if only for a moment. An original, queer fairy-tale about love, desperation, and consequence.
An original, queer fairy-tale about love, desperation, and consequence.
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece?
Inspired by old fairytales and folk art, as well as my own longings and romantic fantasies. My hope was to create a fairytale that felt “real”, along with showcasing queer love.
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
Independently produced by Andrew Cormier
Get Tickets Here!
USS Artemis is an audio drama in three parts. We’ve used an old recording technique called Binaural Sound to make the most immersive audio experience possible. Best enjoyed alone in the dark using over-the-ear headphones, we invite you to listen to our story as you see fit: If you need to take a break between episodes you’re welcome to. If you prefer to binge then let’s binge!
The story: A rescue mission in deep space goes horribly wrong. You are Captain Lee of the United Star Ship Artemis. Your mission is to piece together what happened, but who can you trust? And what are those odd sounds coming from hall? You’re going to have to find out if you hope to survive what comes next.
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece?
Our inspirations stems from a love of the sci-fi horror genre, our excitement for binaural sound as a distribution medium. This coupled with the desire to create a safe theatrical experience during the pandemic is what brought us to create USS Artemis.
This project was generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development and Vertigo Theatre. We are proud to present USS Artemis in its final form as a fully grown space fungus.
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
Playwright / Performer – Ali DeRegt
Playwright – Camille Pavlenko
Performer – Heather Pattengale
Performer – Michael Tan
Performer – Lara Schmitz
Performer – Sepidar Yaganeh Farid
Director – Kathryn Smith
Sound Design – Greg Wilson
Mastering – 6 Degrees Music & Sound
Producer – Bianca Miranda
Studio Manager – Meredith Johnson
Dramaturgy – Jenna Rodgers
Consultant – Kyle Hinton
Consultant – Aidan Lytton
Consultant – Glen Neath
Production Assistant – Ben Gaudet
Production Assistant – Miranda Martini
Special thanks:
Michael Rolfe
Get Tickets Here!
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Recorded Live Performances
Click on the “+” below to learn more about each piece, and stream online!
Presented as part of Azimuth Theatre’s Expanse Festival – Works In Process Series
Alienation. Transformation. Beautiful rage. Creature of Habit is a solo piece that is in part clown, dark comedy, satire, and cabaret. It tells the story of an isolated young woman as she tries to find ways to cope with her loneliness, which proves to be quite difficult. Time is passing rapidly outside, but it seems to move at a snail’s pace in the confines of her apartment. She finds herself approaching a good old fashioned descent into madness, and must find a way to free herself from her demons before she becomes one herself.
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece?
I’m inspired by tales of transformation, and the many wonderful and terrible transformations that one can experience. I’m inspired by feminine masks of Noh, Franz Kafka, and people who write articles about their internet addictions.
Artist Credits:
Performer/Creator – Sophie May Healey
Director – Zac Strom
Stage Manager – Liz Page
Set/Costume Design – Logan Burns
Special thanks:
Ben Healey, Karen May Healey, Jonathan Healey, June Fukumura, Sue Goberdhan, Morgan Yamada, Ren Calic
Get Tickets Here!
Presented as part of Azimuth Theatre’s Expanse Festival
DOT is a puppetry story of an ever-evolving spec through the molecular to the galactic. A surrealist and wordless-tale that inhabits all levels of micro and mega objects, throughout 2D and 3D worlds – told with manipulated liquids, holes, geometric shapes, reflections, shadow, sticks, bags and wind. It is an experience that encapsulates the vast shades within our shared humanity, from our delightfulness to cantankerous, viewed from the distance of the stars.
Everything and Anything is either only an Explosion or a Collapse
Yet everything at large remains unchangeable
And yet still completely unpredictable
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece? (The seed of inspiration)
I wanted to create a performance that moved away from ‘human based’ forms and that was much more interpretive, even better if different people viewed different segments in multiple ways. I wanted to resurge a rise of surrealist meaning and storytelling by using shapes and items not meant to be ‘good’ or ‘bad
Beyond all that, many parts of this show are inspired off my own life threatening experience with cancer and I wanted to share the worst and the best of what it means to live.
Creative Team
Ensemble – Kit Benz, Evan Medd, Michael Rolfe
Maker / Creator – Elaine Weryshko
Stage Manager – AJ Musters
Sound – Rebecca Reid, Ryan Bourne, & Keith Rodgers
Lighting Design – AJ Musters
Consultant – Nikki Emerson
*Produced in collaboration with the Festival of Animated Objects
Special thanks:
Peter Balkwill, Xstine Cook, Nikki Loach, Sarah Beth, Mike Corbiell, The Old Trouts, The Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry,
Get Tickets Here!
Tiny Bear Jaws
Presented as part of Azimuth Theatre’s Expanse Festival
Being queer in Alberta’s not for the faint of heart. Your sex toys’ batteries keep dying from the cold, your bar doubles as a senior’s dance hall, and your government won’t stop trying to sell you on the merits of conversion therapy. But while your community’s smaller, it’s also uniquely awesome.
GENDER? I HARDLY KNOW THEM is a fast-paced, joyfully provocative queer sketch show straight from the heart of the God-fearing, gun-toting, beef-loving Alberta prairies. Created and performed by gay, short, and hot non-binary comedians Elena (or Eli) Belyea (they/she) and Syd Campbell (they/them), GENDER? I HARDLY KNOW THEM is out to queer the world, one denim punchline at a time.
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece? (The seed of inspiration)
Because so many LGBTQ+ stories set in conservative backdrops focus on grief and isolation, GENDER? I HARDLY KNOW THEM centres queer self-actualization and joy. Sketches are punctuated by monologues from Elena and Syd’s lives about growing up gay in ‘Berta, giving the audience a chance to land and get their bearings before the jokes start flying again. These monologues make GENDER? I HARDLY KNOW THEM more than “just a sketch show”: they’re the connective tissue tying the show together, providing an unflinching look of the complex realities of life as part of a marginalized community. Risky, raunchy, and surprisingly heartfelt, GENDER? I HARDLY KNOW THEM will get you laughing, whatever your pronouns.
Artist Credits
Co-Created and performed by
ELENA ELI BELYEA and SYDNEY CAMPBELL
Directed and additional writing by
PAUL BLINOV
With musical guest
MIRANDA MARTINI
Produced by
ELENA ELI BELYEA, SYDNEY CAMPBELL, TORI MORRISON
Sound design by
TORI MORRISON
Dramaturgical support:
Rochelle Laplante, Mohamed Ahmed, Frances Girard, Steven Sobolewski
Special thanks:
David Walker, Geoffrey Simon Brown, Fringe Theatre, Alyson Dicey, Pips, Bob Campbell, Laurie Phipps-Campbell
Get Tickets Here!
Presented as part of Azimuth Theatre’s Expanse Festival
“I am delighted to announce an evening of dance, featuring the exciting work created and performed by local artists, Skye Demas, Sandra Olarte and Tia Ashley Kushniruk & Christianne Ullmark. The participating artists bring their unique histories and virtuosity to the stage in a show not to be missed.
While all three artistic teams and corresponding pieces have their distinct aesthetics, I believe they all address time and space in a way that only dance can. Time and space can be stretched in one moment and condensed in another. I am excited by this possibility and interested in how this is exhibited in each work.
I see Interchange as a young forest. A thriving ecosystem of plants and trees at various stages in their process, available to exchange and share with one another.”
-Molly McDermott
Creative Teams
Fragmented Journeys
Writer – Philip Hackborn
Dance Dramaturgy – Deviani Andrea
Director /Producer – Sandra Olarte
Ensemble:
Rayel Komant (aerial artist)
Anna Lubchenko (aerial artist)
Kendra Lywood (aerial artist)
Caitlin Mader (aerial artist)
Sandra Olarte (aerial artist)
Charece Pearman (aerial artist)
Kennedy Tkach (aerial artist)
Philip Hackborn (performer)
Special thanks:
Special thanks to Scott Rutledge, for his technical & creative support and providing the space that sparked the magic to happen. Thanks to Annie Dugan & Steph Gruson, from Firefly Theatre and Circus for making it possible to use their space for rehearsals.
where the tide meets the stream
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
Concept/Direction – Christianne Ullmark
Interpreter – Tia Ashley Kushniruk 亚 女弟
Sound Design – Christianne Ullmark
Special thanks:
University of Calgary, New Blu Emerging Dance, Toronto Dance Theatre, Beijing International Dance Festival
ᑲᓇᒋᒋᑫᐃᐧᐣ Kanacicikewin – Cleanse
Skye Demas – Good Women New Work Award Winner
Artist Credits (Whole Team Involved):
Performer, Choreographer – Skye Demas
Director – Skye Demas
Sound Design – the song is “Shiver” by Kosh Anade
Get Tickets Here!
Presented as part of Azimuth Theatre’s Expanse Festival – Works in Process Series
Kurama an oil painter moves to a new city. A story that looks at growing up, living with other humans, and who will survive at the end.
Artist Credits:
Playwright/Performer – Mohamed Ahmed
Performers – David Madow, Jaylin January
Direction – Joseph Dancey
Scenic Design – Sheldon Stockdale
Lighting Design – Tom Tunski
Sound Design – Mohamed Ahmed, Jaylin January
Stage Manager – Andraya Diogo
Special thanks:
Ahlam Hassan, Millwoods, and Existing!
What Is the Inspiration For Your Piece? (The seed of inspiration)
Who shouldn’t I be by Sampha. Beautiful song.
Get Tickets Here!
Get Tickets Now!
Online Labs
Click on the “+” below to learn more about each piece, and stream online!
Class Description: Day 1 will be the basics of Film making, this class is tailored towards folks who are thinking about getting into the Film Industry. We will ask you all what you are aiming to do in Film and briefly explain the best steps we have seen or worked with to help guide you on the right path to making this a fun career! We will share what we would do, not do and focus on to make things happen!
Pay What You Will
Suggested Donation of $10
What Do You Need To Join?
Online
- Your self
- Something to take notes
- A Device To Zoom In On
- An Internet Connection
Accessibility
Online
- ASL Interpretation and Auto-Generated Captions will be provided online
About your Lab Instructor
Alpacalypse Productions
Alpacalypse Productions is a multi award winning production company based out of Edmonton, Alberta Canada. We focus on visual storytelling, stunning visual effects and dynamic motion graphics work. The company was formed by four Grant MacEwan classmates, turned friends, and eventual partners: Arthur Mah, Brendin Evans, Gabby Moukhaiber and Harvey Li. We’re here to tell original stories, push boundaries and entertain audiences through our work.
Reserve Your Spot!
Pay What You Will
Suggested Donation of $10
What Do You Need To Join?
Online
- Your self
- Something to take notes
- A Device To Zoom In On
- An Internet Connection
Accessibility
Online
- ASL Interpretation and Auto-Generated Captions will be provided online
About your Lab Instructor
Alpacalypse Productions
Alpacalypse Productions is a multi award winning production company based out of Edmonton, Alberta Canada. We focus on visual storytelling, stunning visual effects and dynamic motion graphics work. The company was formed by four Grant MacEwan classmates, turned friends, and eventual partners: Arthur Mah, Brendin Evans, Gabby Moukhaiber and Harvey Li. We’re here to tell original stories, push boundaries and entertain audiences through our work.