THURSDAY, JUNE 3

6:00 pm - 10:30 pm

FESTIVAL OPENING

hosted by Dill Prusko

Artists! Audiences! Volunteers! Nextfest super fans! Everyone is welcome. Join the virtual party and help start the festival off with a bang! The Nextfest Opening Ceremonies features a warm welcome from our host as we usher in our 2021 festival.

Ratings and content warnings for the evening’s performances will be shared.

RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

JUNE 3 - MUSIC CHRISTINA HOLLINGWORTH: MUSIC’S MY CALLING

Christina Hollingworth is a multitalented and award-winning fourteenyear-old singer-songwriter. She plays both piano and the ukulele. On top of that, she is an honour student and a member of the Enoch Cree Nation. She holds several records and is a multi provincial champion in the sport of track & field. Christina has sung at many events, including Hometown Hockey in Enoch, the World Indigenous Nation Games 2017, and the Alberta Indigenous Games, to name a few. She has used music and songwriting as a way to express her life stories and the way she views the world.

JUNE 3 - DIGITAL THEATRE THE LIGHT

created and performed by Laura Donaldson A film featuring tap dance by Laura Donaldson. The Light considers the changed perspectives, priorities, feelings, and evolving relationships that one is faced with when life has been flipped upside down. The Light is here to remind you of the good that is coming and the good that perhaps has been here the entire time.

JUNE 3 - FILM SARA HAS A FEVER

created by Amy Lee and Mariam Sara has to miss school because she has a fever.

JUNE 3 - HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE A CHILD AND A WEDDING DRESS

by Quinn Woodruff directed by Quinn Woodruff and Von Andrew Collado Accidents happen. When two children are left alone with their mother’s dress, creativity takes over. In this play, the audience is led down a wild path of laugher, absurdity, and problem-solving through the eyes of a child.

featuring Rhiannon Lewis, Arabella Spence, Ngila Stone, and Stella Drinkwater

JUNE 3 - FILM HAPPINESS

created by Jack Belhumeur A man is in search of happiness when he is confronted by a man offering just that in the form of a package. But can happiness be given and received? In this new short film Director Jack Belhumeur challenges the nature of happiness.

JUNE 3 - DIGITAL THEATRE THE SPACE ETWEEN

created and performed by Lebogang Disele The Space Between is a solo performance that fuses movement and poetry to reflect on the performer’s experiences of being Black, African, and a woman. It is a meditation on the loss of loved ones as a loss of personal history and culture, how to live up to our responsibilities, and on selfacceptance in the face of perceived failure. The Space in Between is a physical exploration of the limits and possibilities of growing up and living in-between spaces.

JUNE 3 - SHOWCASE iHuman Studios presents THE TNT SESSIONS - FAVES

performed by FAVES Albert Favel, also known by Faves (an acronym for “Favorite Adolescent Voice’s Everyone’s Silenced”), is a Poetry/Hip-Hop Artist originally from Regina, Saskatchewan. Faves moved to Edmonton, Alberta, at the age of 15 to create a better life for himself, where he was introduced to Poetry and Hip-Hop. Since then, vocal expression has allowed him to share his own adversities through word-play.

iHuman Studios is amped to present the first season of TNT with six episodes spotlighting the iHuman music artists: Valkyrie, Vntge, Mad John, FAVES, Jayden Paz, and Trebla. iHuman Studios is a collective of young multidisciplinary artists between the ages of 12 and 24 years who constitute the members of iHuman Youth Society. iHuman’s mission is to invite young people to transform their experiences of personal and systemic trauma through acts of expression & creativity into experiences of Purpose, Self-worth, Identity, and Belonging.

JUNE 3 - HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE ESTRANGEMENT CAFE

by Isabella Hudson directed by Will McIntosh Estrangement Cafe is a two-character play about a young adult, Sam, who left their home and childhood behind. Years later, their mother turns up, seemingly out of the blue, to ask Sam to have coffee with her. As the two sit and talk, the complexities of their relationship start to unfold through both what is said and left unsaid.

featuring Tess Valentine, Ella Raven-Jackson, Simone Gosselin, Logan Bloedel, Alyson Opatril, and Raye Mitchell

THE DE ATE

directed and choreographed by Allison Elizabeth Burns direction of photography by Izabel Barsive camera operation and editing by Allison Elizabeth Burns composed and music performed by Tristan Henry video production mentored by Izabel Barsive We are growing apart, movements contrasting between us, carving out our territory. We attempt to convert one another, our differences get in the way. We are curious about the other, suspicious of the other. We mirror behaviour on opposite sides of the battle. Motifs become conversations, and conversations become motifs.

featuring Sarah Hopkin and Geoffrey Dollar special thanks to Adrie Sustar and Carolyn Lecorre

Learn more at theatrealberta.com

JUNE 3 - NITE CLUB PEPPER’D VARIETY SHOW

featuring collaboration with ICYT, Musical Performances, Good Information, and more For one night only, Pepper’d and I’ll Call You Tomorrow (ICYT) are bringing all the boys to the yard for The Pepper’d Variety Show. Exstepmom will be your host for an evening of spilling T with the boys at ICYT, drag, sketch, and musical performances. Late-night television could never.