Red Betty Theatre is celebrating ten years as Hamilton’s Indigenous, Black, People of Colour (IBPOC) feminist theatre company. The Inaugural Decolonise Your Ears New Play Festival is a three day virtual festival running from June 24 to 26, 2021.
Decolonising theatre doesn’t mean tossing out the likes of Tennessee Williams, Joe Orton or the Bard. It means brown and black bodies having space and time to explore their voices, develop their practices and explore lesser-known cultural forms without having to negotiate, conform or squeeze into the parameters of Western aesthetics.
Festival playwrights were chosen through an open submission call and juried process. Playwrights then worked with their partnered dramaturges to develop three drafts of a script. The development process culminates in a staged reading of the pieces at the inaugural festival. The festival will be Deaf Accessible with ASL Interpretation throughout.