Downstage

THANK YOU to the Calgary Theatre Critics’ Awards for more NOMINATIONS! We are thrilled once again to receive this recognition, celebrating the skill, courage, and sense of creative play everyone involved in “Botticelli in the Fire” offered throughout the process.

Big THANKS also to the artists, volunteers, audiences, and fierce supporters for their generosity 🥳✨

It is an absolute honour to garner the recognition that Botticelli in the Fire has received from the Betty Mitchell Awards nomination committee! We are so proud of this show and even prouder that it left an impact to those who came to see it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you and we can’t wait to celebrate with you all on June 29th at the Betty’s! Congratulations to all other nominees and everyone else whose talents and contributions go beyond these lists 🌟

Lastly, here’s another shoutout to the team behind the entire production:

❤️‍🔥 CAST ❤️‍🔥
MADRE MARIA – KRIS ALVAREZ
LORENZO – JOEL COCHRANE
SAVONAROLA – CHRISTOPHER HUNT
POGGIO – ZACHARY PARSONS-LOZINSKI
LEONARDO – ETHAN VASQUEZ TAYLOR
SANDRO – ERIC WIGSTON
CLARICE – SYDNEY WILLIAMS

❤️‍🔥 CREATIVE TEAM ❤️‍🔥
PLAYWRIGHT – JORDAN TANNAHILL
DIRECTOR – CLARE PREUSS
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR – KEITH BONIOL
FIGHT AND INTIMACY DIRECTOR – BRIANNA JOHNSTON
CO-CHOREOGRAPHERS – KEITH BONIOL & CLARE PREUSS
ORIGINAL COMPOSITION – MADDIE BAUTISTA
SOUND DESIGN & MUSIC DIRECTION – ALIXANDRA COWMAN
SET DESIGN – JULIA KIM
HEAD OF PROPS – NICOLE LOGAN
LIGHTING DESIGN – ADAM KOSTIUK
COSTUME DESIGN – REBECCA TOON
LOBBY INSTALLATION ARTIST – LEX HILDERMAN
STAGE MANAGER – NAOMI ESAU
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER – STACI HANLEY
PRODUCTION MANAGER – MARCIA LIBER
PUBLICIST – ALDONA BARUTOWICZ
DOWNSTAGE PRODUCER – BIANCA MIRANDA
DOWNSTAGE PRODUCTION MANAGER – DYLAN BAUER

❤️‍🔥 ❤️‍🔥 ❤️‍🔥 ❤️‍🔥 ❤️‍🔥

Botticelli in the Fire
Co-Produced by Downstage and Hit & Myth Productions
Jordan Tannahill, Botticelli in the Fire, YYC Arts, YYC Theatre, Q***r, Renaissance, Betty Mitchell Awards

CALL FOR PLAYWRIGHTS - DREAMING CLIMATE CONSCIOUSNESS! ☁️🍃☀️

💡 We invite playwrights interested in speculative storytelling, climate futures, dynamic collaboration, and new modes of collective creation to apply for this paid opportunity!

Downstage, Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation (ICAI), and Evan Medd, creator and facilitator of the ‘Dreaming Climate Consciousness’ initiative will be bringing together both established Calgary/Treaty 7-based playwrights and newcomer playwrights to collaboratively imagine and inhabit a co-created speculative world.

Participants will develop the histories, tensions, and possibilities of a shared climate future, with each playwright creating an original short play set within the collective universe they build together.

🗓️ APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN!
APPLICATIONS CLOSE: June 26, 2026
PARTICIPANTS SELECTED BY: END of July 2026

💸 Please Note: This is a PAID opportunity.  Selected playwrights will receive $2,000 each.

SWIPE THROUGH for MORE INFO!
TO APPLY, please visit the LINK IN OUR BIO or VISIT http://downstage.ca/dreaming%20climate%20consciousness/ to FILL OUT THE GOOGLE FORM.
Call for Playwrights, YYC Playwrights, New Play, Speculative Fiction, Climate Future, Collective Creation, Paid Opportunity

✨Stage It Festival - ARTIST SPOTLIGHT!

For our final festival offering, we invite you to slow down, open up, and reconnect through movement and play with LINDA KEE!

As a theatre and film artist, Linda specializes in using theatre and storytelling as a vehicle for positive social transformation. Working in Arts Education as a Teaching Artist, Linda believes that the arts is a vital entity in supporting and empowering learners to find freedom to guide their own personalized learning. She practices the values of expression, connection and collaboration as a Theatre of the Oppressed Forum Theatre Facilitator, and sharing the philosophy of the late Professor and Philosopher in Residence at the Lincoln Center of Education in NYC, Maxine Greene, who designed the pedagogy of Aesthetic Education, using digital, media, literary, visual, performing, music and movement arts to make learning inclusive. She includes the modalities of movement, yoga and taoist arts to foster wellness and healthier communities. She infuses these modalities into her storytelling, teaching and facilitation. She values telling stories in different avenues of expression, working to amplify the voices of subjugated perspectives, to foster understanding, deeper listening, and to celebrate community.

🗓️ Sunday, May 24th at 1:30pm
📍Motel Theatre, Werklund Centre

👉🏽 CREATIVE STRETCH is a free offering - drop by to join this afternoon. No experience necessary - just curiosity and a willingness to play. Come as you are.

PLEASE WEAR COMFY CLOTHES YOU CAN MOVE IN!
Stage It Festival, yyc arts, theatre, music, yoga, play, movement

LAST DAY of the Stage It Festival ⭐️✨

Here are our last two offerings for the day:

Motel Theatre:

12:00pm ~ Untitled: The Pippa Bacca Parable
Tickets are AVAILABLE for this show, drop by or get your tickets at DOWNSTAGE.CA - $0 or $15 options at CHECKOUT.

1:30pm ~ Creative Stretch with Linda Kee
FREE, drop by and join us! Slow down, open up, and reconnect through movement and play.

📸: Photos by Caitlind Brown, Stage It Festival 2023
Stage It Festival, new work, yyc theatre, yyc arts, music, DJ, yyc music

✨Stage It Festival - ARTIST SPOTLIGHT!

Joining our incredible line-up of arts market vendors is…

💎 KLOEE HUBERDEAU

Kloee Huberdeau is a multidisciplinary artist who creates hand embroidery, jewelry, illustration and more. She specializes in wearable art for your most delirious visions and delicious fantasies.

🗓️ Saturday, May 23rd
📍Centre Court, Werklund Centre

👉🏽 Drop-in Performances in Centre Court are FREE! Head to DOWNSTAGE.CA for the FULL SCHEDULE ~ mix and match Centre Court and Motel Theatre shows for an experience and check out the ARTS MARKET!
Stage It Festival, yyc arts, theatre, music, drag, accessible pricing, craft, crafting, prints, stickers, small business

The Stage It Festival is HERE and the SATURDAY line-up is STACKED! ⭐️✨

Mix and match MOTEL THEATRE SHOWS + CENTRE COURT DROP IN PERFORMANCES:

Motel Theatre:
2:30pm ~ Four Strong Seasons
4:00pm ~ Hunt/Peck
5:00pm ~ Untitled: The Pippa Bacca Parable
6:30pm ~ Womanifesto
8:00pm ~ Four Strong Seasons
9:30pm ~ Womanifesto

Centre Court:
3:30pm & 4:30pm ~ Sallie Mae  
6pm & 7:30pm ~ ZENON
9:00pm ~ Mac Zine & Divina Diefor
10:30pm ~ DJ Goodword

Plus… An Arts Market, with & back +
joining! 🤩

🎟️ TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR TONIGHT’S SHOWS!  Ticketing options for $0 and $15 available at CHECKOUT.  Book now!

Celebrate Community! Bask in Art! Join us for a weekend full of unforgettable experiences that will open your heart and expand your mind! 

📸: Photos by Caitlind Brown, Stage It Festival 2023
Stage It Festival, new work, yyc theatre, yyc arts, music, DJ, yyc music

✨Stage It Festival - ARTIST SPOTLIGHT!

🍑 SEW GAY

Fat & Fruity artists Maddy and Sara are ! Based in Mohkinstis, they use various mediums to craft, create and construct kooky, colorful and fun art for everyone! Find them in person at local art markets or on instagram.

🧵CYTOSTIITCH

KD () makes soft little weirdos for weird little softies! They’re a q***r and autistic multi-media artist filling the deep lonely void in their heart with huggable yarn and portable stories. The scope of their work is ever expanding, it explores every direction all at once and their curiosity is never satisfied. They hope you will find personal connection, companionship, or some kind of solace within the work they are producing.

🗓️ Friday, May 22nd + Saturday, May 23rd
📍Centre Court, Werklund Centre
Stage It Festival, yyc arts, theatre, music, drag, accessible pricing, craft, crafting, prints, stickers, small business, arts market

The Stage It Festival is HERE! ⭐️✨

Start your weekend with us by mixing & matching MOTEL THEATRE SHOWS + CENTRE COURT DROP IN PERFORMANCES:

Motel Theatre:
4:30pm ~ Mide Kadiri’s short film, Breakthrough plays on loop
5:30pm ~ Squeaky
7:30pm ~ Four Strong Seasons
9pm ~ Hunt/Peck

Centre Court:
4:30pm ~ KaamilK. (DJ) with 88 Brewing Co. tastings
7:00pm ~ Belladonna The Blest (live music)
8:30 & 9:30pm ~ Harvey Nichol (DJ)

🎟️ TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR TONIGHT’S SHOWS!  Ticketing options for $0 and $15 available at CHECKOUT.  Book now!

Celebrate Community! Bask in Art! Join us for a weekend full of unforgettable experiences that will open your heart and expand your mind! 

📸: Photos by Caitlind Brown, Stage It Festival 2023
Stage It Festival, new work, yyc theatre, yyc arts, music, DJ, yyc music

✨Stage It Festival - ARTIST SPOTLIGHT!

🎧 DJ Goodword

Never afraid to reach back in time for the perfect track, his love of funky, playful music connects people of all ages. After stealing his dad’s record collection, Edward became an avid record hunter. He now does the same thing in the digital age, finding new tracks to move your feet to. Edward loves traveling to play and has had the privilege to DJ in Brighton, Burningman, Palm Springs, Panorama, Vancouver, and Toronto. You know you’ve been to a Goodword party because you’ll be smiling, sweaty, and wanting more.  

🗓️ Saturday, May 23rd ~ 10:30pm til late
📍Centre Court, Werklund Centre

👉🏽 Drop-in Performances in Centre Court are FREE! Head to DOWNSTAGE.CA for the FULL SCHEDULE ~ mix and match Centre Court and Motel Theatre shows for an experience!
Stage It Festival, yyc arts, theatre, music, accessible pricing, yyc music, DJ