In just nine years, Winnipeg’s FemFest has grown from an intimate showcase for local playwrights to a weeklong event that brings in artists from across Canada and the U.K.

Now in its second year at the University of Winnipeg’s Canwest Centre for Theatre and Film, artistic director Hope McIntyre is more than excited about everything that FemFest has accomplished.

“Even before we were officially performing here, we used so many U of W students, faculty and alumni,” McIntyre says from her office in the Canwest Centre, where she currently teaches Intro to Performance.

“The theatre department has been such an enormous supporter of the festival, letting us use the space and being flexible with our needs as well as providing the opportunity to promote the festival for students. We hire a lot of the students from the department.

“Because part of our mandate is to serve emerging artists, it’s a really natural opportunity to take those students and recent graduates and give them a chance to work at a more professional level.”

The festival features over a dozen pieces; from workshopped plays to readings and full productions, FemFest takes a lot of artists and their work full circle.

“Statistically, there’s less women being produced in theatres across Canada,” McIntyre says. “What we want to see is that change and it’s really rewarding when we see someone who’s been involved with FemFest grow.”

One FemFest regular is playwright Ginny Collins, who was recently commissioned to write a play for the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre. An excerpt from her new work will be featured during One Night Stand, a night of emerging plays and scenes.

“It’s really great to see her moving from the Fringe (and) kind of independent stuff into more established theatres,” MacIntyre says.

This year’s festival will also see a number of new faces from all over the world.

“All of our touring artists are brand new to us. If you want to see a diverse crowd, you’ve got to give them work they can relate to,” she said.

Possibly the most exciting artist is Zena Edwards, a poet, musician, playwright and performer from the U.K. who has been writing her FemFest contribution, TravellingLight, via blog.

“It’s edgy. It’s about this generation and technology and herself as a black woman, so that’s really going to appeal to a whole different audience base then you might get in traditional theatre.”

If men are feeling a little left out, they should know that they are represented and welcome at FemFest.

“We don’t want to say to women ‘Oh, you can only write for women.’ We find they naturally tend to write more women-related stories, but they also want to explore the universal experience. U of W graduate Adam Charbonneau is in Magpie this year.”

Magpie, directed by McIntyre and starring Jane Burpee in the title role, is one of two shows about incarceration and redemption.

“It’s about a male convict who gets out and is put in Magpie’s home,” she says. “She’s his parole surveillance officer, but she doesn’t really believe in rehabilitation. It’s a very twisted, black, powerful, interesting play.”

The other show, co-written by McIntyre with Cairn Moore, is Jail Baby, about incarcerated women.

“We’ve gone into the correctional systems and worked with these women in the institutions and really heard their stories,” McIntyre said.

With nine years of FemFest nearly in the bank, the inevitable question of the all important 10th anniversary celebration comes up.

“We’re not a large company, so to keep something the size of FemFest going for 10 years is huge for us,” she says. “We’re already planning next year, there’s no rest. We’ve got some really exciting touring shows that we’ve been waiting to bring out.

“Our 10th year will be where we get to do the ones we’ve really been dying to do.”

FemFest opens Saturday, Sept. 17. All tickets are $10, and a festival pass is $50. Visit www.femfest.ca for details.

Published in Volume 66, Number 3 of The Uniter (September 15, 2011)