Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Sarasvāti Productions
Repertory theatre company, incorporated in 1998 in Toronto, Ontario, and relocated to Winnipeg Manitoba in October 2000. It is named after Sarasvāti, the Indic goddess of the arts, of inspiration and great change.
Its mission is to produce theatre that inspires, challenges and encourages positive social change while demonstrating artistic excellence in inclusive productions.
Sarasvāti Productions workshops scripts, hosts readings of new works in development, and coordinates skill-development workshops for artists. It works with community groups and schools.
Regular events include FemFest, a festival celebrating women playwrights, One Night Stand reading series for the development of new plays, and the International Womens Week Cabaret of Monologues. The Company also mounts a full production each season, sometimes as part of Manitoba Theatre Centres Master Playwrights Festival, the Fringe or as an independent production.
Initiated in 2003, FemFest is a national festival for women artists of diverse cultural backgrounds, artistic traditions and disciplines. It showcases production of new works and works in progress by local women, and touring productions from across Canada and abroad. It also features performances by experienced artists such as dbi young.anitafrica (she 2010), and readings by playwrights Maureen Hunter and Jenny Munday. It runs for eight days at the end of September in the University of Winnipeg's Canwest Centre for Theatre and Film.
In 2009, Sarasvāti Productions developed No Offense, a play about racism, in the tradition of Forum Theatre, which invites the audience to stop the action and to address the racial behaviour in the scenes. In 2010, it toured High Schools in the province.
In 2012, it launched Eden, an ambitious multi-media dystopian drama by Hope McIntyre, which focuses on two 15-year-olds who come from two very different classes in a society built on lies and manipulation. Adam, the son of an interrogator/torturer, meets Evelyn, a young member of a marginalized group, which functions as a scapegoat. The play is a response to the post 9/11 intolerance of dissent.
Artistic Director of Sarasvāti Productions since its inception was Hope McIntyre. In 2020, she stepped down, and Frances Koncan was appointed the incoming Artistic Director. Koncan resigned in March 2021.
Last updated 2021-09-27
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