Burnaby’s Shadbolt Centre for the Arts once again welcomes the Advance Theatre Festival January 26 to 30. Co-presented by Ruby Slippers Theatre, the Shadbolt and Playwrights Guild of Canada, the innovative and inspiring festival, presents five new staged readings over five days all written and directed by female identifying and gender non-conforming artists who also identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Colour.
Acclaimed local playwright Zahida Rahemtulla has curated the 2026 line-up which includes:
I Have a Dream in Chinese
Monday, January 26 @ 7:30-8:30pm
Playwright Irene (Fan) Yi presents a one-woman theatrical journey through borders, bodies and names. Set on a long-haul flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver, a Chinese immigrant navigates the turbulence of micro aggressions, state surveillance, workplace exclusion and the haunting grief of a city left behind. Blending poetic monologue, surreal memory and bureaucratic absurdity, the play explores what it means to carry two names, two histories and the unbearable silence of trying to belong.
Far and Free (Malayo at Malaya)
Tuesday, January 27 @ 7:30-8:30 pm
Playwright Abi Padilla reads us a coming-of-age romantic comedy set in the late 1980s during the Philippine’s martial law. Filipino twins, Farah and Francis, move to Canada and struggle to let go of their first romantic loves and their activism as they seek a safer, “better” life. Questions continue to haunt them. How can they love freely if their motherland isn’t fully free?
Just Like Paris
Wednesday, January 28 @ 7:30-8:30 pm
Playwright Marcia Johnson takes us to World War II in Lethbridge, Alberta. Gwendolyn leaves Jamaica to work as a nurse at Canada’s largest Prisoner of War (POW) camp. She meets Byron and Sakura, a Japanese Canadian couple displaced from Vancouver, now working on a beet farm. Their lives intersect when Sakura faces a medical emergency. Gwendolyn also cares for Dietmar, a German POW, whose hatred is challenged by her compassion. Through unexpected connections, the play explores resilience, prejudice and the bonds formed in times of war.
Bella Luz
Thursday, January 29 @ 7:30-8:30 pm
Playwright Alexandra Lainfiesta takes us on a journey following Guatemalan dancer Sumailla, who navigates three worlds—Toronto (“here”), Antigua Guatemala (“there”), and the surreal “Nowhere” of immigration system game shows. Sumailla’s quest for Canadian permanent residency is shaped by her work in Toronto’s stunt industry, family pressures and love for a fellow stuntwoman, J. Facing moral compromises and the challenge of “proving” her value to Canada, she wrestles with her mother and grandmother’s conflicting views on migration. Blending humour and sharp critique, Bella Luz explores the contradictions and sacrifices of the immigrant experience in Canada.
Roald Dahl Doesn’t Care About You
Friday, January 30 @ 7:30-8:30 pm
Playwright Sewit Eden Haile presents a reading about a self-formed, self-run writers’ group of three young women entering the coveted M. Beaumont Writing Competition. When a new member disrupts the group’s dynamic, they are forced to confront their own biases and their role in the commodification of identity in the arts.
All five readings in the 2026 Advance Theatre Festival take play at Studio 103 Recital Hall at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, 6450 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby. Tickets for all presentations are $15 available online, visit rubyslippers.ca for more details on plays and playwrights.