PuSh International Performing Arts Festival has always brought us innovative and cutting-edge performances from near and far. After a disrupted 2021 edition, PuSh has introduces a 2022 program that will lead us into the new year, a new PuSh and (hopefully) begin a post-covid world.
For the 2022 line-up, running January 20 to February 6, 2022, PuSh aims to helps audiences situate ourselves in the complexity of human experience, after nearly two years of upheaval. Featuring 14 works from three countries including three world premieres and two Canadian premieres — the festival line-up is dedicated to creative risk-taking and dynamic interdisciplinary collaboration. With an emphasis on artists from across Canada this year, PuSh will also present works from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Director of Programming Gabrielle Martin, recently revealed the program two years in the making, building on planned programming from previous teams, noting: “PuSh has always been an accelerator, animating our imaginations and transforming our perspectives. The 2022 PuSh program is a timely catalyst, facilitating an emergence from our social hibernation with works that incept, evoke, activate, and confront. In a time when we are all making sense of where we are after what has come to pass, this year’s Festival line-up helps us situate ourselves in the complexity of human experience. Several of the 2022 Festival works make personal the economic structures that define us, through interactive and interdisciplinary forms. In dialogue with this content are a series of shows that offer nuanced and experience-driven perspectives on the social structures we navigate, while others focus on our subjective experiences and the subconscious as a site of inception. Overall, we hope that the 2022 PuSh Festival will stimulate, shift, inspire, and compel.”
Several works make personal the economic structures that define us through interactive and interdisciplinary forms. In dialogue with works that address the values behind our economic systems are a series of works that offer nuanced and experience-driven perspectives on current social structures.
Always a collaborative festival this program is no exception, as the program features presentation partnerships including; Aphotic Theatre, Dance Centre, Firehall Arts Centre, The Frank Theatre Co. Full Circle: First Nations Performance, Indian Summer Festival, Itsazoo, Music on Main, Real Wheels Theatre, Roundhouse Community and Arts Centre, Shadbolt Centre for Arts, The Talking Stick Festival, Theatre La Seizième, Theatre Replacement, Touchstone Theatre, Vancouver Public Library and more.
Familiar and returning program series, Club PuSh, Youth and Industry Series are back, with the whole program wrapping up in a Closing Night Party on February 5, 2022
Program details, tickets and passes are on sale now, at pushfestival.ca
New this year – purchase tickets for 4 or more different shows to receive a 20% discount.
As inclusion is always an important aspect for PuSh programming, audiences will find shows suitable for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or low-vision, relaxed performances for those looking for low-sensory and casual environments. Check with individual venues for other accessibility needs. Covid safety remains at the forefront for 2022, with masks and proof of vaccinations required, low capacity and streaming options are also available for those wanting extra distancing.