| PuSh International Performing Arts Festival | |
| Location: | Vancouver, Canada |
| Founded: | 2003 as a series, 2005 as a festival |
| Founders: | Katrina Dunn, Norman Armour |
| Play Type: | Multidisciplinary (theatre, dance, multimedia, music, film, circus) |
| Date: | January–February |
| Website: | http://pushfestival.ca/ |
The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is produced over three weeks each winter on the unceded and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ first nations, primarily in the territory that was the seasonal and ancestral village of K’emk’emeláy, colloquially known as Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Festival, held in January and February each year in the lower mainland remains a place for audiences to encounter work that is innovative and surprising, for artists to showcase for an international audience and for new work to emerge.
The Festival showcases international, Canadian and local artists.[1]
PuSh has a collaborative leadership team: Gabrielle Martin is the Director of Programming for PuSh International Performing Arts Festival; Margo Kane is the Director of Indigenous Programming; Keltie Forsyth is the Director of Operations.
The PuSh Festival was co-founded in 2003 by Katrina Dunn of Touchstone Theatre and Norman Armour of Rumble Productions.[1] [2] [3] [4]
In 2005, the organization of the Festival was formalized with the creation of a formal board of directors and advisors and by being registered as a charitable organization.[1]
There were 9 productions included in the inaugural 2005 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival:
| The Bacchae - an electronic opera | Screaming Weenie Production | Vancouver, CA | |
| Crime and Punishment | Neworld Theatre | Vancouver, CA | |
| The Empty Orchestra | Theatre Replacement | Vancouver, CA | |
| Dances for a Small Stage IX | MovEnt | Vancouver, CA | |
| The Trigger | Touchstone Theatre | Vancouver, CA | |
| Final Viewing | Radix Theatre | Vancouver, CA | |
| Frank | Nigel Charnock + Company | London, UK | |
| Say Nothing | Ridiculusmus | London, UK | |
| The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets | November Theatre | Edmonton, CA |
There were 14 productions included in the 2006 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival:
| The Perfectionist | Boca del Lupo | Vancouver | |
| Sexual Practices of the Japanese | Theatre Replacement | Vancouver | |
| Nunavut | Kronos Quartet with Tanya Tagaq | San Francisco, USA/Bilbao, Spain | |
| Famous Puppet Death Scenes | The Old Trout Puppet Workshop | Calgary, CA | |
| Tempting Providence | Theatre Newfoundland Labrador | Corner Brook, CA | |
| Compilation | Lynda Gaudreau/Compagnie De Brune | Montreal, CA | |
| 5AM (5 Heures du matin) | Pigeons International | Montreal, CA | |
| Dances for a Small Stage XII | MovEnt | Vancouver, CA | |
| Dreams | Eye of Newt | Vancouver, CA | |
| Studies in Motion: The Hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge | Electric Company Theatre | Vancouver, CA | |
| Thom Pain (based on nothing) | Western Theatre Conspiracy | Vancouver, CA | |
| Absence and Presence | Andrew Dawson | London, UK | |
| Sisters, Such Devoted Sisters | Out of Joint | London, UK | |
| Six Miniature Tragedies | Jean-Paul Wenzel | Paris, FR |
There were 25 productions at the 2007 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival:
| Skydive | Realwheels | Vancouver, CA | |
| Bioboxes: Artifacting Human Experience | Theatre Replacement | Vancouver, CA | |
| Copper Thunderbird | urban ink/National Arts Centre | Vancouver, CA/Ottawa, CA | |
| Brutalis | Dame de Pic/Karine Ponties | Brussels, Belgium | |
| Aalst | Victoria | Ghent, Belgium | |
| Famous Puppet Death Scenes | The Old Trout Puppet Workshop | Calgary, CA | |
| Revisited | 2b theatre company | Halifax, CA | |
| Attack #15 | L'Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable | Montreal, CA | |
| Howie le Rookie | Théâtre de la Manufacture | Montreal, CA | |
| Dances for a Small Stage 15 | MovEnt | Vancouver, CA | |
| Projections | CABINET Interdisciplinary Collaborations | Vancouver, CA | |
| La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast) | Eye of Newt | Vancouver, CA | |
| Symphony at the Roundhouse: All the World's a Stage | Vancouver Symphony | Vancouver, CA | |
| this riot life and Field Study | Veda Hille | Vancouver, CA | |
| Beggars Would Ride | Wild Excursions Performance | Vancouver, CA | |
| Rage | Green Thumb Theatre | Vancouver, CA | |
| Killing Caesar | Rubicon Collective | Vancouver, CA | |
| dog eat dog | The Only Animal | Vancouver, CA | |
| Occupation 1: The Molecules/Michael Vincent | Western Front | Vancouver, CA/New York, USA/Oakland, USA | |
| my arm | News from Nowhere Theatre/Tim Crouch | Brighton, UK | |
| an oak tree | News from Nowhere Theatre/Tim Crouch | Brighton, UK | |
| Scarface | Eddie Ladd | Cardiff, UK | |
| Exquisite Pain | Forced Entertainment | Sheffield, UK | |
| Quizoola! | Forced Entertainment | Sheffield, UK | |
| Sonata for Violin and Turntables | Daniel Bernard Roumain w/ DJ Scientific | New York, USA |
The 2008 PuSh Festival had over 23,000 attendees. Visiting presenters from across Canada and around the world were in attendance for the PuSh Assembly networking event to view performances, network, and experience the Festival.
There were productions at the 2008 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival:
| Haircuts by Children | Mammalian Diving Reflex | Toronto, CA | |
| small metal objects | Back to Back Theatre | Geelong, AU | |
| Dual Eclipse: Orchestras of Two Worlds | Turning Point Ensemble/Gamelan Gita Asmara | Vancouver, CA | |
| My Dad, My Dog | Boca del Lupo | Vancouver, CA | |
| Clark and I Somewhere in Connecticut | Rumble Productions/Theatre Replacement | Vancouver, CA | |
| My Name Is Rachel Corrie | neworldtheatre/Teesri Duniya Theatre | Vancouver, CA/Montreal, CA | |
| No Holds Bar | South Asian Arts | Vancouver, CA/San Francisco, USA/Seattle, USA | |
| The Misfit | South Asian Arts/Pull' it Out Theatre | Vancouver, CA/Toronto, CA | |
| 46 Circus Acts in 45 Minutes | Circa | Brisbane, AU | |
| The Space Between | Circa | Brisbane, AU | |
| The Four Horsemen Project | Volcano | Toronto, CA | |
| Dances for a Small Stage 18 | MovEnt | Vancouver, CA | |
| The General | Eye of Newt | Vancouver, CA | |
| Faun Fables | Western Front Society | Vancouver, CA | |
| Palace Grand | Electric Company | Vancouver, CA | |
| Old Goriot | Western Gold Theatre/Theatre at UBC | Vancouver, CA | |
| Août-un repas à la campagne | Théâtre la Seizième/A Théâtre de la Manufacture | Vancouver, CA/Montreal, CA | |
| fever: Shakespeare Sonnets in Voice, Dance and Music | Nigel Charnock, Michael Riessler, Virus String Quartet | UK/Germany | |
| Hey Girl! | Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio | Cesena, IT | |
| Instructions for Modern Living | Duncan Sarkies and Nic McGowan | Wellington, NZ | |
| Glow | Chunky Move | Melbourne, AU | |
| Frankenstein | Catalyst Theatre | Edmonton, CA | |
| The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets | November Theatre | Edmonton, CA/Vancouver, CA |
The 2009 PuSh Festival took place from January 20 to February 8, and offered works from across Canada, England, Japan and New Zealand. A total of 136 performances took place at 16 venues across the city and the attendance was more than 24,000.[1]
There were 40 productions in the 2009 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival:
| The Children's Choice Awards starring The Jury from Surrey | Mammalian Diving Reflex | Toronto, CA | |
| That Night Follows Day | Theatre Replacement | Vancouver, CA | |
| Skydive | Realwheels | Vancouver, CA | |
| The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac | Taylor Mac | ||
| Transmission of the Invisible | Tribal Crackling Wind | Toronto, CA | |
| Nanay: A testimonial play | Urban Crawl/neworld theatre/Philippine Women Centre of BC | Vancouver, CA | |
| while going to a condition + Accumulated Layout | S20/Hiroaki Umeda | Tokyo, JP | |
| Five Days in March | chelfitsch Theatre Company | Tokyo, JP | |
| nikamon ohci askiy (song land for/from/of the) | Cheryl L'Hirondelle | Vancouver, CA | |
| The Invisible | Infrarouge | Montreal, CA | |
| Billy Twinkle, Requeim for a Golden Boy | Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes | Toronto, CA | |
| Dances for a Small Stage 20 | MovEnt | Vancouver, CA | |
| Live from a Bush of Ghosts | Theatre Conspiracy | Vancouver, CA | |
| Steve Reich's Drumming | Music on Main | Vancouver, CA | |
| Assembly | Radix | Vancouver, CA | |
| Trampoline Hall | |||
| Conspiracy Playlist by DJ Buffalo Tim | |||
| Robin Holcomb and Peggy Lee | |||
| Twenty-Minute Musicals | Veda Hille & Geoff Berner | ||
| Invisible Atom | 2b theatre | ||
| ENGLAND | news from nowhere | Brighton, UK | |
| Siren | Ray Lee | Oxford, UK | |
| Don McGlashan | Don McGlashan | Auckland, NZ | |
| 13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol's Screentests | Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips | New York, USA | |
| Bang on a Can All-Stars | Bang on a Can | New York, USA | |
| Every Time I See your Picture I Cry | Daniel Barrow | ||
| Hooliganship | |||
| Into the Dark Unknown: The Hope Chest | Holcombe Waller | ||
| DJ Betti Forde | |||
| Gunshae | |||
| Hank Pine and Lily Fawn | |||
| Parenthetical Girls | |||
| The Awkward Stage | |||
| the beige | |||
| The Pascale Picard Band | |||
| Vincat | |||
| Woodpigeon | |||
| The Amazing and Impermeable Cromoli Brother Present: HELLO VANCOUVER | |||
| Twenty-Minute Musicals | Juana Molina & nick Krgovich | ||
| Monopoly | Tesla, Edison, Microsoft, Wal-Mart and the War For Tomorrow | ||
There were 14 productions in the 2010 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival:
| China | William Yang | Sydney, AU | |
| Clark and I Somewhere in Connecticut | Rumble Productions/Theatre Replacement | Vancouver, CA | |
| The Edward Curtis Project | Marie Clements/Rita Leistner | Galiano Island, CA/Toronto, CA | |
| The Passion of Joan of Arc | Eye of Newt | Vancouver, CA | |
| Best Before (working title) | Helgard Haug + Stefan Kaegi, Rimini Protokoll | Berlin, Germany/Vancouver, CA | |
| Jerk | Gisèle Vienne/Dennis Cooper/Jonathan Capdevielle | Grenoble, FR/Paris, FR | |
| The Show Must Go On | Jérôme Bel | Paris, FR/Vancouver, CA | |
| KAMP | Hotel Modern | Rotterdam, NL | |
| White Cabin | Akhe Theatre | St. Petersburg, RU | |
| Sō Percussion plays Steve Reich and David Lang | Sō Percussion | Brooklyn, USA | |
| Sonic Genome | Anthony Braxton | Middletown, USA | |
| The Passion Project | Reid Farrington | New York, USA | |
| Poetics: a ballet brut | Nature Theater of Oklahoma | New York, USA | |
| Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe | Catalyst Theatre | Edmonton, CA |
There were 30 productions in the 2009 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival:
| Peter Panties | Neworld Theatre/Leaky Heaven Circus | Vancouver, CA |
| Podplays - The Quartet | Neworld Theatre/PTC | Vancouver, CA |
| Datamatics [Ver. 2.0] | Ryoji Ikeda | Paris, FR |
| La Marea (The Tide) | Mariano Pensotti | Buenos Aires, AR |
| 46 Circus Acts in 45 Minutes | Circa | Brisbane, AU |
| Circa | Circa | Brisbane, AU |
| Bonanza | Berlin | Antwerp, Belgium |
| Iqaluit | Berlin | Antwerp, Belgium |
| Rouge | Julie Andrée T. | Montreal, CA |
| Dances for a Small Stage 23 | MovEnt | Vancouver, CA |
| Terminal City Soundscape | Music on Main | Vancouver, CA |
| 100% Vancouver | Theatre Replacement/SFU Woodward's | Vancouver, CA |
| Happy Birthday Teenage City | Veda Hille and special guests | |
| The Meal | Rick Maddocks and the Lost Gospel Ensemble | |
| City of Dreams | Peter Reder | London, England/Vancouver, CA |
| Portraits in Motion | Volker Gerling | |
| In the Solitute of Cotton Fields | Radoslaw Rychcik/Stefan Zermski Theatre | Kielce, Poland |
| Sound Machine | Company Drift | Zurich-Fribourg, Switzerland |
| Floating | Hugh Hughes/Hoipolloi | Anglesey, Wales |
| Hard Core Logo: Live | November Theatre/Theatre Network/Touchstone Theatre | Edmonton, CA/Vancouver, CA |
| Trampoline Hall | ||
| Good Gets Better & Looking for Love in the Hall of Mirrors | Daniel Barrow | |
| Close at Hand | Nervous System System | |
| Dayna Hanson & friends | ||
| Fine Mist | ||
| Meatdraw | ||
| The British Columbians | ||
| Weekend Leisure Karaoke | ||
| Gloria's Cause | Dayna Hanson | |
| Inventions & Mysteries | Bro Gilbert | |
The 2012 PuSh Festival took place from January 16 to February 4, and offered works from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Argentina, the Netherlands, and Mexico. There were over 160 performances and events across 14 venues, of which 31 were sold out. Attendance was over 23,000.[5]
The 2013 PuSh Festival took place from January 15 to February 3, and offered works from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany Japan, Scotland, Taiwan, and the United States. There were over 190 performances and events across 16 venues, of which 44 were sold out. Attendance was over 34,000.[6]
The 2014 PuSh Festival took place January 14 to February 2, and offered works from Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Lebanon, Portugal, and the United States. There were over 150 performances and events across 15 venues, including the Vancouver Playhouse, SFU Woodwards and the York Theatre. Feature events included the 10th Anniversary Opening Gala performance and party; 20 Main Stage shows spanning theatre, dance, music and multimedia performance; 17 PuSh Conversations with artists pre- and post-performances; three weeks of startling, experimental performances at Club PuSh; a film series; the PuSh Assembly for arts industry; Patrons Circle donor events; and dinner/theatre packages with Dine Out Vancouver. In 2014, PuSh Festival hosted two Artists-in-Residence in partnership with grunt gallery and the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver) for the first time. The international visiting artists Rabih Mroué of Lebanon and Tim Etchells of England were invited to present their work which crossed visual, theatre and literary forms.
Total attendance numbers reached almost 24,000, with an average house capacity of 79% for performances and 37 sold-out events.[7] The Festival sold out 400 PuSh passes to loyal PuSh patrons by the end of December and launched its inaugural PuSh Youth Passport program, allowing 266 young people aged 16 to 24 to see select performances for discounted ticket prices.[7]
The 2014 Accessible PuSh program issued 375 tickets to community groups to attend performances for free.[7]
A dedicated roster of over 181 volunteers worked more than 2,400 hours in support of the Festival.
The 2015 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place January 20 to February 8, and offered works from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, and the United States. There were over 250 performances and events across 17 venues, of which over 90 were sold out. Attendance was over 28,000.[8]
The 2016 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place January 19 to February 7, and offered works from 7 countries. There were 250 performances and events across 17 venues, of which 125 were sold out. Attendance was over 23,000. The Artist-in-Residence was Jordan Tannahill.[9]
The 2017 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place January 16 to February 5. There were 200 performances and events across 18 venues, of which 97 were sold out. Attendance was over 22,500.[10]
The 2018 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place January 16 to February 4, and featured 96 Canadian artists and 79 International artists. There were 150 performances and events across 18 venues over 20 days.
The 2019 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place January 17 to February 3, 2019. The Artist-in-Residence was The Biting School.
The 2020 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place
The 2021 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place online.
The 2022 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place January 20 to February 6, 2022
The 2023 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place January 19 to February 5, 2023.
There were 19 contemporary works presented in theatre, dance, music, circus and multimedia in person and online.
| afternow | nora chipaumire / arktype | Zimbabwe/USA | |
| Never Twenty One | Smail Kanoute / Compagnie Vivons! | France | |
| Lolling and Rolling | Jaha Koo / CAMPO | Belgium/South Korea | |
| Coloured Swan 3: Harriet's reMix | Moya Michael / AnaKu & KVS | Belgium/South Africa | |
| The Seventh Fire | Delinquent Theatre / Full Circle | Vancouver, Canada | |
| A Percussionist's Songbook | Joby Burgess | UK | |
| LONTANO + INSTANE | Juan Ignacio Tula, Marica Marinoni / Compagnie 7Bis | France/Argentina/Italy | |
| Le cri des méduses | Alan Lake Factorie | Canada | |
| Soliloquio (I Woke Up and Hit My Head Against the Wall) | Tiziano Cruz | Argentina | |
| MANUAL | Adam Kinner, Christopher Willes | Canada | |
| Red Phone | Boca del Lupo | Vancouver, Canada | |
| An Undeveloped Sound | Electric Company Theatre | Vancouver, Canada | |
| Are we not drawn onward to new erA | Ontroerend Goed | Belgium | |
| Okinum | Emilie Monnet / Productions Onishka / AnAku | Canada | |
| THIS & the last caribou | New Dance Horizons | Canada | |
| The Café | Aphotic Theatre / ITSAZOO Productions | Vancouver, Canada | |
| Soldiers of Tomorrow | The Elblow Theatre | Vancouver, Canada | |
| O'DD | Race Horse Company | Finland | |
| Selfie Concert | Ivo Dimchev / Something Great | Bulgaria |
The 2024 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival took place January 18 to February 4, 2024.
The 2025 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival will take place January 23 to February 9, 2025 and celebrates its 20th Festival of Audacious Live Art.