University of the Fraser Valley Theatre is pleased to announce its 2023-24 Season of Theatre, with an exciting lineup of performances. Students will explore global issues through classic plays and original performances in this engaging and informative season.
In Fall 2023, UFV Theatre will participate in the Climate Change Theatre Action with a series of pop-up performances fostering dialogue about the climate crisis and will host the SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL, a Fringe-inspired performance event. This season will feature Eugene Ionesco’s well-known absurdist play, Rhinoceros, and will close with the Emerging Directors’ Showcase, presented by UFV Theatre’s fourth-year directing class in conjunction with the Interpret Festival.
Pop-up performances in November 2023
Climate Change Theatre Action (CCTA) is a worldwide production of short plays about climate change, presented biennially to coincide with the United Nations’ COP meetings. In this globally distributed theatre festival, fifty professional playwrights are commissioned to write original works, and people around the world will present these five-minute plays to raise awareness and generate conversations about climate change. UFV Theatre will be staging pop-up readings and performances of these plays around the Abbotsford campus during the week of November 21. 2023 will mark the third year that UFV Theatre has participated in the Climate Change Theatre Action. Follow us on social media to find out about performance dates and locations.
December 2023
This Fringe-style event will celebrate the end of the fall semester with back-to-back performances by talented Theatre students. Students from acting and performance classes will show off the best work from their fall classes in this free showcase.
Written by Eugène Ionesco
Directed by Parjad Sharifi
March 2024
Rhinoceros is a humorous and absurdist masterwork by Eugène Ionesco, written in 1959. The play comments on the dangers of conformity and acts as a metaphor to depict the rise of fascism and totalitarian ideologies. Rhinoceros challenges audiences to ask critical existential questions about human will and responsibility in today's global crisis. Set in a small French town, the play centers around the character Berenger, an everyman figure who is initially presented as a slacker and outsider. As the play progresses, the town is gradually taken over by rhinoceroses. Berenger finds himself increasingly isolated and powerless as he watches his friends and fellow citizens succumb to a bizarre transformation.
Facilitated by Shelley Liebembuk
April 2024
The Emerging Directors’ Showcase is presented by UFV Theatre’s fourth-year directing class and is a chance for students to apply everything they have learned in the course. Audiences can expect a wide range of performances, from broad physical comedy to thought-provoking drama, and from movement-based devised work to explorations of performance art.