By Rachel Matthews – Contributor

This past Saturday, the Bishop’s drama department (BUDD) hosted a post-mortem event to commemorate the closing of the New Plays Festival and to foster discussion around its success and what can be improved for future iterations. Headed by the BUDD student representatives, Shannon Gaskarth and Malcolm Armstrong, as well as the New Plays Student Coordinators, Emmett Tinning and Ashlyn Sheehan, the event focused on the students who participated in the festival and encouraged an open dialogue where they could share their experiences. And it is the students who are at the centre of the New Plays Festival, considering that it is entirely student-written, student-directed, student-acted, student-stage-managed and student-coordinated. 

For Shannon Gaskarth, allowing and encouraging student feedback was of the utmost importance. She stated, “This year, one of my main values is creating opportunities for students to offer feedback that will be taken into consideration when preparing future student-led initiatives.” With the success of this New Plays Festival, it was important for both the BUDD Representatives to consider what factors contributed to that success so that it can be carried forth to the Theatre Activ festival, which is set to take the stage during the final week of January 2025. 

For Shannon and Malcolm, it was equally important to ensure that any barriers to student involvement and success were addressed and resolved during the post-mortem. Indeed, Shannon explained that “the post-mortem opened a deeper understanding of how we and our department can make these learning opportunities more accessible for students.” Whereas there are prerequisites and other requirements in place for involvement with the Drama Department’s full-length productions, there are no such restrictions on either New Plays or Theatre Activ, and both Shannon and Malcolm are intent on ensuring that any student who wants to be involved has the opportunity to be. 

Since its return after the pandemic, theatre at Bishop’s University and beyond has seen a steady increase in attendance. Indeed, this past New Plays boasts the first sold out show since the return to in-person theatre, a stark contrast to the first festival after the pandemic, which only fellow cast members and faculty were permitted to attend as audience members. Across the four-night run of the festival, over 250 people attended and 98 made an appearance on the closing night to sell out the house. The previous Theatre Activ Festival attracted an audience of just over 150 people across four nights, so the success of the latest iteration of New Plays seems like a sign that live theatre on campus will continue to grow until it is more triumphant than ever.