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About
The Thousand Faces Festival
WHO WE ARE
The Thousand Faces Festival is a multidisciplinary arts festival in Edmonton, AB that celebrates and nurtures Edmonton's and Canada's richly diverse cultural scene through mythic art and food.
THE FESTIVAL
An annual sumptuous intercultural banquet of food & mythic art, dance, theatre, and more! The festival brings together artists and audiences from diverse cultures to weave enchantments from their worlds of myth.
OUTREACH
Are you a teacher interested in providing your students with a unique multicultural experience for little to no cost? Then our theatre for young audience shows are for you! Do you have a group that's young at heart? Bring our shows to your senior home or centre! Visit our sister company Theatre Prospero for more information!
EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION COMMITMENT
The Thousand Faces Festival proudly supports and commits to the 35//50 initiative. To find out more about the diversity and inclusivity initiative, click here.
Artistic Director and Founder
Mark Henderson's Message
Twelve years ago, Theatre Prospero was performing two Shakespeare plays with touring sets at the Avenue Theatre for two weeks. We noticed we had an idle, empty stage in the evenings.
The Edmonton Arts Council provided some funding to kickstart a festival. We put the word out that if you had a favourite myth you had always wanted to do something with, we had a space for it.
One year later, we had an Indigenous Spirit World Circus Quest with Stiltwalkers and Glitter Hoop Ninjas, Sublime Hindustani Classical Guitar and Bharatanatyam interwoven with original mythic Goddess text and Photography, a Jazz Suite on the Life of the Buddha, Tololwa Mollel storytelling, and others.
Aesthetically and culturally diverse, the Thousand Faces Festival has given Dancers, Musicians, Poets, Painters, Playwrights and Players space to tell stories from two-minute poems to feature-length multi-disciplinary epics.
Many artists, such as Malavika Venkatsubbaiah, Tololwa Mollel, Usha Gupta, and Sebastian Barrera come back most years. At times these join in collaborations that grow, like Tololwa’s Zulu Epic Trilogy Anthem of Life, which Theatre Prospero is now producing in 2024.
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We look forward to seeing you at this year's festival.
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Mark
The Thousand Faces Festival Association is committed to providing an environment that is free from harassment, bullying, discrimination, and other unwelcome behaviours. All artists, arts workers, volunteers, stakeholders, clients, and audience members are to be treated with respect, dignity, and inclusiveness to contribute to a workplace environment free from harassment. Click on the link above to learn more about our commitment to safe spaces and report an incident.
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