PuSh Announces Programming for 2024 Festival: A MANIFESTO FOR LIVE ART

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival (PuSh) returns to Vancouver from January 18 to February 4, 2024. For two decades, PuSh Festival has been the Lower Mainland's signature, mid-winter cultural event delivering radical, innovative, contemporary works of live art by acclaimed local, national, and International Artists.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday (November 22) at noon for this year's Festival, which asks, “Can a live art festival be a ritual for social change? A cultural strategy? A means to rethink history while imagining possible futures?”

Featuring 17 original works from 15 countries—including four world premieres and seven Canadian debuts, the Festival lineup is dedicated to inspired risk-taking and dynamic interdisciplinary collaboration. PuSh's 2024 Program showcases creative risk and the shifting of our paradigms of artistic form. The works being presented in this year's Festival make us feel more alive with personal accounts of resistance and acts of vulnerability, and push us to examine our relationship to contemporary themes such as migration, displacement, labour, injustice, and artificial intelligence.

“PuSh expands our consciousness by bringing our bodies in proximity and creating space to think,” says PuSh's Director of Programming Gabrielle Martin, who has been curating the Festival since 2022. “It triggers creative and political stimulation through local-international encounters, and it fosters a transmission of knowledge unique to the ephemeral community of an international festival.”

In addition to a strong Canadian presence, PuSh will also present works from Mexico, Australia, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, India, the United Kingdom, Palestine, Romania, Madagascar, Haiti, China, Brazil, and the United States.  

The always anticipated Club PuSh, the Festival's platform for out-of-the-box work and interactive experiences, runs on January 26 & 27 at 9 p.m. at Performance Works on Granville Island. Club PuSh is a relaxed, casual atmosphere where people can connect with artists and party with fellow Festival-goers. The two cabaret-style nights of Club PuSh will be curated by Vancouver collaborators the frank theatre co. and Talking Stick, with the lineup for each night of Club PuSh being released in December.

The PuSh Industry Series also returns for 2024 in partnership with Talking Stick, to stimulate dialogue with attendees from the national and international performing arts community during the second week of the Festival.

PuSh also continues to offer youth programming for participants aged 16-24. The PuSh Youth Program is PuSh's way to engage, support, and uplift a whole new generation of arts enthusiasts by providing greater access to the performing arts via discounted tickets, educational opportunities, and stimulating conversation. The Youth Pass gives access to PuSh Festival programming at highly discounted rates with access to 4 select shows at only $20 for youth aged 16-24.

The Youth Cohort, produced in partnership with Surrey-based Solid State Community Industries, is a free program that brings together racialized youth to experience, examine, and engage with the professional contemporary performing arts community. With workshops, conversations with arts professionals, and a slate of exciting PuSh shows, the Youth Cohort is like a book club, but for the live performing arts. Learn more about the program and how to apply to the 2023 Youth Cohort.

In partnership with Playwrights Theatre Centre, PuSh will also offer free artistic consultations with visiting national and international dramaturgs representing diverse artistic points of view and cultural contexts. This new initiative centres process to highlight creative work that is often behind-the-scenes, nourishing individual practice while contributing to collective dramaturgical knowledge systems.  

PuSh is excited to continue to expand its community outreach and to work alongside new and long-standing partners including Théâtre la Seizième, The Cultch, Neworld Theatre, Indian Summer Festival, Chutzpah! Festival, Pandemic Theatre, New Works Dance, The Dance Centre, Inner Fish Theatre Society, Music on Main, plastic orchid factory, Touchstone Theatre, Rumble Theatre, Vancouver Poetry House, SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs, Boca del Lupo, the frank theatre co., Living Things Festival, Talking Stick Festival, with support from Vancouver Civic Theatres, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, and the Granville Island Theatre District.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of PuSh @ SFU Woodward's, offering an Anniversary Series of three shows through the duration of the Festival ( The Runner, DARKMATTER, and L'amour). Patrons can save 15% when getting tickets to all three shows, in celebration of the long standing partnership.

PuSh also celebrates a new partnership with Boca del Lupo with the first offering in their MICRO Performance Series, Dear Laila .

Please see below for individual show details.

The comprehensive 2024 program guide will be available online as of November 22 with specific show information. You can also contact info@pushfestival.ca or 604.605.8284.

Ticket prices range from $16.75 to $39, with a top-tier seating option for Pli at the Playhouse at $69. To buy tickets, visit pushfestival.ca or call the PuSh Festival Audience Services info line at 604.449.6000.

Single-show tickets go on sale with the Program Launch on November 22, 2023, at pushfestival.ca

PuSh Passes, for those who want to see multiple shows during the Festival, are available as of November 8. Passholders save up to 25% off single tickets when they buy four or six shows together. Limited quantities. Group sales are available by contacting tickets@pushfestival.ca.