Theatre Replacement and Company 605 have announced the program for the 2025 edition of HOLD ON LET GO. Taking place February 4-8 at the Russian Hall in East Vancouver, HOLD ON LET GO is an annual, independently produced festival showcasing contemporary performance work by Vancouver and Canadian artists.
Produced by Theatre Replacement in partnership with Company 605, and celebrating its 15th season, HOLD ON LET GO has solidified its place as a vital space for artists and audiences to come together in the sharing of new, experimental works that seek to challenge what performance is and can be. HOLD ON LET GO is co-curated by Lisa Mariko Gelley, Josh Martin, and Maiko Yamamoto.
Kicking off on Tuesday, February 4 with Keely O’Brien’s Secret Ingredients followed by an official Opening Night party, this year’s program presents 7 deviceful, experimental performances by artists whose practices bound outside of convention — asking audiences to take new looks at long-time subjects and conversations. The forms are startling and call attention to these narratives in intimate and revealing ways: saying difficult things we can’t speak directly through a sweet and delicious gift; unfolding layers of loss brought on by the pressures of constant progress; the power of transforming legacy in present day action; and talking with teens about three things we’re not supposed to talk about with our kids: sex, drugs, and crime. This year’s program also shares family ritual, cultural customs, and secrets.
These bold works include the aforementioned Secret Ingredients by Keely O’Brien, Loss Machine by Kyle Loven, Raven Mother by Dancers of Damelahamid, Sex, Drugs and Criminality by Mammalian Diving Reflex (Toronto), and a unique presentation of Zuppa’s web-based game, Archive of Missing Things (Halifax). There are also two in development presentations of brand new works: it is for when you meet me by Anjela Magpantay and MY HOUSE by FakeKnot.
In addition to these performances, HOLD ON LET GO will host festival gatherings, including artist talks, panel discussions and social mixers with an international delegation from exciting festivals and venues around the world. One such festival gathering is the Accelerator Lab Community Conversation. Over the last few months, Vancouver-based experimental artists Davey Samuel Calderon, Aryo Khakpour, Kyle Loven, and Keely O’Brien have been exploring new ways to grow mobility for their work and reinvigorate the current context for international touring, networking, and relationship building as part of Theatre Replacement’s Accelerator Lab International Fellowship. These four artists will share their experiences, insights, and discoveries.
This year’s festival will also see the return of the Emerging Artist Series, curated again by artist Amanda Sum, with events geared for the next generation of artists.
“At Theatre Replacement, we’ve been deeply intentional about what projects and programs we’re working on right now. We need to be, as we navigate the present moment,” says Theatre Replacement’s Artistic Director Maiko Yamamoto. “Our ideas have been all about building ecosystems, to help generate and sustain for our companies, but also for the artists we collaborate with and do our best to uplift. With HOLD ON LET GO, you’re looking at an art ecosystem in action, bringing experimental works that often (and increasingly so) get pushed to the edges, and placing them right in the centre. HOLD ON LET GO sees the intersection of many of our programs and activities that feed into each other, forming systems of support around important artistic work. Through continually building these structures, we see what’s possible — we gain a clearer understanding of what we can achieve — moving forward.”
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