A three-festival weekend in Edmonton theatre: improv, Shakespeare, musical theatre…

By Liz Nicholls, .ca

Real people together, artists and audiences, getting festive: what a concept! It’s an AI-proof three-festival weekend on Edmonton stages.

100 Decibels, at Improvaganza. Rapid Fire Theatre, photo from website.

•No one can really know what will happen at Improvaganza, Rapid Fire Theatre’s annual excursion into the impromptu, the unforeseen, the unpredictable. It continues this weekend through Sunday, with showcases from an international array of improv and sketch comedy artists, and RFT’s own elite band of experts in the fine art of spontaneity. The lineup includes 100 Decibels, a particularly expressive physical comedy troupe of Deaf artists from Canada, Poland, and the Philippines. At Friday night’s show they’re paired with Only Improv In The Building, an improvised murder mystery starring an assortment of improvisers directed by Jon Carr, who’s the artistic director of Dad’s Garage, RFT’s sibling improv company in Atlanta.

Kaleidoscope, “an improvised mosaic” as billed, is the work of the Vancouver-based improv ensemble Camp. And it operates on the collage principle in joining scenes. 2-Man No-Show, the tag-team duo of Ken Hall and Isaac Kessler unleash their “clown-prop” style and the fourth wall doesn’t stand a chance.

For the full schedule, show descriptions, and tickets, go to rapidfiretheatre.com.

Vanessa Sabourin and Jesse Gervais in Much Ado About Nothing, Freewill Shakespeare Festival 2026. Photo by Brianne Jang

•Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the Park with Will: Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing celebrates the return of the beloved Freewill Shakespeare Festival to their natural al fresco home, the Heritage Amphitheatre in Hawrelak Park, after YEARS of  exile. Ian Leung directs a 10-actor cast of theatre pros in the festive-with-a-dark-side mid-period comedy by the company’s resident playwright. And, hark!, the fun of a hang in the newly reno-ed park, plus all the traditional Freewill accoutrements, including squirrel input, popcorn and a sprawl on the grass with a glass of vino, can be yours! Check out the preview interview with artistic director Dave Horak. And the review is here. Tickets and full schedule: freewillshakespeare.com.

Much Ado is part one of this year’s festival. Part two, Something Rotten, a big-cast Broadway musical comedy hit crammed with Shakespeare jokes, opens next week and runs through July 12. It’s produced by Edmonton Pops Orchestra and Shelley’s Dance Company, and stars an assortment of community artists directed by Horak. Tickets and full schedule: freewillshakespeare.com.

Brigadoon, NUOVA Vocal Arts. Photo by Nanc Price.

•The finale production in NUOVA Vocal Arts’ 2026 festival is the 1947 Lerner and Loewe classic Brigadoon, running on the Orange Hub stage through Sunday. Kim Mattice Wanat’s large-scale revival, which has not one but two alternating 36-performer casts of emerging musical theatre artists from across the country. And that’s a lot of tartan! The review is here. Tickets: nuovavocalarts.com.

Edmonton Fringe founding father Brian Paisley.

•And coming up, of course, a few more festivals from now in mid-August, is the axis on which Edmonton summers, in all their festival-rich glory, have been poised for 44 years: the Fringe (Aug. 13 to 23). A bona fide Edmonton invention with grassroots cred, our best cultural export ever, has been a game-changer not only for the city and for Edmonton theatre, but for Canadian theatre nation-wide, and theatre across the continent. And Fringe season is upon us with news of grave medical difficulties for founding father Brian Paisley, whose inspiration it was, 46 summers ago, to invite artists to come to Old Strathcona, do a show, and see what an audience would think of it. And look what happened after that.

Paisley’s family has launched a GoFundMe to support him. Have a look here, where they post updates.