All grown up at 31, and forever young: Nextfest, the festival of emerging artists, is back this week

All grown up, and forever young. That’s Nextfest, the multi-disciplinary festival of emerging artists that’s been asking “what’s next?” ever since it got dreamed up at Theatre Network in 1996.

To help support .ca YEG theatre coverage, click here.

It’s back Thursday at the Roxy with a 31st annual edition, to celebrate and showcase the ideas, inspirations and experiments of the next generation of artists, on the brink of professional careers. For 11 days at the free-wheeling, cross-pollinating festival founded by Theatre Network’s Bradley Moss, we get to experience the innovations of 500-plus emerging artists, collaborating in theatre, dance, music, comedy, visual arts, film and video, and unclassifiable amalgams of all of the above. By now, it’s hard to find artists in this theatre town whose careers haven’t been touched by Nextfest.

Nextfest director Ellen Chorley in front of The Roxy. Photo supplied.

As usual Nextfest is a veritable Roxy invasion: performances and showcases on both the main and alternative stages plus the rehearsal hall, visual art on every available wall on the three levels of exhibition spaces, and (a perennial Nextfest draw) themed ‘performance nite clubs’ that rove and pop up everywhere in the theatre, including the lobbies, the roof, the elevator. And Nextfest musicians burst out of the Roxy and onto 124th St. for happy hours at Delavoye Chocolate and Three Vikings, and a free outdoor concert paired with the 124th St. Grand Market in Helen Nolan Park on June 11.

As festival director Ellen Chorley explains, theatre happens in a continuum, and at every stage of development at Nextfest, from play readings to “progress showings” to the five mainstage premieres. In the wide spectrum of submissions, Chorley detects a certain lean into the horror genre and dark themes generally this year, assisted of course by the scary state of the world.

Deaf Heart by IBIPOC Deaf Ensemble of DHTC, Nextfest 2026. Poster image supplied

In a first for Nextfest, much to Chorley’s delight, is a collective performance piece devised by the IBPOC Deaf Ensemble of DHTC. Deaf Heart, as she describes is “all in sign language, with visuals that include movement and clowning, creative expression beyond language. The project is captained by producer Connor Yuzwenko-Martin, and co-directors Thurga Kanagasekarampillai and Crystal Wolfe. Says Chorley, who’s learning ASL herself (“an incredibly expressive language”), “we really hope that it attracts a mixed Deaf and hearing audience; it’s for everybody!”

There are eight Deaf artists onstage in the show. And the 25-member cast list in the Nextfest program includes mentorship from such well-known Edmonton hearing artists as Christine Lesiak and Ainsley Hillyard, clowning and dance/choreography specialists respectively.

Fantasies in Trash: in eleven movements by Coarse Arts Collective, Nextfest 2026. Poster image supplied.

“Puppets! I love puppets!” says Chorley, Nextfest director since 2017, whose own history as a theatre artist goes back to high school, and the possibilities unlocked for her multi-faceted theatre career by the festival. Where else is an adventurous theatre-goer going to find an “industrial puppet symphony”? She’s talking about “Fantasies in Trash: in eleven movements,” the creation of the Coarse Arts Collective. “Assembled” and directed by Emilia Fox Hillyer (look for an upcoming interview), it’s the collective work of Edmonton’s transgender/gender-diverse community. And, as billed, the cast is joined by a live four-piece band, and armed with some 33 assorted content warnings, the festival program’s longest and most intriguingly diverse.

The Bin by Lexi House, Nextfest 2026. Poster image supplied.

Lexi House’s The Bin comes to the mainstage via Nextfest’s annual six-week fall “My First Play” program designed, designed to mentor first-time playwrights on “how to take an idea from your brain onto the page” and then the stage, as Chorley describes. The story, set in an Athabasca cabin, is imbued “with scary horror elements,” with both human and animal spirit characters. Chorley was particularly impressed with “how organic Lexi’s dialogue is. The characters seem so compellingly real-life….” Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with the playwright.

There are two offerings in the 30-seat  (newly christened) Bradley Moss Rehearsal Hall upstairs at the Roxy, “an exciting way to have an intimate experience in theatre,” as Chorley puts it. One is Lily Davies’ Splattered, which touches on “professional jealousy in arts careers and pursuing adult relationships,” as she describes. Spenser Kells directs the Fourth House production. The other, Hunny Moon in “Instructions Unclear,” has drag elements, but ultimately, Chorley says, it’s “an intimate one-person monologue about pain, vulnerability.”

Splattered by Lily Davies, Nextfest 2026. Poster image supplied

The “Progress Showing,” is Näcken, by and directed by Liz Janzen. The 17th century German setting and title (literally, ‘the back of the neck’) hint at hair-raising. “Horror, witchy, gory, magic, sickness, blood,” says Chorley by way of summary.

The lineup of eight new plays getting a reading, either full first drafts or excerpts, are a glimpse into what’s on the minds of the new generation of artists. The variety is,  to say the least, striking. Moemen Gaafar’s Shams By Rumi, for example, which follows an Egyptian artist duo on a production-related trip to Cairo, is a modern take on the Persian poet Rumi and the mystic Shams. Bunny Guts, by Mika Boutin (whose Televangelists was a Nextfest hit last year), follows a group of cousins as they negotiate an inherited small-town ritual. At the centre of Em Smith’s Hagar is a mother/daughter estrangement set at a critical moment of transition into long-term care.

The late-night Nite Clubs, which occupy every nook and cranny of the Roxy, are a tangible demo of the Nextfest mantra “come for the art, stay for the party.” The first of this year’s two is Weird Planet (June 6), “our Pride nite club” says Chorley, featuring all queer artists, presented by Party Queen and curated by Helluva Thing. The second, Underground ’99 (June 13), is this year’s edition of the annual Nextfest “Smut Nite,” curated by Mika Boutin and Tori Kibblewhite of Dog Bite Theatre Collective. The theme is 1999, in all its punk and grunge splendour; Chorley, who was in Grade 9 at the time, is already planning her outfit.

The festival’s three “Showcases” are cross-disciplinary Nextfest partnerships with community groups: iHuman, Cherry Pit, and ABoyActually.

Check out the event-crammed colour-coded schedule, including the roster of free artist workshops — everything from vocal improv to on-camera acting to theatre producing — at nextfest.ca. Tickets and passes: theatrenetwork.ca.