An Update on Paprika Festival and COVID-19

Hello friends and community members,

We hope this message finds you well, healthy, and connected (in various forms) to a supportive community. We want to thank our participants, facilitators, mentors, guest artists and staff for their patience and adaptability. A lot has changed in the past few weeks and we appreciate everyone’s efforts in finding new ways to collaborate.

Based on the advisories and directives from public health agencies, Paprika’s Executives and Board of Directors, in consultation with participants, facilitators, staff and partners, has made the decision to postpone the activities planned for the 19th Paprika Festival, which was scheduled to take place May 25 - 31, 2020 at Native Earth Performing Arts’ Aki Studio. Our priority right now is to ensure the safety of our staff, participants and facilitators.

Paprika will honour all contracts with staff, facilitators, participants, and guest artists.

We want to reiterate our commitment to participants in this year’s cohort and share the ways we are moving forward with them and their work:

- We will continue to offer all training programs digitally.
- We will digitally showcase participants’ learning, process and/or work in a format that is decided upon in consultation with each participant.
- We are currently looking into ways participants may be able to share their work in or leading up to the 20th Paprika Festival in 2021.
- We are committed to building professional connections for further development opportunities and connecting participants to industry professionals.
- We will be relaunching our website in the coming weeks to highlight participants and their work.

Additionally, Paprika will offer a series of free online workshops in theatre creation and professional development, plus other virtual community events, all of which will be open to the general public.

Once again, we want to thank all the participants, facilitators, guest artists, staff and partners for their support. These are challenging and difficult times, but we are grateful to be a part of a community that is understanding, and open to exploring new ways to collaborate and create.

Looking forward to the continued sharing of space - in whatever form that may take.

Much love,

The Paprika team

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Paprika’s General Manager, Daniel Carter at daniel@paprikafestival.com.

Stay connected via social media for future updates from Paprika @paprikafestival.