Vital to the NB Stage

Local theatre artists praise NotaBle Acts Theatre Festival for its important role in New Brunswick’s theatre ecology.

“NotaBle Acts, in my opinion, is one of the most important cultural events east of Montreal,” said playwright Jake Martin. “I think NotaBle Acts is directly and indirectly responsible for the strong theatre scene that Fredericton has.” For Martin and countless other theatre artists from the Fredericton area and other parts of the province, NotaBle Acts has been a major motivator and driving force within the province’s theatre scene, encouraging the development of new New Brunswick plays and offering a stage for both emerging and would-be actors to collaborate and bring these stories to life. Through its annual playwriting contests, the festival, now in its fifteenth year, has fueled well over a hundred new scripts by NB playwrights.

“If you looked at the statistics,” said Martin, “I would think that there would be a surprisingly high amount of playwrights coming out of Fredericton and I think NotaBle Acts is responsible for that.”

Martin’s play, Wasters, was one of two winners of this year’s NotaBle Acts one-act playwriting contest. Wasters will be performed together with Caged, a new work by Fredericton playwright Alex Donovan, as part of this year’s Acting Out series.

“The fact that there is a festival that allows plays by New Brunswick authors to be produced is huge,” said Donovan. “This is my fifth year doing NotaBle Acts and I learn so many skills each year, getting to direct pieces, having written some work, getting to act in the festival, it’s just fantastic.”