Over the course of five days, the Gargoyle Theatre in Winnipeg’s West End will be the place to see some of the most exciting premieres of new creative works in the city.
The Village Conservatory’s Inhibition Exhibition officially launches on March 5 with a slate of concerts and showcases for a wide range of emerging artists, sharing works that range from cabaret to musicals to pop songs to straight theatre.
For Daphne Finlayson, the producer of the Inhibition Exhibition, the festival is a microcosm of the founding ethos of the Village Conservatory, which first opened its doors in 2019. “One of the big reasons why we exist is because we noticed that there was a lack of training opportunities at the post-secondary level for people who wanted to get more rounded as musical theatre artists,” she shared in an interview on Morning Light. “We want to give continue giving a voice to Winnipeg artists and Manitoba creatives.”
The Inhibition Exhibition was first introduced to Winnipeg audiences back in 2021 as a way to share the works of the students that the conservatory mentors. “The title came about because we noticed that a lot of our student body were dealing with really vulnerable, deep personal topics, but they wanted to explore them through art,” Finlayson explains, sharing that the festival took on the title to celebrate self-expression in a place free of inhibition.
One of the Manitoba creatives who has been a part of the Village Conservatory’s mission is Susan Castellon, who will be one of the featured performers in the Inhibition Exhibition’s biggest showcase, "Mindful Mayhem". "Getting into musical theatre professionally is something that I had always wanted, but I was a little intimidated,” she shares, “but being in the Village Conservatory, all of those fears have really just washed away.”
“It’s been a wonderful experience, and it’s made me probably the happiest I’ve been in a couple of years.”
The Inhibition Exhibition begins in the evening on March 5 with a community cabaret, which Finlayson describes as being a taster of what’s coming up not only in the festival, but also in the broader Winnipeg theatre community. “We have a lot of people who are writing new musicals specifically for the [Winnipeg Fringe Festival].” she says, highlighting several unique productions including a musical re-telling of Fight Club where the characters are gender-swapped.
Castellon’s "Mindful Mayhem" performances take place in the evenings on March 6 and 7 as well as a matinee on March 9. Although she’s lending her talents to four performances done by her classmates at the conservatory, she’s looking forward to sharing her piece, which she describes as a blend of interpretive dance and spoken word poetry.
“I particularly love the fact that it’s quite a perfect balance between deeper topics and more exciting, lighter and even funny topics,” Castellon shares. “Since it is a story that is very deeply personal to my heart, it was wonderful to have the peers that I’ve been working with for so long be part of it and truly understand the story and be able to tell it.”
Other events that will be a part of the Inhibition Exhibition include an exploration of failed Broadway shows called "Should This Be a Musical?", hosted by Jillian Willems and Paul DeGurse, and a reading of a new play currently in development called "Sinking Ship" by local playwright Ethan Stark, a gender-queer reimagining of the myth of the ferryman on the River Styx.
More details on the Inhibition Exhibition and how the public can volunteer at the event can be found at the Village Conservatory’s website.
