A new theater festival in Winnipeg invites listeners to tune into the vast world of radio drama. Three productions will be taped in front of a live audience at the Gargoyle Theater this weekend.
The inaugural AudiArts Festival, organized by theater enthusiast and volunteer Linda Olson, runs Friday through Sunday at the Ellis Avenue Theater.
Olson's love for radio storytelling began when she was in her early 20s working in remote northern communities where her group of friends listened to CBC broadcasts by appointment.
MICHAELA MCKENZIE / FREE PRESS
AudiArts festival organizer Linda Olson's love of radio storytelling began while she was working in remote northern communities.
“That was our big achievement,” says Olson, who quickly became fascinated by the potential of radio drama.
After writing a minor play in 2018, a drama about dementia called Please help me, I'm lostOlson, who worked as a registered nurse at Riverview Medical Center for 14 years, reached out to local actress Nancy Drake. Drake, a fixture on the Manitoba stage for more than 40 years, helped Olson work on the script, encouraging her to develop the story for radio.
Drake, who died in 2020, understood the power of radio: From 1967 to 1971, she hosted a weekly folk program for the CBC sister station in Sydney, North Carolina.
Drake, Olson says, encouraged her to develop the festival, helping develop its concept: to give original Manitoba productions the opportunity to be performed and recorded in front of a live audience.
Olson's love for the format was reinforced by a radio play produced by the Royal Manitoba Theater Centre. It's a wonderful life in 2018.
This year's AudiArts Festival will feature three previously produced supporting plays: Emergency operations; Gargoyle owner and playwright Andrew Davidson Fifth date; and Old Elmwood Theater Condominium downstairs.
Despite its name, the Old Elmwood Theater was actually founded in 2024, says Stephen Gillies, co-writer. Condominium downstairs – Faustian rock opera – with Greg Holowka and Chris Baldwin.
BROOKE JONES/FREE PRESS
Writer Stephen Gillies (left) with fellow writer Greg Holowka.
“And there's no ordinary building here. In our minds, it's a theater,” says Gillies, whose company also recorded the adaptation Rain W. Somerset Maugham.
That's a huge part of the format's appeal, says Gillis, who worked as a technical writer at CBC and CKSB before spending 15 years as a technical writer at MTS.
While working on the technical side of radio, Gillis says he became intrigued by the “power of the voice” to convey a story.
“When you listen to something, you need to fill in the blanks, see the images, imagine how the characters were formed, see the setting, consider the motives, pay attention to the nuances of the voice,” he says, hours before the final rehearsal of his company's production, which received a three-star review from Free press during the 2024 peripheral festival.
That same magic has always captured Olson in this format, which has seen a resurgence in the podcast era.
In 2023, the Webby Awards introduced a new category for Best Written Podcast (Fiction), and the CBC Awards PlayMe plays a new Canadian production every episode, and a quick search for “old radio” reveals vast treasure troves of mid-century shows available to stream on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Music.
But Olson says what excites her most about the AudiArts festival isn't the opportunity to re-air classic shows like War of the Worldsbut also to help local companies continue to find audiences and new stages for their original productions.
BROOKE JONES/FREE PRESS
Stephen Gillies and the Old Elmwood Theater will present “The Downstairs Condominium.”
Each performance will be recorded by Gargoyle's in-house technician Rebecca Driedger, and each company will then own the rights to the recording.
Tickets for each performance – Fifth date (Friday, 19:30), Condominium downstairs (Saturday, 19:30) and Emergency operations (Sunday, 2 p.m.) – $10 at audiartsfestival.ca.
Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated arts and life reporter. Free press. Ben was born and raised in Winnipeg and completed three internships with the company Free press while pursuing a degree at Ryerson University's School of Journalism (now Metropolitan University of Toronto), and then began working full-time in the newsroom in 2019. More about Ben.
Every report Ben creates is reviewed by a team of editors before it is published online or in print – part Free pressRussia's tradition since 1872 of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free presshistory and mandateAnd Find out how our news department works.
Our newsroom depends on a growing readership to fuel our journalism. If you are not a paying reader, please consider become a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on readership to fuel our journalism. Thanks for your support.
