Your Source to Source

THE BEGINNING

After purchasing Source Theatre in 2006 and undergoing a major capital campaign to renovate the landmark, the Cultural Development Corporation (CuDC) launched the revamped Source Festival in 2008.  The goal was to present 100% new work, including not only theatre and dance, but also music, visual art, film, spoken word and more.

Today, Source Festival is a highlight of the creative season, providing artists from across the nation the opportunity to collaborate, invent, and built relationships that lay the path for the next generation of outstanding performing artists.

THE PRESENT DAY

This year, Source Festival is revamped and better than ever. Over the course of three full weeks, audiences have the chance to experience three types of production formats:

• 10-Minute Plays: Rising DC actors and directors pair up with playwrights from across the country to create originality-in-a-nutshell.  Each performance showcases six 10-Minute Plates. Check out all 18 10-Minute Plays in the 2011 Source Festival calendar here.
• Full-Length Plays: Discover the breaking edge of local theatre as creative teams from DC stage three dynamic new plays.  Full bios of each play can be found here.
• Artistic Blind Dates: 12 local artists representing various mediums – theatre, film, puppetry, dance, music, and visual art – have spent the last four months mixing, mingling, and creating completely original mashed-up artistic experiences. See what these four teams of three have conjured up here.
• Oh yea... and one incredible one-night-only Talent Show on July 1^st.  New and seasoned artists will reveal their hidden (and not-so-hidden) talents and be judged by celebrity judges for a 1^st place prize.

What we love the most is the added accessibility of catching more than one of these shows in a single night.  The new Source Festival schedule places Artistic Blind Dates in the Source Rehearsal Hall for just $10 – allowing audiences to catch an Artistic Blind Date (some of our favorite types of collaborations!) before or after catching a Full-Length or 10-Minute Play in the blackbox.

Also new this year are the prices and added ticket bundles. Artistic Blind Dates are only $10 (down from last year’s $18). Individual tickets to Full-Length Plays and 10-Minute Plays are $20. So let's do the math.  $20 for a main show. $10 for a blind date.  $30 for a night of two original, stellar projects.

You can also get a 4-play pass for $55 or an all-access pass for $125. Buy tickets and ticket bundles here.

THE FIRST STEP

Not sure where to start with all of the festival components? We recommend getting to know all of the moving parts with five easy outlets:

• Keep up with behind the scenes info on Tumblr:
• Check out snapshots of the plays as they happen on Flickr;
• Visit the always up-to-date Source Facebook page;
• Follow Source Festival Producer Jenny McConnell Frederick on Twitter; and/or
• Watch the cool new preview video of Nacirema, one of the Artistic Blind Dates.

If you can only commit to one performance, we recommend the 10-Minute Plays – the Festival’s mainstay. That way, you get six compact bouts of creativity in one night (plus an extra if you decide to visit an Artistic Blind Date in the Rehearsal Hall before or after)!

Need some direction?  We like Lost & Found from the 10-Minute Plays; the Full-Length Play Spacebar: A Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman; and the Artistic Blind Date, Perspectivoyage: The Mann Bobb McCauley Experience.

We wish we could review every show, big and small, for your theatre-inquiring mind. But consider the entire festival experience a very big Pink Pick.

THE DEETS

Source Festival takes place at Source Theatre, 1835 14^th St NW, WDC 20009, from June 10 through July 3, 2011. Tickets are $10-$32. Purchase online at sourcedc.org/festival or by calling 866.811.4111. More information can be found at sourcedc.org/festival