What We Do:
Now entering it’s 10th anniversary season, WeeFestival is dedicated to the presentation of inspiring theatre and performing arts created especially for children 0-6 years and their families. We curate a dynamic and culturally diverse mix of productions from around the world and across the country from leading companies and artists specializing in this field. WeeFestival is the only festival of its kind in Toronto and the second in Canada and Quebec with Festival Petits bonheurs.
WeeFestival consistently offers a vibrant Francophone programme and partners with Theatre français de Toronto, Alliance Française Toronto, the Office of Quebec in Toronto, and the Embassy of France in the presentation of the shows.
Through its outreach programming in communities and schools, WeeFestival strives to encourage greater awareness of the importance of arts in early childhood and the increased provision of quality arts and cultural experiences for children in their early years.
Through seed projects, commissions, residencies, and professional development workshops, WeeFestival hopes to contribute to the advancement of theatre for young audience practice with a growing, dynamic body of work created by Canadian artists. As it is our mission to increase the number of works by Canadian artists, the festival consistently offers opportunities for the creation and exploration of new work as well as exchange and professional learning during the festival.
Since its first edition in 2014, WeeFestival has presented over 65 productions, with 12 productions in digital form of 2020 & 2021. Festival commissions including Old Man and the River/le Vieil homme et la rivière, Flying Hearts, Table Top Tales, Tweet Tweet, and Yassama and the Beaded Calabash/Yassama et la calabasse aux cauris. Most recently, the festival commissioned 3 new works, The Friendship Star by Cheri Maracle, HauNodi by Diana Tso and Rubena Sinha, both of which received their initial presentations in the 2022 edition, and Ackees and Maple Trees by Marcia Johnson which will be presented in the upcoming 2023 festival.
WeeFestival began as a project of Theatre Direct and presented 4 editions in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2019 before it separated and incorporated as a stand alone organization. After two years of digital engagement due to the pandemic, the festival held its first in person event from May 31 – June 12, 2022. In the 23/24 season the festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary with an expanded international programme and the start of a new cycle of creation, production, touring, and presentation. A critical part of this process is collaboration with young children and educators and therefore WeeFestival will increase its programming in schools with artist in the classroom residencies and professional development workshops for Teachers and Early Childhood Educators.
What We Believe:
We have a passionate belief in the right of every child, of all abilities, to experience and participate in arts and cultural experiences, as declared by the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child-Article 31, and that these rights are to be afforded to them from birth.
As the WeeFestival programming celebrates and promotes the importance of arts and creativity in early childhood, we therefore value the essential collaboration of artists, educators, and caring adults who enable children’s participation in arts and cultural activities.
We are driven by the conviction that regular exposure to the arts throughout these years has a positive and profound impact on the long-term health and well-being of a child, in strengthening child/caregiver bonds, and among their peers thereby contributing to the realization of healthy and compassionate communities.
We believe our work will nurture in children a life-long love of the arts and therefore contributes to the continued viability and sustainability of the larger performing arts sector. Parents and caregivers who witness the impact of the arts on their young children will be more likely to advocate for increased arts programming in the schools.
Reports
Benefits of Arts in Early Childhood
- High quality arts or cultural experiences in early childhood can help children develop subsequent abilities in the arts which will be useful right through life.
- Early years arts and cultural activities can help children make sense of their cognitive, physical, emotional, spiritual, linguistic, and moral development by enhancing the whole curriculum.
- Early childhood arts and cultural activities can significantly strengthen and enrich children’s social bonds with their peers and parent-child bonds. These experiences further engage families and educators in their children’s learning, providing a positive focus for shared experience and communication.
- Stimulating and compelling experiences at museums, galleries, theatres, libraries, dance, arts or music venues will offer many parents the ideas, confidence and resources to play with their children as a natural part of everyday life.
- Early years arts and cultural activities can help develop intrinsic human qualities, such as creativity, expression, identity, culture and imagination. As well as helping to preserve our cultural heritage, they enable young children to develop their own languages which help shape their individual, community and global identity.
- Early years arts experiences can impact positively on confidence, self-esteem, personal, social, emotional development and behavioural health, breaking down language barriers, cultural prejudices or societal differences, and leading to decreased social problems, reduced inequality and increased creativity.
- Collaborations that encompass the perspective of arts or cultural professionals, early years professionals, children and parents can bring a vibrancy to learning that results in a much deeper understanding of, and attention to, a child’s needs and interests. This leads to sustainable progression, raising standards of achievement, and a sense of fulfillment for both teachers and children both immediately and later on in life.
About Theatre for Early Years
WeeFestival presents Theatre for Early Years for audiences 0 – 5/6 years. TEY often employs one or more of a wide range of disciplines including puppetry, object theatre, physical theatre, dance, installation performance, music theatre, and storytelling. TEY shares more in common with performance art and post-dramatic dramaturgies than it does with traditional theatre or TYA.
TEY Works are typically aimed at narrow age ranges taking into account the developmental stages of young children-infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarten age presented in intimate venues for small audiences in Relaxed Performance formats. The Relaxed Performance format also ensures inclusion for children with Developmental Disabilities and/or Autism.