Fresh Blood Festival

Overview

Call it a testing ground, call it a great place for on-stage experimentation, call it the future of entertainment — whichever one you choose, it'll probably be accurate. Fresh Blood Festival is focused on new talent, new ideas and the next generation of arts and stage performances. In short: even if you spend all of your spare time checking out new theatre, don't expect to see something here that you've seen before.

Taking over Metro Arts from Thursday, July 12 to Saturday, July 14 and run by the venue's student-company-in-residence Vena Cava Productions, this fest is all about giving fledgling creatives the chance to show off their talents. The 2018 program will showcase 15 productions, and it's certainly big on variety. When you're not watching two people play solitaire, you'll be catching a musical about mental health or witnessing The Good Time Boys put on their latest sketch comedy skits.

Or, in one of the festival's most intriguing inclusions, you'll explore old keepsakes — you know, the kinds of things that everyone has, such as photos from several hairstyles ago — and delve into the memories that go with them. That's what world premiere piece Within a Fleeting Moment is all about, and it promises more than just a dose of nostalgia.