The Kick & Push Festival will return to Kingston this July in its fifth year of operation with a lineup showcasing innovative and boundary-breaking experiential theatre. The festival will take place throughout Kingston at various venues from July 18th to August 11th. 

Artistic Producer Liam Karry says, “At the heart of this festivalis the belief that theatre should bring people together, offer surprising new experiences and, above all, be fun.   

Our 2019 season will bring music, magic, and puppetry to Kingston’s downtown, including two compelling indigenous narratives, curated for us by Anishinaabe artist, Waawaate Fobister. A Kick & Push ticket is a passport into the imagination of Canada's most acclaimed cultural innovators. I promise you will never forget what you discover there.”

The Kick & Push Festival runs alongside Theatre Kingston’s Storefront Fringe Festival, which features 18 production companies performing in three empty downtown storefronts. Six of the 2019 productions are coming to Kingston after sold out runs across North America, with the other two being entirely new. 

General Information:

The 2019 Kick & Push Festival runs from July 18th to August 11th. Shows will play in The Grand Theatre, Battery Park, Cedar Island and the Kingston Public Library.  

Tickets:

Tickets will be available online at www.thekickandpush.com and through the Grand Theatre Box Office at  218 Princess Street, by phone at 613-530-2050 and online at www.kingstongrand.ca

Schedule:

The Kick & Push Festival schedule is available now. For details, please visit www.thekickandpush.com.

Shows:

Stupidhead

When: July 18th - July 21st

Where: Kingston Frontenac Public Library 

Stupidhead! is a comedy musical about having dyslexia. It’s also about how being a human is really embarrassing... like all of the time. The winner of Best New Performance Text at the 2015 SummerWorks Festival, nominated for Best New Play for the 2017 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, Stupidhead! has performer/playwright Katherine Cullen sharing true stories about her dyslexia, the way she interacts with the world, and the way the world interacts with her. Cullen’s script – directed by the Dora nominated Aaron Willis and accompanied by lyricist/musician Britta Johnson’s original songs – makes for a show that is painfully funny, brutally honest, and totally relatable for anyone who feels like they do things a bit different.

Out of the Woods  

When: July 19th - July 21st

Where: Cedar Island

A couple escapes into the wilderness determined to figure out once and for all whether they should stay together or call it quits. Out of the Woods is a comedic song play about lost love, nostalgia and regret. 

Justin Rutledge, Amy Rutherford and Andrew Shaver have a long history of working together as performers, musicians and theatre creators. Out of the Woods combines all of their talents by using songs from Justin Rutledge’s songbook to make a very funny song play about love and loss, in which they all perform. 

Out of the Woods will appeal to young theatregoers with its concert appeal and comedy, but also with more mature audiences as it highlights and showcases Justin's incredible poetry.

Tales of An Urban Indian

When: July 30th - August 3

Where: On a bus around Kingston

Simon Douglas. He’s the guy who sits next to you on the bus and won’t stop talking. About his friends back on the reserve. His mom and grandmother. His girlfriends. A man torn between two worlds, ride along with Simon and see the world through his eyes.

Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy

When: July 31st - August 3rd

Where: Baby Grand

The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy is a new play by Eric Woolfe (House at Poe Corner, Doc Wuthergloom’s Haunted Medicine Show) who uses puppets and close-up magic based on the Faust Legend. An eerie tale of unholy larceny and Klondike gold. Based on the sworn testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. Strange things loom in the midday moon, where lost men moil for gold. Our hero, Brimstone, is caught up in the Canadian Klondike Gold Rush of 1897.  An alchemy of historical fact,ancient legend, true stories of Old West grifters and card sharps, the works of HP Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood and Robert Service, and a good deal of heartbreak and whimsy, this epic tale tells the story of a two-bit conman and how he lost his true love to the dark spirits of the North as a result of his greed and lust for gold and “the sure thing” game.

Paddlesong

When: August 2nd 

Where: Memorial Hall

A musical theatre piece written for the stage by Dinah Christie with Tom Hill, starring Cheri Maracle. Pauline Johnson was a trailblazing heroine, an enigmatic, ahead of her time, proud Mohawk Poet and performer of the late 1800s. The daughter of a respected Six Nations Mohawk Chief and an English mother, Pauline embraced her heritage and fiercely challenged the stereotypes of women and Native peoples within her work. She fearlessly toured this unrelenting countryside, with her unique stage show for over 30 years, and was published and hailed by the literati in England at a time when the literary world was ruled by white men.

A (Musical) Midsummer Night’s Dream 

When: August 6th

Where: Battery Park

Shakespeare’s most popular comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the perfect outdoor summer theatre experience for the entire family. Four lovers and one group of hapless tradespeople experience a chaos-filled night in the forest as they stumble across the mischievous Puck and the magical denizens of the faery kingdom.

“It’s about community, companionship and love,” remarks Driftwood Artistic Director Jeremy Smith. “Dream reminds us of the importance of putting down our devices, stepping away from our screens, and making the kind of tangible connections which encourage empathy, understanding and respect.”

Using Shakespeare’s text, A (Musical) Midsummer Night’s Dream is a rocking, rolling, funktastic, jazz-infused musical celebration of theatrical proportions; with everything performed live and entirely a cappella. 

Kitchen Chicken

When:  August 7th - August 10th

Where: The Grand Theatre

In this kitchen chronicle freshly cooked-up by L’ODHO, the songs of American 30s yodel queens The Cackle Sisters contend with the ovens for an improbable meal. Staggeringly beautiful, the acts fly by at an astonishingly fast pace while the team hustles to roast a chicken, mash potatoes and prepare appetizers which may or may not eventually be served up. Truly a musical and culinary tour de force.

About the Kick & Push Festival

The Kick & Push Festival is named after the nickname given to the Kingston and Pembroke Railway "Kick and Push". This railway now forms the K & P Trail. It runs 180 kilometres from Kingston to Renfrew and was seen as an abundance of opportunity for entrepreneurs in the late 1880s. Over 100 years later, we want to offer this same abundance of opportunity to our guests and artists at the Kick and Push innovative theatre festival.