2025 Season Announcement
Common Ground Arts has been growing new projects and programs for nearly 15 years. We’ve been hinting at some big news coming in 2025, and today we get to share it: Our first full presenting season, packed with two festivals and three mainstage productions.
Join us this year for…
The RISER New Works Festival is the new culmination of RISER Edmonton, Common Ground’s producer training and project development program. May 15-18 in the Backstage Theatre, we’ll be sharing work-in-process performances of our four current RISER projects ahead of their premiere runs at festivals throughout Edmonton in 2026.
Enjoy workshop showings of:
Binding by Calla Wright
Ms. Pat’s Kitchen by Jameela McNeil
POCBS: Tales of the Diaspora by Alexis de Villa & Tokunbo Adegbuyi
Postal Prophets by D’orjay Jackson
Click here for all of the Festival info.
Tickets are on sale today.
The inaugural RISER New Works Festival is possible thanks to the support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Canada Council for the Arts.
RISER would not be possible without our amazing Festival Partners, where you’ll see the premieres of these shows in 2026:
We’re not quite ready to spill everything about the 2025 Found Festival lineup – more on that later this spring. We’ll be back July 10-13, 2025 with theatre, music, poetry, and more in unexpected places. What we can share is the big news about our 2025 Fresh AiR Mainstage Presentation:
Found Festival 2025 is the world premiere of Louise Casemore’s Lucky Charm, a Defiance Theatre production presented by Common Ground Arts in partnership with Theatre Yes.
Catch Lucky Charm during its extended mainstage run July 10-20, 2025 in a secret residential venue in the Ritchie neighbourhood.
Tickets for Found 2025, including Lucky Charm, will go on sale in June, with members getting presale access.
Found Festival 2025 and Lucky Charm are possible thanks to the support of the Edmonton Arts Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Finally, our biggest news yet: We’re launching the CG Prairie Mainstage Series. Starting this fall, Common Ground will be a destination for some of the most innovative and exciting new works of theatre from prairie artists.
We want to see a thriving touring circuit where artists from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have flourishing opportunities to develop and present work here on the prairies. In our Prairie Mainstage Series, we will present work from here at home and across the prairie provinces to build new relationships for artists and audiences across our region.
We need your help to launch the Prairie Mainstage Series: All donations made up to $5,000.00 by June 10 will be matched by the Government of Alberta towards community outreach, accessibility, and artist support costs to launch our debut Series.
CLICK HERE TO GIVE BY JUNE 10!
Our first Prairie Mainstage Series features two extraordinary new works that might be familiar to Found fans: Kris Alvarez’s moving intergenerational play with songs Banana Musik and Elisa Marina Mair-Sánchez’s immersive dance-theatre work Ecos.
Banana Musik
Kris, Jim, and Susan Alvarez
A memory play about aging, reciprocity, care – a love letter to adult-(immigrant) kids paying back parents who gave up everything.
September 16-27, 2025
Created and performed by Kris, Jim, and Susan Alvarez
A memory play about aging, reciprocity, care – a love letter to adult-(immigrant) kids paying back parents who gave up everything.
September 16-27, 2025
Created and performed by Kris, Jim, and Susan Alvarez
Ecos
Diaspora Diaries Collective
The veil is thin, and sometimes, all you need to do to have your questions answered is ask.
October 30-November 8, 2025
A Diaspora Diaries Collective production co-presented by Common Ground Arts and Mile Zero Dance.
The veil is thin, and sometimes, all you need to do to have your questions answered is ask.
October 30-November 8, 2025
A Diaspora Diaries Collective production co-presented by Common Ground Arts and Mile Zero Dance.
Banana Musik ran as a workshop production in the John Walter Museum as part of Found Festival 2024, while Ecos was developed under the title El Funeral at Found Festivals 2021 and 2023. Our Fall 2025 season features two stories of connection across generations and vast distances through the lens of immigrant families in the 21st century.
Tickets for our fall 2025 season will go on sale later this summer.
Our inaugural presenting season is possible thanks to support from the Edmonton Arts Council, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Canada Arts Presentation Fund, and the Edmonton Community Foundation.
That’s all for now, friends. It’s a busy year coming up with over 60 planned performances and events from May to November – see you there.
Our 2025 Presenting Partners
Our 2025 Season Funders
