I don’t normally “toot” my horn but I have an event coming up and I hope you will all make an effort to come and check it out. The event is called Neanderthal. Technically, it is called the Neanderthal Arts Festival and it is the brainchild of myself and some friends of mine. Not only have we put a lot of effort into the festival to make it happen, the festival performers, writers, and people behind the scenes have also put in a lot of time. It is going to be awesome and I hope you have make at least one show.

As the kids say today, here is the skinny:

Neanderthal Arts is emerging from the Cave for our third year!  We're bringing back summer theatre for Vancouver running July 19 - July 29, 2012 at the Cultch.
Co-producers Left Right Minds and Upintheair Theatre are thrilled to announce the line-up for the third annual Neanderthal Arts Festival which takes place this July at the Cultch. This year’s Mainstage Series will feature four local companies and one national company producing an eclectic range of cutting edge theatre.

Neanderthal Arts is a curated, developmental arts festival. The professional series provides a platform for theatre artists and companies to showcase and try out new and experimental work. Our objective is to feature primarily new Canadian work, although we welcome submissions from companies wishing to premiere new international work or re-interpretations of classics from the theatre canon, especially Canadian works. In particular, we encourage work that takes risks, is creative and has a clear artistic vision. At the same time, Neanderthal Arts is looking for work that is accessible and engaging for our core target-demographic of 20-40 year olds.

For our part, Neanderthal Arts will provide successful companies with venues, technical staff, publicity and marketing, ticket sales, equitable performance scheduling and front of house management. Neanderthal Arts' goal is to provide the best possible production resources at the lowest cost, attract the largest audiences possible to the work we present and create an environment that will support artistic and professional career development.

The festival is opens on July 19th, 2012 and the last show closes on July 29th, 2012. Now, there is a trick to this whole schedule. If you have any thoughts about going, all of the shows are not running the length of the festival. You will need to come back several times to see it all. If you think you’ll only check out a few of the shows, you’d best get over to the schedule and get yourself educated as to what is playing when and on which stage. Don't be lazy -- be a Neanderthal!

I know that a lot of my readers don’t live in Vancouver but I think coming to a theatre festival is a good thing and airfare isn’t all that expensive, is it? I am kidding, of course...or am I.