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<\/a>Lindsay says that changing the UNO Fest to be entirely online due to COVID-19 was a challenge, but says that everyone still wanted to make sure they had fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really deeply thought about it and let it just percolate, and collectively we came together with this artistic vision,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely not, you know, the normal size of the festival, going to an online platform. We were aware that that\u2019s not the medium that we work in, so we wanted to challenge ourselves and have fun, but we didn\u2019t want to stress ourselves out so much, because we also know that everyone is working in isolation, and so it\u2019s a challenge as well for us to work together, to try to collaborate from afar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindsay says that this year\u2019s event includes live meet and greets on Facebook to give people a chance to really \u201cget deeper into their work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a sampling, hopefully that everyone can access, from free online Facebook events; so it will be Facebook Live events of happy half-hours with the artists,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a meet and greet with the artist, an artist interview, really, to get deeper into their work.\u201c<\/p>\n
Lindsay says that the paid content portion of the festival features a pre-recorded play that users can access through social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have full shows of comedy and dance and puppetry that will make you laugh,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a full play, right in your home\u2026 Local artist J. McLaughlin will be doing [her] performance live, so we do have an original full-length piece, live.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the performances this year is Kunji Mark Ikeada\u2019s Sansei: The Storyteller<\/em>. Ikeada says that the performance started as an experiment.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really trying to see if I could mesh contemporary dance with spoken-word poetry,\u201d says Ikeada, \u201cand so that combination is where the gears started to turn.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the performance explores serious topics, it often uses humour in the process of exploration.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really fascinated by the idea of silver linings,\u201d says Ikeada. \u201cThat was kind of the inspiration point; it didn\u2019t take me long to look back at my own history and know that my whole life is a bit of a silver lining, because if it wasn\u2019t for this really dark time of the Japanese internment, my dad wouldn\u2019t have been born, and then neither would I have.\u201d<\/p>\n The show exploded between the spoken word, the dance, and telling the story, says Ikeada.<\/p>\n \u201cThese strands of ideas kind of came together to contextualize the Japanese internment,\u201d he says, \u201cto tell that story in a really personal way of how I\u2019ve come to understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n