OFF//SHOOTS brings new theatre to Ottawa through Oct. 11
Ottawa's Youth Infringement Festival presents OFF//SHOOTS, a new fall theatre festival at Arts Court running Oct. 8–11, 2026.
Photo credit: Youth Infringement Festival
OFF//SHOOTS, a new fall theatre festival presented by Ottawa’s Youth Infringement Festival, continues at Arts Court through Sunday, Oct. 11. The remaining program features two mainstage works by Youth Infringement alumni, free readings from its playwright lab and a Saturday showcase of short plays developed for a 24-hour theatre challenge.
Youth Infringement has provided theatre opportunities for young Ottawa artists since 1998 and held its 28th annual festival this March. Its regular programming serves artists ages 16 to 25, while Arts Court describes OFF//SHOOTS as a curated festival featuring artists ages 30 and under. The fall event is a new addition to the organization’s calendar.
One of the two mainstage productions is A Sexy Pigeon Show, created and produced by Ottawa’s The Lighter Touch Art Collective. It follows Colum, a city pigeon trying to improve humans’ opinion of pigeons, through a performance that incorporates clowning, dance and facts about the birds.
The other production, Drink the Kool-Aid, was presented at Youth Infringement’s March festival. Written by Josh Klein and directed by Breanna Doyle for that production, the satire imagines a public-relations response in the aftermath of the 1978 Jonestown deaths. The play returns as one of OFF//SHOOTS’ two mainstage productions.
According to the festival’s published schedule, Friday’s performances are A Sexy Pigeon Show at 7 p.m. and Drink the Kool-Aid at 8:45 p.m. On Saturday, Drink the Kool-Aid begins at 1 p.m., followed by A Sexy Pigeon Show at 2:45 p.m. Sunday’s performances are A Sexy Pigeon Show at 1 p.m. and Drink the Kool-Aid at 2:45 p.m.
The festival also presents staged readings of scripts developed through this year’s Youth Infringement playwright lab: Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission is free, with optional donations. The public schedule does not specify which playwrights or scripts will appear in each reading block.
The 24 Hour Theatre Challenge concludes with a public showcase Saturday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Teams of four or more received creative prompts Thursday evening and have access to 24 total hours of studio time distributed across Thursday, Friday and Saturday to write and rehearse short one-act plays. They may also work outside the studio hours. Youth Infringement provides rehearsal space and mentors, and the audience votes for the winning team. Showcase admission is pay what you can.
Mainstage tickets are general admission, with sliding-scale options of $15, $30 and $45. The performances and readings are at Arts Court Theatre & Studio, 2 Daly Ave., Ottawa. The festival publishes its schedule and individual event ticket links through Youth Infringement.
Founded in 1998 by Kinnon Elliott and Emily Pearlman when they were high-school students, Youth Infringement grew from their effort to make theatre with professional mentorship. OFF//SHOOTS adds a fall opportunity to see alumni work and scripts developed through its current programs.
Royal Winnipeg Ballet opens its 2026–27 mainstage season at Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall on Oct. 8 with Stravinsky Stories, a double bill that brings Alexei Ratmansky’s The Fairy’s Kiss to the company alongside the world premiere of a new Firebird by choreographer Houston Thomas.