KITCHENER — Celebrate Ontario will not be giving a grant this year to a Kitchener festival that has become an international showcase for contemporary theatre by racialized and marginalized groups.

The loss of the $60,000 grant amounts to 20 per cent of the budget for Impact19, a weeklong theatre festival held every two years in downtown Kitchener.

The news came last week, after the festival had already announced the lineup. In the past, funding from Celebrate Ontario was confirmed in April.

"Not receiving this funding at all makes me wonder if we are a priority," said Pam Patel, the artistic director at MT Space Theatre Company, which organizes Impact.

MT Space is preparing a crowdfunding campaign, and a search for new sponsors to replace the lost funding.

Since it was first held in 2009, Impact has became a leader in alternative-contemporary theatre where lights, music, movement, multimedia and dance are just as important as words. It specializes in contemporary plays by racialized, marginalized and Indigenous playwrights.

Celebrate Ontario, which is under the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, had always supported Impact in the past.

"It was a huge blow," said Patel.

Patel had to cancel the Stage and Story Market that was going to be held on King Street in partnership with Neruda Arts during Impact.

"I am super disappointed," said Isabel Cisterna, the head of Neruda Arts, who has worked for weeks on the Stage and Story Market. "All the work I have done is for nothing."

Cisterna said the closing night concert with Kizaba, a Congolese techno artist is going ahead. It is scheduled for Sept. 28 in After Dark, the live music venue in the basement of the Walper Hotel.

"It does make our budget extremely, extremely tight," said Patel. "I have cut back on engaging some of the local artists."

The mainstage plays by theatre companies from Tunisia, Morocco, Ecuador and Iran will go ahead as planned. Works by Canadian playwrights from Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, among others, will also go ahead as planned.

"I made a commitment to our national and international companies that we are bringing and I didn't want to cancel any of those shows," said Patel.

"So I had to axe the shows that were more local, including our own show," said Patel.

MT Space had planned an extended run of its play "Amal" for the week following the festival, but that is has now been scrapped. The play will only be staged twice during the festival.

tpender@therecord.com

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- IMPACT19 Theatre Festival is marking its 10th anniversary in Kitchener during the last week of September