by AMY BARRATT

"Don't we already have one of those?" a friend asks when I mention the creation of the Montreal GLBT (gay/lesbian/ bi/trans) International Theatre Festival. It seems like something this festival city would already have, which is perhaps another way of saying it's something Montreal should have. As of November 2005, it is something we will have.

This year, though, a mainly local version of the festival (featuring 10 shows plus Toga Party, Star Struck brunches and a special performance by Never Surrender) will take place from Oct. 28–Nov. 7. Festival Central will be the Station C bar in the Village and the one out-of-town act will be Toronto's crowd-pleasing drag revue The B-Girlz.

Davyn Ryall, who, with his theatre company Village Scene Productions, is creating the new festival, has worked with most of the GLBT events in town - Divers/Cité, Image&Nation - as well as theatre events like the Fringe and the Festival de théâtre amateur. Everything he has learned from these experiences, in terms of what works as well as what doesn't, he's putting to use in planning this new festival. He began by thoroughly researching what time of year would be most appropriate for this type of event. He didn't want to compete with other theatre or GLBT festivals, but holding it in the fall means he can do promotion of the event with the summer festival crowds around. "I may not be the best director, the best writer or the best actor," Ryall told me recently, "but I am a damn good coordinator."

The festival program will be available in time for Divers/Cité. You can check that out at Village Scene's booth at Community Day and even buy a Rainbow Pass. Tickets to individual shows go on sale September 25, which is also the date of the fundraising and promotional event ScripTease. There will be excerpts from many of the shows in the festival as well as variety acts, raffle and door prizes. That's at Bar Le Tube, Complexe Bourbon, July 31, at 8 p.m. Admission by donation.

The cabaret atmosphere of that event is to be carried over into the festival itself. Although all of the official entries are fairly straight - pardon the expression - plays, there will be lots of opportunities for other performers to get involved. The lounge space at Station C will serve as the equivalent of a beer tent, with musical, spoken word and any other kind of performance you can think of going on throughout the festival.

The 10 companies chosen as official entries are 50 per cent English and 50 per cent French. Unfortunately, women are under-represented. Ryall is aware of this but says it reflects the submissions that came in. He vows to work to raise the profile of the event with the lesbian community and predicts that once the festival goes international, the female content will increase.

Meanwhile, there are the B-Girlz. Their show, Thoroughly Modern Girlz, in which three drag divas do their own singing, thank-you very much, "explores in song the fates and foibles faced by today's modern women."

The token straight boys in the fest take a page from the drag queen manual and perform lip synch. In Never Surrender's Greatest Adventure, the members of the world's greatest lip-synch band have to save their favourite independent record store from corporate takeover.

Village Scene still needs sponsors and volunteers and has one paid position open as a promotion and publicity sales person. Check out their Web site at www.geocities.com/villagescene to find out how you can get involved and for updates on the festival's progress.

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