SAWITRI Theatre Group – Canadian premieres – 7 languages: Hindi, Hinglish, Marathi, Urdu, English, Punjabi and Tamil – South Asian theatre – Bollywood nostalgia – total 16 performances – local artists – serving newcomers to Canada
SAWITRI Theatre Group presents the SSTF 2026 with performances every weekend in April starting from the 4th. New for this year we have Stories-told, retold, untold and a Pakistani folk-style comedy in Urdu. The English Shorts boast adaptations of works of celebrated playwrights like Alan Bennett, Harold Pinter and August Strindberg. After the success of our Bollywood nostalgia series ‘Aap Ka Khayal Aaya…’ (Thinking of you…)last year, in 2026, we pay tribute to two absolutely legendary artists, actor Rajesh Khanna, Bollywood’s first and to date the only Superstar, and phenomenal and prolific lyricist, Anand Bakshi. The festival takes place at the Maja Prentice theatre, Mississauga.
Says Shruti Shah, Festival Director of the SSTF, “We are delighted to present the 9th consecutive year of short theatre works – The SSTF 2026! We are proud that it continues to remain a platform for local talent, a stage to experiment, to innovate and to take risks. To inspire and be inspired and continue collaborating with local theatre artists and build our theatre community is what we love to do each year.”
SAWITRI Theatre Group – Founded in 2003 by Artistic Co-Directors Jasmine Sawant and Shruti Shah, SAWITRI Theatre Group is an award-winning, incorporated not-for-profit organization presenting original works featuring established professionals as well as emerging artists. SAWITRI’s mandate is to educate, inform, entertain, and heal through South Asian theatre arts that foreground women and the new generation, and to highlight issues of socio-political importance with works in some of India’s many languages including English. Winner of the 2016 Martys Award for excellence in theatre, SAWITRI Theatre is also the producer and presenter of the Mississauga Multilingual Fringe Festival (MMFF), the only multilingual fringe festival in North America. Operationally, SAWITRI Theatre Group is partly funded by the City of Mississauga and the Ontario Arts Council, as well as by The Open Space, Nitin Sawant, and the unstinting support of family, friends and volunteers. The SSTF is partly funded by Canadian Heritage through the BCAH component.
