In Caw-nversation with Crow’s Theatre’s Chris Abraham and Sherrie Johnson
iPhoto caption: Chris Abraham, Artistic Director, and Sherrie Johnson, Executive Director, lead the team at Crow's Theatre. IMAGE: Crow's Theatre/Intermission.
Glossy season announcements, airtight COVID-19 protocols, and hybrid programming, oh my! Crow’s Theatre is back (Cliff Cardinal’s radical As You Like It opened just last yesterday, and announced a one-week extension through October 17) to captivate Toronto audiences with an innovative roster of plays and performances to fill the next several months.
We sat down — over Zoom, of course — with Artistic Director Chris Abraham and Executive Director Sherrie Johnson to chat all things Crow’s: where the company’s been, where it is now, and where it’s heading as the world makes sense of yet another new normal.
“So: how’s COVID been?,” I start, a little glibly. I sort of know the answer: COVID hasn’t necessarily been great for anyone in Toronto theatre.
“It’s a hard question to answer,” starts Abraham. “It feels like a complete blur — the undifferentiated time sitting at the same desk at home for eighteen months — it’s hard to remember all the different phases of the pandemic.”
“But we’ve been doing a lot. The last year was a big year, a big digital pivot for the company, same as for many companies. But we did it a little bit differently, and we were lucky to be able to invest in some digital infrastructure at Crow’s. You’ll see the results of that over the next year.”
Abraham describes Crow’s relationship with digital performance over the past year-and-a-half: there’s been open calls for theatre-identifying creators, for instance, with specific aims of providing theatre creators the tools to pivot their craft to digital media. Crow’s launched a stage-to-screen retreat, as well, in partnership with Mongrel Media, with a goal of “taking seriously the notion that [Crow’s] needed to think even more broadly about the future of theatre creators.”
Crow’s needed to think even more broadly about the future of theatre creators.
Johnson chimes in with another unexpected and extremely successful product of the last year: “Don’t forget! We created a signature event, Dinner and a Show, which inspired people across the country to follow suit.” The experience paired a digital performance with a cooking-and-plating experience for patrons — audiences had the chance to enjoy a meal from local restaurant Gare de l’Est in the comfort of their own homes while enjoying digital theatre.
We pivot (for those playing COVID arts journalism lingo bingo at home, that one’s for you!) from looking backwards to looking forwards: I ask Abraham and Johnson about the upcoming season, an exciting one after so long away from in-person theatre.
“What do you think Canadian theatre needs right now, and how does this season react to those needs?,” I ask, curious about the curational through-line of the announced lineup.
“The team,” says Johnson, “worked very hard to address and read through the [over 200] submissions sent our way over the past year. That’s a lot of projects,” she laughs.
Abraham joins in. “A lot of this is work that feels like it’s ready to meet the public, either in a finished production or in this new salon series where we invite audiences to be a part of new works in development. That’s something Sherrie and I, throughout our careers, have cared about — that work in development.”
He continues, “The thing that, curatorially, was on our minds: we wanted to find the voices that address the now. We were also interested in prioritizing and centering representation of voices that are not represented equally on our stages.”
We wanted to find the voices that address the now.
“I was looking for optimism. I was looking for hope. Not in a sentimental way; it’s a bracing season in a lot of ways — it grapples with conflict, polarization, big human problems. But I was looking for ideas about how we go forward. These works make bold propositions around the next steps that we take together.”
Abraham takes a moment to reflect on the power of live theatre, revealing a nostalgia and reverence for the craft that feels relatable; a little sad; hopeful.
“The fact that we’ll be coming back together in a room — theatre has this power. You can be in the theatre, you can be yourself, you can pick your own thoughts and have your own feelings. You don’t have to agree with everyone around you. But the fact that you feel those things, your own thoughts and feelings, with other people — something really powerful happens in that moment.”
“It’s not about creating conditions in which you’re cajoled into thinking like everyone else. But it has this social cohesion that I’ve really been missing. And I think that’s a big part of how we take steps forward.”
Johnson adds, speaking to the structure of Crow’s upcoming season, that “one of the things that was really important in putting this season together was to double down: to put as many artists back to work as possible. In addition to all this great programming, we’ve also launched Crowsnest Corner to put musicians back to work, as well.”
“Artists, musicians, the hospitality sector: anything we could do to be a good partner, a good neighbour, a good friend, to help us all get through this, was really key to a lot of our decisions this year.”
We’re doing anything we can do to be a good partner, a good neighbour, a good friend, to help us all get through this.
And part of being a good neighbour, particularly as a major theatre company: offering discounted tickets to the community members who need them most. Crow’s is offering discounted tickets to arts workers and everyone under the age of thirty, as well as Pay-What-You-Can performances on Sundays. Abraham believes that’s a vital part of running a theatre company.
“That Sunday matinee, that Pay-What-You-Can performance — it’s a ritual. We grew up in the theatre, and that’s how we were able to afford going to the theatre on a weekly basis and nurture our theatre habits.”
“We’ve also created this digital subscription,” adds Johnson, “for those who might not feel safe coming back to the theatre yet. So people will still be able to see the shows digitally — they’ll have the choice to watch from the comfort of their chosen place.”
As the conversation reaches its bittersweet conclusion (I could talk about this season for hours, seriously) and I ask for final reflections on the re-opening of Crow’s, Abraham smiles.
“Work didn’t necessarily get easier this year. Work got harder for everyone. We’re doing this so we can have some return — communication with the public. We’ve spent the last year navigating interruption, and that made the work harder. The whole team really depends on, and is fed by, that ecosystem of collaboration and passing on what we do to the public. That’s essential for arts organizations. It was unexpectedly hard to have that ecosystem interrupted.”
I joke that there’s only so much of that collaborative energy you can put in a Slack channel, and Abraham and Johnson smirk: something tells me the Crow’s team has become well acquainted with the team-building capabilities of emojis and quick DMs over the past year.
This work is about pleasure.
“This work is about pleasure,” concludes Abraham. “It’s always been about pleasure. Everything onstage this season is about pleasure — the most ambitious form of pleasure, the pleasure of coalescing some hopefulness around understanding each other. A lot of the season is about that.”
And those pleasures untold are what we’re excited to discover this season at Crow’s. You can read more about Chris Abraham, Sherrie Johnson, and Crow’s Theatre here.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling is Intermission's former senior editor and the theatre reporter for the Globe and Mail. She likes British playwright Sarah Kane, most songs by Taylor Swift, and her cats, Fig and June. She was a 2024 fellow at the National Critics Institute in Waterford, CT.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Sébastien Heins, Georgia Findlay, Isaiah Kolundzic, and Kiana Woo in The 39 Steps. Photo by Raph Nogal.
Kiana Woo clowns around in full-circle moment with Guild Festival Theatre
For Woo, coming back to the Guild for the first time in four years — after working at Shaw, Soulpepper, the Citadel Theatre, and Théâtre Français de Toronto — feels like a homecoming.
iPhoto caption: "My Narrator" photo courtesy of the Lighthouse Festival.
Lighthouse Festival unearths rarely performed Norm Foster one-acts
“There’s not much time for character development, like there would be in a long play,” says Norm Foster of one-acts. “You have to… make it satisfying, and to have it come around to a plausible ending. It can’t just be a skit… So, it’s actually a little tougher to write.”
iPhoto caption: The company of 'The Comedy of Errors.' Photo by JVL Photography.
“It’s got to be my favourite [Shakespeare play] at this point,” says Abbey. “I don't understand why it's so rarely done. It’s listed as a ‘problem play,’ and I see that, but I have had such beautiful experiences with it throughout my life… I think it has the ability to unite audience and cast in a deeply human event.”
iPhoto caption: Shanice Stanislaus and Rachel
Resnik in '$$$.' Photo by Arin Sang-Urai.
Toronto Fringe is getting ready to send in the clowns
If there’s one notable trend in the 2025 Toronto Fringe lineup, it’s that this year's festival will feature more clowns than you can fit into a very small car.
iPhoto caption: L: Lara Arabian in promo still for 'Siranoush.' Photo by Robert J. Brodey.
R: Babz Johnston as Ginger Spice in Wannabe: A Spice Girls Tribute. Photo by Screamsmedia.
“It feels lovely to be in this curated window of [the festival],” says Siranoush writer-performer Lara Arabian. "We are excited to have a conversation with the Fringe audience.”
iPhoto caption: Photo by Hans Ravn.
The Bentway’s Sand Flight asks how we might navigate a world remade by climate collapse
“We’re not only conveying dystopia,” says co-creator Jonas Corell Petersen. “Yes, we die. Yes, we dry out. But that makes way for something new, and the dancers carry hopefulness in their movement.”
iPhoto caption: Photo by Aisling Murphy.
In the darkest months of Yukon winter, it’s all about the Sun Room
I’m here for a week in January as a guest of Nakai Theatre, a hub for theatrical experimentation and outside-the-box programming in Canada’s westernmost territory.
Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine
When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.
iPhoto caption: Liz Appel headshot courtesy of Liz Appel.
Five questions with Wights playwright Liz Appel
Intermission spoke with Appel over email for a brief Q&A about Wights, now playing at Crow’s Theatre until February 9.
Call for applications: Publishing and editorial assistant
Intermission Magazine is seeking a dynamic and collaborative individual to join our team.
iPhoto caption: What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
Announcing What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
What Writing Can Do is timed to coincide with the Grand and Theatre Aquarius’ co-production of Waitress, which will serve as a jumping-off point for discussions throughout the Lab.
iPhoto caption: A Christmas Story production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: A Christmas Story feels fresh at Theatre Aquarius
If you want to catch A Christmas Story before it closes, good luck — the show is close to sold out, and with the talent on that stage, it’s not hard to see why.
Comments