county-stage

‘A scream for the death of experimental theatre in Canada’: Why a group of Toronto artists resurrected an outdoor performance from 1998

The specter of death is omnipresent in Phalanx, one of the offerings at this August's SummerWorks Performance Festival. First presented by DNA Theatre in 1998, the current version was catalyzed in 2023, perhaps fittingly, by the passing of former artistic director Hillar Liitoja. I decided to document the creative process and to provide space for the artists involved to reflect on why they were doing the show and what they hoped to achieve.

Factory Theatre welcomes new audiences with shows that explore human connection

“I feel like I’m really looking to theatre for joy right now,” says artistic director Mel Hague. “I don’t mean works that are specifically funny or happy. I’m talking about something deeper where you can feel connected to the art on stage, the space that’s hosting it, the other people in the audience, and yourself.”

Roberto Zucco marks a new era in Buddies’ history of queer theatre

Toronto theatre can be a bit risk-averse. Artistic directors, constrained by limited funding, program obvious crowd-pleasers over boundary-pushing experiments. Playwrights, afraid to ruffle feathers, create spaces that validate the public’s...

How SummerWorks confronts a theatre industry steeped in hustle culture

“As far as our sector goes, there’s this idea that how busy you are is a reflection of your values,” says director-dramaturg Harri Thomas. “We also tend to emphasize a person’s career over the body of work they’ve produced. There are certain things that we can do at a community level, particularly when it comes to resource sharing. But we also need to consider the fact that we operate in a scarcity environment where we’re so focused on individual shows that we often neglect the larger ecology.”

Director Hillar Liitoja was ‘pathologically uncompromising’ in his pursuit of great art

His creations brought together all the joy and terror and beauty and chaos of being alive.

As the new artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times, ted witzel will ‘connect two generations of queers’

"Nightlife trends come and go," says witzel. "But there’s no reason a queer party space can’t be a creative site as well as a way to fund art."