news
Taking It to the Next Stage

Here’s something to clear away your post-NYE doldrums: the Fringe, everyone’s favourite early-summer theatre festival (don’t worry, SummerWorks, you’re our favourite late-summer theatre festival) has had a baby. Aw! Last Wednesday, something called The Next Stage Theatre Festival began at Factory Theatre. Next Stage really is like a baby Fringe: a smaller festival of only 8 shows running in rep at a single theatre, complete with a heated beer tent.
The plays, which run to the end of the week, include A Quiet Place and DON’T WAKE ME (both written/co-written by Brendan Gall); last summer’s Fringe hit Conservatives in Love; the sure-to-be-sacrilegious Jesus Christ: The Lost Years; a musical about housewives and Godzilla called Moving Day; Random Acts of Love, directed by the very lovable Sanjay Talwar; something called The Corner, whose description on Next Stage’s website confuses us; and BASH’D, which you may remember being not quite our favourite play at last year’s Fringe. So, don’t be sad, theatregoers of Toronto! You have plays to catch and beers to drain!
Photo by Eye Captain from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.





