Torontoist loves local artists, and we love short films, so naturally we try to support local artists who make short films. This Tuesday, recent York film grad Nick Butler is organizing the Annex Film Party, a fundraising event for his new project, A Thing of the Past. Butler has assembled an impressive lineup of performers, including thespian David Tomlinson, actress-singer Alsion Jutzi, and TVOKids host Nicole Stamp. Stamp is also remembered for her 2005 one-woman... [continue]

More than a week of protests in Toronto against the violence in Burma culminated last night with the Global March for the People of Burma. The demonstration began at 6:00 p.m. in front of the Chinese consulate on St. George Street before making its way to Queen's Park, where a vigil was led by monks from the city's Buddhist temples. According to the Toronto Star, hundreds heeded the call from Amnesty International and other... [continue]

The Baldwin Steps, the set of stairs at Davenport and Spadina Roads that leads up to Casa Loma, are so recognizable that they've warranted their own Wikipedia article and feature as a battle backdrop in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Depending on the time of day and season, the Baldwin Steps––also called the Casa Loma Steps, or The Death Climb At The End of Spadina––can be romantic, creepy, trying, or picturesque. Now a group of... [continue]

Sin And Sun recently interviewed Rebekah, a Torontonian who has gone from living on the streets to being an erotic Internet entrepreneur. Her client niche? People who are turned on by smoke and smoking. No sex, no nudity; just a woman with a Cuban cigar and a pack of Gitanes. Rebekah, who describes herself as "a punk rock gothic power smoker who adores cigars and unfiltered cigarettes," maintains a Flickr account with over a... [continue]

Lit lovers should head over to Church Street today for the Writing Outside The Margins festival of queer literature, the first of its kind in Toronto. The Gay Village stretch of Church Street will be closed from 11:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. to accommodate stands selling everything from children's books, fiction and poetry to sci-fi, erotica and comic arts. There will also be two stages for readings and performances, where you'll get to participate... [continue]

The grand dame of Toronto's performing arts venues, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, celebrates its 100th birthday tomorrow. To mark the event, the Mirvishes have organized a free open house from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., during which you can go on a self-guided backstage tour, eat free grub at the BBQ in front of the theatre (weather permitting), or catch a tribute performance from the original members of the 1969 Canadian cast of Hair.... [continue]

Words, words, words! Tongues get tied and language pulls a muscle in Terminating, a work by Tony Kushner (Angels in America), mounted in Toronto for the first time by Jordan Pettle. Inspired by Shakespeare's "Sonnet 75," this 30-minute play is classic Kushner in its robust tirades against everything from human ambivalence and existential paradoxes to window curtains and the smell of anal sex. At the centre of the production is Michael Healey's tour de force... [continue]

An hour-long rumination on death may sound dreary, but One Last is a work of surprising variety and vigor. Inspired by interviews with real people that she conducted over the past year, writer Tessa King has fashioned a set of monologues (and one recurring dialogue) that is at turns funny and poignant, disturbing and humane. We're introduced to a gamut of characters ranging from an undertaker, a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, a neurotic woman convinced... [continue]

Remember Thumbelina, the thumb-sized girl from folklore who suffered harassment from various garden creatures before flying away with a fairy prince? Ever wondered what followed "happily ever after"? Well, according to The Trial of Thumbelina—Gord Rand's postmodern, post-apocalyptic take on the fairy tale—our little nymph heroine would go on to suffer all kinds of slings and arrows over the centuries, only to end up at the Hague awaiting her trial for crimes against humanity. It's... [continue]

The Toronto Star published a good article Sunday revealing that "the city's Waterfront Secretariat is now reviewing the recommendations and cost estimates of recent waterfront task forces on the fate of the Gardiner." Torontoist hears you asking, wasn't this the whole point of the Gardiner Report released last September? Now that the city has all but canned plans to tear down the elevated highway due to lack of funds, however, discussions are focussing on... [continue]

The city of Paris has recently been courting tourists from London, England with a new series of ads that look like this: What does a Paris tourism poster have to do with Toronto? Well, the C'est So Paris ads, with their posy compositions, saturated colours and irreverent humour, bears an uncanny resemblance to those T.O. Live With Culture posters from January, only these are actually good. The Parisian ads are witty, attention-grabbing and intelligible—everything the... [continue]

Stage Struck: 100 Years At The Royal Alex, a free exhibition commemorating the Royal Alexandra Theatre's centennial, opened yesterday at the Toronto Reference Library. Torontoist was at the opening to oggle at the rare playbills, posters and other paraphernalia that would make any theatre geek weak in the knees. Organized by the Toronto Public Library, the Stage Struck exhibit features photos, design sketches, scripts and souvenir books that highlight the long history of the... [continue]

Bluma Appel, philanthropist and patron of the arts, died last night in a Toronto hospital from complications of cancer. She was 86. Her death comes as a sudden blow to the city and to her family; she was diagnosed with lung cancer only two months ago. Appel and her husband celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary last week. Torontonians knew Appel as a passionate advocate for the arts and particularly for the theatre community, where she... [continue]

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