Weekend Planner: June 22-23, 2013

In this Weekend Planner:

By Torontoist

Picnickers at Trinity Bellwoods Park will be treated to author talks, book readings, and food trucks. Photo by Sue Holland from the Torontoist Flickr pool.

• Offbeat: Here’s an opportunity to enjoy a yoga session with potentially thousands of other like-minded Canadians. The Lolë White Yoga Session is coming to Toronto (which has previously held sessions in Paris and Montreal) and invites all searching for serenity to head on over to (the hopefully sunny) Fort York for an afternoon of peace and unity. This will likely be Toronto’s largest outdoor yoga session. Even better, they’ll provide the mats. Fort York, Garrison Common (100 Garrison Road), Saturday at 9 a.m., FREE. Details
• Offbeat: Gather your cogs, watches, and retro-futuristic wear for the second-annual Steam on Queen. This festival, which celebrates steampunk culture, features local vendors, costumes, handicrafts, and live entertainment (including Dragonfly Bellydance and aerial acts by the Flying Arts Collective to name a few). Also, there will be tours of Campbell House Museum throughout the day. Click here to check out some of our photos from last year’s event. Historic Campbell House Museum (160 Queen Street West), Saturday at 11 a.m., FREE. Details
• Outdoors: In celebrating the longest day of the year, how about making it the most fun one as well? The Junction Summer Solstice Festival 2013 brings together DIY culture, art, and music for an afternoon/evening (hopefully in the sun) that includes a ferris wheel, movie screening, a Junction Flea Night Market, workshops, and more. This will take place at several points along Dundas Street West; you can view the full map here. Multiple venues, Saturday at 12 p.m., FREE. Details
• Books: “A cross between Woodstock and the Algonquin Round Table,” is what Michael Redhill called it. Dorothy Parker grinding out an electric cover of “The Star Spangled Banner”? Well, not quite. Rather, Redhill, the literary curator for Luminato 2013, was describing A Literary Picnic, the annual festival’s celebration of storytelling, creativity, and the written word. Trinity Bellwoods Park (155 Crawford Street), Saturday at 12 p.m., Free. Details
• Outdoors: If you’re an Arrested Development fan, you’ll have a hard time taking the idea of urban beekeeping seriously. But we assure you, it’s a real thing, and it happens at Casa Loma. As leaders in their field, the staff is holding a seminar on the challenges and benefits of urban beekeeping. Different parts of the hive, the three castes of honeybees, and the different seasons and how bees prepare for them will all be discussed at length. Advance reservations are required, please call 647-725-1822. Casa Loma (1 Austin Terrace), Saturday at 2:30 p.m., $40 + HST. Details
• Performing Arts: The Company We Keep is a new cabaret series that presents an intimate evening with Theatre 20’s Founding Artists. For the launch edition, you’ll be treated to an evening of French song with Louise Pitre (this specific event will be a celebration of St. Jean Baptiste Day). He’ll be accompanied by Diane Leah. Jazz Bistro (251 Victoria Street), Sunday at 7 p.m., $20. Details

Ongoing…

• History: Looking to brush up your cultural and history knowledge on all things Toronto? Heritage Toronto 2013 Tours offers you an enormous chance to learn tons and tons about the city you love via walking tours, bike tours, and more. Some of the events on the agenda of this weekly series include tours of Fort York, Korea Town, Don Valley, and Black Creek. It’s running all summer long so don’t miss out! Multiple venues, Saturday at 12 a.m. and Sunday at 12 a.m., FREE. Details
• Offbeat: Folks who are planning on having a swim in the pool at Scadding Court Community Centre over the next few days may find themselves a little disappointed. Those who want to go fishing, however, will probably be ecstatic.

  For the rest of the week, the Community Centre will be holding its annual Gone Fishin’ event, meaning its indoor pool will be an indoor fish pond. The pool has been drained, dechlorinated, and refilled with 2,000 rainbow trout, to be caught by local children and families. Scadding Court Community Centre (707 Dundas Street West), Saturday at 10 a.m., $2. Details

• Art: Theatre, Dance, Opera, Music, Magic, and so much more; the 2013 edition of the Luminato Festival has something for just about everyone. You can read our preview coverage, or keep track of our ongoing coverage right here. Multiple venues, Saturday at 12 p.m. and Sunday at 12 p.m., FREE—$125. Details
• Performing Arts: Cats is a challenging musical to stage for a number of reasons. The narrative is thin and strange; the lyrics are drawn primarily from T.S. Eliot’s poetry collection Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats, with more borrowed from some other Eliot poems, “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” (which original director Trevor Nunn adapted into the song “Memory”) and “Moments of Happiness.” The result is not so much a story as ideas and character sketches. Old Deuteronomy, patriarch of the Jellicle Cats, calls the creatures together once a year to celebrate, and for one cat to be chosen to ascend to the Heaviside Layer (essentially, to die and be reincarnated). Most of the songs detail the adventures and virtues of a single cat in particular, essentially serving as that cat’s audition for the honour of ascension. Panasonic Theatre (651 Yonge Street), Saturday at 1:30 p.m.,7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m., $60–$110. Details
• Dance: Who says ballerinas can’t wear cowboy boots? Dancers of the National Ballet of Canada will do just that during the production of James Kudelka’s The Man in Black. Set to songs by the man in black himself—Johnny Cash—the choreography borrows from line, swing, and step dancing. As an added bonus, the show also includes a performance of Jorma Elo’s Pur ti Miro, Guillaume Côté’s No. 24, and George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations. Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (145 Queen Street West), Saturday at 2 p.m.,7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., $25-$239. Details
• Art: HUNTCLUB brings Montreal artist Fred Caron’s Trust Isn’t an Issue to its gallery for a two-week exhibition, beginning with an opening on Monday, June 10. The street artist is focusing on aspects of Stockholm syndrome for his installation’s short run in Toronto; later this summer, he’ll be the co-curator for on-site art at the Osheaga Festival. In addition to the opening, Caron is also doing an artist’s talk on Tuesday, June 11 at 7 p.m. HUNTCLUB (709 College Street), Saturday at 6 p.m., FREE. Details
• Theatre: Ronnie Burkett has solidified his reputation as Canada’s premiere solo puppeteer with complex full-length plays, like the Memory Dress Trilogy, or last year’s “apocalyptic comedy” Penny Plain. So it’s a rare treat to see him cut loose and perform The Daisy Theatre. It’s a free-wheeling show that’s different each night, with audience participation, special guests, and some new marionettes and stage trappings paid for out of Luminato’s coffers. Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley Street), Saturday at 9:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 p.m., $35. Details
• Music: Jason Collett’s Basement Revue has long been a local hot ticket for those with an interest in what the lanky musician and his Broken Social Scene pals are up to—with a generous mix of other literary, theatrical, and cultural talents mixed in. The nightly late-night Luminato edition, the Courtyard Revue, staged in the lobby of Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Street Theatre (and spilling out into the open-air courtyard), is offering more of Collett and co-producer Damian Rogers’ carefully selected programming. The difference, however, is that, with a larger venue and profile due to Luminato, some of the acts look to be more than one-night-only tryouts. Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley Street), Saturday at 11:30 p.m. and Sunday at 11:30 p.m., $20. Details
• Theatre: There are a lot of chefs in the kitchen for the Canadian premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, a triptych set in three time periods that tells the stories of amateur actors (played by real actors) involved in staging performances of the story of Christ. Three different Toronto independent theatre companies, all with reputations for innovative staging and creation in their past work, each tackle one of the three acts. Ordinarily, such a complicated arrangement would be to a show’s detriment, but not in this case. While you need to be prepared for a marathon of theatre (the show runs four hours, incluing two intermissions), you’re certainly going to get your money’s worth. Eastminister Church (310 Danforth Avenue), Sunday at 1:30 p.m.,7 p.m., $25—$30. Details

Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email us with all the details (including images, if you’ve got any), ideally at least a week in advance.