Weekend Planner: June 29-30, 2013

This weekend: Pride, Pride, and more Pride. Also Canada Day fireworks, and a whole lot more.

By Torontoist

• Pride: As part of the Toronto Pride Week festivities, the Dyke March will be making its return ahead of Sunday’s Pride Parade. This march offers a voice for women to come out and take over the Toronto streets. Following the march, there will be a rally in Allan Gardens at 3 p.m. Click here for the full parade route. Multiple venues, Saturday at 1 p.m., FREE. Details
• Comedy: True Stories, Made Up Plays isn’t your average story-telling event. Here, storytellers share their truths followed by improvisers who in turn bend them. This weekend’s instalment (which is the very last show so go out and support them!) features storytellers Zabrina Chevannes, Jess Beaulieu, and Sage Tyrtle and improvisors Bad Dog Repertory Players, Corgi in the Forest, and the All-Star Jam. Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West), Saturday at 7 p.m., FREE. Details
• Comedy: Red One Collective and their friends at The Storefront Theatre are big fans of the early TV work of Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Andy Kaufman, Danny DeVito, et al, obviously. Because they’re performing an episode of TAXI Classics Live with members of the theatre company. Dave Tompa, Dayle MacLeod, and David Reale will play the iconic characters of Jim, Tony, Latka, and the rest. After Saturday’s performance, a free party (for Taxi watchers and those dressed in 70’s threads) featuring a performance by the Pigott Brothers will take place.
• Comedy: Beat the heat with some laughs at a comedy show called Double Digest. And for all you Archie fans out there, yes, this is a reference to the “apple-pie” comics you’ve probably come across in news and supermarket stands. The cast will be improvising a tribute to these comics, turning the stories we all know and love upside down. Black Swan Tavern (154 Danforth Avenue), Saturday at 10 p.m., FREE. Details
• Pride: Toronto’s annual Pride Parade is back. Though the mayor probably won’t be making an appearance, you can still join thousands of other Torontonians for what’s usually one of the most fun and spirited afternoons of the year. Click here to see photo’s from last year’s celebration of pride and diversity. Multiple venues, Sunday at 2 p.m., FREE. Details
• Music: Canadian musician Mac DeMarco is making a stop in Toronto following the release of his stellar second album, 2. If you want to hear some of his sunny-rock music before deciding on what’s going to be a pretty popular show, check out his bandcamp here. Also featuring not-yet-announced special guests. The Hoxton (69 Bathurst Street), Sunday at 7 p.m., $14. Details
• Outdoors: Fireworks! Though you’ll know doubt have ample opportunities all long weekend to catch some explosives in the sky, the Harbourfront Centre‘s big celebration is always worth checking out. Also, consider planning ahead and checking out the Centre’s other Canada Day weekend activities here. Canada Square (235 Queens Quay West), Sunday at 10:30 p.m., FREE. Details

Ongoing…

• Theatre: One of the Fringe Festival’s greatest successes, and definitely Soulpepper’s biggest post-millennial hit, Ins Choi’s corner store comedy Kim’s Convenience returns for another extended run into the the summer season. Most of the principal cast, including Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as larger-than-life patriarch Appa, are back. Here’s our review of the first Soulpepper remount. Young Centre for the Performing Arts (50 Tank House Lane), Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., $5–$68. Details
• Music: The 2013 Toronto Jazz Festival descends on the city on June 21 with a huge “free for all” event. That means all of Friday, June 21’s programming at every Jazz Festival venue is, yes, completely free of charge. There will be concerts from local favourites Molly Johnson and Mary Margaret O’Hara, plus a show by Smokey Robinson and Martha Reeves, who will be launching the fest from its epicentre, Nathan Phillips Square.

  Here’s a rundown of some of the shows worth checking out on Friday—and during the rest of the festival, when you’ll actually have to pay. Multiple venues, Thursday at 12 a.m., Prices vary. Details

• History: The name “Mesopotamia” derives from a Greek term meaning “land between the rivers.” The Royal Ontario Museum’s latest major exhibit, which opens on June 22, takes this literally, as visitors flow between painted representations of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on the floor. Presented by the British Museum and rounded out with pieces from institutions in Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia, “Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World” covers 3,000 years of human development in the cradle of urban civilization. Most of the 170 artifacts on display have never been shown in Canada. Royal Ontario Museum (100 Queens Park), Saturday at 12 a.m., $27 (Includes general admission). Details
• Film: While most festivals are geared towards some specific audience—like the Inside Out Festival or the Jewish Film Festival, for instance—where ReelHeart International Film Festival separates itself from the pack is by welcoming all submissions, as long as they have what the organizers deem to be “real heart.” Big Picture Cinemas (1035 Gerrard Street East), Monday at 12 a.m., Tickets $12. Details
• 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
• 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 p.m.,7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m., $60–$110. 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), Saturday at 1:30 p.m.,7 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m., $25—$30. Details
• Art: The world’s most ubiquitous doll gets a subversive makeover in Frantz Brent-Harris and Rose-Ann Marie Bailey’s BLK Barbie Project, a photo exhibit on the “representation of beauty and body image of black women.” The gallery is open Saturday and Sunday afternoons until 5 p.m. for the next five weekends, with an opening reception at 7 p.m. on June 28, an artist’s talk at 5 p.m. on July 13, and a closing reception at 7 p.m. on July 21. Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue (1 Wiltshire Ave., Suite 134), Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m., FREE. 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.