On August 4, 1991, Suspect Video opened its doors in the southwest corner of Honest Ed’s with an auspicious event: an autograph session with the late Gunnar Hansen. Following a busy day of meeting fans, the immortal Leatherface took some of the Suspect staff for a night on the town, climaxing with a visit to […]
This past weekend, Toronto got its first queer literary festival. Presented by Glad Day Bookshop, Naked Heart: An LGBTQ Festival of Words, took place in various venues within walking distance of the Church Street Village. David’s Tea, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Yorkville Library, City Park Library, the Ontario Public Services Employees Union Hall (OPSEU) […]
A Man Walks Into a Bar Circle Circle VENUE: Tarragon Theatre Extraspace (30 Bridgman Avenue ) Mansplaining doesn’t get much uglier than in playwright-actress Rachel Blair’s unsettling new comedy, in which a woman (Blair) sets out to tell a joke with the aid of a male performer (a deceptively boyish Blue Bigwood-Mallin). At first, the […]
The Toronto Fringe Festival is bigger this year, up a dozen shows from last year with a greater variety of site-specific shows, a new (bigger) venue for the KidsFringe, and more than 1,200 artists by the festival’s count. To help you get a grip on the sort of selection and pedigree the festival offerings include, […]
Cake and Dirt Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue) Runs to April 15 $50-$55 ($15 rush tickets) My Dinner With Casey Donovan Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson Avenue) Runs to March 22 $20-$24 (Sunday pay-what-you-can) Daniel MacIvor and Sky Gilbert, two major figures in contemporary Canadian theatre, have new plays on the boards this month. […]
Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains: the very best and very worst people, places, things, and ideas that have had an influence on the city over the past 12 months. Cast your ballot until 2 p.m. on January 1. At 4 p.m. we will reveal your choices for Toronto’s Superhero […]
As with so many of Toronto’s arts festivals, every year SummerWorks seems to get bigger. Bigger as in more shows, bigger as in bigger names, bigger as in international reach, and bigger in terms of its importance in premiering exciting new work. Two major hits from last year’s festival, Iceland and Terminus, have since been […]
In A Few Brittle Leaves, when the lights came up on the quiet, conservatively decorated home of the Pie sisters, in the small British township of UpsyDownsyshire, it didn’t take long for this unassuming setting to get a disproportionately loud response from the audience. Applause and laughter erupted when the crowd caught sight of the […]
Pride weekend is just around the corner, and the familiar feelings of anticipation and trepidation are fluttering in our tummies. With so much to see and do in so many venues, Pride can be a daunting experience. We’ve pulled together a Pride survival guide with some highlights of the festivities from Friday evening through to […]
Brendan Healy, in his first year as artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, has had exceptional success. At the Dora Mavor Moore Awards this past Monday night, the play he directed and chose as his season opener for BIBT’s season, Blasted, won five awards in the general theatre division, including Outstanding Production and Outstanding Direction.
Artists aren’t ones to shy away from a controversy, and being one of the biggest congregations of theatre-makers and supporters in Toronto, controversy is never far from the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Last year was rife with it, as critics and nominees debated over the value of the awards themselves. This year, however, there wasn’t a trace of antagonism towards the annual awards show (besides the fact that it stood in the way of the attendees and the street after-party). This year, the theatre community had bigger threats to worry about.
“An army of lovers will never be defeated!” Stonewall TO march, commemorating the 1969 Stonewall riots that occurred after a police raid on a gay bar in New York City. An estimated 1,200 participants gathered at Queen’s Park and started walking east along Wellesley, making their way to the Church-Wellesley Village, and ending outside the 519 Church Street Community Centre. After stopping traffic along Church Street for about half an hour, many of the Stonewall TO participants moved to Cawthra Square Park behind the 519 for a relaxed gathering with music and food.
In today’s Urban Planner: the Pirates want you to bike with them to an outdoor screening (and keep an eye on your wheels); Sky Gilbert waxes poetic about his momma; the Daft Punk Tribute gives the French duo the big band treatment; the Samba Squad plays the LulaWorld Festival; and Gong the Show bangs for itself.
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 all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to [email protected] Iggy Pop. Photo by Vince Carlucci, courtesy of Fudagraphy. PHOTOGRAPHY: NXNE may be […]
Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann. Michael Healey’s Courageous, which just opened at the Tarragon, is the second of a planned trilogy inspired by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which began with 2006’s excellent Generous. Like its predecessor, Courageous is an ensemble piece that combines multiple inter-connected short plays to examine some complicated and morally […]
Canada’s most celebrated transsexual peels back the layers. Photo by David Hawe. The Silicone Diaries, the new one-woman show written and performed by self-proclaimed “most celebrated transsexual in Canada” Nina Arsenault currently being performed at Buddies’ cabaret space, is already a hit. The theatre announced an added performance before the show had even opened, tickets […]
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