As always, there’s plenty of amazing live performance happening in Toronto. I wish I could make it to everything, but hopefully you’ll be able to make it out to one of these exciting shows.

Forward March Festival – Theatre Direct Canada

The Forward March Festival is an invitation for emerging artist companies to explore their creative process and take risks with content and form within the realm of Theatre for Young Audiences. During the process, artists are offered guidance from Indigenous Culture and ASL consultants, as well mentorship from a guest director and Theatre Direct’s producing team. The festival will feature new works-in-progress by AMAVA Collective, Phoenix The Fire, and solo artists Christopher Elizabeth and Annasofie Jakobsen.

This year the festival will take place in spaces within the George Chuvalo
Neighbourhood Centre and include interactive programming between performances.

May 4 & 5
George Chuvalo Neighbourhood Centre – 50 Sousa Mendes Street, Toronto
https://theatredirect.ca/forward-march-festival-2024/

Junior – Harbourfront Centre

Showcasing a wide range of local and international performances, from theatre and dance to circus and hands-on workshops, the entire family can enjoy three days of play, imagination and fun at indoor and outdoor venues across Harbourfront Centre’s 10-acre waterfront location. A dedicated Enhanced Accessibility Day on May 19 features ASL/DSL interpretation, described audio and introductory notes, touch tours, a relaxed guide and “Zen Den” quiet spaces for select events.

May 18 – 20
Various venues at Harbourfront Centre – 235 Queens Quay West
https://harbourfrontcentre.com/series/junior/

Grandma’s Shawl – Soundstreams

Grandma’s Shawl is a musical journey inspired by Kokum shawls and the bond between Ukrainian and Indigenous women. Narrated through the enchanting voices of Natalya Gennadi, soprano, and Kristine Dandavino, mezzo, accompanied by Jo Greenaway (piano) and Oleksandra Fedyshyn (violin), the story unfolds through stories, poetry, folk songs, and compositions by Canadian, Ukrainian and Indigenous composers including Irene Wawatie Jerome, Ian Cusson, Anna Pidgorna, Andrew Balfour, Jessica McMann, Stefania Turkevych, Lesia Dychko, Oleksandra Fedyshyn and Alla Zagaykevych.

May 4
The Redwood Theatre – 1300 Gerrard St E, Toronto
https://soundstreams.ca/events/grandmas-shawl/

A Year with Frog and Toad – The Capitol Theatre Port Hope

Based on Arnold Lobel’s beloved books, this whimsical show chronicles the story of two friends—the very chipper Frog and the rather grumpy Toad—through four fun-filled seasons. Alongside the other animals of the forest, they plant gardens, go swimming, rake leaves, go sledding, and learn life lessons along the way. It’s a show for both the young and the young at heart!

Part vaudeville, part make-believe, and all charm, A Year with Frog and Toad tells the story of a friendship that endures throughout the seasons.
Most loved by children under the age of 10.

May 17 – June 2
The Capitol Theatre – 20 Queen St, Port Hope
https://capitoltheatre.com/events/a-year-with-frog-toad-2024-05-17-730-pm/

The Glory of Living – The King Black Box

The Glory of Living delves into the depths of human nature against the backdrop of true events, telling the story of Lisa, a 15-year-old girl, and her marriage to Clint, an ex-con twice her age. Systematically abused by her husband, Lisa is coerced into helping him commit crimes of varying magnitude, including murder.

Gilman’s storytelling invites audiences to bear witness to Lisa’s struggle for survival amidst the oppressive forces of abuse and exploitation. Through poignant scenes between Lisa and her attorney, as well as her husband Clint, the play reveals the complexities of human relationships and the profound impact of societal neglect. The Glory of Living has been hailed as both intelligent and provoking by critics, who commend Gilman for crafting a couple whose degeneracy serves as a vehicle for a searing analysis of moral codes, sexual abuse, fear, love, poverty and the value of life.

May 15 – 31
The King Black Box, 1224 King St. W, 3rd floor (no elevator)
https://www.thekingblackbox.com/

The Rear Window – Hart House and Bygone Theatre

Recuperating from a broken leg, a news photographer spends his days cooped up in his New York apartment, watching his neighbours through the rear window of his home.
The intense summer heat wave, a growing addiction to his painkillers, and the kind of delirium brought on by boredom and lack of sleep leads him to create fanciful stories about those he spies on. But when the line between truth and reality begins to blur, he finds himself questioning whether he has just witnessed a brutal murder, or whether his demons have finally gotten the best of him.

Based on the short story It Had To Be Murder by Cornell Woolrich, the same tale that inspired the 1954 Hitchcock film, Rear Window, The Rear Window takes a new look at this classic tale of a peeping Tom who saw more than he wanted to see. A gripping, psychological thriller that will leave you guessing until the final moments whether or not what we’re seeing can truly be believed. Starring Oliver Georgiou as L.B. Jefferies, Kate McArthur in her award-winning role as Lena, Cayne Kitagawa as Charlie and Antonino Pruiti as Thorwald.

May 15 – May 31
Hart House Theatre – 7 Hart House Cir
https://harthouse.ca/theatre/show/the-rear-window

The Other Paris – Ghost Tower Theatre Company

Ghost Tower Theatre Company is pleased to present THE OTHER PARIS, a one act dark comedy horror play written by Oliver Pitschner and co directed by Pitschner and Bethany Joy Radford. It’s 2003 in Paris, Ontario and siblings Peter and Fox are back in their hometown to help pack up their childhood home following the death of their mother. While packing, they make an unsavoury discovery: their childhood cat, also named Paris, has been kept on ice in their deep freezer for the past 9 years. Peter and Fox embark on a journey to bury their pet – and put some other things to rest in the process. The following tale involves a road trip, a wisecracking best friend, a hitchhiking teenage witch, a ghostly mother, and an evil priest hunting them all on behalf of a dark entity feeding on lost souls. THE OTHER PARIS is a surreal ode to small Ontario towns, fractured families, trans identity, and religious guilt put on by a theatre company producing new queer horror work in Toronto.

May 17 – 20
Red Sandcastle Theatre – 922 Queen St E
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-other-paris-at-the-red-sandcastle-theatre-tickets-855588296627

SOLILOQUIO – Theatre Passe Muraille

Beginning with the question “How can you be a migrant in your own territory?” SOLILOQUIO is based on a series of letters creator Tiziano Cruz wrote to his mother in 2020. Reaching her across boundaries of geography and class, Cruz uses the letters as the starting point for a critique of economic, racial and institutional oppression. As an Indigenous artist, he speaks about the suffering his people have endured under a system of white supremacy, examining the role the nation plays in Argentina’s culture of inequality. Using the power of theatre and the precision of language, Cruz poses a difficult question: What does it mean for him to use his body for art in a country where bodies like his are not supposed to exist?

May 17 & 18
Theatre Passe Muraille – 16 Ryerson Ave.
https://www.passemuraille.ca/beyondto-23-24/