Oh how I wish I was able to make it to every live performance happening in this incredible city! Here’s a list of some amazing productions that I’ve been alerted to which are happening here in Toronto and beyond!
The Flick – Persephone Productions
In a run-down movie theatre in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35mm film projectors in the state. Their tiny battles and not-so tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the movies on screen. With keen insight and a finely-tuned comic eye, The Flick is a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world.
May 31 – June 11
Centaur Theatre – 453 Saint Francois Xavier St.
Our Time: A Broadway Celebration – The Lyric Theatre Singers
Our Time – A Broadway Celebration, will be The Lyric Theatre Singers’ 30th Broadway revue show and its first in 4 years! Anticipation is at its peak among the 45 performers who have been hard at work, putting their big return together. They are, of course, led by their beloved Founder and Musical Director, Bob Bachelor. Bob and his co-director and long-time collaborator, Cathy Burns, have picked up right where they left off in 2020. As always, they are not alone in the process, with the return of Lyric’s amazing Assistant Musical Director Martin Kaller, talented rehearsal pianist Chad Linsley, and guest choreographer extraordinaire, Jonathan Patterson.
Audiences can expect a range of emotions and a repertoire dedicated in part to the work of the late, great composer Stephen Sondheim. This memorable show will also include a nod to the likes of Gershwin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mel Brooks and many more. From Come from Away toInto the Woods, Our Time has something for all audiences!
June 8 – 10
Concordia Theatre – 1455, De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Urinetown, The Musical – Nightwood Theatre’s 14th Annual Lawyer Show
Directed and Choreographed by Brittany Banks, Musical Directed by Alexa Belgrave, and supported by a team of professional designers and crew, this unique event brings a cast and band of over 35 lawyers together for four live performances at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.As Nightwood’s biggest annual fundraiser, the Lawyer Show delivers vital funds that go directly toward the company’s mentorship initiatives, training programs and main stage productions.
While Lawyer Shows happen across Canada in various regional theatres, Nightwood’s scale is one of the largest in the country. Over the past decade Nightwood has engaged over 300 lawyer-actors, received hundreds of sponsorships from some of Toronto’s top law firms, and has raised over $1,300,000. Moreover, the engagement has led to other creative endeavours, where lawyer alumni have produced their own Fringe shows, performed stand-up comedy, and formed indie theatre companies.
June 1 – 3
Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts – 27 Front St
2023 Lawyer Show – Nightwood Theatre
Darkroom V4.0 – Rangaai Theatre Company
Rangaai Theatre Company, which pioneered immersive sensory experiences for Mumbai’s theatre-goers since 2016, brought its unique style of experimental theatre to Canada with its last run in April at Red Sandcastle Theatre. Their show, Darkroom V4.0, is an attempt at bringing to light the traumatic state of mind, loss, and indignation of mankind through a series of South Asian stories. The Darkroom series has been performed over 227 times at 32+ black box spaces in 6 major metro cities across India and Canada.
Darkroom V4.0 is a multi-lingual performance that lasts for 105 minutes with no intermission. It features one show with multiple stories and multiple experiences, all revolving around themes and emotions of Darkroom V4.0. Trigger warning: stories of rape and child abuse are featured in this show.
June 10
Red Sandcastle Theatre – 922 Queen St E
Darkroom V4.0 – An Immersive Sensory Experience Tickets, Sat, 10 Jun 2023 at 2:00 PM | Eventbrite
FOLDA 2023 (Festival of Live Digital Arts)
THROUGH MY LENS
Written and Performed by Amy Amantea
Written and Directed by James Long
Amy Amantea (she/her) is an artist with a lived experience of blindness, specifically having a total of 2% vision in one eye. She is also a photographer with a practice that involves walking the city at twilight, looking for interesting light patterns and capturing them with her camera. THROUGH MY LENS brings these life experiences into one small photography studio where Amantea shares her work as a photographer with a single participant who then describes her images—images she has never “seen”—back to her.
INTERCOMPLEMENTARY ELEMENTS
by Erin Ball, Maxime Beauregard, and collaborators
Erin Ball (ze/they/she) and Maxime Beauregard (they/them) are thrilled to collaborate with FOLDA for the 2023 festival presented in Katarokwi/Kingston. The artists will present an ALPHA stage immersive accessibility experience about a queer love story. The event will be a hybrid work-in-progress, both presented in-person and online, created in collaboration with Amy Amantea, folks from Cohort, and other access consultants.
Through My Lens – June 7
Intercomplementary Elements – June 10
FOLDA – Festival of Live Digital Art
I Carry with Me – Mixed Company Theatre
A trip to a coffee shop quickly turns Faiza’s day into one of fear, humiliation and abandonment. No doubt her race, faith and traditional dress played a factor. Nurse Mailynn has trouble finding support from her supervisor and co-workers after a patient refuses to be treated by her because of her race. Masego feels dismissed after sharing a frightening incident both she and her son experienced. How are things going to change for people who are racialized when her own partner and the police keep making excuses?
June 9 – 16
Online via Zoom
I Carry with Me, a Forum Theatre Presentation by MCT – Registration Form (google.com)
Aleksandr Mikitenko and SBSxTO – Seller and Newel Second Hand Books
A graduate of the once vibrant Ukrainian punk scene, Aleksandr plays guitar with an aggressive, relentless energy. He’ll also have copies of the new book Punks Listen for sale, with proceeds going to support the Red Cross in Ukraine.
June 8
Sellers and Newel Second Hand Books – 672 College St
Literary Society – sellersandnewel.com
Piner with Noah Ross and Hector Jenkins – Seller and Newel Second Hand Books
Fast-rising singer/songwriter Piner performs with opening acts Noah Ross and Hector Jenkins — all originally from the Skeleton Park neighbourhood in Kingston, Ontario, a hotbed of musical creativity.
June 10
Sellers and Newel Second Hand Books – 672 College St
Literary Society – sellersandnewel.com
Summer Music in the Garden – Harbourfront Centre
Harbourfront Centre presents the return of its beloved annual concert series, Summer Music in the Garden (SMIG), featuring 18 free concerts in the Toronto Music Garden on most Thursdays and Sundays throughout the summer, from June 21 to August 27, 2023. Featuring a wide variety of musical styles from emerging and established artists, audiences can enjoy a mix of high-energy dance to contemplative classical set in an idyllic, lakeside venue. The 22nd season launches with a special concert featuring Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer, Deantha Edmunds, on Wednesday, June 21, in honour of Indigenous Peoples Day. SMIG is curated by Gregory Oh, an acclaimed Toronto-based pianist, conductor and teacher, with the support of Associate Curator Rebecca Cuddy, a Canadian/Indigenous (Métis) Mezzo-Soprano who has sung across Canada, the U.K. and Europe.
June 21 – August 27
Toronto Music Garden – 479 Queens Quay West
Summer Music in the Garden – Harbourfront Centre
Loss – Luminato Festival
Loss is a deeply honest, live retelling of an intergenerational family story, written by Ian Kamau and his father Roger McTair.
This multi-media performance begins as a mirror into a winter of depression, then slowly unravels the mystery surrounding the death of his paternal grandmother Nora Elutha Rogers.
An orchestration of memories using live music, video, and storytelling — Loss is an exploration of grief in Afro-Caribbean communities, and an immersive experience towards healing shared with the audience.
June 14 – 18
Harbourfront Centre Theatre – 231 Queen’s Quay West
A View from the Box 