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/

Canadian Festival of New Musicals – The Musical Stage Company and Canadian Stage

AFTER THE RAIN (Double bill with COWBOY TEMPEST CABARET)
May 23RD 8:00pm and May 25th 3:30pm
Co-Commissioned and Co-Developed by The Musical Stage Company and Tarragon Theatre
Book by Rose Napoli
Music & Lyrics by Suzy Wilde
Featuring Eva Foote, Raquel Duffy, Brendan Wall, and Shaemus Swets
Her parents are famous. Her boyfriend is stupid. And Suzie is a mess.
When she accepts a mature piano student obsessed with mastering only one song, Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedie No. 1”, struggling songwriter Suzie’s life takes an unforeseen turn. Full of family turmoil, life’s complexities, and centered around a devastating discovery, AFTER THE RAIN is a musical based on a true story about the healing power of music.

COWBOY TEMPEST CABARET (Double bill w AFTER THE RAIN)
May 23rd 8:00pm and May 25th 3:30pm

Commissioned and Developed by The Musical Stage Company
Book by Niall McNeil, Lucy McNulty & Anton Lipovetsky,
Music by Anton Lipovetsky
Lyrics by Niall McNeil
Featuring Brandon Antonio, Raquel Duffy, Eva Foote, Dylan Harman, Yousef Kadoura, Elm Reyes, Shaemus Swets, and Brendan Wall
Guns and magic. Love and hurt. When gunslinger Prospero conjures a storm in the desert, he begins a chain of events that forces every cowboy and spirit into a fight for freedom. Created by an artist with Down Syndrome and his longtime collaborators, Cowboy Tempest Cabaret is a totally lawless adaptation of Shakespeare’s Tempest musicalized in the styles of rock, folk and country & western music.

IN REAL LIFE
May 24th and 25th at 8:00pm, May 26th at 2:00pm
Commissioned by The Musical Stage Company and Co-Developed by The Musical Stage Company and fu-GEN Theatre Company
Book & Lyrics by Nick Green
Music & Lyrics by Kevin Wong
Featuring Alicia Ault, Janelle Cooper, Colleen Furlan, Hailey Gillis, Matthew Joseph, William Lincoln, Jacob McInnis, and Daniel Williston
Set in a dystopian future, technological prodigy Max is an ideal student with a bright future, until, with a single swipe, he sets out on a journey to forbidden corners of the Internet, underground societies, and forgotten parts of himself. A story filled with twists and turns, In Real Life examines the complexities of power, technology, and freedom in the digital era.

May 23 – 26
Berkeley St Theatre – 26 Berkeley St
https://www.canadianstage.com/shows-events/the-festival-of-new-theatre-and-canadian-festival-of-new-musicals

Festival TransAmériques

Curated by co-Artistic Directors Martine Dennewald and Jessie Mill, the Festival transcends boundaries between art forms. This year, artists from around the world explore love and eroticism, the manifold powers of theatre, and the potential inherent in video games and artificial intelligence. Indigenous art, knowledge and thought will again be showcased, serving up a vibrant celebration of artistic vitality in Quebec and far beyond.

“This year’s Festival programme does not try to escape the world’s disorders by any means, but we are calling for poetry, for recognition of the complexity around us, and the possibility of telling stories in a different way. Plants talk, a dog sings, a griot defies the machine. The artists are telling us that nothing is universal; neither fundamental family ties, nor the truths of history, nor the binaries of old and new… If this planet is on fire, shouldn’t we rely on different kinds of relationships and learn to use other languages as fast as we can?”, said Dennewald and Mill.

May 22 – June 5
Various venues in and around Montreal
https://fta.ca/en/

Caravan – Tableau D’Hôte Theatre

Caravan follows Birdie as she unexpectedly races across Canada to join the historic 1970 Abortion Caravan. After meeting a stranded stranger, she finds herself on a whirlwind cross-country road trip. The Trans-Canada highway brings hitchhikers, vomit bags, and Good Vibrations under open skies, as three strangers search for understanding and support.

May 25 – June 2
Monument-National’s Studio Hydro-Québec -1182 St Laurent Blvd, Montreal
https://tableaudhote.ca/