It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Theatre Christmas! The Toronto Fringe Festival! With 123 shows on 27 stages this year, The Toronto Fringe is bigger and better than ever. Once again this year, I’m asking my Fringe Five questions to various Fringe artists to help you get to know their shows a little better! Keep your eyes on this page, as I’ll be adding more throughout the month leading up to Fringe! Happy Fringing everyone!
Bruce Dow – The Wounds of Love and Other Gifts
Could you please introduce yourself to my readers?
My name is Bruce Dow (www.brucedow.com). I am the creator, composer, and director of The Wounds of Love and Other Gifts (https://brucedow.com/the-wounds-of-love-and-other-gifts) [Page in Process] a new work of music theatre presented by Olivia Daniels and A.I.R. Collective, in association with the Alliance for Canadian Musicals, as part of the 2026 Toronto Fringe Festival.
I am an award-winning theatre artist with four Dora Award nominations, two Dora Award wins, five featured roles on Broadway, and 12 seasons at the Stratford Festival.
Please tell us more about your upcoming show in the Toronto Fringe Festival! (
Suitable for ages 14+)
Featuring text drawn from the writings of Oscar Wilde and his contemporaries, The Wounds of Love and Other Gifts has been in ongoing development, under various titles, since 2000, with previous iterations presented at the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, and as a full professional production with Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre.
Totally reshaped and rewritten, the piece in its current form is deeply influenced by my work in existential psychotherapy — I am currently a registered psychotherapist in private clinical practice — and approaches these stories not as moral lessons, but as lived dilemmas: intimate, complex, and deeply human.
Inspired by Wilde’s The Happy Prince and Other Tales — originally written for his sons — the piece moves beyond the familiar comfort of “stories for children” to ask more challenging questions of us as adults: What does it cost to care? What does it mean to give? And how do we live meaningfully in relation to others?
Are we old enough for fairy tales?
With choreography by internationally renowned choreographer, artist, and creator Jeff Dimitriou, and new orchestrations by Musical Director and Music Supervisor Ethan Rotenberg (Shaw Festival, Shifting Ground Collective), the production brings together a cast of emerging voices from across the Canadian theatre, dance, and opera worlds.
Blending chorus, aria, movement, and text, the work unfolds as a fluid interdisciplinary experience — music, movement, and theatre.
This is a piece that asks something of its audience — and offers something in return. The Wounds of Love and Other Gifts is a true interdisciplinary experiment, and one we are excited to share with Toronto audiences.
Describe the essence of your show in 3 words.
Challenging. Questioning. Beautiful.
What’s your favourite part of performing in a Fringe Festival?
Working at the Fringe Festival allows immense creative freedom. While Jeff, Ethan, and I have all been blessed in our careers, we also deeply respect the process of creating for the Fringe because it is truly about the work itself.
The writing and rewriting I’ve been able to do — inspired musically, visually, and thematically by ideas from Ethan, Jeff, and members of the cast — along with the opportunity to collaborate with our immensely talented emerging actor/singer/dancers, has been extraordinary.
There’s nothing quite like it.
With the work at the centre, and almost no budget, the possibilities somehow become limitless — even compared with television, Stratford, or Broadway budgets.
What’s another show that you’re looking forward to seeing at the Toronto Fringe Festival?
I’m looking forward to seeing all of the productions presented by the Alliance for Canadian Musicals — and many more beyond that.
I hesitate to get more specific because I have so many admired friends doing exciting work this year that I would hate to appear to favour one project over another.
My advice? See as much as you can.
If we’re not all exhausted by the end of Fringe, then we probably haven’t done it right!
https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/wounds-love-and-other-gifts
James Alan – Mysteries and Lies
1. Could you please introduce yourself to my readers?
I spend most of the year as a professional magician. I also manage the My Magic Hands program at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. I have been practicing for over twenty years and I’ve lived in Toronto my whole life. I’ve done a number of shows in the city over the past several years: James Alan’s Magic Tonight (2013-2026), Magic & Martini (2016-2020), the virtual experience Bring Magic Home (2020-22). My last Fringe production was fourteen years ago, called Lies, Damn Lies & Magic Tricks.
2. Please tell us more about your upcoming show in the Toronto Fringe Festival!
Mysteries and Lies is first and foremost a magic show. We are messing with reality, or at least your perception of it in really fun ways. And we felt it was important to be able to do that playfully in an environment saturated with “alternative facts”, deepfakes, AI slop and fake experts. I’m a classical sleight-of-hand artist, so we’re doing all of this the old fashioned way. There’s no special technology involved, just the minds of the audience.
Through the magic of the Fringe lottery we found ourselves in the Sweet Action Theatre, which is a wonderful intimate space on Queen West. There are forty-five seats per performance. And we decided to take advantage of that intimacy to get up close and personal with the audience. Inspired by magicians from Spain and Argentina, we have members of the audience on stage the entire show. They make the magic happen as much as I do. We’re giving up a lot of control and a lot of certainty. It also means each show will be different and anything can happen.
3. Describe the essence of your show in 3 words.
Magic Live Unrepeatable
4. What’s your favourite part of performing in a Fringe Festival?
Fringe audiences are special. They comes looking for something. They’re not there by accident — they’ve chosen to seek out something different, something they can’t find at a mainstream venue. That means when you build something live with them in the room, they’re genuinely present for it. Every show becomes its own unrepeatable thing, shaped by the specific people who showed up that day. That’s rare, and it’s the whole point.
5. What’s another show that you’re looking forward to seeing at the Toronto Fringe Festival?
I have to shout out Keith Brown in 110% Wizard. He’s incredibly talented and charming. We have been watching Keith perform since before he was old enough to grow that beard. And we have the photos to prove it!
https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/mysteries-and-lies
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