Parallel Play

Stylized

Hongbu and Nolbu: The Tale of the Magic Pumpkins

A play with puppets. After their parents die, brothers Hongbu and Nolbu both marry and live in the same house. Nolbu, being the older brother, kicks Hongbu and his family out of the house. Hongbu and his family starve because Nolbu kept all the food and money. Though poor, Hongbu is kind and generous. One day he rescues an injured swallow and nurtures her back to health. To express her gratitude, the swallow queen gives Hongbu a magical pumpkin seed. The pumpkins provide him with food and wealth. When Nolbu learns that his brother is now rich, he tries to do the same by attacking the swallow and pretending to rescue it. But his greed earns him three bad magic pumpkins instead, and he is left without food nr money. Hongbu forgives his brother and take in the family. Nolbu promised to learn from Hongbu; to be generous and kind to others.

by Jean Yoon, 2012

Characters: 17

by Jordan Tannahill, 2018

Realistic

Late Company

Over dinner two sets of parents discuss bullying incidents that led to suicide of one of their teenage sons.

Characters: 5

by Olivier Sylvestre, 2021

Stylized

The Law of Gravity

Dom has had a rough go of things so far. At fourteen, he has the hardened look of someone who’s had to fight for everything. Fred has just moved to Not-The-City, a new place to try to disappear. But he didn’t expect to actually make friends. He just hopes he’s accepted for how he looks. When Dom and Fred meet on a hill overlooking a bridge that connects Not-The-City to The City, a place where anyone can be anything they want, the two find a refuge in one another and make a pact: they’ll cross the bridge at the end of the school year. They’ll be free. What could happen by then? Who will they be? And will the bridge even let them cross? The young characters are on a journey of self-discovery, feeling out their gender identity and how they want to present themselves to the world - while living in a world they find limiting, and dreaming of moving elsewhere.

by Makambe K. Simamba, 2021

Stylized

Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers

The story of Trayvon Martin’s first hours in the afterlife. February 26, 2012, Florida. A 17-year-old Black boy wearing a hoodie leaves a 7/11 carrying a bag of Skittles and an iced tea. He never makes it home. Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers invites us into the infamous world of one teen, into his last moments, and into his intricate dance to the afterlife.

by Christine Quintana, 2020

TYA

Princesses Don’t Grow on Trees

This Theatre for Young Audiences piece explores the imagination of a young girl who feels isolated because of her family's absorption in digital devices.

Stylized

Mortified

A woman encounters a man from her past and is disturbed by the strange power he still holds over her. In her attempts to uncover the truth of what happened between them, she evokes her 13-year-old self: a synchronized swimmer struggling to make sense of her burgeoning sexuality. Mortified explores adolescent sex, shame and transformation and how we reckon with the traumatic experiences that shape us.

by Amy Rutherford, 2022

Characters: 9

Empowerment

Memory

TYA

Selfie

A new year of high school is full of excitement and potential—but three teens didn’t expect it to bring such a dark change to their lives. After spending a summer reinventing herself in Paris, Emma is ready for her new life to start, while her best friend Lily is eager for them to reconnect. Lily throws a last-minute party fuelled by alcohol and Instagram, which leads to a long-awaited encounter between Emma and Lily’s older brother Chris. But the next day Emma feels that something went terribly wrong. When a doctor’s appointment and a visit from police confirm that there was a sexual assault at the party, and the whole school turns against Emma, the three friends grapple with what actually happened between Emma and Chris.

Characters: 3

Crime

High School

TYA

In This World

High school is hard, especially for Neyssa, who is not from a privileged family like her best friend Bijou. When the two get into a physical fight at school, they must confront what’s really bothering Neyssa. In This World looks at what friendship means to two teenage girls from vastly different social backgrounds, while they deal with racism, class, teen sex and reputation.

by Hannah Moscovitch, 2015

by Andrea Mapili, Byron Abalos, 2021

Stylized

Through the Bamboo

Twelve-year-old Philly is pulled into an action-packed adventure while mourning the loss of her Lola when she opens an old book and finds herself tossed into the fantastical land of Uwi. This Filipinx-Canadian tale inspired by Philippine mythology shows the value of keeping memories alive and explores how families deal with loss.

Characters: 15

Stylized

Let me Borrow that Top (part of Fish Eyes Trilogy)

Centres on Candice a girl who appropriates Meena’s Indian dance skills in Fish Eyes and bullies Naz in Boys with Cars. As she’s doing a YouTube makeup tutorial, she shares a passion for Indian dancing. Candice has just been accepted to the Conventry School of Bhangra. Will she leave Canada and her boyfriend, Buddy, to pursue her dreams?

by Anita Majumdar, 2016

Cultural Issues

Harassment

Stylized

Fish Eyes (part of Fish Eyes Trilogy)

Meena is a classically trained Indian dancer who wants to be the next Aishwarya Rai. However, she also wants to be like the rest of her high-school friends. She develops a massive crush on Buddy, the popular boy at school. In order to pursue him, she contemplates turning down competitions. With the sometimes gentle, sometimes an unwelcomed encouragement of her dance teacher, she sets out on a quest to conquer her first unrequited hearbreak and emerge triumphant.

by Anita Majumdar, 2016

Characters: 4

Cultural Issues

Empathy

Realistic

Shape of a Girl

A teenage girl, Braidie, struggles to come to terms with bullying and violence that occurred in her past. A bystander who reflects upon the treatment of a bullied friend, she observes the power dynamics between friends from young age and sees the gradually intensifying hostility leading to violence. Braidie wonders if the teen accused of a shocking act of violence is so very different from her and her friends. This “monster in the shape of a girl” propels Braidie to examine her own past and confront the truth of her often terrifying teenage world. She discovers how detrimental bullying is to the victim and examines her own actions and the actions of others who participate in the cycles of violence.

by Joan MacLeod, 2002

Characters: 1

Harassment

High school

TYA

The Middle Place

“This is a really difficult house.” It’s where people like Kaali and Nevaeh live, but it’s not home. Constructed from interviews conducted at a Rexdale youth shelter, THE MIDDLE PLACE has five actors bring to the stage the extraordinary voices of 16 homeless youth, 3 tireless caseworkers and one outsider.

by Andrew Kushnir, 2016

Characters: 20

Class

Community

Discover Tags, like 'Love'

Historical

Cyrano de Bergerac

From the acclaimed author of The Last Wife and The Virgin Trial comes a new adaptation of one of the finest love stories ever told. Cyrano de Bergerac is a swashbuckling seventeenth-century swordsman who can do anything . . . except tell Roxane, the woman he loves, how he feels. He’s just too self-conscious about his unusually large nose. Roxane finds romance in words, and Cyrano is full of them, so when he sees the chance to ghostwrite love letters to her from an inarticulate, love-struck cadet, he takes it—but can he ever reveal himself? Could she ever love him for who he is? In turns funny, tender, and self-aware, this classic tale about the exquisite distress of loving from afar will find its way into the hearts of even the most skeptical.

Historical

Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell

It only takes one spark of love to change the world forever. Mabel Hubbard Bell was a strong, self-assured woman—bright, passionate, and a complete original. Despite a near-fatal case of childhood scarlet fever that cost her the ability to hear, she learned to talk and lip-read in multiple languages. At nineteen, she married a young inventor named Alexander Graham Bell and became the most significant influence in his life. This is Mabel's story, offering the unique perspective of a woman whose remarkable life was forever connected to her famous, distracted husband. From inspiring invention to promoting public service, Mabel and Alec challenged each other to become strong forces for good. Silence is a beautiful and true love story about how we communicate.

by Trina Davies, 2020

Empowerment

Disability

Stylized

Six Essential Questions/”6 Essential Questions”

6 Essential Questions tells the story of Renata as she travels to Brazil to reunite with the mother who abandoned her when she was just five years old. In Rio, Renata discovers more than she bargained for in her quest to uncover the truth of who abandoned whom. She is continually tossed about by her undead grandmother and a semi-invisible uncle as they choreograph the ultimate dance of mother and daughter, both of whom must confront their dreams before they can ever attempt to confront each other. Imaginations run wild in this strangely beautiful and funny story loosely based on Uppal’s critically acclaimed memoir, Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother, a finalist for both the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

by Priscila Uppal, 2015

Characters: 4

Realistic

The Crackwalker

Teresa is sexy, seductive, and mentally challenged. Worshipped by her boyfriend, she turns tricks at $5, is addicted to Tim Hortons' doughnuts, lies without thinking, and overflows with endless kindness, but she continues to hold on to her limitless innocence. The Crackwalker captures the music, the dialect, and the unpretty realities of the inner city. First produced thirty years ago, Thompson's striking portrayal of the discarded class in Canada continues to move audiences today.

by Judith Thompson, 2010

Characters: 5

Class

Cultural issues

Stylized

The Shoe

In The Shoe, a weary mother, her perplexing son, their shy dentist, and his cocktail-sipping receptionist find themselves drawn together to face problems too daunting to deal with alone. From meltdowns to moments of tenderness, each of them are called on to find reserves of strength and empathy they never knew they had.

by David Paquet, 2022

Characters: 4

Empathy

Musical

Suzie Goo: Private Secretary

Suzie Goo works for Corporeal Can Inc. in the early 1960s. As a modern-day career gal, the last thing she has time for is her "hands on" boss, Vincent Bag. When Suzie takes matters into her own hands, we all learn a thing or two about what it takes to climb the corporate ladder.

Realistic

True Love Lies

Sparking a series of further revelations, the sudden reappearance of David exposes suppressed emotions and desires in everyone and the family must renegotiate their relationships with each other and, ultimately, redefine their family. In sharp, non-stop dialogue, Brad Fraser brings each of his characters to life with a depth, humour, and emotion that tears open the nuclear family and finds the heart that is often lost and forgotten.

Stylized

Under Wraps

The moment Mark meets David his world is thrown off balance. Who could have predicted finding love in a furniture store, or finding it with an unemployed lifeguard? But despite their immediate connection, Mark isn’t sure if David is gay. Mark isn’t even sure if Mark is gay. As he falls deeper in love, Mark works desperately to make David nothing more than a friend and to make that enough. Filled with hopeful exhilaration and devastating missed opportunities, Under Wraps nimbly tracks one man’s tumultuous quest to finally love himself and let it all out.

by Robert Chafe, 2014

2SLGBTQI+

Identity

Realistic

Trapped!

Set in an imaginary 1950s where gay marriage is the norm, Trapped! tells the story of Claire, a bedridden heiress who overhears a murder plot in which she is the intended victim. Claire must solve the mystery of her own murder before it happens.

by Hope Thompson, 2017

Characters: 3

2SLGBTQI+

Crime

Realistic

Shooting Magda (The Palestinian Girl)

Love between a Palestinian girl and an Israeli man is born and then ruined in a violent reality.

by Joshua Sobol, 2006

Characters: 11

Cultural issues

Realistic

YICHUD (Seclusion)

Rachel and Chaim are Orthodox Jews living in Toronto. They have requested an arranged marriage and today is their wedding day. The Yichud Room is the place where the bride and groom go to be alone immediately following the wedding ceremony. In the case of Rachel and Chaim, who have only had a handful of chaperoned dates, this is the first time they have ever been alone together. In another part of the synagogue, tensions rise between the groom's older brothers, Ephraim and Menachem, rival Torah scholars who haven't seen each other in four years. Meanwhile, the bride's parents, Mordechai and Malka, are secretly planning to divorce after the wedding. YICHUD (Seclusion) directly confronts the tensions that exist in the Orthodox Jewish world between tradition and modernity, powerfully dramatizing issues of love, marriage, respect, sex, honour, and duty.

by Julie Tepperman, 2011

Community

Historical

Mother’s Daughter

"In this stunning third part to Kate Hennig’s powerful Queenmaker series, England’s first queen regnant finds herself fighting xenophobia, religious nationalism, and strained familial bonds in the power struggle that dubs her Bloody Mary. Upon the death of King Edward VI, the thirty-eight-year-old princess Mary—daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon—wrests the throne from Edward’s deemed heir. But Mary’s mother appears from the vaults of memory, and adamantly questions the motives of Mary’s cousin Jane and her half-sister Bess, despite Mary’s affection for them both. As the kingdom splits along Roman Catholic and Protestant lines, Mary walks a gauntlet of squabbling ethics and politics, and is forced to make some tough decisions. Should she execute her opponents before it’s too late, the way her father did? Should she scramble to find a husband who can give her a rightful heir? And can she trust her mother, her sister, or even herself?" - from the publisher

Realistic

And then there was you

A mother addresses her child as they both visit milestones that offered them each independence, and in the process explores how the profound connection between mother and child evolves.

by Erin Shields, 2020

by Hannah Moscovitch, 2021

Ageing

Environment

Realistic

Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes

Jon, a star professor and author, is racked with self-loathing after his third marriage crumbles around him when he finds himself admiring a student—a girl in a red coat. The girl, nineteen-year-old Annie, is a big fan of his work, and also happens to live down the street. From their doorways to his office to hotel rooms, their mutual admiration and sexual tension escalates under Jon’s control to a surprising conclusion that will leave you wanting to go back and question your perceptions of power as soon as you finish.