Parallel Play

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

Grief

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.

Characters: 6

by Christine Quintana, 2020

Grief

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

Grief

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

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 'Identity'

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.

Stylized

Pretty Goblins

From holding hands in the womb to holding each other’s hair back when they puked, twins Laura and Lizzie grew up only having each other. They couldn’t count on their practically feral mom, absent dad, or even the boys they liked. They’re polar opposites—Laura’s reserved while Lizzie’s reckless—but their shared mischievous giggles and dreams for the future kept them going. One day, Laura finds a familiar book of poems in Lizzie’s apartment and is dragged through their turbulent past. Together, the sisters relive their complicated history in an effort to make sense of the present. Framed by the beauty of a well-loved poem, this story of ferocious sisterhood, addiction, and the aftermath of trauma will leave howls echoing in your ears.

Stylized

Wildfire

In Wildfire, three odd triplets, two misfits, and one misunderstood woman are all burning with solitude and desire. Through an exploration of heredity and fate, these seemingly ordinary characters choose to struggle against their isolation in extraordinary yet relatable ways.

by David Paquet, 2022

Characters: 6

Family

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.

Realistic

The Best Brothers

Bunny Best has met her unfortunate end after a mishap at a Gay Days parade. Now her two sons, Kyle and Hamilton, have the task of arranging her funeral and caring for her most beloved companion, a troublesome Italian greyhound named Enzo. In the bustle of obituary-writing, eulogy-giving, and dog-sitting, sibling rivalry quickly reaches its peak and years of buried contentions surface.

by Daniel MacIvor, 2013

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

Solo shown

Dirty Plötz: Witness the Hidden Vagenda

"Tricksters, witches, whores, hags and the Holy Bitch all feature prominently in Dirty Plötz. “Anasyrma” is a word you will hear in this work. The definition of this word is to lift one skirt’s to curse the viewer. There is no similar word for men – men cannot curse people with their genitals. Syrma herself is the star at the hem of the constellation Virgo’s skirt. You will meet her and she will tell you her own story. You will also meet a live embodiment of the Sheela na gig, a small sculpture found on churches in Ireland and an expression of a pre-puritanical female empowerment. And of course, The Designated Hand Wringer will be available to be outraged on behalf of your oppression." - buddies in bad times theatre

by Alex Tigchelaar, 2017

Characters: 1

Cultural Issues

Discrimination

Solo Show

Lapine-Moi / Rabbit-I

The first instalment Rabbit-I (2005) is a free study about the forces opposing the multiple personalities that define us. The piece is built like a children’s fairytale but somehow a little distorted. A giant blue rabbit, transforms into a caricatural hunter, on the quest for hunting rabbits, but along the way transforms into a “Nathalie Claude” searching for herself, trying to catch her own tail, her own essence.

by Nathalie Claude, 2017

Characters: 1

LGBTQ2S+

Identity

Realistic

Graceful Rebellions

"Graceful Rebellions, playing in the SummerWorks Festival, tracks experiences of (and with) queerness in war-torn Afghanistan to Canada through two generations and four characters. We start with an idealistic fourteen year old, probably around sixty years ago, imagining her own future wedding on the eve of her sister’s. She is so good-natured and naïve that it is hard for us, the audience, who know her reality will not be able to meet her fantasy." - Mooneyonthetheatre.com "In this brilliant and engaging one-woman show, playwright and performer SHAISTA LATIF transitions seamlessly between distinctly complex characters in a deeply personal work. Moving across cultures and generations, Graceful Rebellions tells the stories of three Afghan women, each bartering for small joys and challenging the cultural norms that exist under Afghanistan’s patriarchal rule. Shaista lovingly portrays characters, by turns funny and heartbreaking, who struggle in a world where women commonly have no power, in a culture that has long been dominated by war." - National Arts Centre, Ottawa

by Shaista Latif, 2017

Characters: 4

LGBTQ2S+

Cultural issues

Docudrama

Reading Hebron

A Toronto Jew named Nathan Abramowitz investigates the Hebron Massacre—in which a Jewish settler murdered 29 Muslims at prayer—as a way of questioning his own responsibility for the oppression of Palestinians.

by Jason Sherman, 1997

Characters: 5

Cultural issues

Crime

Stylized

The League of Nathans

Nathan Abramowitz, Nathan Glass and Nathan Isaacs form a boyhood club and together grapple with their Jewish faith and identity, until Glass suddenly moves to Israel. Many years later, a telegram summons Abramowitz and Isaacs to a synagogue in Spain for one last meeting of the League of Nathans.

by Jason Sherman, 2003

Characters: N/A

Friendship

Identity

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 Matthew MacKenzie, 2020

Ageing

Environment

Realistic

Bears

As the prime suspect in a workplace accident, Floyd has to get out of town fast. Pursued by the RCMP, he heads through the Rockies for Burnaby, BC, along the route of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. By the time he reaches the Pacific, Floyd has experienced changes: his gait widening, muscles bulging, sense of smell heightening…

Characters: N/A

Crime

Cultural issues

Stylized

Go West, Young Man

Based on the true story of the summer in the 1960's that Craig Russell spent living with Mae West as her personal secretary, Go West, Young Man explores both the spark behind the creation of a unique Canadian superstar, and the long slow fading of an equally unique American Movie Goddess. Russell Edie is a 15-year-old teenage boy that leaves behind his drab Ontario life and gets on a Greyhound to Hollywood, where he seeks out the faded 70-year-old legend Mae West, carrying hundreds of forged fan letters that he uses to leverage a summer position as her personal secretary. Ambition collides with faded grandeur when Mae learns that Russell has been studying her every move in order to become the world's leading Mae West impersonator.

by Darrin Hagen, 2015

Characters: N/A

Ageing