Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is thrilled to announce Toronto playwright, performer, and community organizer Katie Sly as the winner of the third annual Buddies Queer Emerging Artist Award. The award was presented last night at the company’s season launch party.
“We were unanimous in our selection of this provocative and unique emerging artist, whose boundary-pushing work resonates so strongly with Buddies’ mission and values. On a personal note, it is a thrill to have witnessed Katie’s remarkable development and transformation from the questioning young person who entered our Youth Program some years ago into the fierce creative force and community leader that they have become,” said Buddies in Bad Times’ Artistic Director, Evalyn Parry.
Katie’s work is multidisciplinary, and asks questions about gender, beauty, art, kink, memory, trauma, sex, human connection, fear, and love in a way that is essentially queer and resonates with queer audiences on a deep and visceral level. As a curator, they create vital intersectional spaces inside of the queer community and is a tireless advocate for bisexual visibility and cultural expression.
An alumnus of Buddies’ Queer Youth Arts Program, Katie has toured their work across the country and internationally. Most recently, their provocative and intensely intimate solo show Charisma Furs has played at festivals in Toronto, New York, and Vancouver. Katie currently hosts and organizes Too Queer – an activism-fuelled art and community project that combats biphobia and increases the visibility of bisexuality both within and outside of the queer community. Since 2014, the Too Queer Bi Visibility Cabaret has played to packed houses across Toronto, including, most recently, at Buddies 2016 Queer Pride Festival.
The Buddies Queer Emerging Artist Award seeks to recognize and encourage the achievements of queer artists who are founding careers in the arts while engaging with the community. Katie was selected by a panel of adjudicators comprised of the current and former Artistic Directors of the company: Evalyn Parry, Brendan Healy, David Oiye, Sarah Garton Stanley, and Sky Gilbert. The award includes a $1,000 cash prize, made possible by a gift from the Estate of John Alan Lee.
Photo: Katie Sly. ©2015 Drasko Bogdanovic.
2016-09-09
Toronto: Katie Sly receives the 2016 Buddies Queer Emerging Artist Award