Stage Door News
Stage Door News
From May 20-27, the Bad Dog Theatre Company is thrilled to present the return of its annual diversity symposium, Our Cities on Our Stages and Toronto’s premiere celebration of improvised theatre, unscripted experiments, and large-scale mischief: the 2017 COMBUSTIONfestival. Now in its sixth year, this week-long comedy party will bring together some of the most exciting, talented, boundary-pushing, genre-bending, industry-leading improvisers from across North America - to showcase what they do best and to collaborate on festival-exclusive projects and shows.
Our Cities on Our Stages
WHEN: May 20-21, 2017
9:30-4:30 pm
WHERE: Bad Dog Comedy Theatre - 875 Bloor St. W. (upstairs)
COST: PWYC (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Bad Dog Theatre Company is excited to announce the return of our diversity and inclusion conference. On May 20th and May 21st, Our Cities on Our Stages will return to continue the conversation on diversity and inclusion initiatives in Toronto improv companies and improv as a whole. Fully immersing itself over the weekend, Bad Dog will curate a series of workshops, presentations and discussion panels led by diversity and inclusivity thought-leaders - from within the unscripted comedy sector as well as neighbouring artforms facing similar challenges - to advise and engage participants on industry-specific issues. Under the company’s mandate to “elevate the artform”, Bad Dog looks not only to increase the accessibility of its own programming, but to share its findings to increase growth across many sectors.
The Symposium will first guide us through the successes of the organization and community, accounting for the findings & outcomes of the past conference and past year.
Day 1 of Our Cities on Our Stages is open to the general public. Attendees are welcome to listen to our assembled guests, ask questions, share stories, and engage in our public workshops. Day 1 features workshops from Anand Rajaram, “Expectations and Bias Diverse Casting”, and Cathy Paton, “Power Dynamics and Addressing Bias”, as well as two public forums featuring administrators, performers, and instructors from Bad Dog Theatre, Second City, Social Capital, The Assembly, New York City’s The Magnet, Philidelphia Improv Theater, Minneapolis’ HUGE Theatre and Upright Citizen’s Brigade in Los Angeles.
Day 2 is primarily aimed at educators and facilitators (directors, producers, administrators). We will revisit and expand on questions and items raised during our Day 1 sessions - breaking into work-groups focusing on the educational/training side of improvised theatre as well as the institutional/performance side of producing improvised comedy and fostering an inclusive environment. To inquire about participating in Day 2, please e-mail Hamed Dar at inclusion@baddogtheatre.com
Full registration and details available at www.baddogtheatre.com/our-cities-on-our-stages.
COMBUSTIONfestival 2017
WHEN: May 22-27, 2017
Drop-in workshops every night at 6pm or 6:30pm (see schedule)
Shows at 8pm & 9:30pm throughout the week as well as 7pm & 11pm from Thursday-Saturday
WHERE: Bad Dog Comedy Theatre - 875 Bloor St. W. (upstairs)
COST: FREE- $15 (a limited number of full night and full festival passes available)
WHO: featuring more than 35 artists from 9 cities including…
www.baddogtheatre.com/combustion-festival
Festival Guests:
Broke Gravy (Portland), Rå Power (Edmonton), The Future (Philadelphia), Garage Band (Los Angeles), Little Mountain Improv (Vancouver), The Unpronounceables (Minneapolis/San Francisco), the Bad Dog Repertory Players (Toronto), Songbuster Improv (Toronto), The Kweendom (Toronto), Lebron Janes (Toronto) and more!
All of our guests will be showcasing their own work & respective styles and then mixing it up with some of Toronto’s top performers to take on improvised projects specially amped up for the COMBUSTIONfestival.
Festival highlights include:
•the first Toronto appearance of Portland, Oregon’s Broke Gravy (Leon Anderson & Eric Simons) - recently named the “Most Talked-about Show” at the Vancouver International Improv Festival
•Rå Power - rougher, tougher, brutally spontaneous improv from Amy Shostak & Joleen Ballendine - two of the most acclaimed, internationally-touring performers from Edmonton’s venerable Rapid Fire Theatre
•a bold experiment at the intersection of live theatre and artificial intelligence: Bad Dog Interim AD Etan Muskat’s Yes, Android - featuring the original Toronto cast joined by international guests and an interloping chatbot
•Philly Improv Theater’s most established house team: The Future
•the return of Minneapolis/San Francisco duo The Unpronounceables (John Gebratatose & Alsa Bruno) - co-founders of Minneapolis’ Black and Funny Improv Festival, both also featured presenters and core collaborators at Our Cities on Our Stages 2017 (May 20-21), Bad Dog’s annual diversity & inclusion symposium
•visiting performers Ify Chiwetelu (co-host of CBC Radio One’s Now or Never & writer for Baroness Von Sketch Show) and Caitlin Howden (award-winning member of Vancouver’s The Sunday Service & star of Global’s The Second City Project)
•one-time-only mashup sets featuring our out-of-town guests teaming up for the first time with some of Toronto’s best and brightest improv groups & performers including 2017 Pat & Tony Adams Freedom Fund for the Arts recipients The Kweendom & Lebron Janes and the casts of recent sold-out Bad Dog shows: Triplespeak (directed by Alex Tindal) & the Girls’ Show (directed by Kirsten Rasmussen)
•unmissable festival collaborations including the immensely-popular multimedia Doppelganger Video Project, and COMBUSTIONfestival guest-studded editions of the “Survivor” of unscripted comedy: Maestro Impro and Toronto’s longest-running unscripted comedy showdown: Theatresports
About the COMBUSTIONfestival:
Originally produced by the Canadian Comedy Award nominated Toronto improv collective: PROJECTproject, the COMBUSTIONfestival was first staged in 2008 and was the inaugural event held at Bad Dog’s sister venue: Comedy Bar. Past festival guests include: Det Andre Teatret (Oslo), Dad’s Garage (Atlanta), Global Impro (Buenos Aires), CRUMBS (Winnipeg), The Sunday Service (Vancouver), Parallelogramophonograph (Austin), Folk Lordz/Rapid Fire Theatre (Edmonton), 4TRACK (New York), Easy Action (Montreal), Junior Varsity (New York), Ted & Melanie (Chicago), Picnicface (Halifax), Dark Side of the Room (Atlanta), The Amie & Kristen Show (Philadelphia), !nstant Theatre (Vancouver) & Uncalled For (Montreal).
About the Bad Dog Theatre Company
For over 30 years, the award-winning Bad Dog Theatre Company (previously known as Theatresports Toronto) has specialized in the art of unscripted comedy and improvised performance and has provided affordable, accessible improv training for thousands of people of all ages and experience. Dubbed “Toronto’s improv hub” by NOW Magazine and led by renowned improv veterans Julie Dumais Osborne & Etan Muskat, Bad Dog presents Theatresports, Toronto’s longest, continuously running improv show, every Saturday along with shows throughout the week at its home: the Bad Dog Comedy Theatre (875 Bloor St. W.)
Visit www.baddogtheatre.com for details.
2017-04-27
Toronto: Bad Dog Theatre Company presents "Our Cities on Our Stages" and the 2017 "COMBUSTIONfestival"