Stage Door News

Toronto: Cahoots Theatre announces its 2020/21 season

Thursday, October 1, 2020

Greetings to YOU, our beloved village of artists, audiences, and supporters of all stripes. What. a. year. It seems that these days, there is as staunch a desire to liberate those in the margins as there is to keep them there.

I often ask myself how I can love more deeply amidst chaos. There is no singular answer, of course.  It is so many things.The little things. The quiet things. The things that seek no glory. The creative things. The impassioned things.

I know there is salvation in art.  It has saved me more than once. I do not know how to salvage this world. And so I try, from here, to help others salvage a bit more of themselves.

Tanisha Taitt

Artistic Director

Cahoots Theatre

* * *

I’ve been missing the before times, where we could gather together in spaces to share stories, ideas, and to dream. 

I’m excited to dream in this new reality with programming aimed at supporting and developing our artists on the edge.  We’re daring to dream with them, and we hope you join us in any capacity. 

This is Tanisha's and my first season and we’re brimming with enthusiasm.  From outreach programming, to providing resources for artists to grow their craft, Cahoots Theatre’s 34th season is full of fantastic artists still sharing stories and ideas.  They are still dreaming.

Lisa Alves

Managing Producer

Cahoots Theatre

* * *

2020/21 Season

ConvoCahoots

Zoom chats & good snacks with fascinating members of our artistic community. Join us! You never know whom we'll talk to next...

With hosts Lisa Alves, Sehar Bhojani, and Amanda Lin.


Playmates

This winter we won't be on the stage, so let's get comfy and embrace the page! Our studio may be empty, but we're a different kind of "booked" this snowy season! We'll be snuggling up to great plays... with you.

Become our playmate!  Make a mug of hot cocoa, crawl under a blanket, and nestle in to stirring works by BIPOC, Deaf, disabled, and queer Canadian playwrights. Then let's discuss! Pyjamas welcome.  


Crossing Gibraltar 

Our transformative theatre outreach program for new immigrant and refugee youth returns with a stirring artistic exploration of assimilation & belonging, erasure & reclamation, and the newcomer's fight for inner survival.

Facilitation by Yolanda Bonnell and Shaista Latif

With the support of the SummerWorks Performance Festival


The ENBY Ensemble

Guided by dynamic artistic facilitators Ximena Huizi and Jay Northcott, six non-binary theatre artists will come together for ten weeks in a veritable explosion of collaborative creative expression. A virtual performance will be presented in Spring 2021.


Hot House Lift Off

Our playwrights' unit, now extended to September 2021! Dramaturgy by Jordan Laffrenier and Wallis Caldoza.

Hot In The House: D.McFarlane, K.Palm, M.Cherian, K.Alexander, C.Scott, J.Yung, A.Sun, P.Vand, L. Reece, S. Lock


What’s Up With DATT?

With the support of the Canada Council's Digital Strategy Fund (acquired by former A.D. Marjorie Chan), we begin the newly renamed What’s Up With DATT?, to assess the nationwide impact, accessibility and efficacy of the DATT (Deaf Artists & Theatres Toolkit), which Cahoots created in 2016 following our co-production of ULTRASOUND with Theatre Passe Muraille.  We are pleased to work with Catherine MacKinnon, our Deaf Community Consultant, to learn how the DATT serves Deaf artists and audiences, in addition to theatre companies and collectives.


And Soon The Year Shall Slumber: A Holiday Concert

Because music is the balm.

Carolyn Fe, Jacob MacInnis, Avery Jean Brennan, Sierra Holder, Tahirih Vejdani, Peter Fernandes, Tara Jackson, Chris Tsujiuchi.


Three Ordinary Men

Winner of the 2020 Hamilton Fringe Festival's New Play Contest, and penned by queer playwright Steven Elliott Jackson (Sarah/Frank; The Seat Next To The King), the CovidCurse Thwarted the premiere of Three Ordinary Men at this year's festival. Starring Tristan Claxton, Jamar Adams-Thompson & Jack Copeland, this timely and resonant work takes us to the final day in the lives of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman in 1964 Mississippi.  Directed by Tanisha Taitt in an artistic reunion with Jackson, Three Ordinary Men will debut on June 24, 2021 -- the 56th anniversary of the Freedom Summer Murders.


Blackstage Pass

A lively audio interview series hosted by Makambe Simamba and Kwaku Okyere. 

Everyone wants to talk to Black artists about diversity and racism. That's no fun. We want to talk with them about the art they love, the art they make, and what brings them joy.

New episodes each month on Cahoots' Soundcloud channel.


Pepper Pot

Monthly Zoom parties for Indigenous, Black, Asian, Arab, Latinx, mixed-race & other Canadian theatre school students of colour! 

Feel less alone, laugh, and build a national network of BIPOC friends and collaborators. Start times will vary to welcome students coast-to-coast!

Beginning November 2020.


On The Burner

Through workshops and residencies, we are happy to support works-in-development Kanika Ambrose, Amanda Lin, and Coleen McPherson.

Visit www.cahoots.ca.