We hope you are doing well, and are safe at home. The last few weeks have been full of change, adjustments, and challenges on both personal and structural levels. And things continue to shift. Yesterday, the City of Toronto decided to cancel all city-led mass gatherings up until the end of June—this includes Pride Toronto‘s weekend of programming and parades. As a theatre and a community hub, Buddies prioritizes the health and safety of our staff, artists, volunteers, and broader communities, and we continue to monitor updates from Health Canada, Public Health Ontario and Toronto Public Health.

In light of the evolving situation, and the ongoing call to maintain physical distance from each other, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre has decided to keep our building closed to the public and to suspend all in-person programming for the remainder of our 2019-20 season, up to June 30, 2020. In addition to our production of Mine and Discord and Din’s production of Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., which were previously cancelled, this now also includes Soundstreams’ Musik für das Ende and our residency program’s Open Studios, as well as a number of community rentals and late night parties scheduled over the next three months. Notably, this also means that our annual Queer Pride Festival, scheduled for June 9 – 28, is not going ahead as planned.

We are grateful to our community of patrons and donors, many of whom have converted their previously purchased tickets into donations to Buddies, or tickets for future performances. Although the current situation has shifted how we operate, our priority during this time continues to be providing paid opportunities and platforms for queer and trans artists. Your support helps us continue to collaborate with our artists and community members, to develop new work and engage in meaningful dialogue.

While it is challenging to not be able to gather in person over the next few months, we remain committed to bringing our incredible communities together, and we are exploring virtual ways to deliver our Queer Pride programming. You will be the first to hear about our new plans. In the meantime, check out our Instagram live performance series, Queer, Far, Wherever You Are or join in to our intergenerational community chat, In Conversation, which we’re hosting on Zoom this Saturday.

At a time when most of us are staying home, giving us a view, a login, a like, or a share is also a great way to stay engaged and support Buddies.

Stay safe, and take care of each other.