Forward March Festival: unDONE invites artists and audiences to let go of what has been, and redefine how we connect with each other and our community.

This year, our line-up features four new outdoor site-specific plays in development created by emerging artist companies and commissioned by Theatre Direct. The four performances take place one after the other in familiar spaces from the playground to the baseball diamond in locations around Earlscourt Park for an audience of kids between the ages of 7 – 12. Throughout the weekend, families can visit our festival hub with a chill-out zone for audience members, and take in entertainment and musical guests.

Special to this year, the shows are being offered exclusively for children. Tickets are available for each show separately on the hour starting from 1pm, or, kids can get a festival pass and travel with us from show to show, starting at 12:45pm. Parents and guardians must accompany their children to the festival, but kids will be front and centre in these exciting interactive creations.

All plays are Relaxed Performances with ASL interpretation or, for plays in ASL, with voice-over in English. There is accessible parking and washrooms available at the Joseph P. Piccininni Centre located next to Earlscourt Park. Please note that due to performances being held on outdoor surfaces including grass, dirt, and pavement, shows may not be accessible to audience members with limited mobility, or those using mobility aids. Audiences will be standing and/or seated on the ground for the duration of performances. Limited chairs will be available.

Free Tickets/Passes and Tickets/Passes by Donation are available. By selecting Tickets/Passes by Donation, you help support Theatre Direct in continuing to provide subsidized programming for young people. For tickets visit theatredirect.ca

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A Live Others Theatre Collective Production

Co-Produced and Presented by Theatre Direct

HOW WE PLAY(ED)

Created and Directed by Lucy Rose Coren and Rinchen Dolma

1pm daily

Featuring Co-Creator Youth Participants:

Clara Dias Henriques Campelo, Giovanna de Paula Monteiro, Doruk Kolbasi, Cristina Marin, Stephanie Marin, Lucas Maciel V.N. Souza and Samuel Maciel V.N. Souza

Sound Designer: Uko Abara

Guest Director: Lisa Marie DiLiberto

Indigenous Culture Consultant: Charlotte Big Canoe

Accessibility Consultant: Rachael Marks

ASL-English Interpreters: Timothy Keslick and Eboni Ricketts-Ewen

How We Play(ed) is a project co-created by Live Others and a group of newcomer and immigrant youth in the city of Toronto. It’s a site-specific audio experience that invites its listeners to play!

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A Fox Den Collective Production

Co-Produced and Presented by Theatre Direct

BENCHED

Created by The Fox Den Collective

Co-Directed by Jessy Ardern and Sarah Feutl

2pm daily

Featuring:

Fatma Naguib and Carmen Osahor

Stage Manager: Helen Ho

Guest Director: Andrew Lamb

Indigenous Culture Consultant: Charlotte Big Canoe

Accessibility Consultant: Rachael Marks

ASL-English Interpreters: Timothy Keslick and Eboni Ricketts-Ewen

Best friends Charlie and Zoe aren’t talking anymore, and they expect you to choose sides. In this interactive play, kids piece together the story of Charlie and Zoe’s friendship through conversations with the characters, and by following physical clues that help uncover the whole story. Can you investigate the events that led these friends apart? And can anything bring them back together again?

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A Phoenix The Fire Production

Co-Produced and Presented by Theatre Direct

THE GALAXY OF SITARA

Created and Directed by Gaitrie Persaud-Killings

3pm daily

Featuring:

Jaideep Goray and Gaitrie Persaud-Killings

Puppet Designer: Alessio Convito

Collaborators: Sign1 News and Deaf Spectrum

Mentor: Ramesh Meyyappan

Assistant: Nadira Balchand

Guest Director: Sehar Bhojani

Indigenous Culture Consultant: Charlotte Big Canoe

Accessibility Consultant: Rachael Marks

ASL-English Interpreters: Amanda Hyde and Savannah Tomev

The Galaxy of Sitara is a fantasy story about a princess born Deaf only to be forced through speech therapy because it is believed that karNahlna (Hindi word: Deafness) is a curse. Sitara soon meets a strange being who shakily lifts his hands before signing to her, prompting her to go on a journey of self-discovery to find her birthright: American Sign Language. To keep her reign, Sitara must fight not only for her homeland, but also to preserve what should be her primary language.

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A Sanskruti Marathe Production

Co-Produced and Presented by Theatre Direct

AT THE END OF KALIYUGA

Created by Sanskruti Marathe

Co-Directed by Malika Daya and Sanskruti Marathe

4pm daily

Featuring:

Sanskruti Marathe

Stage Manager: Sky-Ravinn Ffrench

Guest Director: Anita Majumdar

Indigenous Culture Consultant: Charlotte Big Canoe

Accessibility Consultant: Rachael Marks

ASL-English Interpreters: Timothy Keslick and Eboni Ricketts-Ewen

At The End of Kaliyuga is about Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer). These three, known as the Holy trinity of Hinduism, need to decide the fate of the Earth as we come to the end of the fourth and the final cycle (Yuga) of the Universe. Will they put an end to the planet to begin a fresh start, will humanity get a second chance to fix all the problems, or, is there a third path that the Gods will take for the sake of humanity?

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Musical Guests

OPÉRA QUEENS

12:45pm to 4:45pm daily

Featuring:

Tanya Smania, drag opera diva (she) aka Mike Fan | 范祖铭, tenor (they)

Christina Yun, soprano (she)

Marianne Bendig Grandoni, mezzo (she)

Thera Barclay, cover/understudy soprano (she)

The Opéra Queens will perform French, Italian, & Slavic classics from “Carmen”, “La bohème”, and more re-imagined in FULL COLOUR! You’ll see a rainbow of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC classical music artists in drag, gender-bent, and queerified. Join Tanya, Christina, & Marianne between the Forward March Festival shows in our festival hub at the Earlscourt Gazebo.