Outside the March (OtM) unveils its 16th season today with its most expansive slate of programming to date, powered by state-of-the-art equipment acquired through its Outfit the March capital project. It features partnerships with Coal Mine Theatre, Rock Bottom Movement, Soulpepper, Native Earth Performing Arts, SummerWorks, The Canadian Green Alliance, B Street Collaborative and Harbourfront Centre. Together with the announcement of a new leadership model and staffing expansion, the season marks a major growth milestone for Outside the March in its mission to make theatre an unforgettable experience.

Anchoring it all is the news that the company’s Outfit the March capital project has now raised over $1.2 million of a total $1.7 million. Today OtM is launching a grassroots campaign that will let fans and supporters “grab a seat” by putting their name on one of OtM’s new portable, durable, ultra-comfy branded chairs that put audiences right in the middle of the immersive action. 

This season that includes: 

 • Todd Houseman’s The Children of the Bear, a D&D-meets-Indigi-fantasy workshop presentation at Native Earth’s Weesageechak Festival - jump there A sprawling co-production of Clare Barron’s hit Dance Nation with Coal Mine Theatre and Rock Bottom Movement taking over the entire Coal Mine building.

 • The world premiere of Erin Shields’ Medusa at Soulpepper, with OtM’s Outfit the March audio gear putting audiences inside the legendary character’s infamous head.

 • The launch of “The Expansion Pack, ” a tricked-out community performance stream with the SummerWorks Performance Festival and The Canadian Green Alliance.

 • An ambitious new immersive commission from B Street Collaborative in partnership with Harbourfront Centre.

To steward the company’s growth, OtM’s Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Managing Director Laura McCallum and Artistic Producer Lucy Coren, who join founding Artistic Director Mitchell Cushman as the organization’s new three-person executive team alongside a slew of staffing updates and additions.

“This season zeros in on the true spirit of Outside the March: collaborative, site-engaged, community-oriented, thrilling,” say Coren, Cushman and McCallum. “And it is with those same values in mind that we are also excited to work together as OtM’s new tri-leadership team. We believe that the most meaningful art, the most inspiring work, and the deepest impact comes from thriving in partnership. We can’t wait to immerse ourselves in this work together, and to catalyze a new era of unforgettable experiences all over Toronto.”

Outfit the March “Grab a Seat” Campaign:

Immersive theatre no longer needs to be synonymous with back pain. OtM is launching a grassroots campaign to support our major capital equipment project. It’s a classic theatre chair donation campaign—with a twist. For $500, donor name plates will travel on OtM’s brand new chairs and get a front-row seat to Outside the March’s award-winning programming, wherever it goes. And these aren’t ordinary seats. They’re state-of-the-art “prime comfort” Spec Seats—the same ones found courtside at NBA games—ensuring that site-specific theatre has the glamour and comfort of Toronto’s finest entertainment. The project’s total fundraising is now more than two-thirds of the way to its goal thanks to support from The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation, The Department of Canadian Heritage’s Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, The Stanley Shalom Zielony Foundation, The Canada Council for the Arts and The Metcalf Foundation.

Outfit the March is a game-changing investment in OtM and Toronto’s community of immersive artists. Comfy chairs are just the start: the infrastructure includes cutting-edge lighting, sound and video gear; green power equipment capable of running an entire production off-grid; a custom modular riser system; fully-equipped toolkit; and accessibility and front-of-house equipment.

“This season is proof: Outfit the March is already allowing us to throw our support for artists into overdrive,” says campaign lead and OtM Associate Artistic Director Sébastien Heins.

“Our productions are now capable of being even more imaginative and rigorous. And we’re giving artists and partners across our community the tools they need to better deliver on their creative visions at an otherwise challenging time for the arts.”

All chair donations receive a charitable tax receipt. Donate here: www.outfitthemarch.ca.

The Children of the Bear

By Todd Houseman

A workshop presentation at Native Earth Performing Arts’ Weesageechak Begins to Dance 38

Developed with the support of NAC Indigenous Theatre

November 21 at 7:30PM

November 23 at 2PM

Aki Studio Theatre - 585 Dundas St. E

Todd Houseman's Dungeons & Dragons meets Indigi-fantasy play will receive a public workshop presentation at Native Earth's annual development festival of Indigenous work in November 2025. The play follows a young mixed Cree family as they attempt to rise above the colonial structures that surround them; either by escaping more deeply into the game of fantasy or becoming the Crees their ancestors want them to be. In this workshop, the family Dungeon Master, Todd, invites audiences to choose their own adventure across a vast game world represented in miniature through a scale 3D model of a D&D-inspired roleplaying campaign.

The Children of the Bear has been in development since 2020 through Outside the March’s TD Forward March Program. The sharing is co-directed by Erin Goodpipe and OtM Artistic Director Mitchell Cushman. It is assistant directed by OtM Metcalf Performing Arts Intern Keavy Lynch, with Production Design by Tyson Houseman. It stars creator Todd Houseman, Native Earth Artistic Director Joelle Peters, Jeremy Proulx, Zara Jestadt, Dillan Chiblow, Kole Durnford and Vance Banzo.

* * *

Dance Nation

By Clare Barron

An Outside the March and Coal Mine Theatre Experience

In Association with Rock Bottom Movement

April 12 - May 3, 2026

Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Ave.

We're teaming up with Coal Mine Theatre for the professional Toronto premiere of Clare Barron's Pulitzer-nominated script. The production is directed by recent Dora Award-winning director Diana Bentley with OtM’s new Artistic Producer Lucy Coren as Associate Director. Dance Nation will take over Coal Mine's entire venue using Outfit the March equipment—from the main theatre downstairs to The Vault upstairs and everywhere in between—in an immersive take on this hilarious, sharp play that's become something of a cult favourite.

The production features movement direction by Alyssa Martin of Rock Bottom Movement, one of the city’s most exciting avant-garde contemporary dance companies, as well as set and lighting design by OtM’s Nick Blais, sound design by Miquelon Rodriguez and costume design by Kathleen Black. The cast announced to date includes OtM founding artists Katherine Cullen and Amy Keating and former OtM Artistic Accomplice Annie Luján.

”If you were ever a 13-year-old girl, Clare Barron’s daring, raw Dance Nation will probably hit you hard [...] It’s a brave, visceral, excitingly off-kilter barbaric yawp of a play. And it gets at something excruciatingly tender: the burden of modesty on young American women.” – New York Magazine

* * *

Medusa

By Erin Shields

A Soulpepper production in collaboration with Outside the March

June 16 - July 19, 2026

Baillie Theatre, 50 Tank House Lane

We're supporting the world premiere of prolific playwright Erin Shields' newest play, teaming up with Soulpepper once again after audience favourites A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney (2024) and The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale (2022). This fearless re-imagining of the Medusa myth is directed by Mitchell Cushman and stars longtime OtM and Soulpepper collaborator Oyin Oladejo in the title role.

From ancient myth to a modern-day “rage room, ” Medusa is a raw dive into female fury, with the titular character haunted by the voices of the snakes in her head. Thanks to our Outfit the March equipment, the production will feature a unique immersive sound experience devised in collaboration with Sound Designer Heidi Chan (Rainbow on Mars, Death of Walt Disney), through which the voices of Medusa's inner-monologuing-snakes will be intimately broadcast to everyone in the audience through headsets.

Medusa’s powerhouse team also includes OtM stalwarts Nick Blais (Lighting Design) and Anahita Dehbonehie (Set Design), as well as Dramaturg Joanna Falck and Costume Designer Ming Wong.

FOR MORE INFO, FULL CREDITING AND TICKETS, 

VISIT outsidethemarch.ca