Nightwood Theatre Announces 2020/21 Season

Nightwood Theatre has announced their 2020/21 season. As theatres, artists and citizens around the globe contend with the pandemic, Nightwood invites theatregoers to a season that promises to ignite conversation, spark creativity and celebrate community in their most intimate season to date.

This fall their Groundswell Festival goes digital, offering an invitation inside the creative process with readings of brand new works from their Write From The Hip playwright's unit as well as opportunities to gather for provocative conversations and workshops. In the winter, they will gather for their second annual Feminist Unconference, and we'll be releasing a digital offering of New Harlem Productions' Embodying Place and Power - a series of artistic responses to the federal commission on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls' final report, Reclaiming Power and Place. In the spring we'll present UnSpun Theatre's deeply personal Lost Together, an online and live art experience for one audience member at a time. All season long we're deepening support for independent artists with dozens of residencies and enhanced artistic programs, as well as expanding opportunities to gather as a community, including through Nightwood's inaugural Digital Creative Space, Nightwood's Play Club, the Rising Moon Writing Program for girls aged 16-19, along with digital iterations of their long-standing Young Innovator's Program, Write From The Hip Playwrights Unit, and their annual Lawyer Show.

Nightwood's Artistic Director Andrea Donaldson says:

"In the spring we were poised to announce our most expansive season yet for 2020-2021. We'd determined that the pulse of this season was to dare: dare to speak out, dare to heal, dare to be big, dare to be intimate. And then everything just stopped.

And while we still need to dare to speak out, heal, take up space and be intimate, more and more we're examining what is 'big'. Is 'big' about abundance? Is 'big' about energy? Is 'big' about showing off or keeping up? Is bigger actually better? Here we are in the wake of the pandemic's persistent devastation, and in the most transformative time of our existence, and the key takeaway for us has been further introspection, deeper intimacy, and investing in the caretaking of others, including showing up, thinking outwardly and a greater devotion to being part of a larger voice. We hope you will join us for our most intimate season."

NIGHTWOOD THEATRE'S 2020/21 SEASON

THE GROUNDSWELL FESTIVAL

Including readings from their 2019/20 Write From The Hip Playwrights Program

November 2020

Digital readings and conversations

Satisfy your appetite for brand new works! Their Groundswell Festival will deliver readings, interviews and more from their Write From The Hip Playwrights Unit, led by Program Director Donna-Michelle St. Bernard. Join us digitally to explore new works from Bilal Baig, Shelley M. Hobbs, Erum Khan, Rachel Mutombo, Pesche Nepoose and Phoebe Tsang. This festival will also provide a hub for deeper discussion with several events including a conversation with SPiLL.PROpagation - their trailblazing friends in Deaf-hearing collaboration - as well as free professional development opportunities for next generation playwrights and artists.

Visit nightwoodtheatre.net for the full Groundswell Festival schedule in October, 2020.

THE FEMINIST UNCONFERENCE

Hosted by Sedina Fiati

January 2021

Digital gathering

Based on the huge success of last year's event, theatre practitioners are once again invited to listen, lead and unpack all things feminist and reckon with the new challenges and questions facing the industry at this hierarchy-smashing, participant-driven unconference.

EMBODYING POWER AND PLACE

Nightwood Theatre presents a digital experience

March 2021

In 2019, the federal commission on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released their final report, Reclaiming Power and Place. In 2020 a dozen artists were commissioned by New Harlem Productions to read and respond to specific chapters of the report through their artistic medium. Embodying Power and Place weaves together visceral offerings of song, poetry, dance and theatrical works by such incredible creators as Tiffany Ayalik, Tara Beagan, Yolanda Bonnell, Darla Contois, Deborah Courchene, Aria Evans, Eekwol, Jessica Lea Fleming, Falen Johnson, Émilie Monnet, Yvette Nolan, Michelle Olson, Natalie Sappier and jaye simpson, and curated by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard and New Harlem Productions.

LOST TOGETHER

Nightwood Theatre presents an Unspun Theatre Production

Created by Shira Leuchter with Michaela Washburn

Performed by Shira Leuchter and Michaela Washburn

Spring and Summer 2021

Digital and live performances

Nightwood is presenting UnSpun Theatre's Lost Together by Shira Leuchter with Michaela Washburn. In this micro-performance, audience members enter one at a time to share a story about something they've lost. Once shared, Michaela and Shira build and present a small object that encapsulates their guest's story, which is added to an ever-evolving exhibition, reminding us that loss doesn't have to be a solitary reckoning. As this performance is for one audience member at a time their goal is to bring the piece closer to you with four locations, starting south in the Distillery District, moving to the west side of Toronto, to the east in Scarborough and then up into Northern Ontario at the Nipissing First Nation's Big Medicine Studio. An online version will also be made available to enable flexibility during these uncertain times.

Tickets for Lost Together will go on sale in the new year and all other digital events will be free and or by donation.