Annual Report 2020-21

2020/21 ANNUAL REPORT

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is situated on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, and the Wendat, and the treaty territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. We acknowledge them and any other Nations who care for the land (acknowledged and unacknowledged, recorded and unrecorded) as the past, present, and future caretakers of this land, referred to as Tkaronto (“Where the Trees Meet the Water”; “The Gathering Place”). Buddies is honoured to be a home for queer, trans, and 2-Spirit artists on these storied and sacred lands that have been stewarded by Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years before the arrival of colonial settlers.

Established in 1979, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is Toronto’s leading destination for artistically rigorous alternative theatre and a world leader in developing queer voices and stories for the stage. Buddies offers a year-round program that includes a full season of queer theatre, new works festivals, artist residencies, and intergenerational training and education initiatives.

In its 42-year history, Buddies has welcomed more than a million people into its home in the heart of Toronto’s queer village and has premiered more than 1,000 new works for the stage, making it the largest and longest-running queer theatre company in the world.

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 Message from the Interim Programming Director 5 Message from the Chair 6 Organizational Review 7 Supporting Emerging Artists 8 Queer Emerging Artists Awards 10 Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce 12 Buddies Residency Program 14 The Rhubarb Festival 16 QueerCab 18 Queer Pride 20 Tallulah’s Cabaret 21 Financials 22 Our Community of Donors 23 Sponsors & Partners 23 The Company

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

3

Message from the Interim Programming Director

4,121

people attended performances in print, in person, and online

65

performances happened

209

people attended our In Conversation series

100+

hours of space given to residency artists

$308,016 disbursed to artists

4

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Friends, I don’t believe any of us could have imagined the tremendous impact the pandemic would have on our communities and the theatre sector at the outset of our 2020/21 season. However, despite numerous restrictions, closures, and lockdowns, the innovation and tenacity that was cultivated by queer artists during Buddies’ 42nd season is nothing short of astonishing. While our building was closed for the season, we found new ways to create queer stories and connect queer communities. In the following pages you will discover some of the remarkable work created this past season and some of the queer artists who helped bring our 42nd season to life.

A main focus this season was an organizational review, as both staff and board committed to learning and listening to reckon with our theatre’s complicity in inequity and injustice.

As policy review and working with consultants shaped the actions of the board this past season, the staff keenly led department reviews and a reading group, all with the goal of building a more welcoming space at our theatre for all communities.

While our public programming was reduced this season, we furthered our commitments to our new-work development and community and education programs. This year, we welcomed two new projects to our Residency Program and were able to provide more time in the theatre, alongside increased financial support to Residency artists to develop their work in a more meaningful way. Also, under the new direction of Tawiah M’Carthy and Philip Geller, our Emerging Creators Unit expanded with the addition of a professional development workshop series for artists. And, we launched our first-ever Emerging Companyin-Residence program, which welcomed queer Deaf artists Gaitrie Persaud-Dhunmoon and Courage

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

Bacchus to hone their leadership, producing, and artistic practices.

At the same time, we continued our exploration of new (and more familiar) methods of sharing work: A new season of the Youth/ Elders Podcast was released, diving into topics surrounding institution, activism, and community.

A partnership with TO Live brought Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce to screens across Toronto (and beyond) and turned our theatre into a broadcast studio once again to showcase local talents, while celebrating the advocacy and activism of the Queen that is leZlie lee kam.

Naturally, the annual Rhubarb Festival continued to push the boundaries of performance, as it was reimagined by Festival Director Clayton Lee as a “pandemic-proof” performative publication.

And wrapping up our season, our annual Queer Pride Festival celebrated our queer communities both on and off screen, with projects taking place across the Greater Toronto Area, including the fifth iteration of the 2-Spirit Cabaret in partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts and a popup concert in partnership with the Canadian National Exhibition, which featured Canadian rock icon Carole Pope and Juno Award–winner iskwē.

In a season like no other, the ardent and passionate support of our audiences, artists, donors, staff, and board has been pivotal in allowing us to continue to share queer stories and bring queer communities together. While there is more work to be done, I am so grateful for this community’s championing of this vital queer institution.

See you at the theatre,

Daniel Carter (he/him) Interim Programming Director

Message from the Chair

The past year and a half has been an incredible time of resiliency and self-reflection. Like many of you, I found the life I’d known for many years suddenly turned upside down.

In the #beforetimes, my heart was filled with theatre, concerts, and community. With the start of the pandemic, these all but disappeared overnight. I filled the void with remote work, Zoom, and very little exercise. I am sure that only once we’ve emerged on the other side will we be able to understand the full impact this pandemic has had on our collective mental health.

As you know, the evolving public health crisis has had a substantial impact on the theatre industry and has forced us to reimagine how we connect with our communities. For the first time in its 42-year history, Buddies delivered an entire season of programming to an online and otherwise physically distanced audience. I am proud of the diversity of this past programming year for Buddies and thankful for its role in SAVING me from the monotony of being home. From screen-based performances like the 2-Spirit Cabaret and Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce, to a podcast, to the reimagining of The Rhubarb Festival as a book, I have been consistently impressed with the company’s ability to adapt to, and even grow from, the constraints that we have all been working within.

In tandem, the Buddies board and staff have used this extended break from in-person programming to continue our transformation work and organizational review.

As a company and institution, we recognize our role in upholding structures of systemic discrimination in the arts. Alongside internal learnings and policy review, we are working with a consultant to hear from community members who have experienced harm at Buddies. We are committed to opening up this process and will

continue to share details. Looking forward to 2022 and beyond, I’m excited about the new ideas and energy that hiring our sixth Artistic Director will bring to our company.

Finally, I would like to personally thank my fellow board members as well as Shawn Daudlin, our Managing Director, and Daniel Carter, our Interim Programming Director, for their leadership during this exceptional past season. Most importantly, I’d also like to thank all of you – our charismatic community of artists, audience, and donors – for your continued support year over year. We love you and miss you!

It’s been many months apart, but I have a feeling that what comes next ... will be marvellous.

Pia Schmidt-Hansen (she/her) Chair, Buddies in Bad Times Board of Directors

265

artists and designers were employed

by Buddies

54%

of the lead artists creating work in our season were women

67%

of the lead artists creating work in our season were people of colour

36%

of the lead artists creating work in our season were trans or nonbinary

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

5

ORGANIZATIONAL REVIEW A large focus for everyone at Buddies this year was our organizational review, part of a larger process of transformation towards making Buddies a more welcoming and equitable place for artists, staff, and audience members who come through our doors.

STAY UP-TO-DATE Last winter, we created an organizational review and transformation page on our website to document statements, actions, and systems. This page will be continually updated to keep community informed and reflect different aspects of this ongoing work, alongside communications through newsletters and social media.

We invite you to stay engaged.

6

This work is part of an industry-wide push for more equitable practices and also responds to concerns raised by community members who had experienced harm at Buddies.

Our reduced public programming during the summer, and into the 2020/21 season, afforded us more time to prioritize reflection and discussion on how to begin to address the ways that we, as a predominantly white-led institution, have been complicit in perpetuating anti-Black racism and other forms of oppression.

Some of the initiatives begun this year, internally, included a staff-initiated reading group, departmental reviews, and the creation of an ongoing committee.

At the Board level, a Transformation Committee was struck, and the Board engaged diversity and inclusion consultant Annemarie Shrouder. These steps helped us as an organization to assess our own understandings, begin to identify gaps, and lay the groundwork for a process of transformation. As the work continues, a next and important step in the process will be opening up to our wider communities.

External Consultation “Buddies hired Annemarie Shrouder as an external consultant in 2020 to support the organization on a number of priorities. Annemarie and her colleagues provided training on anti-racism and antioppression to the board, and provided recommendations that the board acted on for recruitment, outreach, and updating the board manual to reflect our commitment to reflect the communities

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

we serve. Annemarie and her colleagues also provided advice on more inclusive strategies for engaging the Buddies community and staff. A large part of this work involved an explicit acknowledgement by Buddies of problematic practices and a history of excluding BIPOC artists and collaborators. Moving forward with Annemarie’s recommendations, our goal is to create, together with our communities, a theatre that is a more equitable and safe place for artists to collaborate and thrive in the coming years.

—Adam Morrison, Board member

Board Transformation Committee “The Transformation Committee of the Board leads Buddies in the process of institutional reflection and reckoning with past and current harms and, in consultation with experts and community members, is currently engaged in redressing that history via an anti-oppression and anti-racist lens. Recognizing that change often begins with self-examination, we’ve been heavily focused on developing our internal capacity in anti-oppression and anti-racism decision-making frameworks over the past season.

After significant research, we are in the process of retaining an expert to provide us as a Board with leadership training sessions on how to build consensus and govern with equity, diversity, and inclusion.

I’m eager to learn and apply these strategies to the Board’s oversight of Buddies to create a more inclusive community as we move forward.”

—Alia Ahmed, Board member

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

Reading Group “A benefit of being a part of social media movements and the internet generation means that great swaths of information, knowledge, and resources from wise activists and influencers are available at our fingertips. The reading group began as a space for absorbing, digesting, and distilling what we were seeing re-shared by our peers online. It was a space that we wanted everyone to come to in order to grasp a basic shared language and understanding of the manifold, real, and intertwined systems of racism, oppression, and patriarchy that affect not only our day-to-day lives, but the theatre complex that we exist within. We eventually established an informal committee and planned themed, daily, or weekly curated suggestions on podcasts, articles, journal entries, documentaries, and more. The group’s successes and challenges continue to impact the way we undertake this work at Buddies.

—Jonathan MacArthur, Marketing & Engagement Manager

Quarterly Learning Sessions “Coming out of the summer reading group, we wanted to put in place some processes to make sure that the work continued, even as things got busier. These quarterly training/learning sessions also served as a way to welcome hourly and contract staff, as well as Board members, into the discussion. This past season we held a facilitated session checking in about the work that we’d been doing and were able to do a workshop with anti-racist theatre consultant Nicole Brewer.

I’m looking forward to bringing in more guests in the future, and to continuing the learning. I think an ongoing challenge will be making sure we’re making time and space to ask questions and rethink our usual day-to-day.”

—Aidan Morishita-Miki, Communications & Outreach Manager

SUPPORTING EMERGING ARTISTS This season saw a lot of changes to, and an expansion of, our Emerging Artists programming, including new leadership for our Emerging Creators Unit and some big changes to our Queer Emerging Artists Awards. It was also the inaugural year for a new kind of partnership: our Emerging Company-in-Residence (ECR).

This long-form mentorship program pairs Deaf artists Natasha “Courage” Bacchus and Gaitrie Persaud-Dhunmoon with Buddies staff to develop skills in producing, grant-writing, workshop planning and facilitation, and communications. Their first term culminated with two events at our Queer Pride Festival, and they continue to work with Buddies into our current season.

How did you first get involved at Buddies?

Could you tell us about the project that you produced as part of Queer Pride?

CB: I initially saw the posting for the

NATASHA “COURAGE” BACCHUS

CB: I feel very fortunate to have

GP: I first became involved as a

GP: Splitting the Lens: that’s my passion project, my baby. The idea is to see hearing and Deaf artists working together, without depending on an ASL interpreter, being able to communicate by some means of physical expression.

We’ve been really excited to make that change to the theatre world and investigate a new theatrical technique.

GAITRIE PERSAUDDHUNMOON

Could you tell us a bit about the Emerging Company-in-Residence process so far?

CB: It’s been a wonderful

experience. A good learning journey, and I wish I had more time!

We were mostly working on getting a better handle on documents and spreadsheets for things like grant applications, resumés, budgets, and schedules.

PHOTOS BY MANA BIJANDGOODARZ

GP: The Emerging Company-in-

Residence has given me more confidence. Because of the ECR I’ve gained a wealth of knowledge and I can move forward, and I’m starting to see improvements in the stuff that I’m doing. I’ve really learned that if something doesn’t quite work for you, there’s always something bigger or better to be found. I’ll never forget Daniel saying, “No matter what, you just keep going.”

What are your goals or hopes for the rest of the Emerging Company-in-Residence process?

CB: There are certain things I still

Emerging Creators Unit and applied.

I had an interview, and everyone seemed open-minded and open to working with Deaf individuals, especially IBPOC Deaf folks. I was happy and impressed with the way that Buddies was willing to accommodate and meet my needs as opposed to me trying to fit in.

Deaf interpreter and then as an actor. I hosted a drag show here, and from there, I started to work more with Buddies.

I’ve been able to build discipline as an artist, the same way that I have in sports.

hosted a panel with three Deaf IBPOC artists. The theme was safe space for Deaf queer IBPOC people in Toronto. It was a good discussion, and it would be nice to invite more people to be able to watch. It was a great chance to work on my producing skills.

How has this process been impactful on your practice as an artist and producer?

need to work on, like my website.

I’m also hoping to do an in-person panel, at Buddies onstage, and being able to share that with a wider audience.

GP: I’m hoping to bring in a

well-known Deaf artist to give a workshop. I’d like to see that Deaf representation, not just for me, but for hearing artists too, to understand what Deaf artists can contribute. In the long run, I want to have a few Deaf artists permanently involved and enmeshed in different theatre companies, so people can gain more experience if they want to do work as a director, producer, etc.

These answers were transcribed and edited from an ASL-English interview.

CB: Because I have a sports

background, and have only recently transitioned to be more active in arts spaces, everything we’ve been doing has been impactful. It’s made me feel more myself, that I can work on my art and that I am an artist.

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

7

SUPPORTING EMERGING ARTISTS Since 2014, Buddies has given out a Queer Emerging Ar tist Award each year to a queer artist developing a performance practice while engaging with and supporting communities. This year, responding to the precarity of many artists due to the pandemic, we gave out 20 awards to artists across different live performance disciplines. Each award included a no-strings $1,000 prize and a $ 5 00 s tipend to be spent on professional development.

Originally made possible through a gift from the estate of John Alan Lee, the expansion of the awards this year was made possible by the generous support of the Kingfisher Foundation.

continue my creative practice digitally over the locked-down months.”

Ajahnis Charley “The Queer Emerging Artist Award provided some funds to, y’know, live in a time where it was hard to live, but it also covered the cost of equipment for a photography mentorship.

Thanks, Buddies!”

2020 QUEER EMERGING ARTISTS AWARD RECIPIENTS Ajahnis Charley Alexi Pedneault Alten Wilmot Aria Evans Babe Waters Beeta Senedjani Brawk Hessel Ganesh Thavarajah Kamika Peters Kwaku Okyere

8

lwrds Maher Sinno Merlin Simard Olivia Shortt Pree Rehal Robbie Ahmed Shohana Sharmin Sofia Fly Saint Stella Tan Vu

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Alten Wilmot “The Queer Emerging Artist Award has helped connect me to other queer artists and gain recognition and credit in the Toronto arts landscape, while giving me the opportunity to learn from the great d’bi.young anitafrika and study choreography with Jacob Jonas The Company.”

Saint Stella “To be honest, the funds from the award went mostly to survival. I’d have to say that I’m still struggling to find shore after the full capsizing of my life during the pandemic. However, I did use some of it to better equip myself for streaming so that I could

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

opportunities were nonexistent. It also enabled a newcomer artist like myself to access certain training opportunities with theatre professionals to introduce myself, showcase my skills, and grow my artistic practice. Above all, the award helped me overcome COVID-induced hopelessness and reminded me that I am not alone. So with gratitude in my heart, I move forward.”

Tan Vu “The award provided me with vital financial support when live performance

Shohana Sharmin “In a year that felt hopeless for so many of us on so many fronts, the award gave me a spark of unexpected and much-needed hope.

Thanks to the stipend, I was able to expand my artistic practice into this new medium of creating and producing a podcast with the Toronto-based podcasting company The Sonar Network. The Finders Grievers podcast just wrapped its first season and has been featured on She Does The City, CTV News, and CBC Radio.”

A New Emerging Creators Unit

Pree Rehal “The pandemic took a huge hit on creative work opportunities for artists like me, and so I’m super grateful for the generous award! I was able to put the funds towards my living expenses and art supplies.”

This year, we welcomed new direction to the Emerging Creators Unit: Tawiah M’Carthy, whose award-winning play Obaaberima had its first iterations in the ECU, was joined by Philip Geller to reimagine the program.

Working alongside the participants, the program focused on both artistic development and producing skills. Our first cohort under their leadership (and our first all-virtual ECU) included artists Ajahnis Charley, Janis Mayers, and Babe Waters.

The ECU also piloted the Emerging Artist & Producer Series (EAPS, for short), which broadened the reach of its programming, creating a network of emerging artists around the city through a series of social gatherings and workshops that saw over 100 participants.

Sofia Fly “I felt so honoured by the award. It made me feel like my hard work was being noticed and invested in. The money allowed me to upgrade my DJ gear and production software and has me feeling like a true professional.”

ECU PHOTOS BY JOHN PAILLÉ, MAKEUP BY MIKEY ELLIOTT, HAIR BY ISRAEL GARCIA; LETTERING BY CHRIS ROULEAU (WATERS)

Clockwise from top: Babe Waters, Janis Mayers, and Ajahnis Charley.

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

9

TAYLOR MAC’S HOLIDAY SAUCE Capping off a fall focused on artist development behind closed doors, we were thrilled to partner with TO Live to share Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce... Pandemic! with Toronto audiences (virtually, of course). A glittery holiday special full of drag, burlesque, and music was co-presented by more than a dozen arts institutions, bringing New York’s Taylor Mac’s award-winning talent to homes around the world. Here in Toronto, we followed up the main event with an Afterparty of our own, hosted live from Buddies by the inimitable Ryan G. Hinds and featuring performances by Toronto talents Ravyn Wngz, Gay Jesus, Jay Northcott, Carl Nouveau, and Pearle Harbour.

What did it mean to be part of Holiday Sauce’s (digital) Toronto premiere?

RYAN G. HINDS

I had seen Taylor’s shows, like The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac and A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. To me, there’s no bigger icon in contemporary queer performance art than Taylor, so being part of the Toronto premiere of Holiday Sauce was totally mindblowing. Dishing with Taylor Mac about art-making, the holidays, and Judy Garland while I’m sitting in a gigantic steaming dumpster wearing full Liza red sequins seems like the kind of fever dream scenario that could only happen at Buddies during a pandemic. The lineup of local artists really delivered A-game performances, and it felt awesome to showcase them holding their own alongside an international icon.

It made the pandemic less scary and the holidays less awful!

What was it like being able to perform at Buddies mid-pandemic?

The pandemic was so, so difficult, but being onstage in the Chamber felt like home. I was very emotional in the dressing room, and even just seeing staff like Steph and

10

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Luke reminded me that Buddies has always been more than a building. For the first time during the pandemic, I felt grounded and safe and connected to people.

As an artist, it was also a huge privilege to be working at a time when so many others weren’t, and I felt the responsibility of showing that it was still possible to make art and have a laugh in a safe way.

Buddies is a space of resilience and finding possibilities, and that was never more true than during 2020 and 2021.

Do you have a memorable moment or standout story from the process?

1) When we were doing camera rehearsal, I remember the first laugh I got from the crew in the room, and the feeling of relief to finally be in a joyful space after so much uncertainty and hard times. 2) I had never interviewed a drunk Christmas tree live on Zoom before, and now I have ... to the screaming delight of everyone who was watching! 3) Nerves don’t go away just because the audience isn’t physically in the room with you. I was sweating buckets and the nerves were real before we went

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

live. I remember doing breathing exercises I hadn’t done in years to try to calm down!

Did you feel like community was able to connect through virtual events like Holiday Sauce and our Pride Tea Dance?

The feeling of community was palpable for me, even virtually.

At Holiday Sauce, the Tea Dance, Queer Pride Inside, and the bedroom cabaret I did for Queer,

PHOTO BY TRISTAN HARRIS (HINDS PORTRAIT)

“Knowing that we were watching, isolated in our homes, as 1,200 other misfits were doing so at the same time around the world and around the corner, created a profound, uncanny feeling of togetherness.”

—Toronto Star

A QUEEN GETS HER CROWN

in-person performance?

As part of Holiday Sauce, Taylor Mac asked each presenting company to select a queer elder in their city to honour, calling the group “The Queens.”

Buddies and TO Live selected leZlie lee kam, a differently abled queer dyke community activist, storyteller, and connector of people.

We’re lucky to have worked with leZlie over the past few years. Along with Ty Sloane, leZlie continued to deliver our In Conversation intergenerational series over Zoom throughout the season, connecting queers across the age spectrum, in Toronto and beyond.

Performing virtually sometimes means inviting people past the distance barrier that live performance has: they’re coming into your private personal spaces, getting extreme closeups, seeing if you can keep things going when there’s a tech hiccup. There’s an intimacy, vulnerability, and realness there I didn’t expect to discover, and I want to bring that aspect back with me to being live onstage.

Honouring leZlie lee kam.

Left, Ryan G. Hinds at The Afterparty.

Above, a promotional image of Taylor Mac for Holiday Sauce.

Far, Wherever You Are, reading the real-time comments and chat was part of the fun. People were having a shared experience and being gossipy and funny and boisterous the same way they are in person.

Community can be hard to define sometimes, but at the virtual events I definitely felt like we were all connected.

Have you made any discoveries from performing virtually that you’re bringing back to

PHOTO BY LITTLEFANG PHOTOGRAPHY (TAYLOR MAC)

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

11

BUDDIES RESIDENCY PROGRAM With our building closed to the public for the entire season, we were able to devote more time, space, and resources to our Residency artists. Throughout the season, artists convened online or in person to continue developing their pieces and explore new ways of working together. Two new projects joined the Residency roster this season: Martin Julien’s The Man That Got Away, and Raf Antonio’s WHITE MUSCLE DADDY, produced by Pencil Kit Productions.

Can you tell us about The Man That Got Away?

MARTIN JULIEN

The subtitle of this play is (A Special Appearance). This is a piece all about appearances ... and disappearances. It evokes hauntings, ghosts, memory, and forgetting. Love, desire, and death are invoked by a 20th-century musical theatre canon distilled through a storied and historicized reckoning with family and aging.

Prosaically, this play is “about” my own life as the child of a gay father and lesbian mother in the 1960s through 1980s: a “gay growing-up” in which I theatrically and dramatically explore my own thoughts about queer identity and the gap that falls between practices of freedom and the spectres of secret lives and deaths.

In addition to yourself, who else is working on the project, and how did the team come together?

My constant and closest collaborator for the last three years is director/dramaturge Peter Hinton-Davis. Peter and I have been friends and colleagues since we met as first-year theatre students in Toronto over 40 years ago.

Invited in after a first play draft was written is musical director Stephen Woodjetts, whom I first worked with as an actor in 1994, touring musical theatre throughout Ontario.

These two folks are gay-identified veteran artists who bring a wealth of personal relationship and contribution to my exploration of

12

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

the lesbian and gay world that both my parents contributed to in the 1970s and ‘80s.

What made Buddies feel like a good fit for this project?

I first attended the theatre on Alexander Street at the age of 14 in 1976 (when it was still Toronto Workshop Productions) to see a revival of the germinal Canadian play Creeps by David Freeman.

My father bought the tickets. I performed in my first Rhubarb production at Buddies in 1989, under the direction of Peter HintonDavis. I have performed in four productions in Buddies’ Chamber space over the last three decades and participated in numerous workshops and staged readings over the years. Buddies in Bad Times feels like a “home” to me; it’s some kind of “eternal return” to be welcomed here with this most personal playmaking.

space. As well, the intergenerational and intersectional connections that exist through Buddies’ support are manifestations of community that I could never have discovered in such a meaningful and productive way on my own.

How has creating together in a pandemic shaped the work and the process?

The most strange and unexpected gift has been the element of “time.”

Though it has been challenging to schedule “real life” workshop time over the last year, the maddening and ever-changing boundaries and protocols of the pandemic have granted us a different kind of time to create work: slower, committed, questioning, and strangely surprising. Also, it has been provocative and eye-opening to write a play so intimately concerned with the epidemic of AIDS in the 1980s inside this current moment.

How has the Residency program helped support your/your project’s artistic development?

This artistic residency has provided me with a quantifiable plateau for continuing creation. The “art of making art” is a practice of slippery and porous freedom: vitally human and replete with blind curves, setbacks, roadblocks, ambivalence, and the unknowable. The material (and that includes financial!) support that Buddies has extended to my work has anchored the process of creation to real time and

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

PHOTO BY KERRY HAYES (JULIEN)

Can you tell us about WHITE MUSCLE DADDY?

RAF ANTONIO

Below, a scene from the WHITE MUSCLE DADDY workshop.

WHITE MUSCLE DADDY explores the pervasive effects of white supremacy and capitalism in the 2SLGBTQ+ community through the horror/thriller genre.

My love of spooky things goes back to childhood, beginning with Goosebumps and Stephen King. Horror can be a really malleable genre and also feels rarely performed in live theatre.

We’ve taken some of its tropes, as well as elements of true crime and documentary, and mashed them together with live camera, projection, and collage. Our goal is to subvert audience expectations of the genre itself, of what theatre can be, and of what film can be ... even the title, which seems straightforward, isn’t exactly what you think. We hope to create an immersive experience that will leave audiences chuckling, a little spooked, a little provoked, and maybe even a little bit horny.

What are some of the forms you’re playing with in the piece, and who is the team bringing it all to life?

My work has most consistently been about trying to bring together my two loves, the movies and theatre; a hybrid form often referred to as “live cinema” or what we’ve always called “cinematic theatre.” The goal is to use technology not just as a fancy overlay but as a fully integrated, thematically relevant method to deeply immerse the audience in our story. We’re inspired by the work of Ivo van Hove and Jan Versweyveld, the maximalist designs of Es Devlin, films like Cruising, Suspiria (1977 & 2018), Stranger by the Lake, Knife + Heart, The Neon Demon, and also The Weeknd’s After Hours era.

Our core team currently includes myself, dramaturge Keshia Palm, producer Claren Grosz for Pencil Kit Productions, and stage manager Taylor Young. We’ve recently welcomed Nicole Eun-Ju Bell to the team, who will be taking over as lead projection designer, as well as Tricia Hagoriles, who will be co-directing.

We were super fortunate during our workshop to have as part of the collective director Jay Northcott, assistant director Rohan Dhupar, projection designer Roxanne Luchak, assistant projection designer Lucia Linares, and performers Chel Carmichael and Brandon Pereira. Without their valuable input we wouldn’t feel nearly as prepared to take the leap into our next phase, and we’ll be forever grateful.

What made Buddies feel like a good fit for this project?

Buddies is known as a company that’s willing to take risks and a space where the community is accustomed to gathering and engaging in open discussion.

A piece like this, which carries risk in its themes and potential for

PHOTO BY TIANA SMITH (WHITE MUSCLE DADDY WORKSHOP)

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

collective catharsis, needs to be as accessible as possible to its core audience, for them to have a space to come together, where they can feel comfortable to voice their jubilations, fears, and anxieties.

How has the residency program helped support your/your project’s artistic development?

With a project of this size, space and money are some of the biggest factors. Without Buddies’ support we simply would not have been able to experiment and play at the necessary scale, including having access to a lighting grid and being able to rig projectable surfaces high enough for the feeling of movie screen scope.

Now we know a lot more about what is and isn’t possible and feel that much more prepared for the huge, exciting task at hand. The Buddies staff was exceptional to work with and we look forward to continuing that relationship in future.

How has creating together in a pandemic shaped the work and the process?

Beyond myself and our dramaturge, our collective didn’t really have a lot of time together prior to the beginning of quarantine. So all of our team-building, all our labour together, was online or over the phone until we convened at Buddies in August.

Not gonna lie, it took a little bit to shake off the cobwebs (it’s pretty strange to collaborate with folks you barely know when half your expression is concealed by a mask), but we managed to find a groove.

In the end, the work to meet goals and deadlines, having meetings, it all helped make quarantine feel a little less terrible and more full of promise.

Knowing there was a workshop on the horizon, knowing we had Buddies’ support, knowing we’d be together in the same room – all great motivators to keep creating.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

13

THE RHUBARB FESTIVAL

No stranger to experimentation, The Rhubarb Festival, under Festival Director Clayton Lee, took on a very different form in 2021. This year’s festival responded to the pandemic-imposed closures in an analogue fashion, asking artists to reimagine performance for the page.

The Festival as Book, printed in a limited edition of 888 copies, sold out, with copies shipped across Canada and internationally. In addition to the projects within the book, we commissioned artist responses throughout the usual festival dates, ranging from collage and photography, to baking and a pop-up theatre in the book itself. The festival publication, designed

by Monnet Design, received numerous accolades and awards, including recognition from Applied Arts magazine, the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, and Communication Arts.

Rhubarb was a Festival as Book this past year. How did you land on this form?

CLAYTON LEE

14

March 2020 marked the beginning of the Great Pivot. Seemingly every organization working in live performance transitioned into the digital space, first manifesting as single shots of a performance that would’ve been done in the theatre.

For me, so much of the pivot ignored the lineage of digital art and seemingly forgot about the proliferation of internet culture and subculture. How do you create a piece of theatre on Twitch, for example, without understanding the streamers who built that platform and create content on it every day? The internet operates on a different set of rules (see TwitchPlaysPokemon for one of my favourite examples) and yet, instead of responding to this, it felt like this pivot had artists transposing the rules of live performance into the internet realm.

The seeming ease of this transposition brought the status quo into the digital space, even though it was becoming

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

increasingly clear in the early days of the pandemic that the status quo was rife with problems and didn’t properly serve the artists or the art in the best ways. The Festival as Book, Book as Festival, then, was an intervention into all of this.

An attempt to reject the ways we had been working both before and during the Great Pivot.

This form falls into the rich lineage of The Magazine within contemporary art practices and lives within the orbit of Rhubarbo-rama! (edited by Franco Boni); Forest Fringe’s Paper Stages; onestar press’s Book Machine project; and Public Recordings’ Performance Encyclopaedia. The concept was simple: to create a physical book that attempted to recreate the experience of live performance. This strategy was not only COVID-proof, but unlocked the imagination of the festival artists, asking them to reassess their relationship to the public and to liveness. More importantly, it allowed us to work directly with them to build projects and literal pages around their ideas instead of merely giving them a proverbial

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

box to fit into.

And, in the present, there are 888 copies floating around in AFK (away from keyboard) life, each unique in small and large ways. Though it is an object that can be revisited, it, like every Rhubarb before it, serves as a time capsule of — and for — its moment, living on in a collective, fragmented memory.

PHOTO BY BEVERLY LEUNG (LEE)

the floor and doing impromptu ink paintings on a number of them, or happy/accidents’ addition of a cryptic love note that could be planted to grow wildflowers.

These interventions were spread out across the 888 editions and appeared by chance. As a result, each copy had a unique touch, what we referred to as the marks of liveness.

The desire, within this, is to promote an ongoing conversation among Rhubarb audiences. Though they may not have been able to share physical space together, we hoped it prompted conversation about which edition and which interventions they received and how they experienced it.

With Rhubarb returning to the building next year, are there elements of this format or process that you want to carry into future festivals?

Clockwise from top: Ishan Davé’s festival intervention; Rhubarb books; pop-up book artist response by Rachel Forbes.

Rhubarb has such a unique format and energy, with audience members taking in multiple performances in one night, throughout the Buddies space.

How did you try to capture this energy in the book?

The classic Rhubarb format presents a delicious impossibility: truly seeing and experiencing PHOTOS BY PHILIP NOZUKA (FESTIVAL INTERVENTION); DAHLIA KATZ (BOOKS); RACHEL FORBES (POP-UP BOOK)

the entire festival. Even if you come back multiple nights, the simultaneous structure means you will inevitably miss something.

We wanted to recreate this as best as possible within this physical book format. To accomplish this, we had a series of artists offering interventions onto the book. This included Ishan Davé (pictured above) organizing the books on

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

Amongst a series of core festival values, I continue to return to the ideas of flexibility and responsiveness. The Festival as Book, Book as Festival form was a response to the industry and the world around us that allowed us to chart new ways of working together. For me, this is the only way forward. I’m no longer interested in the status quo that existed prior to the Great Pivot, nor am I interested in the status quo that has been created during.

And for future iterations of Rhubarb? For me, it means an active reinvention of what an experimental performance festival is and can be, one that shapes and reshapes itself to serve the artists and the industry at large in new and, hopefully, productive ways.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

15

QUEERCAB

From its open mic roots to its more curated iterations, QueerCab has always been a space for emerging ar tists to experiment with their practice and ideas. In a year where all of our programming changed drastically, we had the pleasure of working with artistic intern Heather Caplap to help reimagine the medium, producing three very different experiences in the spring. Alongside co-curator Adjani Poirier, Heather brought works to the building in an innovative window installation and created online platforms for multimedia artists to share works and performance.

How did you first get connected with Buddies?

HEATHER CAPLAP

My first experience with Buddies was performing at The Rhubarb Festival in 2015. I was living in Montreal then, and it was my first time coming to Toronto and connecting with the queer art scene here. It was a very formative experience for me and was one of factors that influenced my decision to move here. When I decided to go back to school for arts management I knew immediately that I wanted to do one of my placements at Buddies. I connected with Daniel to discuss possible opportunities, and because of my experience producing puppetry cabarets we thought QueerCab would be a great fit.

For those who weren’t able to check out QueerCab this year, could you tell us about the format and nature of the events?

This year’s QueerCab consisted of three multidisciplinary arts events centred on queer experiences of time. The first event, Shadows of the Past, asked the question “How do memories, recollections, and interpretations of the past shape

16

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

our present and future?” It featured video and shadow installations in the theatre’s windows. This allowed audiences to experience the work safely from outside and still have a reason to leave their homes in the height of lockdown. The second event, Transitory Present, asked creators to reflect on transition and ephemerality. For this event we showcased video, audio, and photography works in an interactive virtual gallery with talks from participating artists. This was a really exciting event for me because we were able to offer a really high level of digital accessibility, including ASL interpretation and extended video description. The final event, Imagined Futures, was a live-hosted Zoom cabaret where artists shared their dreams for the future through theatre, dance, music, poetry, puppetry, and trapeze. It was fabulous.

QueerCab has always been a place for artists to try new things and experiment. How did you go about curating the three events?

Supporting multidisciplinary art spaces where artists working in a variety of genres and styles can come together, share audiences,

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

and test out new ideas is something that is really important to me.

Beyond programming works that were aligned with our curatorial theme of Queer Time, my cocurator, Adjani Poirier, and I wanted to take this opportunity to bring together artists from as many different disciplines as possible.

It was also extremely important to us to prioritize the work of Black, Indigenous, POC, trans, Deaf, Crip, Mad, and neurodivergent creators.

We approached curating within the constraints of the pandemic lockdown as a creative opportunity.

As difficult as the past two years have been, I think QueerCab was able to achieve something really

PHOTO BY CYLLA VON TIEDEMANN (CAPLAP)

DEEPENING PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE 2-SPIRIT CABARET

up with as much enthusiasm as they did was really meaningful.

Prior to the pandemic I was not a person who spent very much time online, so experiencing the level of connection we were able to create with QueerCab this year was actually surprising to me.

special this year by having virtual programming. We were able to bring together so many amazing queer artists from all across Canada to connect and exchange ideas. It was definitely a silver lining to not being able to gather in the theatre.

Was there something that surprised you about this year’s QueerCabs?

I was really surprised (and impressed) by the resilience of our community. Marginalized communities have been the most directly affected by the pandemic, so to see so many incredible artists continue to create and share their work and have audiences show

Clockwise from top left: Indoor and outdoor shots of QueerCab: Shadows of the Past; film still from Pisces Season.

A renewed partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts saw the fifth iteration of the 2-Spirit Cabaret in a digital format, featuring artists from across Turtle Island. In this season of increased artist support, 10 artists were also offered additional financial resources to deepen the development of their work and gained insight into the world of cabaret from U.K. artist Tarik Elmoutawakil (Brownton Abbey). With development occurring throughout the season, the performances moved to a later date and were part of Queer Pride Festival, in a digital cabaret live-hosted by drag artist Mx Wolverine.

What’s something you are taking away from your internship with Buddies?

Confidence! Interning with Buddies really helped me combat my imposter syndrome. I received amazing mentorship from Daniel and the whole Buddies team.

Everyone was so supportive and trusting. It was a very important experience for my professional development and contributed greatly to me getting a job in the sector right after graduating. It also gave me a greater sense of community within Toronto and the theatre community. I am very grateful for the lasting connection I now have with Buddies.

FILM STILL BY CHRISTINA HAJJAR (PISCES SEASON); PHOTOS

BY GREG WONG (QUEERCAB); LUCIUS DECHAUSAY (MX. WOLVERINE)

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

Mx Wolverine.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

17

QUEER PRIDE

For the second year, our Queer Pride Festival occurred both in-person and online, with digital cabarets, plays, and comedy shows complementing pop-up, in-person events throughout the city.

Queer Pride also played host to the 2-Spirit Cabaret, in partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts, our Emerging Creators Unit showcase, and the launch of the second season of our podcast.

In total over 100 artists contributed to the almost 30 projects that were a part of the festival. Actor, director, and storyteller Rhoma Spencer participated in a number of capacities this year. She was a co-host and curator for the Youth/Elders Podcast, and organized a Pride March for the Toronto Women’s Housing Co-op that culminated in an outdoor comedy event.

RHOMA SPENCER

18

What did it mean to you to bring Queer Pride programming to your home neighbourhood of Regent Park?

sense of community among my neighbours in the co-op, and it was fulfilling to see them basking in the pride of the event.

It was a coup d’état for this to happen as there were so many conflicting reports on how many persons could gather, far less to take to the streets in a march. The event was truly an “underground railroad scenario”: we were planning the event with the possibility of city intervention and the threat of homophobes in the neighbourhood in mind.

In the end, the event came off with no incident save for some youths shouting, “We don’t want ‘that’ in Regent Park.” When I saw the amount of people who marched and gathered for the live show, the feeling of “Pride” that I had authored and guided this with some willing neighbours was humbling. It was all done through underground publicity and yet so many people came out. It also brought back a

You had a project at the first Pride in Place in 2020. How did it feel different to present outdoor work, one year later?

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Last year was pioneering and we knew that we could gather and in what capacity. This year was strenuous as I added a Pride march through the neighbourhood in addition to a live performance at the same corner as last year. More people came out this year, and they were more animated due to the nature of the live show - a comedy performance – and the hype of taking to the streets before. The marchers met an audience waiting for a comedy show, and the music truck and the Blue Devil Masqueraders all added to the excitement of the occasion this year.

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

PHOTO BY JOCELYN REYNOLDS (SPENCER)

A RETURN TO THE AIRWAVES What were some of the things you wanted to accomplish or explore, in working on the Youth/Elders Podcast?

I wanted to explore issues around the fixation of organizations and corporations wanting to examine anti-racism now and how the work of consultants has turned up in ways that became so much a puppet show. I was able to accomplish this with my interview with Rania El Mugammar. I also wanted to explore ageism as it affects seniors in my community, and I do believe this was one of my favourite podcasts to date. I found that I learnt so much from engaging with the subjects in the podcast.

Did you have a favourite moment from the podcast process, from planning, to recording, to listening?

Clockwise from top left: Comedy Corner; Splitting the Lens; Space, Time, Motion; and TWHC Pride march and celebration.

PHOTOS BY GREG WONG; YOUTH/ELDERS PODCAST LOGO BY PAUL DOTEY

With most of us spending time in our own spaces, we wanted to find a way to keep conversations between our communities going, and share them with a wider audience. This year saw the return of the Youth/Elders Podcast for a second season, curated and co-hosted by Naomi Bain, S. Bear Bergman, leZlie lee kam, Rhoma Spencer, and Ty Sloane.

Recorded remotely, this eight-episode series interviewed more than a dozen guests, including Catherine Hernandez, Sedina Fiati, and Cole Alvis, exploring different facets of queer identities, and how those come together in institutional spaces and activist movements.

My favourite, no doubt, is the roundtable discussion I co-hosted with three subjects: Canute Lawrence, Debbie Douglas, and Carol Thames. The episode, “I’m Still Here,” allowed us all to share our experiences dealing with aging and ageism in queer communities.

It was a funny and enlightening conversation.

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

19

TALLULAH’S CABARET Tallulah’s Cabaret has played host to all sorts of events throughout our tenure at 12 Alexander Street, and the bar, managed by Church Street legend Patricia Wilson, is also a key stream of fundraising for the theatre’s operations. While the pandemic greatly reduced our ability to gather, the warmer weather allowed us to open a patio bar, welcoming artists and community members on weekends.

Poetry nights, happening every Sunday, drew a new crowd out to the patio throughout the summer and into the fall. A selection of the poems shared have since been anthologized by David Bateman in the Patio Poetry Project.

The bar was closed for the better part of the season! What kept you going and how did you stay connected to the community without being able to welcome folks to the Cabaret?

PATRICIA WILSON

20

What kept me going over the closure was that I never saw the bar as separate from either the theatre or the individuals that attended the theatre or bar nights, or just whispered and wished about Tallulah’s – their memories and dirty moves there and the memories that grew in the void of the pandemic.

It was easy to stay connected to the community because people wanted to stay connected to Buddies’ bar nights, to me, and to each other. Their memories created the connection and longing for new experiences and debauchery that only we at Buddies can tempt them with and remind them of.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

What did you miss most about Tallulah’s while its doors were closed?

I think I missed the connection to Buddies’ bar nights as this iconic supernova of a star that touched everyone someway or another and created memories that will remain with individuals like their favourite family vacation.

Tell us about getting the patio started, and what the poetry Sundays added to that experience.

The patio was like rubbing two knobby sticks together to start a fire in the wilderness. The pandemic was the wilderness, and the poetry became the sticks that created a passion for people to celebrate themselves and to give each other hope in their own creation – at a time when creation in the world at large was sparse and quite frankly shabby. A real human voice screaming out in the desert of a pandemic where things were not able to grow. We on the Buddies patio gave the fire to individuals

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

to pass along week to week and to each other, no matter whether a first-time poet or a poet and writer of acclaim. The shared experience of desperate creation in the face of perhaps the true end created a camaraderie that would never exist again.

What did it mean to archive people’s work in the Pandemic Poetry Project?

Publishing the Pandemic Poetry Project book gave proof of the passion of desperation and perhaps the final scratchings of creativity of a group of new and long-in-the tooth artists and poets. This was the final victory over the empty time. As we come out of the end time – or the pandemic as it was called – we will see the end of many things, perhaps even Buddies as we know it. Who can say, who can predict, but the sheer poetry and community and love created out of Tallulah’s Cabaret will be legend, and the lives saved from the work done in that little space will sing the song of grace for years to come.

PHOTO BY DYLAN MITRO (WILSON)

FINANCIALS

An update from Managing Director Shawn Daudlin Looking back over this past pandemic year, although it’s been challenging for the entire arts sector, Buddies was still able to maintain a healthy financial position, recording a $414,476 surplus for the 2020/2021 season. This surplus is the largest in Buddies’ history. Although it may seem impressive, we need to look at the effect that the pandemic has had on the theatre’s revenue and expenses for context.

We couldn’t have done it without arts recovery funding from the Ontario Arts Council/Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries ($176,765) and COVID relief funding from Metcalf Foundation ($15,000). Reimbursement of staff wages from the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy totalled $241,946, assisting us in maintaining cash flow and retaining staff.

The support of our sponsors and donors, including a donation of almost $100,000 from the estate of Kenneth Dawe, was also instrumental.

With our facility being closed for most of the year, the 2020/2021 season earned very little revenue. Bar revenue, usually a significant source of income for all of our operations, declined by $175,000 compared to the previous season. Ticket sales and Cabaret/Chamber rentals revenue were down by $254,043. However, fixed building costs were low, and Buddies was able to maintain its commitment to employing staff and artists. Artistic and administrative staff expenses totalled $621,404.

As we begin to reopen, there is still uncertainty around the trajectory of the pandemic, and we expect that this may lead to audience (and artist) hesitancy to return to live performance. In this vein, we’ll be trying to make it as easy as possible for patrons to return to Buddies, exploring alternate models of ticket pricing to reduce financial barriers. We remain hopeful that there are better times ahead and look forward to seeing both new and familiar artists and audiences back in the theatre soon.

REVENUES $1,696,276 Bar $19,080 1% Tickets & Rentals $18,550 1% CEWS $241,946 14% Fundraising $254,110 15%

Grants $1,162,590 69%

EXPENSES $1,272,662 Fundraising $23,496 2% Bar $75,568 6% Admin Fees & Salaries $313,388 25%

Marketing & Promo $135,201 11% Maintenance $150,577 12%

Artistic Fees & Salaries $308,016 24%

Production $266,416 21%

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

21

Our Community of Donors

LEGACY CIRCLE Ed Cabell & Roy Forrester John Alan Lee Russell Mathew & Scott Ferguson Richard McLellan Adam Morrison & James Owen Jim Robertson & Jim Scott Anonymous VISIONARIES ($5000+) Paul Butler & Chris Black The Estate of Kenneth Dawe Jim Lawrence & David Salak Tom McGillis & Ken Percy The George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation HEROES ($2500-$4999) Russell Mathew & Scott Ferguson Adam Morrison & James Owen By fundraising efforts of Jean-Gilles Parisé LEADERS ($1000-$2499) Ken Aucoin & Gerald Crowell Lawrence Bennett The BulmashSiegel Private Foundation Andrew Gillespie Craig Hanson Paul Hartwick William Hodge & Robert Wylie Tim Jones & Taylor Raths

22

Stephen McGregor & Tony De Franco Angelica LeMinh NigE Gough Shine On Foundation at the Toronto Community Foundation Brian Sambourne Peter Taylor The Wine Butler ADVOCATES ($480-$999) Kate Bishop & Doug Gerhart Robert G. Coates Shawn Daudlin The Charlie and Lulu Franklin Fund at the Calgary Foundation Brendan Healy Jaigris Hodson Montana Kimel Wes D. Pearce Jamie Slater James Tennyson PARTNERS ($240-$479) Mark Aikman & Gustavo Cerquera Benjumea Cole Alvis – in Honour of René Highway Derek Billsman Craig Binning Marusya Bociurkiw Mark Brodsky Ed Cabell & Roy Forrester Lawrence Campbell Russell Connelly Corby Distilleries Ltd. Jefferson Darrell Alan Dingle MCAN Mortgage Corporation on behalf of Aaron Ballantine

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Dennis Findlay Robin Gordon George Grant Tom Hutchinson Karim Karsan & John Rider Dr. Ben Louie Gabe Maharjan & Merlin Simard Gilles Marchildon Richard McLellan Aidan MorishitaMiki Oldfield Management Inc. Pigeons and Thread Manufacturing Inc. Andrea Ridgley Gary Rogers Richard Sutton Lionel Tona Michael David Trent Louis Tsilivis FRIENDS ($25-$239) Daniel Abell Gerry Asselstine Autumn Fern Studio Michel Beauvais Sheldon Bergstrom Kym Bird & Frances Latchford Kate Bornstein Allen Braude Suzanne Brunelle Naomi Campbell Ky Capstick Betty Carlyle Herng Yi Cheng Aisha Chiandet Confetti and Co. Kim Cousins David Couture Amber Crawford Chloe Crew In loving memory of Jonathan Crombie Pamela Crosby

Donna Daitchman Stephen Davies James Davis Lilly Dettweiler Carol Dilworth Joanna Drummond Sonya Filman Lois Fine Barbara Fingerote Friendstofoodies Michael Gillies & Jamie McNeill Zachary Ginies Danny Glenwright Cathy Gordon Tucker Gordon Jack & Anna Greenblatt Ksenia Gueletina Neil Guthrie Mel Hague Jeff Hammond Carolyn Hoessler Andrea Houston Cass Iacovelli Daria Ilkina Jasmine Irwin Tammi Jamison Suzanne Jangda Sj Jensen Stephanie Jonsson David Jukins Carl Karichian Margot Keith Lisa Kelly Rob Kempson Tom Keogh & Paul McClure Brian Kinsella Christie Kneteman Kim Koyama Roger Kuhn In Honour of Josue Laboucane Kristina Lemieux Megan Leslie Rachel Lissner Cameron MacLeod Desmond Marryshow Paulie McDermid

2 0 2 0/2 1 A NNU A L R EPOR T

M McLean Jordan Merkur Yago Mesquita Marc Michell Caden MillionLovett K Mills Elana Moscovitch Nailing Broadway Aqeela Nanji Thompson Nguyen Lesley Nicholls In Honour of Katherine Neufeld Ingrid Olson Alex PetitThorne Rui Pires William Plexman Michelle Poirier Mark Quan Eric Ralph Ingrid Randoja Kirsten Marie Rasmussen Susanna Reid Debra Reynolds Leah Riddell Kaitlyn Riordan Jim Robertson & Jim Scott Marie Robertson Lea Rossiter Matthew Ruten Ksenia Sabouloua Mitsuko Sada Sarah & Rishi Allen Sangalang Adam Seelig Ronak Shah Stacey Shannon Lee Simpson Anna Starkova DM St. Bernard David Steinberg Martin S Tara & Taylor Jess Tester Ayse Turak Jessica Twomey Rebecca Vandevelde Peter Walker & Sachil Patel

Susan Wells Ellen White Kat Williams Cathrin Winkelmann Elaine Wong Hersh Zeifman MONTHLY DONORS Daniel Abell Mark Aikman & Gustavo Cerquera Benjumea Cole Alvis – in honour of René Highway Ken Aucoin & Gerald Crowell Michel Beauvais Derek Billsman Marusya Bociurkiw Mark Brodsky Ed Cabell & Roy Forrester Naomi Campbell Ky Capstick Betty Carlyle Herng Yi Cheng In honour of Michelle Dubarry Russell Connelly David Couture Donna Daitchman Shawn Daudlin Desmond Marryshow Joanna Drummond Lois Fine Barbara Fingerote Michael Gillies & Jamie McNeill Danny Glenwright

Robin Gordon George Grant Brendan Healy William Hodge & Robert Wylie Jaigris Hodson Andrea Houston Daria Ilkina Karim Karsan & John Rider Tom Keogh & Paul McClure Montana Kimel Kim Koyama Jim Lawrence & David Salak Kristina Lemieux Dr. Ben Louie Cameron MacLeod Gilles Marchildon Paulie McDermid Richard McLellan Aidan Morishita-Miki Thompson Nguyen Wes D. Pearce Rui Pires Ingrid Randoja Susanna Reid Andrea Ridgley Mitsuko Sada Allen Sangalang Jim Robertson & Jim Scott Ronak Shah Jamie Slater David Steinberg Tiffany Sung Peter Taylor Lionel Tona Louis Tsilivis Ayse Turak Cathrin Winkelmann

Listed donations for July 1, 2020–June 30, 2021

Sponsors & Partners

The Company

Season Sponsors

Managing Director SHAWN DAUDLIN

LEAD CORPORATE SPONSOR

CORPORATE PARTNERS

COMMUNITY & EDUCATION PARTNER

MEDIA PARTNER

An agency of the Government of Ontario

Season Partners

Manager of Touring CHRIS REYNOLDS

Rhubarb Festival Director CLAYTON LEE

Office Manager STEPHANIE MALEK

Acting Director of Production JACQUELINE COSTA

Patron Services Coordinator JULIA LEWIS

Rental & Events Manager STEPH RAPOSO

Bar Manager PATRICIA WILSON

Emerging Creators Unit Director TAWIAH M’CARTHY

Assistant Bar Manager DEVIN REID

Youth/Elders Programming Coordinators LEZLIE LEE KAM & TY SLOANE FOUNDATIONS

Un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario

Interim Programming Director DANIEL CARTER

Emerging Creators Unit Associate Director PHILIP GELLER

PUBLIC AGENCIES

an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario

Communications & Outreach Manager AIDAN MORISHITA-MIKI

Facility Manager PAUL THERRIEN Finance Manager CYNTHIA MURDY Bar Personnel CHARLEE BOYES BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Emerging Company in Residence COURAGE BACCHUS & GAITRIE PERSAUDDHUNMOON Artists in Residence YOLANDA BONNELL & COLE ALVIS, RAF ANTONIO, MARTIN JULIEN & PETER HINTON, JUSTIN MILLER, HEATH V. SALAZAR, WE OTHER SONS COLLECTIVE Marketing & Engagement Manager JONATHAN MACARTHUR

BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE PIA SCHMIDT-HANSEN (chair) RUSSELL MATHEW (treasurer) ADAM MORRISON (secretary) ALIA AHMED MARUSYA BOCIURKIW RAIN CHAN RACHEL CLARK JIM LAWRENCE ANDREW WANG THE ALEXANDER STREET THEATRE PROJECT RUSSELL MATHEW (chair) ADAM MORRISON

Annual report design by Lucinda Wallace Printed waterless on FSC-certified stock

2 02 0/ 2 1 AN N UAL R EPOR T

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

23

12 Alexander Street Toronto buddiesinbadtimestheatre.com