Annual Report 2017-18

2017-18_SEASON

BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE _ANNUAL REPORT

TORONTO’S LEADING DESTINATION FOR ARTISTICALLY RIGOROUS ALTERNATIVE THEATRE AND A WORLD LEADER IN DEVELOPING QUEER VOICES AND STORIES FOR THE STAGE OUR MISSION

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre creates vital Canadian theatre by developing and presenting voices that question sexual and cultural norms. Built on the political and social principles of queer liberation, Buddies supports artists and works that reflect and advance these values. As the world’s longest-running and largest queer theatre, Buddies is uniquely positioned to develop, promote, and preserve stories and perspectives that are challenging and alternative. Buddies achieves artistic excellence through its mainstage season programming, artist residency program, and youth-based initiatives. Buddies serves a broad segment of the population who share a passion for theatre that celebrates difference.

OUR VALUES

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre has identified three core values that serve as guiding pillars for all our activities and operations.

DIFFERENCE With our art, we simultaneously celebrate difference and question the mechanisms through which differences are constructed and maintained. With our space, we create an accessible, non-judgmental, and inclusive environment for everyone regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, economic position, race, creed, age, national origin, physical ability, or mental ability. With our daily interactions, we foster respect and dignity among all people.

EXCELLENCE We provide our audiences with unforgettable theatre experiences, and we give our artists and staff the resources they need to achieve the highest standards of excellence.

COMMUNITY We believe that the theatre plays a vital role in the educational, social, and economic health of a community.

We strive to be a positive force by encouraging collaboration and constructive dialogue among the various groups and individuals who make up our community.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

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BOARD CHAIR’S MESSAGE

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2017-18 IN NUMBERS

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LULU V.7 // ASPECTS OF A FEMME FATALE

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KIINALIK: THESE SHARP TOOLS

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TOURING

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PARTNERSHIPS

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THE RHUBARB FESTIVAL

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BUDDIES’ YOUTH ENSEMBLE

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QUEER EMERGING ARTIST AWARD

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A NEW ROOF FOR BUDDIES

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RESIDENCY SHOWCASE AND INTENSIVE

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FINANCIALS

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STAFF + BOARD

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DONORS + SPONSORS

CONTRIBUTIONS Mark Aikman, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Erin Brubacher, Shawn Daudlin, Susana Fournier, Aidan Morishita-Miki, Evalyn Parry, Elliot Smith, ted witzel, Helen Yung INTERVIEWS Johnnie Walker PHGOTOGRAPHY Michael Cooper, Jake Jamieson, Dahlia Katz, Jeremy Mimnagh, John Packman, Katie Sly, Greg Wong AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Clarkson Rouble LLP

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE The 2017-18 season was marked by ground breaking conversations on our stage, new and continuing collaborations, and significant improvements to our facility.

On stage, Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools was one of the most talked-about shows of the theatre season in Toronto; the sold-out run went on to take home Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Sound Design/Composition. LULU, v.7 // aspects of femme fatale was the kind of challenging, avant-garde work that could only take place on the Buddies stage, widely recognized for it’s ambitious production design and timely engagement with the horrific and on-going investigation of serial killings in the local queer community. Across the country, our tour of Saga Collectif’s Black Boys continued Buddies artistic relationship with The Cultch in Vancouver and Espace Libre in Montreal, and created a buzz with our first production at Calgary’s High Performance Rodeo.

On the home front, our board of directors took a day-long training with renowned anti-oppression activist Rania El Mugammar, of b inc. The board has identified that on-going work on Equity and Inclusion at both a board and company level is critical to the future of Buddies. We responded to other pressing community conversations by updating our workplace anti-harassment policies and participating in the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts’ review of gender-based categories at the Dora Awards. We also made plans for the future; with the support of the Lawrence Family Foundation, we worked with consulting firm KCI to develop a revenue generation plan that will help us grow our artistic and community programs over the next five years.

Thanks to you, our incredible community of donors, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the City of Toronto, we successfully completed a two-year facility renewal and upgrade project. I am proud to have begun the crucial work of improving our building’s infrastructure, to ensure future generations of queer, trans, and 2-Spirit theatre artists have a home here at 12 Alexander Street.

I am so grateful for your on-going support, and for your belief in the continuing necessity of this courageous queer institution.

Evalyn Parry Artistic Director 3

CHAIR’S MESSAGE

2017-18 IN NUMBERS

I can’t imagine a more exciting time to be taking on the role of chair of the board at Buddies. The 39th season included some of the most diverse and exciting shows yet. The season opened with Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools, which won two Doras and will be touring the country in 2019, and continued strong with so many challenging and relevant shows, including Outside, dealing with homophobic school violence, and a remount of the popular Black Boys. There was also the 2-Spirit Cabaret, The 39th Rhubarb Festival, an amazing month of Pride productions, and many other outstanding shows.

25,554

people came through our doors.

473

artists, designers, and technicians were employed by Buddies.

251

Artistic Director Evalyn Parry and Managing Director Shawn Daudlin both continue to do a superb job. Thanks to the generous ongoing support of Buddies’ donors and funders, the theatre continues to be in solid financial shape and has been able to make overdue repairs and upgrades to the building, including better soundproofing, improved accessibility to the space, and a new roof.

people accessed our youth and education programs.

224

nights of theatre happened on our stage.

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Along with the rest of the board of directors, I am excited and proud to be a part of this amazing theatre and to get to work with the entire Buddies community. As the challenges facing the queer community continue to evolve, Buddies remains as important and relevant as ever. We continue to look to the future and the great possibilities for the world’s longest-running queer theatre!

community groups accessed our space for performances, meetings, and fundraisers.

74%

of the lead artists creating work in our season were women.

52%

Lastly, I would like to thank Mary Breen for her many years on the board of directors and her leadership as chair of the board.

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

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new theatre works were performed on our stage.

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Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations, including 2 wins.

Elliot Smith Chair, Board of Directors

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IN CONVERSATION WITH LULU V.7//ASPECTS OF A FEMME FATALE

Valerie Buhagiar, Rose Tuong, Christopher Morris, and Craig Pike in LULU v.7 // aspects of a femme fatale; photo by Jeremy Mimnagh.

LULU WENT ON A VERY LONG JOURNEY! WHY WAS V.7 THE PLACE WHERE THINGS HAD TO END? AND HOW DID THE PROCESS OF GOING THROUGH V.1-6 BRING YOU THERE?

The whole project (v.1-7) ended up moving through some major emotional-thematic landscapes: freedom, monstrosity, violence, rage, death, grief, tenderness, and ultimately, I think our LULU project represents a potent and prismatic exploration of intimacy and the longing for eros in our society.

HELEN YUNG: Seven variations was an arbitrary or mythical number that Ted chose early on. Seven lives felt right. Long enough to be long, not so long it’d be a prison sentence. Six is too cute. Five is too simple.

Four is a regular grab bag of workshops for any large production. Seven variations gives you enough time to fail, fail better, and figure out what you’re not failing at. By the time we were at v.7, I think the three of us needed it to end because as artists and as humans we have plenty more themes, problems, tensions, joys, images, and humans we want to play with.

TED WITZEL: I think we had to go through that many versions because keeping an open and iterative process going for so long just created so many ways that people could become involved—and it was essential that we get the most people involved possible to really understand this material and what it meant to this community right now. The version that was most clearly present in the final iteration was 5, because 5 was the workshop of the first half of the material that was in 7.

SUSANNA FOURNIER: v.7 could have never existed without v.1-6. That being said, we knew pretty quickly working on v.7 that it couldn’t just be a “best of” LULU’s 1-6 album; it was going to be its own thing on its own timeline.

HY: In devised processes, once you establish the timeframe and any other intentions from the get-go, the funny thing is that magically, somehow, by the end of the process, all those intentions have a way of coming true. Even if you’ve forgotten about them.

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TW: There was no way we could have just sat down and written v.7. In v.2, we ended up including a bunch of monologues that came from voice memos that Mayko Nguyen had sent me. And she kind of took her anger out on me by starting these voice memos saying “Why the hell are we doing this and what is all this for?” And Helen had kind of prompted Mayko to try to solve her problems by entering into that dialogue with me. And I got so excited by this fresh take on LULU that I put it into the show, and that really connected with people.

That’s the only reason I do research, so that I’m free to improvise and react to what gets exciting in rehearsal. One of the reasons that I love making theatre is I love getting into a room with a bunch of people whose ideas are different from mine and having these kinds of vital and volatile discussions about what this material means.

HY: I mostly only work in multidisciplinary, collaborative arrangements with many partners and contributors. So, that’s just my normal. Juggling many different velocities moving in different directions is a regular day on the job. Maybe it’s not that different from a playwright sitting with many ideas, having infinite possibilities when facing the white page. There are so many voices you could be writing with.

SF: It’s bittersweet to think of this exploration as “complete.” It isn’t. For me, LULU is an impulse—a force, not a figure, and a presence that will continue to guide and shape my work and life.

TW: It feels insane to be finished with LULU. Also, it was time for LULU to end. LULU has been such a big part of my life for the last five years. It has probably been the most formative artistic experience that I’ve had. Not just in terms of the content, but also the process.

SF: It was often totally inspiring and totally terrifying at the same time. The things that haunted us, that kept popping up version to version, did so because they needed to. The beauty of the Residency Program gave us this incredibly rare opportunity to work inside exploration of process, not just product.

ONE OF THE REMARKABLE ASPECTS OF THE WHOLE LULU PROJECT IS THE SHEER VOLUME OF ARTISTS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO IT OVER THE YEARS. HOW DO YOU LET THAT MANY PEOPLE INTO THE PROCESS WITHOUT LETTING THE VELOCITY OF THAT MANY PERSPECTIVES TAKE YOU RADICALLY OFF-COURSE? OR IS GOING OFF-COURSE THE POINT?

HY: That said, 100 artists is not that many, for a thing that has been through seven variations. There were 25 or 50 writers who participated in the first round, plus all the actors in that staged reading. And then if you figure 10 artists on average for each variation, that’s another 60 artists.

V.7 DRAGS WEDEKIND’S WORK OUT OF 1895 AND INTO 2018—MOST VISCERALLY BY REFERENCING TORONTO SERIAL KILLER BRUCE MCARTHUR. HOW DID YOUR APPROACH WITH LULU CHANGE—IF IT DID—AS THAT STORY BROKE?

SF: I’m not sure we had a course to begin with. Ted really wanted the process to inform the product, and the ensembles to inform the processes, so we never had a fixed “end-goal” in sight, except a knowledge that at some point we’d share a “final” presentation.

As we worked over four years, we began to find a balance between a core continuous group holding a vision within a more open, porous, and everchanging stream of new collaborators.

SF: Bruce McArthur certainly brings the nightmarish-serial-urban-predator back into the local public’s mind’s-eye, but I think people who occupy marginalized spaces in society already live with a connection to this kind of fear. The whole process of LULU was really about journeying through the social inheritance of systemic ideas of monstrosity, misogyny, utility, homophobia, and chaos.

TW: I think going off-course was the point. I didn’t know the piece that we were going to make. I didn’t know the shape of it. It started to emerge after we did v.4, so at about the halfway mark in the process.

I almost always enter into a creation process trying to do a fuck-ton of research so that I can throw it all away.

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TED AND SUSIE: YOU’RE BOTH HEADING BACK BUDDIES THIS COMING SEASON WITH THE SCAVENGER’S DAUGHTER. HOW HAVE YOUR EXPERIENCES COLLABORATING WITH EACH OTHER—AND WITH BUDDIES—PREPARED YOU FOR YOUR UPCOMING WORK?

Rape culture is a relentless presence in society.

Bruce McArthur is one facet of it. But I don’t need a Bruce McArthur out there to feel afraid walking alone at night—having lived in rape culture for three decades in a female body.

TW: I don’t think that MacArthur actually changed the course of the show so much as he became a place that I could centre a lot of the ideas and gut reactions that I’d been having. In a room where I was working with a lot of women whose voices I tried to bring to the forefront, there was often a conversation about how violence on a queer male body is not the same as violence on a female body.

There was this big conversation that Susie and I staged at the end of v.4 about what dangers women are negotiating when they take a man to bed. What danger is represented by a man going to bed with a man versus a woman going to bed with a man?

SF: The long term and wide reach of the LULU project gave Ted and I an incredible opportunity to develop a four-year dialogue with Buddies’ audiences and community while at the same time refining a creative shorthand with each other.

What’s been so fascinating about the development of The Scavenger’s Daughter co-existing alongside LULU is how the projects ultimately speak to one another. LULU really examines what our society has done to the Feminine, the abuses against it, and The Scavenger’s Daughter takes a sharp look at Toxic Masculinity and militarization. LULU created a beautiful challenge for Ted and I to always be reinventing ourselves artistically without losing our integral and guiding artistic fetishes: sex and death explored on operatic, epic proportion. Scavenger’s continues this tradition, tracing lines between the local and the mythic, the historical and present.

It’s an entirely different theatrical world than LULU, but it’s still driven by sharp aesthetics, contentious politics, entertainment, horror, and surprise.

HY: Honestly, I don’t recall that many conversations about McArthur. Which is not to say it wasn’t significant to us. It just wasn’t the subject that we struggled over. Ted wrote that section, and I recall him talking about it many times. But we didn’t debate or struggle over including the story. The connection was obvious. There were other things that felt more mysterious and uncertain to us.

SF: What a figure like McArthur does provide, in the context of LULU, is another “mask” to point to and peel back to reveal the systemic violence beneath.

Did LULU change with McArthur? Not in a seismic way—he entered into the work as one entry point; a way to tie the local to the mythic.

TW: From the moment we started workshopping it, I really felt like Buddies was the right place for that play, and the advantage of bringing Scavenger’s to Buddies is threefold. One is that space. Having been in residence there for so long, I have a good idea of how that theatre works; I know what’s possible and what’s not. Second is the team and the amazing people who work there. What I love about the Buddies technicians is that nothing is impossible. “I think we can do that! It’s a bit crazy, but we’ll figure it out”! It’s a team that really makes fabulous, spectacular magic happen. And third is the relationship with the Buddies community that we’ve built over these years. It’s a community that is very prepared to hold a complex and often contradictory conversation and really engage. I see that as Buddies greatest strength: the power in its community.

TW: There were a few queer men in the process who were talking about how we experience danger and are likely to be victimized in some ways by people who internalize their homophobia and start to see the male body—especially a bottom—as abject, as a failure of a man. But I found it hard to advocate for that argument because the examples of women being victimized are so vast. The MacArthur story became somewhere I could centre the fear that I experience sometimes when I’m hooking up with people.

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IN CONVERSATION WITH KIINALIK: THESE SHARP TOOLS

Cris Derksen, Evalyn Parry, and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory in Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools; photo by Jeremy Mimnagh.

A BIG PART OF KIINALIK IS THE STORY OF ITS OWN PROCESS OF CREATION, INCLUDING LAAKULUK AND EVALYN’S FATEFUL MEETING ON A SHIP FULL OF SCIENTISTS AND THEIR OWN PERSONAL HISTORIES AND ARTISTIC PRACTICES. LET’S TALK ABOUT THE EARLIEST SEEDS OF KIINALIK.

ERIN BRUBACHER: Following Evalyn and Laakkuluk’s 2012 meeting on the ship, Evalyn and Elysha Poirier made a song/story/video piece, To Live In The Age Of Melting: Northwest Passage.

In late 2015, Evalyn invited me (as director) and Cris Derkson (as musician) into a new process, expanding upon that original piece as well as a train trip that Evalyn and Elysha took to Churchill, Manitoba. Laakkuluk became a character in that second workshopped piece, as recordings of her conversations with Evalyn were used throughout.

At the conclusion of that workshop, Evalyn and I knew that we wanted to make something new with Laakkuluk, Elysha, and Cris, together. We scrapped everything and began again, allowing some elements and pieces that Laakkuluk, Evalyn, and Elysha had individually created to find their way back in. So in some ways, the process began when Evalyn and Laakkuluk met on on the ship in 2012 and in other ways it began in early 2017 when Evalyn, Elysha, and I went to Laakkuluk’s home in Iqaluit and started making something new together.

LAAKULUK WILLIAMSON BATHORY: Evalyn and I found each other on the ship and almost immediately clung to each other, as we found the atmosphere on board so patriarchal, colonial, classist. We recognized each other right away as politically-motivated artists. It was a great coincidence that we both use our respective art forms as a way of conveying our political views… and the common denominator in our art forms is the stage.

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EVALYN PARRY: It’s a super long story! Contrary to Erin’s telling, I had already written the piece To Live in the Age of Melting: Northwest Passage before I went on the Arctic expedition where I met Laakkuluk.

In fact, it was researching and writing that piece that made me want to go to the Arctic. One of the first evenings on the expedition, everyone gathered together for community time, and Laaakklulk performed her mask dance (uaajeerneq), and I was completely captivated and blown away. Later in the trip, during another community gathering on the ship, I performed my Northwest Passage song, and Laakkuluk came up to me afterward and expressed how much she was affected by it. So, I feel like we developed a kind of mutual recognition and respect of each other and our artistic practices over the course of the journey. We definitely made friends on that trip, but there was no talk of artistic collaboration yet.

KIINALIK FEATURES LAAKULUK’S UAAJEERNEQ AND EVALYN’S FOLKSINGING, BOTH OF WHICH HAVE PERSONAL AND CULTURAL TIES TO WHO THEY ARE AS ARTISTS AND INDIVIDUALS. WHAT WAS IT LIKE BRINGING THESE DISPARATE ELEMENTS TOGETHER? EB: From my perspective, the strength of our show lies in how each of Laakkuluk and Evalyn’s practices enrich the reading of the other’s. Because their styles are so markedly different, it was also important that we create a shared performance style and vocabulary. For me, these are the parts of the show where they perform themselves without the aid of their formal crafts—the parts where they are bare.

EP: The idea of “conversation” guided us during the making of the show, and meant that it always was about a back and forth, questions and responses, give and take. It was more about figuring out which content and what order out of what was too much material to be able to use.

EB: As Evalyn flagged, I remembered the chronology of when the original Northwest Passage song was written wrong! That came before the expedition!

Weird! Of course I know Evalyn performed that song on the ship as that happening is told in our show!

Everything else I said is true, I swear!

EB: We think of the show as a “set-list.” The order is really important in terms of how each seemingly disparate piece is understood. So it is very likely that the order of the “set list” will change when we do the show in the North because the baseline understandings are so different for those audiences.

EP: When I returned home, the trip took me a long time to digest—I felt profoundly changed and unsettled by the whole experience. A year after the expedition, Laakkuluk came through Toronto, and we had a chance to see each other and talk more about what the trip had been for both of us.

We talked then for the first time about the idea of collaborating together on a project that addressed this relationship between North and South; we devised a series of questions that I would ask people in Toronto, and she would ask people in Iqaluit.

I came to the realization that if what I was really committed to was looking at this “idea of north” from a more balanced perspective, then I could not be the singular narrator and creator. This now seems like a very obvious thing, but it wasn’t actually obvious to me at first. I didn’t know what would happen when we were in the room together, but I knew it would be cool, and something that would be totally different .

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE WORKSHOP IN IQALUIT IN 2017. WHAT CRYSTALLIZED ABOUT THE SHOW AT THAT STAGE OF ITS JOURNEY? EP: Working in Iqaluit was essential to creating the show for so many reasons. First and foremost, it was a chance for the core team to experience Laakkuluk’s community first-hand; to work on this show “about the north” in the north. She took us to her cabin down in Frobisher Bay for the weekend— we drove skidoos and spent the weekend off the grid. It was April; still deep snow, frozen bay, minus 20; spring in Iqaluit that felt like winter to us. It was important to Laakkuluk that we have this experience of the land, that we see and feel her life and context and community. Looking back, I can’t imagine how we could have made the piece without that shared experience.

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LWB: I would add that it is so important to incorporate the light of the Arctic into a show like ours. The physical light—sun bouncing off the snow and ice, the pillowy darkness at night—as well as the social lightness. I only half-joked with the cast and crew about doing things “Iqaluit-style,” where things are less formal, less single-purposed, more improvised. The lightness of being together as family and friends.

NEW SUPPORT FOR TOURING For almost a decade, Buddies began actively pursuing touring as a way of spreading our mandate to communities that do not have the same access to queer culture as Torontonians.

In these eight years, we’ve mounted five national tours including stops in Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

KIINALIK HAS AN EXCITING FUTURE AHEAD! WHAT DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO IN BRINGING THE SHOW TO NEW AUDIENCES IN IQALUIT, VANCOUVER, AND MONTREAL? EP: We are all committed to keep this piece in conversation—with where we are, as well as what else is happening in the world. I’m looking forward to how the show will continue to evolve.

Touring is a key way in which we grow our mandate and allow the work that spent years being developed to have a longer life and engage with bigger audiences. With stops at key international marketplaces planned for the coming year and our touring programs continuing to grow, we welcomed Chris Reynolds to the company in 2018 in the newly created position of Manager of Touring.

EB: I think performatively that uaajeerneq was the most radical part of the show in the South—because most audience members had never experienced it!

But this isn’t true in the North. So, I’m really curious as to what will surprise and provoke people most there. What people are experiencing, learning, and thinking about will be different. The South has a lot of catching up to do, so I’m curious about the difference between a Southern audience taking in new knowledge versus a Northern audience receiving what they know very well through a new lens.

Chris comes to Buddies with a wealth of experience in industry and market development, including eight years in the performing arts department at Harbourfront Centre and more recently as the producer of the SummerWorks Festival’s Exchange program.

LWB: One aspect of the Iqaluit show that I am really looking forward to is the mentorship we are going to be offering to Inuit youth while we work on remounting and presenting Kiinalik. I feel like we are giving the most immersive performance and conversation possible within the world of Kiinalik by having youth following our work before we go on stage, behind the stage, and beyond.

“I’M REALLY EXCITED TO BE JOINING THE TEAM AT BUDDIES, TO HELP HARNESS THE MOMENTUM ACHIEVED THROUGH SEVERAL NATIONAL TOURS OVER RECENT YEARS, AND ENABLE MORE BUDDIES PRODUCTIONS TO REACH NEW AUDIENCES ACROSS CANADA, AND VENTURE FOR THE FIRST TIME TO COUNTRIES IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.” First up for Chris will be a national tour of Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools and a visit to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to explore international touring opportunities.

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A YEAR OF PARTNERSHIPS OUR 2017-18 SEASON WAS A YEAR MARKED BY NEW AND UNCONVENTIONAL PARTNERSHIPS THAT ALLOWED US TO EXPAND OUR PROGRAMMING, SUPPORT MORE QUEER ARTISTS, AND CONNECT WITH NEW COMMUNITIES.

THEATRE PASSE MURAILLE It is almost unheard of in our city for two venued companies to partner on a project, but in this case we partnered on two. There is often more amazing work to produce in a year than any one company has the resources to execute – so we embarked on an experiment to co-produce two shows as part of our 2017-18 Seasons. The partnership began in the fall with the production of Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools and continued in the new year with a production of Bilal Baig’s Acha Bacha at Theatre Passe Muraille’s main stage on Queen Street West.

NATIVE EARTH PERFORMING ARTS For the second year in a row, we partnered with Native Earth Performing Arts to present the 2-Spirit Cabaret as part of their Weesageechak Begins to Dance Festival in November. As the need for intersectional considerations around how we make queer art becomes increasingly pressing, the partnership between our two companies offers a unique opportunity to foster the development of queer and 2-Spirit Indigenous creative voices.

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ROSENEATH THEATRE Roseneath has a well-deserved reputation for creating contemporary, socially relevant theatre for young audiences, but since they primarily present their work inside public schools the general public rarely gets a chance to see it. When they were invited to present Outside (Paul Dunn’s Dora-nomianted play about bullying and homophobia) just around the corner at Jarvis Collegiate, we got an idea. Working together, we presented a week of shows playing during the day and in the evening at our theatre allowing local students and adults alike a rare chance to see this moving piece of theatre.

PRIDE TORONTO Our 2018 Queer Pride Festival saw a significant step forward in our ongoing partnership with Pride Toronto.

For the first time in over a decade, Buddies took the reigns of the outdoor stage in Alexander Street Parkette during the main festival weekend at the end of June. Working with Vancouver-based curator Katie Sly, we presented two full days of community programming including a Bi-Arts cabaret and a mini-festival of work by trans and gender diverse artists.

(TOP LEFT) Matt Nethersole and Qasim Khan in Acha Bacha; photo by Michael Cooper.

(BOTTOM LEFT) Michaela Wasburn hosting the 2-Spirit Cabret; photo by John Packman.

(TOP RIGHT) G Kyle Shields, Mina James, and Giacomo Sellar in Outside; photo by Jake Jamieson.

(BOTTOM RIGHT) Transfest; photo by Katie Sly.

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THE 39TH RHUBARB FESTIVAL THE COUNTRY’S LONGEST-RUNNING NEW WORKS FESTIVAL CAME BACK FOR A 39TH EDITION IN FEBRUARY. AS ALWAYS, IT WAS AN EXPERIMENTAL PLAYGROUND, WHERE AUDIENCES AND ARTISTS EXPLORED NEW POSSIBILITIES IN PERFORMANCE.

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LEFT PAGE (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP)

Angry Album Launch by Too Attached; The Worst Thing I Could Be (is Happy) by Alena Eli Belena, Ley Dore, Tori Morrison, and Phillip Nozuka; Gashkigwaaso by Waawaate Fobister; Deaf That! by Tamykla Bullen, Ralista Rodriguez, and Sage Willow.

RIGHT PAGE (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT)

Pearle Harbour’s Battle Cry by Justin Miller; Ostros Rostros by Diana Lopez Soto; Missdick Vibrosis by Lorene Bouboushian and Jill Flanagan; Shades by Esie Mensah. All photos by Dahlia Katz.

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THE BUDDIES YOUTH ENSEMBLE

The Buddies Youth Ensemble in Clamorous Concords; photo by Greg Wong.

Our youth program continued to grow and change throughout our 2017-18 Season – most notably with the Incite Workshop Series, an expanded program of free drop in training and performance opportunities for queer artists.

Based on a participant-driven model of education and skill-sharing developed during The Youth / Elders Project, this program offered free programming every Wednesday for queer youth and emerging artists that included arts training, social justice education, intergenerational activities, guest artist workshops, and more. This evolution of our arts education program is just the latest in a series of changes that respond to the evolving landscape of our queer communities and an increased need for the type of opportunities we are uniquely positioned to provide.

“THE ATMOSPHERE IN THE ROOM HAS MADE ME FEEL SAFE AND SUPPORTED AND ABLE TO BE CREATIVE IN A WAY I HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED BEFORE.” “THIS GAVE ME THE OPPORTUNITY AND TOOLS TO WORK ON SELF CONFIDENCE IN MY ART PRACTICE AND PERSONAL LIFE. I’M IN LOVE WITH THE COMMUNITY BUILDING ASPECT OF THE PROGRAM.” “THE FLEXIBILITY TO BECOME AS INVOLVED (OR NOT) AS WE WANTED OR WERE ABLE TO AND THE EMPHASIS ON CREATING A “SAFER” SPACE TO CREATE AND EXPRESS. I LEARNED THAT I CAN BE GENTLER WITH MYSELF AND MY WORK WHILE SILL HOLDING MYSELF ACCOUNTABLE.”

The program saw over 250 people coming out to events throughout the year.

“I’M NEW HERE AND IT FELT LIKE A NICE WAY TO CONNECT AND POTENTIALLY FIND COLLABORATORS AND GET INVOLVED”

In the spring, a select group of program participants formed the Buddies Youth Ensemble and presented a year-end showcase of their work at our Queer Pride Festival in June.

“LEARNING TO BE MORE CONFIDENT IN MYSELF. LEARNING HOW TO CONNECT WITH MYSELF AND OTHERS. EACH AND EVERY SESSION WAS MY FAVOURITE PART.”

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QUEER EMERGING ARTIST AWARD In the summer, we announced performer, theatre creator, and filmmaker Monica Garrido as the winner of the fifth annual Buddies Queer Emerging Artist Award.

“WE WERE IMPRESSED BY MONICA’S INVOLVEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN QUEER AND LATINX COMMUNITIES, AND BY THE OVERTLY QUEER PERSPECTIVE THAT SHE BRINGS TO HER WORK IN THEATRE, FILM, AND COMEDY”, -Evalyn Parry.

A multidisciplinary performer, creator, and producer, Monica’s work creates space for storytelling and representation in both the queer and Latinx communities. Monica created her solo piece, The Cunning Linguist, as part the Buddies Emerging Creators Unit in 2015, which has since gone on to the Queer Acts Festival in Halifax (where it won the audience choice award) and Aluna Theatre’s Caminos Festival. She also brings her unique voice to Toronto’s comedy scene in her work with Bad Dog’ Theatre’s troupes The Kweendom and Kinsey Fail. This year, she was also awarded the Diversity Fellowship at the Second City, which highlights the best and brightest new voices in comedy.

Her comedy and improv work has been seen at festivals including Blockbuster Weekend, Combustion Festival, and the Ottawa Improv Festival. Two of Monica’s short films, Love You to Death and Diferente, were presented as part of the Inside Out Festival’s official selection. Monica’s Latinx drag king band, Boiband the Boyband have performed at the Rhubarb Festival and the Toronto Fringe Festival.

Queer Emerging Artist Award winniner Monica Garrido.

Our Queer Emerging Artist Award seeks to recognize and encourage the achievements of queer artists who are founding careers in the arts while engaging with the community. The winner is selected annually by a panel of adjudicators comprised of the current and former Artistic Directors of the company: Evalyn Parry, Brendan Healy, David Oiye, Sarah Garton Stanley, and Sky Gilbert. The award includes a $1,000 cash prize, made possible by a gift from the Estate of John Alan Lee. 16

A NEW ROOF FOR BUDDIES IN THE SUMMER OF 2018, WE COMPLETED A TWO-YEAR BUILDING RENOVATION PROJECT WITH THE INSTALLATION OF A NEW, NON-LEAKING(!), ENERGY-SAVING ROOF OVER OUR MAIN THEATRE SPACE, THE CHAMBER. THIS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF OUR INCREDIBLE COMMUNITY WHO STEPPED UP TO SUPPORT THIS IMPORTANT PROJECT. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR GENEROUS GIFTS AND FOR HELPING BUDDIES STAND STRONG FOR GENERATIONS TO COME. GOVERNMENT PARTNERS The City of Toronto The Government of Canada

LEAD DONORS Gerry Asselstine Lawrence Bennett Kate Bishop + Doug Gerhart Martha Burns William Doyle Entertainment Partners Canada Inc. In memory of Ron Gordon Tim Jones + Taylor Raths Mardi Matthews James Tennyson

DONORS Francisco Alvarez Dave Anderson Sophie Patricia Andrews Jade Armstrong Elliott-Armstrong Family In memory of Nuzhat Barakzai William Alexander Barclay Katie Barnes Jim Bartley Lynn Bayer Justen Bennett Eric Bianchini Sherry Bie In honour of Derek Billsman Anna Booth Adrian Borrmann Christine Bougie In memory of Peter Buongiovanni Jr. Sonya Bourgeois Paul Breckenridge Paul Brownlee Nathalie Brunet Hamish Buchanan Steven M. Bush Naomi Campbell Shari Campbell Trevor Carrier Dora Catalarranas Denis Charette Shannon Charnock Sheila Chevalier Ken Chow Katherine Chung James Clark Russell Connelly Catherine Cookman In memory of Michael W. R. Davey Elisabeth Davies James Davis Heather Debruyn Caroline de Klerk

Nathalie Demeyer Julie DI Sensi Tom Diamond Paul Dilley Christopher Douglas Andrew Dunn Bryan Eaton David C. Eden Christopher Evans Andrew Evenchick Daymara Excel Angela Facundo Susan Feldman Ira Fich In memory of Rob Flack Allegra Fulton Kathryn Gardner Andrew Gillespie Tyler Gledhill Gillian Glover Scott Godwin Barbara Goss Rochelle Grandmont Josh Grant Bradley Greaves Brendan Green Cher Green Joan Green Chester Gryski Amanda Hale Sabah Haque Charles Hayter + Mark Tan Hamlet In A Hot Tub Brendan Healy Brian J. Henderson Janet Hill Kevin Ho William Hodge + Robert Wylie Andrea Houston Brian Hui Frankie Hung Kishwar Iqbal Derek Irwin Karie Johnston Benjamin Kaasa Ian Kamm Indrit Kasapi Shawn Kerwin Judith Killoran Daniel Kinrys Robert Knight Cassidy Kobewka Pam Koch Darlene Koczkur Charlotte Labelle Grit + Judith Laskin Debra S. Lary Sean Lawler Andrew Leak Jeffrey Ledrew Craig Lee

Grant Lehmann Michael Levesque Anne Lindsay Bradley Lister Aylwin Lo Edward Lobb Rachel Long Alex Lukey Harriet Lyons Cameron MacLeod Mathieu Marcil Mathieu Maslard David Matarasso Maria Matvichuk Madryn McCabe In memory of Ken McDougall Josh McGill Scott McGuirk R N. McKenzie Robert McKenzie Duncan McLaren Manuel Mendelzon Christopher Miller Aarin Miller Neal Miller Darcie Milliken Jeremy Mimnagh Nikki Mitchell Brandon Moore Aidan Morishita-Miki Costa Nassar Therese Noren Edward Nowina Hanan Paikin Adam Paolozza John Pariselli Jacob Parnell Soheil Parsa Andrew Paterson Margaret Pavlac David Pearce Adam Peer Jacqueline Peeters Robyn Percival Kenneth Percy Meagan Perry Timothy Pinnell Drew Post Anne Powell + Nan Carruthers Timothy Prentice Michelle Ramsay Martha Randall Edmund Reid Andrea Roberts Ricky Rodrigues Stuart Rogers Andrew Ross Nadia Ross Justin Russ Jenni Sager Marlow Salmon

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Brian Sambourne in memory of Jim Elder Silvia Samsa In honour of The Scandelles Brandi Schade Birgit Schreyer Duarte Rohan Sharma Wendy Shaw Sarah Sheffe Sahar Sherry Reut Shilton John Shipman Ilana Simaie Tinu Sinha In honour of Sissy Saturday Clare Smyth Marnie Sohn Jean-Francois Soucy Sarah Garton Stanley Barbara Stewart Richard Sutton Rick Sutton Charles Hayter + Mark Tan Wayne Thomas Neil Thomlinson Suzanne Thompson Tanja-Tiziana Nazbah Tom Link Tong Keith Trent-Rennick Rose Tuong Armen Ungemach University of Waterloo, Drama Gail Vanstone Frank Vetere Phil Villeneuve David Walberg Roger Watson Oz Weaver Grant Wedge Joan Weed Brett Willemsen Sara J. Wilmshurst Anthony Wilson In memory of Tracy Wright Beth Wong Adrian Zeyl Luke Zhou

RESIDENCY SHOWCASE + INTENSIVE

Leah Lewis in The Dualysis Project, photo by Dahlia Katz

2017-18 ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE

IT WAS ANOTHER BANNER YEAR FOR OUR NEW WORKS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.

BRUCE GIBBONS FELL

LULU v.7 // aspects of a femme fatale became the eighth Residency project to premiere on our main stage since the program launched in 2010. We welcomed new projects from the Switch Collective and from Newfoundland-based artist Leah Lewis to the program, continued to develop projects with Jenna Harris and Pandemic Theatre, and at the end of the year we announced Bruce Gibbons Fell as our latest Playwright in Residence.

The Communist Manifesto for Children

JENNA HARRIS Mine

LEAH LEWIS + ROBERT CHAFE The Dialysis Project

Most notably, thanks to a generous gift from the Paul Butler and Chris Black Foundation at the Toronto Foundation, we hosted our first-ever Residency Intensive and Showcase in the spring of 2018. This allowed us to dedicate full two weeks where artists took over the entire building to develop their work and showcase their process for our audience at public readings and workshop performances. This marked a significant step forward for the program, further formalizing our dedication to new work development and allowing the public a chance to connect with Buddies artists at new points in their creative process.

THE SWITCH COLLECTIVE Switch The Village

JOHNNIE WALKER + PANDEMIC THEATRE Shove It Down My Throat

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FINANCIALS It was another great year for Buddies, financially. Thanks to a 74% increase to our annual operating funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, a 19% increase in fundraising revenues, and a stablization of bar revenues (which had been declining for several years), Buddies posted a $64,000 surplus in 2017-18. The surplus will be used to finish replenishing our working capital reserves and make further investments in building repairs and improvements in the upcoming years.

Of note is an increase in fundraising expenses. This is the result of a grant from the Lawrence Family Foundation that is allowing us to build our fundraising capacity. During the 2017-18 fiscal year, we worked with the consulting firm KCI to build a revenue generation plan, conduct stakeholder consultations, and identify some key resource investments. While we expect expenses to remain at this level for the forseable future, we are confident that fundraising revenues will rise over the coming years to a level that reestablishes our historical cost per dollar raised.

NOTE: Not included in these numbers are revenues and expenses (approximately $950,000) related to our Capital Improvement Project, which we were required to keep track of separately.

Audited financial statements for the numbers below are available at buddiesinbadtimes.com/AnnualReport

REVENUES - $1,650,179 GOVERNMENT GRANTS 43% FUNDRAISING 22% TICKET SALES + VENUE RENTAL 19% BAR SALES 16%

EXPENSES - $1,577,202 ARTISTIC FEES + SALARIES 44% PRODUCTION COSTS 24% ADMINISTRATION + MAINTENANCE 10% MARKETING + COMMUNICATIONS 9% BAR COSTS 8% FUNDRAISING 5% 19

THE COMPANY Artistic Director EVALYN PARRY Managing Director SHAWN DAUDLIN Head of Production CHARISSA WILCOX Director of Development + Communications MARK AIKMAN Artistic Associate: New Work Development + Festival Director MEL HAGUE Emerging Creators Unit Director CATHERINE HERNANDEZ * Playwright in Residence BRUCE GIBBONS FELL ** Technical Director ADRIEN WHAN Marketing + Outreach Manager AIDAN MORISHITA-MIKI Manager of Touring CHRIS REYNOLDS Development Coordinator SABAH HAQUE Box Office/FOH Manager STEPHANIE MALEK Assistant Box Office/FOH Manager JOHN CJ MURPHY Chamber Technician AMBER PATTISON Cabaret Technician STEPH RAPOSO Finance Manager CYNTHIA MURDY Bar Manager PATRICIA WILSON Asst. Bar manager GLENN DWYER Box Office Representatives JULIE BERGEVIN, DANIEL BOWEN, SAM CHAULK, KATHERINE GORMEK, MONICA GARRIDO, MATTHEW GAWLEY, BROCK HESSEL, CERIDWEN KINGSTONE, LUCIA LINARES LEON, CURTIS TE BRINK Bar Personnel CHARLIE BOUYS, CLAIRE BURNS, CORSER DUPONT

BOARD OF DIRECTORS BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE ELLIOT SMITH (chair)

THE ALEXANDER STREET THEATRE PROJECT

MARY BREEN (past chair)

RUSSELL MATHEW (president)

BECK MCNEIL (treasurer)

BECK MCNEIL (secretary treasurer)

KAI WA YAPP (secretary)

KRISTYN WONG-TAM

JIM LAWRENCE, ANDREA RIDGLEY, JAMIE SLATER, LOUIS TSILIVIS, CATHRIN WINKELMANN

* a partnership with b current performing arts ** position funded by the Canada Council for the Arts 20

OUR COMMUNITY OF SUPPORTERS LEAD CORPORATE SPONSOR

CORPORATE PARTNERS

LEGACY CIRCLE Anonymous Ed Cabell + Roy Forrester John Alan Lee Russell Mathew + Scott Ferguson Richard McLellan Jim Robertson + Jim Scott

FESTIVAL SPONSOR + EDUCATION PARTNER

VISIONARIES Paul Butler + Chris Black Brian Gibson + Terry MacPhee Jim Lawrence + David Salak Gerald Lunz + Rick Mercer Russell Mathew + Scott Ferguson

MEDIA PARTNER

BENEFACTORS

PUBLIC AGENCIES COMMUNITY PARTNERS

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

FOUNDATIONS

Gerry Asselstine Ken Aucoin + Gerald Crowell Lawrence Bennett Derek Billsman Michael Boyuk Martha Burns Ed Cabell + Roy Forrester Bob Gallagher Mark German Craig Hanson William Hodge + Robert Wylie Mardi Matthews Martha McCain Stephen McGregor + Tony De Franco Ken Moffatt The NigE Gough Shine On Foundation Jason Oord Mark Peacock Mark Pratt Jim Robertson + Jim Scott Debra Shime + Michele Lent Elliot Smith + Jonathan Steels John Stanley + Helmut Reichenbacher James Tennyson Brian Terry Ayse Turak Jaime Woo

CHAMPIONS Kate Bishop + Doug Gerhart Sheila Lynn Cavanagh In honour of Ed Cabell + Roy Forrester William Doyle Sebastien Fauvel The Charlie + Lulu Franklin Fund at the Calgary Foundation Darren Gobert Paul Hartwick Andrew Horberry Richard Isaac Karim Karsan + John Rider Mandy McNeil + Beck McNeil Brian Mossop Pearse Murray Evalyn Parry Brian Sambourne Jamie Slater Louis Tsilivis Lucinda Wallace + Lesley Fraser J. Wilkie + R. Kong Kai Wa Yapp

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MONTHLY DONORS Cole Alvis in honour of René Highway Ken Aucoin + Gerald Crowell Michel Beauvais Derek Billsman Richard Bingham Dr. Kym Bird Mary Breen Ed Cabell + Roy Forrester Betty Carlyle Sheila Lynn Cavanagh Donna Daitchman Evalyn Parry Barbara Fingerote Danny Glenwright George Grant Barry Higgins William Hodge + Robert Wylie Matthew Hyams Daria Ilkina Joshua Jacobs Karim Karsan + John Rider Tom Keogh + Paul McClure Paul Klein Kim Koyama Jim Lawrence Bradley Lister Dr. Ben Louie Gilles Marchildon Richard McLellan Mandy McNeil + Beck McNeil Lawrence Moore Thompson Nguyen Philip Nozuka Evalyn Parry Charles Pavia Wes D. Pearce Rui Pires Ingrid Randoja Susanna Reid Megan Richards + Abi Slone Andrea Ridgley Jim Robertson + Jim Scott Mitsuko Sada Jayne Schneider Jamie Slater Elliot Smith + Jonathan Steels David Steinberg Peter Taylor Lionel Tona Louis Tsilivis Ayse Turak Cathrin Winkelmann Jaime Woo

FRIENDS + PARTNERS Mark Aikman Annette Aitken Cole Alvis in honour of René Highway Anonymous A. Karmali + D. Arcand Lindsay Barton Michel Beauvais Neil Betteridge Craig Binning Dr. Kym Bird Charles Blaquière Denise Bolduc Steffany Bowen Steph Braithwaite Mary Breen Betty Carlyle Anne Cayer Terrence Clark Dan Cooperstock Catherine Cornell Jan Cornish + Laurie Reid Kim Cousins Michel G. Crete In memory of Jonathan Crombie Laurence Dabin Donna Daitchman Jefferson Darrel Anonymous Arthur Day Carol Dilworth Alan Dingle Michel D’orsonnens Kathryn Grace Emslie Mira Fabian Leah Faieta Anonymous Dennis Findlay Barbara Fingerote Steve Fisher Patty Fleming Lorne Fox Blair Francey David Gale Brian Gardiner Danny Glenwright Luba Goy George Grant Jeff Hammond Shira Hart Norman Hatton Kathryn Heller-McRoberts Mark Henderson David M. Hendrie Jonathan Heppner Barry Higgins Keith J Holland E Hood Andrea Houston Tom Hutchinson Matthew Hyams Daria Ilkina Joshua Jacobs Kent James Tammi Jamison Jeffesron Darrell Tom Keogh + Paul McClure Susan Keri in honour of Lauren Mayer Kevin Keystone Paul Klein Eric Koeck Kim Koyama William Laskin Bradley Lister

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Dr. Ben Louie Don Love Michelle MacArthur Cameron MacLeod Bruce MacTaggart Jessica Manley Gilles Marchildon Ken Marple Bob Martel Brian McBurney Helen + Don McGillivray Richard McLellan Marc Michell Lawrence Moore Robert Morassutti Aidan Morishita-Miki Joseph Mulder Katy Murphy Pearse Murray Jennifer Neales Blake Neill Thompson Nguyen Philip Nozuka Charles Pavia Wes D. Pearce Sondra Petit Rui Pires valerie phelps Brian Postalian Heather Ramsay Michelle Ramsay Ingrid Randoja Scott Rayter Susanna Reid Andrea Ridgley Gary Rogers Anonymous Anonymous Mitsuko Sada Jayne Schneider Adam Seelig Stacey Shannon Michael Silver Colin Simmons Anonymous Jamie Slater Sparksy Steven Spencer Sarah Garton Stanley David Steinberg Heidi Strauss Andra Takacs Peter Taylor Jasmine Thibault Suzanne Thorpe Lionel Tona Chris Tsujiuchi Blair Voyvodic Randy Weinstein Feliks Welfeld Cathrin Winkelmann Anonymous Hersh Zeifman Suzy Zucker

Listed donations for July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018