The Toronto Fringe Festival is so excited for this line up of 6 incredible shows, all poised and ready for their next stage of development and presentation. Within all of their themes and scripts are explorations of what it means to be ourselves in relation to our communities, society, and the universe that contains us all.

Next Stage was originally created in 2008 as a way to give promising productions from the Toronto Fringe Festival a more supported and elevated producing platform. Over the years, we have broadened the festival mandate and now encourage any creatives with Fringe or similar producing experience to apply to Next Stage.

Unlike the Fringe which selects all its shows by lottery, Next Stage is a curated festival. Thanks to our 2024 curators Lucy Eveleigh, Laura Paduch, Derrick Chua, Virgilia Griffith, and Indrit Kasapi for putting together this exciting line up.

Learn more about the 6 productions below, and mark your calendars for September 18 when tickets and passes go on sale!

The 17th annual

Next Stage Theatre Festival

October 16-27, 2024

at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

What's playing at Next Stage 2024:

CIVILIZED

CIVILIZED Productions

William Blank is back from the dead and talking to Canadians!! He's here to convince YOU of the civilizing influence of government backed Residential Schools. Using songs, jokes, poetry, and sound bites from his days in Sir Wilfrid Laurier's government, Blank will defend the lawless...FLAWLESS...flawless schools they created. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

Playwright Keir Cutler

Cast John D. Huston

Co-Directors Paul Hopkins, Jay Havens

Set & Costume Designer Jay Havens

GEMINI

Defiance Theatre

She’s a bartender. He’s a regular. They have nothing in common except they're both there...every day. With bar games, pop culture, and a crash course through the generational divide, grab a drink and get tied up in the laugh-out-loud bonds of dependency and boredom. Part fairytale, part cautionary tale, GEMINI is an “uncannily seductive two-hander” (Liz Nicholls).

Playwright Louise Casemore

Cast Louise Casemore, Vern Thiessen

Directors Mitchell Cushman, Chantelle Han

Producer Scott Garland

Stage Manager Pip Bradford

I Was Unbecoming Then

Unbecoming Collective

An intimate new musical mixing hormones and harmonies.

In a high school music room in North Vancouver in 2006, twelve teenage girls practice and perfect their parts, desperate to please their male choral director. Weaving confessional monologues, choral songs, and scenes together, this show is a funny and perverse look at the territory of teenage girlhood.

Playwright Lyndsey Bourne

Music Sam Kaseta

Director Ilana Khanin

Music Director Alexa Belgrave

Cast Olivia Daniels, Tkaia Green, Lara Hamburg, Anikka Hanson, Thea Mae Hesler, Shannon Murtagh, Riel Reddick-Stevens, Grace Rockett, Yunike Soedarmasto, Lizzie Song, Jenn Tan, Miranda Wiseman, Ellyse Wolter

The Noose

Abigail Whitney Productions

Two Haitian immigrants, a middle class intellectual and a peasant, share a basement apartment in 1980s New York City.

Ensue odd couple clashes, class conflicts, ideological jousts, in fast paced and colourful exchanges filled with humour and pathos. The two protagonists and antagonists ultimately realize they are both engaged in the same transcendent quest for human dignity. Casting aside their class and ideological differences, they join forces in a common struggle against an oppressive and exploitative system that threatens to crush their shared humanity.

Playwright Frankétienne

Translation from Haitian Creole Dr. Asselin Charles

Director & Producer Abigail Whitney

Cast Edmond Clark, Louco St. Fleur

PRUDE

Probably Theatre Collective

PRUDE is a hilarious, high-energy blend of stand-up and drag. It begins as a motivational talk, given to the audience by the King of the Party, there to show everyone HOW TO HAVE A GOOD TIME. Slowly, through lip-syncs and mortifying personal tales, we watch them unravel onstage, digging into the complex experience of being asexual in an (allo)sexual world.

Creator & Performer Lou Campbell (they/them)

Stage Manager Dylan Tate-Howarth (she/her)

Director Stevey Hunter (they/them)

Sound Designer Peter Sarty (he/him)

Costume Designer Everette Fournier (they/them, he/him)

This Feels Like The End

Theatre Aurinko

One morning, all over the world, the sun doesn’t rise. Or the next morning. Or the next.

Faith, folklore, and conspiracy all come to a head when five individuals, between Toronto and Finland’s far north, seek answers in a world that keeps spinning on...even after what feels like the end.

Playwright Bonnie Duff

Director Michelle Blight

Stage Manager Sabrina Weinstein

Cast Cameron Laurie, Jasmine Case, Landon Nesbitt, Tara Koehler, Bonnie Duff

For more information visit fringetoronto.com.