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The Rhubarb Festival
February 8–18, 2024

“A Toronto Theatre institution”

— XTRA

Back for its 45th year, Rhubarb transforms Buddies into a hotbed of experimentation, with artists challenging our notions of what art-making and art-watching can be. As Canada’s longest-running new works festival, Rhubarb is the place to encounter the most adventurous ideas in performance and to catch familiar and unfamiliar artists venturing into uncharted territory. 

This year’s festival continues to push boundaries with a curated selection of one-of-a-kind presentations. Curated by an Artist Committee including daniel jelani ellis (Obsidian Theatre), Leelee Oluwatyosi Eko Davis (TO Love-In), Ludmylla Reis (Buddies in Bad Times), and Jordan Campbell [STARLIGHT] (xLq, SummerWorks), under the leadership of Rhubarb Artistic Producer Sue Balint, this year’s festival promises to be a celebration of experimentation and queer audacity in the true spirit of Buddies.

 

Programming Partners

Toronto Dance Community Love-In logo

Summerworks logo

 

 

 

 

 

illustration by mitch duncan
graphic design by Awake Studio

See more, spend less.

Earn Buddies Rewards when you buy tickets to this show through our Buddies Rewards program.

Rhubarb 2024 runs February 8-18, starting at 7PM each night, 2PM on Sunday, with late nights starting at 10:30PM. Your ticket gets you into everything happening that day at Rhubarb, including the special presentations, installations, and parties.

Schedule at a Glance

Throughout the festival

Tanya Marquardt Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep

Thursday, February 8, 7PM

Tanya Marquardt Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep Installation Opening Event (6PM)
isi bhakhomen Mami
Nickeshia GarrickFind Your Rhythm
Brigita GedgaudasBe Vardų Be Kojų
Stephen Jackman-TorkoffDie Phantasie

Friday, February 9, 7PM

Stephen Jackman-TorkoffDie Phantasie
Elizabeth Staples Chez Moi
Young-in-Craft Cabaret (featuring Cloud, Valentine Leger, Anthony Palermo, Sindi Pinari, Ashley T, and Evan Webb, hosted by xLq)***

Saturday, February 10, 7PM

Brigita GedgaudasBe Vardų Be Kojų
Nickeshia Garrick
Find Your Rhythm
Michael Martini What if Hansel Consented to Being Baked Alive?
Emile Pineault + Gabriel Cholette rock bottom
Thirst Nation: Chill, curated by Tygr Willy, featuring Madam Ode’miin Surprise, Nicole Joy Fraser, Ravyn Wngz, Rhinestone Chickadee, Savage Moon, and more, and music by DJs Yamari and Ziibiwan (10:30PM)

Sunday, February 11, 2PM

Coffee & Conversation, hosted by Ludmylla Reis (12-1PM)^

Michael Martini What if Hansel Consented to Being Baked Alive?
Elizabeth Staples Chez Moi

Wednesday, February 14, 1PM

Jaye Kovach I don’t want to see or be seen by cis people (The Workshop)*

Thursday, February 15, 7PM

Jaye Kovach I don’t want to see or be seen by cis people (The Performance/T4T Party)

Friday, February 16, 7PM

S.E. Grummett Nude Parade (work-in-progress)
Künst Kids (Kurt Cumstain, Full Blown Father, Kasper the Queer Ghost, T.S. Kunterpunt, and Ms. G.) and special guests Vridhhi Chaudhry and Jan Jennings***
Lester Trips (Theatre) HONEY I’M HOME
Tanya Marquardt Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep – Digital Experience Day 1**

Saturday, February 17, 7PM

Ranganathan RajanPhase Colloid (4-9PM)
Lester Trips (Theatre) HONEY I’M HOME
Jian YiMagic Theatre – [scenes from the unconscious]
Tanya Marquardt — Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep – Digital Experience Day 2

Amateur Strip Night Judged by Drag Things (10:30PM)

Sunday, February 18, 2PM

Coffee & Conversation, hosted by Ludmylla Reis (12-1PM)^

Roberto Soria Fragrance 0
Jian YiMagic Theatre – [scenes from the unconscious]
Tanya Marquardt — Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep – Digital Experience Day 3


*This is a very limited-capacity workshop. Fill out this form to register.

** Free tickets are available for the digital offering of Tanya Marquardt’s Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep. Click here to book yours.

***PWYC admission available for 9PM (Friday Cabaret start time)

^ See Industry Series + Coffee & Conversation Tab for more info

Week One // February 8-11

isi bhakhomen

Mami

THURSDAY

Drawing inspiration from Victoria Santa Cruz’s spoken word poem, Me Gritaron Negra!, this solo performance delves into intergenerational curses between mothers and daughters.

isi bhakhomen // Writer + performer
desirée leverenz // Director

Kalale Dalton-Lutale // Dramaturg
Alejandra Nuñez // Sound Designer
Mathew Robert-Nuñez // Assistant Sound Designer

FIND THEM ON

the internet

photo by Isabel Okoro

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Nickeshia Garrick 

Image of Rhubarb artist Nickeshia Garrick on stage. Nickeshia is facing away, holding a piece of paper. Pieces of paper are scattered in a semi-circle along the edge of the stage space.

Find Your Rhythm

THURSDAY + SATURDAY

Find Your Rhythm is a multidisciplinary work that incorporates original music, contemporary dance, text and delves into the Akashic Records. Nickeshia Garrick invites the audience into a sea of dyed pages, asking: why are you here?; what matters to you most?; who is writing your story?; and are you finding your rhythm?

Nickeshia Garrick  // Creator, Composer, Performer
Michael Mortley // Costume Designer

Content warning: smoke/fog, audience participation

FIND THEM ON

Facebook | Instagram 

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Brigita Gedgaudas

Be Vardų Be Kojų

THURSDAY + SATURDAY

Be Vardų, Be Kojų (Without Names, Without Legs) is an ongoing investigation of queer futures in the Lithuanian folk dance tradition. This iteration is realized as a performative, interactive projection. Translating human movement through live motion capture with glitched photograms made from 3D scanning dancers, this piece imagines and creates space for queerness in both folk dance tradition and Lithuanian culture.

By Brigita Gedgaudas

FIND THEM ON

Instagram | the internet

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Stephen Jackman-Torkoff

Die Phantasie

THURSDAY + FRIDAY

Die Phantasie is a poetic dreamscape odyssey into the heart of a poet wandering through the hedonistic liberation of Berlin. But their world is torn inside out when their brother dies in Toronto and they sink into the centre of the earth. An offbeat, sad, strange, and hilarious piece that breaks and reforms every time it is performed, Die Phantasie is a fool’s journey filled with unbridled sexuality and immense grief. Enter the Portal.

Stephen Jackman-Torkoff  // Creator/Performer
Johnny Spence // Musician

Content warning: Death, sexual assault, overdose

FIND THEM ON

Instagram

Elizabeth Staples

Chez Moi

FRIDAY + SUNDAY

In this solo-performance love letter to the dyke bars of Toronto, Liz Staples pays homage to Chez Moi, a jazz-lounge-converted lesbian bar. Armed with a vocal loop pedal and synth beats, a young sapphic DJ hears echoes of lesbians through time, and celebrates the people who built the spaces she dances in.

Elizabeth Staples // Creator/Performer
Jessica Zepeda // Stage Manager
steph raposo // Lighting Designer
Yolanda Bonnell // Dramaturg
leZlie lee kam // Cultural Consultant

Special thanks to: Evalyn Parry, Jordan Campbell, Sam Staples

Content warning: Mentions of homophobia and violence, swearing, haze

FIND HER ON

Instagram

photo by Tyler J Sloane

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Michael Martini

What if Hansel Consented to Being Baked Alive?

SATURDAY + SUNDAY

What are the implications when we consent to intimacy we don’t enjoy, when we are motivated by facets other than pleasure, such as money, or simple curiosity? Delving into perverse narratives combined with fairytale motifs, Michael Martini constructs a performance hybridizing text and scenography, while working with the through-line of a single prop: his own oven.

Created and performed by Michael Martini

With creation support from Playwrights Workshop Montreal

Content warning: sexually graphic descriptions, 18+

FIND HIM ON

Instagram

photo by Nicolas Biaux

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Emile Pineault + Gabriel Cholette

rock bottom

SATURDAY

reaching rock bottom, what
does it do to the body?

thinking the movement by and from
the butt, this performance

invites the audience to ex-
plore the depth of their

interiority. A desire to tell one-
self through humiliation,

to make the bottom of the barrel
a space of connection.

a movement performance

that forms an intestine
with the gut feelings of

Emile Pineault and
Gabriel Cholette

Emile Pineault // Choreography and performance
Gabriel Cholette // Text and dramaturgy
Nien Tzu Weng // Lighting design
Simon Grenier-Poirier // Sound design
Timothy Thomasson // Video design
Katie Ward, Winnie Ho // Outside hearts
Raed Moussa // Olfactory design
Darah Miah // Technical direction
François Bouvier // Production assistance
Fabien Marcil // Development Support

Creative Residencies: Salon58, Agora de la danse, Arts Printing House (LT), MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), LA SERRE – arts vivants, Parbleux.

With the support of: Conseil des arts du Canada, Conseil des arts de Montréal, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)

Content warning: Smoke, nudity, scents

FIND THEM ON

Emile Pineault
Instagram | the internet

Gabriel Cholette
Instagram

photo by Kinga Michalska

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Tanya Marquardt

Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep

THROUGHOUT THE FESTIVAL
Feb 8, 6pm: Opening event / artist talk

What would happen if our ‘waking selves’ and ‘sleeping selves’ met, conversed, and maybe even healed? This digital/analogue performance by sleeptalker Tanya Marquardt tells the story of how they discovered a ‘sleeping self’ named X through their iPhone—an eight year old, cup ½ full little creature walking around in their brain.

For Rhubarb, we are presenting a three-day ChatGPT version, where 50 participants email X a question before they sleep and wake to X’s response. On Feb 18 at 7pm EST, audiences are invited to a gathering of the participants, where we will share stories, reflections, dreams, experiences and images that we encountered during our three-day journey. Coder Ainsley Ellis and composer Omar Zubair perform an improvised sound score based on our live conversation, marking the end of our collective dream explorations. Registration is now closed for the digital experience.

Throughout the festival, a free installation in the Buddies Antechamber will offer a live experience, where videos and dream meditations inside textile enclosures invite participants to find their own ‘sleeping selves’.

Tanya Marquardt // Creator/Performer
Fay Nass // Director/Co-curator of Installation
Omar Zubair // Composer
David B Smith // Installation Design
Ainsley Ellis // Coding Designer/Dramaturge
Heidi Taylor // Dramaturge

FIND THEM ON

Instagram | the internet

CABARET + LATE NIGHT PRESENTATIONS

Young-in-Craft Cabaret

FRIDAY

Cloud

C-Angel’s Cosmic Crash!

With C-Angel as the player and the audience as her collective controllers, C-Angel’s Cosmic Crash! takes us on an unforgettable live-action quest: a groovy space odyssey inspired by rhythm-action games like Space Channel 5, Rhythm Heaven, Project Diva, Sayonara Wild Hearts, and Elite Beat Agents.

FIND HER ON

Linktree  | Music | Instagram


Valentine Leger

The Book of Magdalene

This solo reimagines Mary Magdalene as a butch, and Jesus as transmasc, highlighting the longstanding solidarity and bonds that transcend traditional family structures and hetero-normative romantic partnerships.

Featuring Cass Iacovelli as Mary


Anthony (Ani) Palermo

SHE, MEN, AND THE GIANT F*CKING SNAKE

“She” is the Mythological Greek figure Tiresias. “She” is a Twink in The Village. “She” is a multi-dimensional space bitch on a mission to find who touched their tits. Anthony Palermo presents a theatrical pop rock song-cycle about gender identity and sexual assault in queer spaces.

Music, Lyrics, Text & Performed by Anthony Palermo

Content Warning: Mentions of Sexual Assault

FIND THEM ON

Instagram | the internet


Sindi Pinari

A dream is also a phone call

Using poetry and recorded audio to dig into the emotional archives of familial relationships and guilt, Sindi Pinari evokes conversations with their grandmother, blending real-Albania of the past with a dream-Albania of the present.

FIND HER ON 

Instagram | the internet | Substack


Ashley T

Screaming for Care

Drawing on personal lived experience and historical research, this piece confronts the audience with the healthcare system’s neglect and abuse of Black women.

Content warning: Neglect, Racism, Misogyny, Misogynoir, Sexism, Sexual Assault, Physical Abuse, Body Shaming, Gaslighting, Care Denial, Queerphobia, and Misinformation.

FIND HER ON

Instagram


Evan Webb

***simulation 6000 “google image search: man in underwear man swimsuit man crotch”

In a sexual and melancholic duet with an office chair, Evan Webb challenges ‘timeless’ business attire, transcends gender, reclaims corporate queer liberation, and honours faer inner child. 

By Evan Webb
Music by Wolfgang Gray

FIND THEM ON 

Instagram

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Thirst Nation: Chill

Promotional image with white text reading, THIRST NATION CHILL overtop a beige backdrop with water droplets and a colourful beaded feather.

SATURDAY, 10:30PM

In an era where the dance floor is our medicines, bodies – hips – lips are our connection, and the extravagant expression of our art heralds in abundance. Thirst Nation brings forth a night-life experience like no other. Prioritizing IndigiQueer and 2 Spirit artists from here on Turtle Island or in neighbouring communities to the south, this night will be sure to leave you sweating and thirsty.

Tyler J Sloane/Tygr Willy // Creative Director
Kuya Atay
 // Stage Kitten

Yamari // DJ
Ziibiwan // DJ
Arrakiss // Performer – Burlesque
Madam Ode’miin Surprise // Performer – Burlesque
Nicole Joy Fraser // Performer – Drummer
Ravyn Wngz // Performer – Burlesque
Rhinestone Chickadee // Performer – Drag
Savage Moon // Performer – Burlesque
Sita Moon // Performer – Burlesque

Riley Kucheran, T’anchay Redvers, Alexi Pedneault, and Tyler J Sloane // Thirst Nation Collective

FIND THEM ON

Instagram

Admission to Thirst Nation: Chill is included with a Rhubarb ticket for Saturday, February 10. If you would like to purchase a ticket just for Thirst Nation, you can do that here.

Week Two // February 15-18

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Jaye Kovach

I don’t want to see or be seen by cis people

WEDNESDAY
1-5PM

THE WORKSHOP

Are you a cisgender person who wants to be a more active ally to Two Spirit, trans, non-binary and gender nonconforming (2STNBGN) people? Are you interested in exploring the limits of your embodied gender using a non-cisnormative framework? This workshop is about doing and taking seriously the unseen, theoretical labour 2STNBGN people often do in order to understand themselves. Participants will come away with a deeper understanding of western gender systems and how they fit into them, or not.

This workshop is FREE to attend! As space is limited, please RSVP here.

*This performance is designed to engage specifically with cis-gender audiences

THURSDAY

THE PERFORMANCE/T4T PARTY

I don’t want to see or be seen by cis people is a performance/T4T party focused on trans joy and futurity, desire and non-cis self expression. This space is intentionally created by and for members of the Two Spirit, trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming (2STNBGN) community.

What would you do in the absence of a cisgender gaze? What would you wear? (Wear or bring your most euphoric outfit to change into!)  How would you move your body? (Dance like no one’s watching!)

PWYC tickets available at the door
Content warning: loud dance music, flashing lights, smoke. 

FIND THEM ON

the internet | Instagram | Facebook | soundcloud

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S.E. Grummett

Nude Parade (work-in-progress)

FRIDAY

Think a live theatre version of the game of Operation – but make it trans. Combining traditional toy theatre with live feed video, live electronica, interactive “surgery,” and repurposed trash puppets, Nude Parade is a rejection of tokenization of queer stories that attempts to answer: am I more than the sum of my parts?

Created + performed by S.E. Grummett
Live Sound + Dramaturgy by Sam Kruger

Content warning: Audience interaction, balloon popping, surgery/medical imagery and themes.

FIND THEM ON

Scantily Glad Theatre
the internet

S.E. Grummett
Instagram

Sam Kruger
Instagram | the internet

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Lester Trips (Theatre)

HONEY I’M HOME

FRIDAY + SATURDAY

What’s a Hard Working Full-time Careerperson to do when her entire job is done by AI, but her body still has to show up to work? To combat her raging boredom, Janine uploads her consciousness into her home, literally. Slow wifi soon leads to a horrifying discovery in this physical theatre body horror mystery.

Created and performed by Lauren Gillis + Alaine Hutton

FIND THEM ON

Instagram | the internet | Facebook

RANGANATHAN RAJAN

Phase Colloid

SATURDAY

Phase Colloid explores personal history, a sense of belonging to land, manufactured roots, and the transferring of traditional knowledge through tradition and ritual. This durational, multimedia performance evokes acts of physical labour in its movement, and takes inspiration from bards residing in a community setting in the South-Indian context.

Ranganathan Rajan // Creator and performer
Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy // Mentor
Andrzej Pietrewicz // Sound creative support
Geetha Rajan // vocal sounds.

Content warning: loud music, strobe lighting

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Jian Yi

Magic Theatre – [scenes from the unconscious]

SATURDAY + SUNDAY

Performer and choreographer Jian Yi expresses a deeply personal evocation of Queer/East Asian/ diasporic heartbreak. Drawing upon shamanic dance and integrated multimedia in a multi-sensory live performance, this aesthetically daring production explores what it means to grow up without a sense of belonging.

Jian Yi // Solo Performer/Choreographer
Dan Shay // Visual Media Production
Allan Whyte // Sound Production

Content warning: May contain nudity, some coarse language, strobe lighting effects and haze.

FIND THEM ON

Instagram

photo by Jassy Earl

 

Roberto Soria

Fragrance 0

SUNDAY

WHAT LIVES THROUGH ME?????
WHAT IS MY BODY HOLDING????
WHAT IS IT EXPERIENCING???
WHO IS HOLDING ME??
WHAT IS HOLDING ME?

I EMBARK ON A VISUAL AND AUDIO EXPERIENCE INSPIRED BY IDEAS OF: LOOP, MIST, MOON, MEMORY

IM MESSY BUT SPECIFIC A NATURAL TECHNOLOGY

Roberto // Creator/performer
Omar // music friend
Siwar // sibling I have conversations with

Content warning: haze, loud music, and use of scent

FIND HER ON

Instagram

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Tanya Marquardt

Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep

THROUGHOUT THE FESTIVAL

What would happen if our ‘waking selves’ and ‘sleeping selves’ met, conversed, and maybe even healed? This digital/analogue performance by sleeptalker Tanya Marquardt tells the story of how they discovered a ‘sleeping self’ named X through their iPhone—an eight year old, cup ½ full little creature walking around in their brain.

For Rhubarb, we are presenting a three-day ChatGPT version, where 50 participants email X a question before they sleep and wake to X’s response. On Feb 18 at 7pm EST, audiences are invited to a gathering of the participants, where we will share stories, reflections, dreams, experiences and images that we encountered during our three-day journey. Coder Ainsley Ellis and composer Omar Zubair perform an improvised sound score based on our live conversation, marking the end of our collective dream explorations. Registration is now closed for the digital experience.

Throughout the Festival, an installation in the Buddies Antechamber will offer a live experience, where videos and dream meditations inside textile enclosures invite participants to find their own ‘sleeping selves’.

Tanya Marquardt // Creator/Performer
Fay Nass // Director/Co-curator of Installation
Omar Zubair // Composer
David B Smith // Installation Design
Ainsley Ellis // Coding Designer/Dramaturge
Heidi Taylor // Dramaturge

FIND THEM ON

Instagram | the internet

CABARET + LATE NIGHT PRESENTATIONS

Künst Kids & Friends

FRIDAY

Künst Kids: Judgment Day: Trial of the Century

Did you get your summons, Diva? Report to the Court of Künst for juror selection, because it’s the Trial of the Century! But is it art?! Prepare yourself for the Künst Kids’ unique brand of filth, sex, camp, glamour, and horror, hailing from Toronto’s weird and wonderful west end drag scene. Have fun figuring out who’s bringing what!

Featuring Kurt Cumstain, Full Blown Father, Kasper the Queer Ghost, T.S. Kunterpunt, and Ms. G.

FIND THEM ON

Instagram


Vridhhi Chaudhry

Prickly Paradigm

Embodying a cactus, Vridhhi Chaudhry explores gender fluidity and disrupts queer silence, inviting the audience to witness the complexity of the queer experience and engage with the nuances of their queer inner child.

Content warning: Loud sound (bursting balloons)

FIND THEM ON

the internet


Jan Jennings

Juicy

Through storytelling and burlesque, we are taken on an adventure with Stretch-Marks-The-Spot where celebrating yourself is yummier than waiting for others to celebrate you.

Written and performed by Jan a.k.a Stretch-Marks-The-Spot
Direction and sound design by Tsholo Khalema

Content warning: partial nudity, coarse language

FIND THEM ON

Instagram

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Amateur Strip Night Judged by Drag Things

SATURDAY, 10:30PM

An event we are blessed to witness the flithest strip acts you can imagine from your local pervs. This includes you. Yes you! You can do a strip for a ridiculously supportive audience. The top winners receive cash prizes and hot glued trophies. Every performer receives cab fare + free admission for them & a friend + a drink ticket. What a time to be alive!

In terms of ‘strip’ – we are open to wide interpretation. Acts that adhere to the theme are given a leg up in judging, but you don’t have to limit yourself! The more ridiculous the better. All genders & orientations encouraged. It’s body-posi, queer-posi, all posi.

Content warning: nudity

FIND THEM ON

Instagram

Interested in performing? Fill out this form and the organizers will be in touch!

Admission to Amateur Strip Night Judged by Drag Things is included with a Rhubarb ticket for Saturday, February 10. If you would like to purchase a ticket just for Amateur Strip Night Judged by Drag Things, you can do that here.

isi bhakhomen

isi bhakhomen (they/them) is a storyteller of Afro-Peruvian and Nigerian descent. Their work as an artist spans many different mediums. Through stories they aim to build worlds that give black children the freedom to breathe, to laugh and to heal.

Bathhouse & Body Works

Bathhouse & Body Works is a series of alternative filthy queer events that take place around Toronto. We emphasis body positivity, queer magick, and the dirty queer underground.

Cloud

Cloud (she/her) is a trans femme theatre artist, actor/performer, and musician/composer (bass & keys). Excited by exploring and blurring the lines between senses and mediatic forms, Cloud uses a colourful “mixtape” approach to creating new work, with theatre as the melting pot. Previous projects as creator include Dreams (Toronto Fringe, 2022) and Hip Hop 100 (Tarragon Greenhouse, 2024). Cloud is also an alumni of Nightwood Innovators, Paprika Festival’s Design Lab, TENT, PXR’s IBPOC Fellowship, and Black Theatre Workshop’s AMP, has collaborated with the likes of xLQ, Venus Festival, and Dead Name Theatre, and regularly shares original music on Bandcamp here: cloudj.bandcamp.com

Vridhhi Chaudhry

Vridhhi is an interdisciplinary artist from Delhi, India, currently settled in Tkaronto. Drawing inspiration from personal narratives, she delves into the intricate realms of post-traumatic growth and the queering of the trauma body, guiding a healing journey for her inner child. Utilizing her body to express the nuances of trauma, she crafts rituals that prompt viewers to reflect on their unique paths to self-healing. These narratives are woven with whimsical objects, forming a distinctive tapestry that invites audiences to connect with the intimate threads of her experiences. The core intention of her work is to extend healing to those who engage with it.

Nickeshia Garrick

Nickeshia Garrick is a settler on the stolen land of Tkarón:to (Toronto) and has performed on this land for over 25 years. They are unapologetically a Black, Queer Artist, who believes in the healing power of breath through raw emotion and movement. Nickeshia received their dance training at the Carousel Dance Centre (Kitchener), the NYIDE (New York Institution of Dance and Education), the National Ballet School of Canada (Tkarón:to), Toronto Dance Theatre (Tkarón:to), and Simon Fraser University (Vancouver). Nickeshia is a Dora Mavor Moore, winning and multi-nominated artist who holds a BFA in Dance from Simon Fraser University and is a Co-Founder of CinnaMoon Collective who is currently working on their premiere piece, Surrendered Spirits.

Brigita Gedgaudas

Brigita Gedgaudas is an emerging, interdisciplinary, trans*, and diasporic-Lithuanian artist working in so-called Toronto. Eir work engages with in-betweenness as they explore contradictory experiences of gender and cultural heritage through realms of dance and digital worldbuilding. Using glitches as mechanisms for queering Lithuanian folk dance, they are interested in translating the body between physical and digital worlds through interactive and immersive installations. Brigita’s practice is informed by his engagement in the queer street dance style, W*acking, the performance collective, PriXm, and the Lithuanian folk dance group, Gintaras.

S.E. Grummett

Throughout my artistic practice, physical theatre techniques – particularly puppetry and mask, allow me to move beyond my physical body and the assumed gender of its attributes. Puppets don’t have to have a gender, let alone be human. In my work, I am curious about using object-manipulation to explore trans/queer identities and this feeling of the “other”. I’ve also been drawn to comedy and clown as a means of disrupting and criticizing those in power in accessible ways – laughter often makes the best Trojan horse. While we are seeing progress in the bodies, identities and stories allowed onstage, these artists (myself included) are often being asked to perform their trauma onstage for the sake of educating the (often) cis, white, able-bodied middle-class audiences that come to the theatre. With “Nude Parade” I want to unpack the “trauma porn” narratives that so many of us are asked to tell and examine what it means to tell our stories within a capitalist system. How do we, as artists, consent to be packaged, and shaped to become profitable depictions of our identities?

Stephen Jackman-Torkoff

Stephen Jackman-Torkoff is a wandering poet, travelling painter and a lover. They create poetic dreamscape odysseys and perform them in places big and small; From large theatres to living rooms. Stephen has acted in several productions including Fifteen Dogs at Crows Theatre, Trout Stanley at Factory theatre and most recently as Richard in Richard II at the Stratford Festival. They are in the upcoming production of The Inheritance at Canadian Stage. Stephen loves you.

Jan Jennings

Jan Jennings is an artist of many seasonings! With the core ingredients being: Voice, Performance, Writing ,and Visual Aesthetic. Everything Jan does will leave you amused, reflective, and with a belly full of laughs.

Jaye Kovach

Jaye Kovach is a multimedia and performance artist who lives as a white Magyar/Scottish settler on Treaty 4 territory (Regina, Saskatchewan). Her work, which has received local and national attention, often engages their queer and trans community, taking as its starting point his positionality as a disabled and neurodivergent, butch trans woman.

Künst Kids

The Künst Kids is a collective of five alternative performers based in Toronto producing themed drag events in the city’s west end. Our main goal with our parties is to showcase diverse local talent, encourage audience participation with prize winning runway challenges, and foster a reliable and inclusive space for queer joy. Recently, we’ve expanded our producing efforts into putting on a bi monthly open stage show for new and experienced performers to have a chance to try new acts, or even try doing drag for the very first time.

Lester Trips (Theatre)

Lester Trips (Theatre) is Lauren Gillis and Alaine Hutton, a performing/writing/directing/designing duo with a decade of shared training in physical performance and making people uncomfortable. We create questionably comedic theatre, film, and “digital not otherwise specified”, often revolving around the internet ruining our brains, distorting our sexualities, and how we all can’t stop looking at it.

Valentine Leger

Valentine is a writer and performer based in Toronto. His passion for queer semiotics and history overlaps with his love for playwriting, which he uses to explore the vastness of trans narratives. This has led him to his current artistic mission of imposing transsexuality onto God. Valentine is graduating from the University of Toronto with an Honours B.A. in Theatre, Art History, and Material Culture. In their free time, they enjoy practicing aerial silks.

Tanya Marquardt

Tanya Marquardt is a memoirist, playwright and performer. Their work is intimate — memoirs, Tedtalk/séances, private dances, ‘texting plays’, MP3 meditations, epistolary performances written to dream lovers — a fierce mucking about with vulnerability to get at life as a former runaway, third generation Magyar settler and genderqueer. They live and work on the unceded, ancestral and occupied traditional lands of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Sə̓lílwətaʔ, and Skwxwú7mesh Nations and in Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenni-Lenape People, and Canarsie and Munsee Nations. Visit Tanya’s website, and follow them on instagram.

Michael Martini

Michael Martini creates work for various contexts, from the gallery to the video screen to the blackbox. Since graduating from Concordia University’s Playwriting program, he has navigated Montreal’s interdisciplinary, bilingual scene, often collaborating with dancers and visual artists. His creations shift between the banal and the eccentric – layering text, video, and dress-up with a DIY atmosphere.

Anthony (Ani) Palermo

Anthony (Ani) Palermo (they/them) is a performer, writer/composer, director, and producer interested in recontextualizing the canon– adapting true histories and classic works into contemporary queer narratives through music and storytelling. Writing & composing credits include; The Gray: A Wilde Musical (Hart House Theatre), One Song Glory 2022 (Musical Stage Company), She, Men, & the Giant F*cking Snake (Soulpepper Theatre QueerCab), Mythic Women (University of Toronto). Selected theatre acting credits include; Retrograde (Toronto Fringe), Alcestis, Tartuffe (Theatre Erindale), Bare: A Pop Opera, Ghost Quartet (University of Toronto). Upcoming, Anthony will be making their debut in the Stratford Festival’s 2024 season, in Cymbeline and The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia?. Visit their website.

Sindi Pinari

Sindi is a writer, performer, community worker, and organizer born in Tirana and currently based in Toronto/Tkaronto. Their writing explores themes of queerness, sisterhood, migration, home, memory, rituals, and love as a radical act. Though her art is always shapeshifting, it is grounded in the influences of Albanian folk legends, folk music and dance, and folk ceremonies, which are about deep kinship, layers of nostalgia, movement as release, and nature as part of performance and gathering.

Emile Pineault + Gabriel Cholette

Emile Pineault is a choreographer, performer and curator based in Montréal, first known as Tiohtiá:ke in Kanyen’kéha and Mooniyang in Anishinaabemowin. Through a multidisciplinary practice rooted in body-based research and performance, his work explores desire and sexualities. Bodies and objects mingle and become heaps of textures, shapes, sounds, vibrations, narratives and affects. He develops choreographies which oscillate between, on the one hand, messiness, clumsiness, and unruliness, and on the other hand, intense textures, exacerbated physicalities and a deep sensuality. He composes his creations like sensory poems and he uses duration and repetition to shift the experience of spectatorship.

Gabriel Cholette holds a doctorate in medieval literature and is a lecturer at the Université de Montréal. His book Les carnets de l’underground was published by Triptyque in the “Queer” collection (2021), it has been translated in English at the House of Anansi (2022) and a reworking of the book without the illustrations was also published in France by Le Gospel (2023). The book was shortlisted for the Dayne Ogilvy Prize for emergent LGBTQ2S+ writers. In a short period of time, he has established himself as an essential voice of queer literature in Québec.

Ranganathan Rajan

My research and creation in the realm of contemporary performance utilizes mediums of body, objects, landscape and multimedia. The practice involves contemporary dance, improvisation and working with objects. The choreography employs efforts of athletic physical labour with object work. Objects become performing phenomena, exploring their situation, needs, influence and presence. There is scope for investigating aspects of duration and conceptually site specific in these works that make them adaptable. Aesthetic of physical and mental exhaustion and approach learning and making through an “More than a human approach”.

Roberto Soria

Roberto is the new era no longer restricted by time she walks the earth with patience noticing how all is changing he doesn’t interfere she listens he watches ready for nothing yet it all shows it’s true colours the sun and the moon have her life and it’s the random that keeps him alive.

I am Roberto, a MULTIDISCIPLINARY HUMAN WITH MIXED HERITAGE Slovakian and Irish on my moms side AND Andean from the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Norte Potosi) on my dads side.

i am:
a raver
a dj/creator of noise
a photographer/filmmaker
a sagittarius
a company dancer for toronto dance theatre
and friendly so if you see me in the street come say hi!

Elizabeth Staples

Hi! I’m Elizabeth (Liz) Staples – a bisexual queer femme theatre artist. I am a white settler with Italian ancestry and I was born and raised in Tkarón:to (Toronto). I am a multidisciplinary theatre creator, performance artist, director, and arts administrator. I am one half of the performer-director duo ‘Jord and Liz’, with Jordan Campbell aka STARLIGHT. My practice involves physical theatre, devised work, and immersive experimental projects. Recent Acting credits include: Training Enhancement Program (Factory Theatre), White Girls in Moccasins (manidoons collective/Buddies in Bad Times), Private Eyes (lemonTree creations). Recent Directing credits include: PARTYPEOPLE (SummerWorks) PARTYPEOPLE 2.021 (Buddies in Bad Times), Crystallize (Caminos Festival). My work draws from queer history and looks into the queer future.

Thirst Nation

Thirst Nation is an Indigenous Queer and 2-Spirit artistic and thematic night-life experience that bridges the artistic communities with shared or allied sexuality, gender expansion and creative expression. First created as a late-night talk and cabaret formatted show during the 2020 lockdowns, the show was created by Tygr Willy under the name “Thirsty 2 Spirit Tuesdays” through the Glad Day Lit and Twitch Platform. Thirst Nation will always be a gathering to escape, a soft moan to ripple, and means to leave you sweaty and thirsty. Now, 2024, Thirst Nation: Chill marks the first in the upcoming series of Thirst Nation events.

Ashley T.

As a young, Black Biracial, Bisexual Woman with Bipolar Disorder from Toronto, Ashley T. has coined herself as “The BiFecta”. She is a multidisciplinary artist who creates within the realms of abstract visual, literary, and performance art. She works with diverse materials spanning from acrylic paints on canvas, to ink on paper, to her voice on the mic, to her body on the stage. Ashley T. uses art to ground and remind herself of the power she possesses to be a positive change in this world. Each piece she creates is a small chapter of her visual memoire.

Evan Webb

Evan Webb (they/them, fae/faer) hails from Calgary Alberta, and is based in Tkaronto Ontario. They attended Toronto Metropolitan University in the Performance Dance program. Evan is well versed in various movement practice’s and visual art forms, allowing them to naturally perform authentically and idiosyncratically in all aspects of movement expression. Evan works as a freelance dance artist, notably they are a company member of Côté Danse under the direction of Guillaume Côté, and ProArte Danza. Experiences of growing into an a-gender, member of the LGBTQ+ community, has given them a unique perspective, and influenced their artistic values. They continue to research gender, sexuality, and politics in their own Art practice.

Jian Yi

Jian Yi is a multidisciplinary artist working in performance art, multimedia, contemporary dance and new genres. Their practice is rooted in an ongoing enquiry into the ambiguities of emotional experience. They seek to explore the experiential trauma of marginalised persons within our society, such as neurodiverse and queer people of colour, and how we reflect on the broader human condition. Their work has been performed and exhibited internationally in major venues such as New Museum, The Kitchen NYC, Summerhall, Dance Base Edinburgh, Tramway and CCA Glasgow, among others. They have been artist-in-residence at Dance4 Nottingham, Merchant City Festival Glasgow, LADA London, Theatertreffen Berlin, Seventh Gallery Melbourne, and at the People’s History Museum Manchester. Their performance ‘Weathervanes’ premiered at Dance Base Edinburgh and at Tramway’s Dance International Glasgow and DanceLive Aberdeen in 2021. That year they also curated the first flagship iteration of the Journey to the East festival, a multi-day artist-led performance art festival focusing on experimental approaches to live art and committed to amplifying the voices of Queer and PoC artists working from non-Western/Eurocentric traditions. They re-mounted their piece ‘Weathervanes’ for the Made in Scotland Showcase featuring the best performance works of the year, as an immersive visual installation and full performance run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023, curated and produced with JTTE Productions the second iteration of Journey to the East festival 2023, and they were recently selected for the prestigious funded international residency programme at Cove Park.

“TORONTO’S GO-TO EVENT FOR THOUGHT-PROVOKING, POLITICAL, ADVENTUROUS ENTERTAINMENT”
-Toronto Life

“ONE OF THE BEST EVENTS ON THE TORONTO THEATRE CALENDAR”
-Toronto Star

“THE WILDEST THEATRE FEST IN TOWN”
-Toronto Life

“RHUBARB IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT, BUT EVEN MORE IMPOSSIBLE TO RESIST”
-My Gay Toronto

Launched to mark the festival’s 35th anniversary, The Rhubarb Archive is a (hopefully) comprehensive list of all the projects, performances, experiments, parties, and special events to ever grace the stage at Canada’s longest-running new works festival.

VISIT THE ARCHIVE

Festival Artistic Producer

Sue Balint is a creative producer, curator and facilitator. In recent years, she has curated projects for Hybrid by Design (The Theatre Centre) and SummerWorks, and served as Festival Producer for Aluna Theatre’s CAMINOS and RUTAS festivals, Progress international festival of performance and ideas (SummerWorks / The Theatre Centre), and Weesageechak Begins to Dance (Native Earth). Sue is also Executive Director of the Bonavista Biennale, a public art event that embeds contemporary art along a coastal loop of rural communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador’s Bonavista Peninsula.

Artist Committee

Jordan Campbell is a queer performance artist, dancer, theatre artist and party maker. Also known as STARLIGHT. You might know her from her party WISHING WELL, or from Magic Chicks!, or her silent disco drag show in the park, PARTYPEOPLE (created with Elizabeth Staples).

She is also half of xLq: the POP ART performance duo with Maddie Bautista. Together they create interactive theatrical playgrounds like 4inXchange (the one with $1000 cash) and their upcoming collective ritual/musical gameshow: Are You The ONE? xLq are the facilitators of The Creator’s Unit at the Paprika Festival. Jordan is the artistic director of The Purple Stage: a neurodiverse theatre company creating original performances with artists from The Purple Carrots community. Jordan loves to dance with trees.

Greetings! My name is daniel jelani ellis and I’m a multidisciplinary artist from Jamaica working in performance-installation, playwriting, dub poetry, and acting. My artistic practice is Afrocentric and celebratory. I’m especially passionate about arts-based community organizing for social justice. As a Black queer immigrant, I’m committed to celebrating those of us who live within the margins. I’m a graduate of the English Acting program at the National Theatre School of Canada. I work as the Artistic Associate for Obsidian Theatre Company. I also steer ad-hoc entity Groundwork Redux – an ever-evolving gathering of artists and projects – creating original art, performance, and community activations. Groundwork Redux recently presented my acclaimed solo work speaking of sneaking as the season opener here at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
www.groundworkredux.com

Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis (they|them) is a dance theatre and intermedia artist. As a disabled, queer, trans/non-binary artist of Nigerian/French/Algonquin descent, they work in intersectional, liberatory frameworks. Born and raised in Treaty 1 Territory, WinNipee (Winnipeg, MB), Leelee studied across Kanata (Canada), and works professionally as a dancer, performing artist, producer, and curator. Their creative projects aim to blur the lines between performance and life, building a bridge to reveal the human condition. Leelee also works as a program designer, facilitator, and consultant in the field of Social Innovation and Adaptive Change and is a Co-Artistic Director at the Toronto Dance Community Love-In.

@leeleeoluwatoyosi // www.leeleedavis.com

Ludmylla Reis was born in 1991 in Pindorama ( Brazil ) and immigrated to Turtle Island ( Canada ) in 2016. They are a Multidisciplinary Artist in Film, Theatre and Visual arts, known for poetic approaches to storytelling through exploration of silence, space manipulation, character point of view and intimate experiences in all mediums. With degrees in Advertising, Acting Conservatory and an MFA in Directing, their work examines the private with the public via an imaginative lens.

Industry Series

Who defines “industry” anyway? This year, Rhubarb is shifting the focus of its Industry Series toward emerging and young-in-craft artists and creators. Read on if you’re interested in putting your name in the hat to participate!

The 2024 Young-in Craft Cohort will participate in an exciting lineup of behind-the-scenes and special events, including:

  • Pre-show programming conversations accompanied by fancy coffees
  • An invite to the Rhubarb community meal for Buddies’ team and this year’s artists
  • Bespoke opportunities to engage with Buddies’ staff and Rhubarb’s Artist Committee

AND we’ll throw in a Festival Pass so you can see all of this year’s work for free!

We are excited to invite twelve participants into this year’s Industry Series who will join forces with the six young-in-craft artists who have been selected to present work as part of a Young-in-Craft Cabaret evening hosted by xLq during Rhubarb.

Submissions are now closed for the Industry Series.


Coffee & Conversation

Sunday, February 11 & Sunday, February 18
12pm – 1pm
Cabaret
Free & open to all

Both Sundays during Rhubarb, we’re hosting an informal pre-show conversation about the work you’re experiencing at this year’s Festival. Bring your thoughts, questions and inspirations. Chats will be facilitated by Artist Committee member Ludmylla Reis.

Thanks to Red Rocket Coffee for offering complimentary coffee and treats!

Buy Tickets
Dates

February 8–18

Thursday-Saturday, 7PM
Sunday, 2PM

Late night events – Saturday, 10:30PM

See “festival schedule” tab for more information.

Dates

February 8–18

Tickets

$10/$25/$40/$70

Your ticket gets you into everything happening that day at Rhubarb, including the special presentations, installations, and parties.

For each of our mainstage shows this season, we’re offering tickets at a range of price points, though seating is general admission, and every seat is just as good as the next. If cost is a barrier, this is your chance to get an affordable ticket. If you are able to pay more, this is your chance to increase your support for the work onstage and ensure it stays affordable for those who need it.

Friday Night PWYC

PWYC admission available at 9PM for both Young-Craft-Cabaret and Künst Kids + Friends performances

Saturday Late Night Events

Admission to the Saturday late nights (Thirst Nation: Chill + Amateur Strip Night Judged by Drag Things) is included in a general Rhubarb ticket for that evening. For those wishing only to attend the late nights, separate tickets are available:

Thirst Nation: Chill tickets
$12 advance, $15 at the door

Amateur Strip Night Judged by Drag Things tickets
$10 advance, $12 at the door


 

 

 

Government Partner

Festival Sponsor

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The Tempest

By William Shakespeare, adapted by the Company

January 18–28, 2024