Emerging Creators Unit Showcase

June 10

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queer pride 2025 icon image. a green graphic that says queer pride in large block letters, with the dates of the 2025 festival (June 4–29) underneath and some torn collaged photographs creating texture at the bottom.

June 10 // 7:30PM // $10 – $75 + fees
In the Chamber

All season long, our Emerging Creators Unit has been forging a path of artistic discovery. At Queer Pride, participants Emily Duckett, Srutika Sabu, and Jonny Stern conclude their time with a sharing of newly developed work and insights into their creative processes and learnings.

Emily Duckett, Srutika Sabu, Jonny Stern // ECU participants
Amanda Cordner // ECU director

The Emerging Creators Unit is an artist-driven, mentor-supported creative model for strongly motivated emerging queer and/or trans artists, facilitated this year by artist Amanda Cordner.

The Emerging Creators Unit offers an intensive opportunity to develop your artistic practice and producing skills. Artists are invited to apply with a project — or a seed of a project — that will serve as a vehicle to advance their artistic practice.

Artist: Srutika Sabu

Srutika Sabu (she/they) is a doctor-turned-clown and multidisciplinary artist. Though her first artistic loves were visual art, writing, and composing music, a medical school existential crisis prompted a move to Toronto, where she embraced her late-bloomer theatre kid era. Through clown and comedy training at Sweet Action Theatre, she stumbled upon her drag king persona, Santosh Santosh aka Tosh. In the less than two years since, she’s created, produced and performed two full length shows: 1 Santosh Santosh 2 Go (Toronto Fringe Festival, WTFestival, rEvolver Festival) and Neptune’s With A Fish (Paprika Theatre Festival). Srutika’s work blends absurdity, vulnerability, and joy, crafting stories and worlds that explore identity, connection, and the hilarity of finding yourself in the most unexpected places. This is her Buddies debut.

FIND THEM ON :

Instagram // TikTok

Santosh Santosh: Live at GrindCon 2025.

Welcome to GrindCon 2025! Your favourite LinkedIn influencer’s favourite convention. Unfortunately, our panel on “Podcasting in your REM Sleep” has been cancelled. So instead, we bring you a live recording of the almost award nominated podcast “Second-hand Success” hosted by Santosh Santosh aka Tosh. Tosh (not Tawsh) is a tech worker, thought leader and second-hand Tesla owner and he’s delighted to be a last minute addition to the GrindCon 2025 line up! He’s ready to meet all of his 200 subscribers for the 200th episode. He’s on the biggest stage of his decade long thought leader career with the love of his life by his side. Hustle! Grind! Mindset! 

Mentor: Shohana Sharmin

Shohana Sharmin (she/her) is a Bangladeshi-Canadian actor, comedian, and writer. She is a recipient of the 2020 Queer Emerging Artist Award at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and is an alumna of the Second City Toronto’s National Touring Company. Shohana is the creator and a cast member of the critically acclaimed award-winning dark sketch comedy revue “Dead Parents Society.” She is a former Buddies ECU member (“Come Here Often?”, 2019) and is thrilled to be returning to Buddies to witness Santosh’s wildest dreams come true on stage tonight. Select film and TV credits include: The Boys (Sony/Amazon), Accused (Sony/FOX), Christmas in the Spotlight (Lifetime). Happy pride, folks! xox

 

Artist: Jonny Stern

Jonny Stern (he/him) is visual artist and performance designer known for his bold use of colour and fashionable painting style. In his stage performances he is an inventor, performer and researcher, creating highly visual encounters filled with comedy, electric visual styles and experimental technology. He’s best known as a producing member of the Cardinal Collective, an experimental cabaret series in Toronto’s east end. He hits the Buddies stage for the first time as his drag disaster, Loose Tomato, whose adventures dance on the boundary of eccentricity and insanity.

FIND THEM ON :

Instagram // TikTok

 

 

Binky’s Extended Life Insurance Policy

Binky James keeps waking up to phone calls asking him to discuss his life insurance policy and he’s not sure why. Nothing is wrong. It is an ordinary day on his paper route. The headline in the paper today reports No News Today, which is odd but calls for some kind of celebration. Perhaps something could be wrong, he is lying in the middle of the street cold and alone and surrounded by tire marks. 

Mentor: Jay Northcott

Jay (They/Them) is a multidisciplinary Creator, Director, Producer, and Big Brother Canada contestant. Central to Jay’s creative and artistic practice is their advocacy for marginalized communities including Palestinian, Indigenous, Black, Racialized, Queer, Trans people and beyond. The art they create is a window into their world, soul, values, and imagination. Art is freedom and freedom breathes life. Credits include: 7 METHODS OF KILLING KYLIE JENNER (Obsidian Theatre), KING LEAR (Stratford Festival), COTTAGERS AND INDIANS (Watermark Theatre, PEI), CONCORD FLORAL (Randolph College), 21 BLACK FUTURES (Obsidian Theatre, CBC), The Parasite (Theatre Outré), PREMIUM CONTENT (Major Matt Mason).

FIND THEM ON:

Instagram // TikTok

 

Emily Duckett (she/they) is a Black, queer, dance artist residing in Tkaronto. Their artistic
expression is profoundly influenced by their intersecting identities. Emily’s practice is based on
the belief that creating and manipulating art is a communal endeavor and the idea that dance is
a vehicle for de-socialization, leaving deeply embedded societal constraints behind. Since
graduating from York University with a BFA in Dance and a Specialized Honors in performance
and choreography in 2022, Emily has collaborated with esteemed companies such as Mocean
Dance Company, Toronto Dance Theatre, Wind in the Leaves Collective, and Kinetic. Her most
recent work was presented in The Garage’s 2024 season and York University Dance
Ensemble’s showcase Here and Now. At present, their artistic exploration centers on themes of
queer time theory, decomposition, rejection, gut feelings, cravings and chaos, pleasure and
paradoxes

FIND THEM ON:

Instagram // TikTok

Human hair costs half your rent, 

Your hair line is receding from how tight your cornrows are but you won’t stop because you need this weave to last, 

Braiding hair was just listed as a carcinogenic, 

Your scalps still burning from your last round of relaxer, 

Shea Moisture is $30 a pop. 

This Will Hurt But The Bleeding Will Stop examines the labour, pain, and subconscious assimilation surrounding black hair. 

Mentors : Syreeta Hector and Alli Carry.

 

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Queer Pride 2025