SummerWorks presents SummerWalks, now in its second year – a set of three distinct walking tours of the neighbourhood that hosts our festival and cradles three of our city’s most important theatre venues. Through these walks, we invite you to get to know more about the larger community and connect with a familiar landscape from new, personal perspectives. Three charming guides offer their unique takes on the area, doing what theatre artists do best – telling you stories.
Tours leave Monday to Thursday at 6:30PM; Friday at 6:30 and 9PM; Saturday at 4, 6:30 and 9PM; Sunday at 4 and 6:30pm (one tour in each time slot). The specific schedule for each tour is listed with the individual tour descriptions.
All tours are under 60 minutes in length and depart from and return to the Factory Theatre Courtyard (125 Bathurst Street).
$5 – available on the day from the Factory Theatre Courtyard box office, or in advance (plus service charges) online or by phone (416.504.7529)
$12 – for a 3-Walk Pass
Photos by Nicolett Jakab
Invisible Toronto as described by guide Falen Johnson
PROCEEDS FROM THE SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, "INVISIBLE TORONTO" TOUR WILL BE DONATED TO THE MEETING PLACE ADULT DROP-IN AT QUEEN & BATHURST.
Ever been afraid to walk by Queen and Bathurst?
I know I was.
The first time I walked by that intersection I averted my eyes, pretended to be going… somewhere… anywhere, late for something, looking straight ahead, never making eye contact. That’s when a young rough looking guy lunged at me and yelled in my face. I jumped. I got mad. I wanted to pull out my status card and prove something to him but I didn’t, I kept walking. I pretended he didn’t exist. Who hasn’t done it? Made someone, something in Toronto invisible?
Let’s take a walk around Queen and Bathurst. It isn’t anywhere you haven’t been before but it may be a place you have never really seen.
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Falen Johnson is Mohawk and Tuscarora from Six Nations Reserve. She is a graduate of George Brown Theatre School. Theatre credits include The Place Between for Cheyikwe Performance and Native Earth Performing Arts, The Only Good Indian… with Turtle Gals, and The Triple Truth, Savage, Strong Medicine, Death of a Chief and A Very Polite Genocide with Native Earth. Most recently Falen was in The Ecstasy of Rita Joe for Western Canada Theatre and the NAC. Her first play, Salt Baby, was produced by Native Earth at Theatre Passe Muraille last fall.
Aug 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 & 15 at 6:30PM /
Aug 8 & 14 at 4PM
The advantage of having “been around the block a few times” is that you gain wisdom that you can impart on your kids. But I don’t have kids. Will you be my kids? Just for an hour…
Discover the best and worst romantic locales the neighborhood has to offer. Join Daniel Sadavoy as he relives all the romance and heartbreak he has experienced within a three-block radius of Factory Theatre. Learn from someone else’s experience why it’s a bad idea to propose an open relationship at Czehoski. And why you’d be much better off doing it at Coca.
Get a detailed map of the local erogenous zones. Now you’ll know where to find whatever you’re looking for.
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Daniel Sadavoy is a Toronto-based writer and actor. He has published articles in The Canadian Theatre Review and CanPlay Magazine about his experience as assistant producer of the National CrossCurrents Festival under Nina Lee Aquino in 2008. With Rebecca Applebaum, he wrote and performed in the Steady State Theatre Project production Don’t Look, which NOW Magazine named an Outstanding Production at the 2007 Toronto Fringe Festival and which was selected for revival at the January 2009 Next Stage Theatre Festival. Daniel has helped develop plays in several dramaturgical settings, including The Taxi Project for PEN Canada, fu-GEN’s Potluck Festival under Marjorie Chan, the HOTscrawls Festival with TheatreKairos, and the biweekly Playwright’s Circle with the Steady State Theatre Project.
Aug 6, 8, 10, 12 & 14 at 6:30PM / Aug 7 & 15 at 4PM
Who is Uncle Lindy? He/she is certainly not YOUR uncle but Uncle Lindy is definitely your friend, so that makes it okay to take a walkabout with her/him through the streets of Toronto at the witching hour or – as others call it – 9PM. Uncle Lindy knows the way and would never lead you astray. And you might learn something about yourself. Or learn as much as you learn when you set out to learn things about yourself but just emerge in a thicker state of denial... where you are comfortable. Does Uncle Lindy want to be your therapist? No. Does he/she want to play mind games with you? Maybe.
Bring a flashlight or flashlight App because things get dark at 9PM. Uncle Lindy can’t wait to enlighten all the boys and girls (not suitable for actual children).
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Lindy Zucker operates from every side of the world of theatre as an actor, writer, curator, producer, freelance technician and facetious performance artist. She is currently an Artistic Associate of the SummerWorks Theatre Festival. Her performance work (and/or handy work – from production load-in to management) has been seen at the Rhubarb festival, Lunacy Cabaret, Gladstone Hotel, Dancemakers, The Factory Theatre and The Toronto Fringe. Lindy also stars as the bumbling title character in the hit web series B.J. Fletcher: Private Eye.
