Progress is an international festival of performance and ideas presented in partnership by SummerWorks Performance Festival and The Theatre Centre. The festival is collectively curated and presented by a rotating series of Canadian organizations, operating within a contemporary performance context. This year’s collaborating companies are Broadleaf Theatre, DopoLavoro Teatrale, FADO Performance Art Centre, SummerWorks, RT Collective, The Theatre Centre, and Why Not Theatre.
SummerWorks Performance Festival
Founded in 1991, SummerWorks Performance Festival is widely recognized as one of the most important platforms for launching new work– locally, nationally and internationally. SummerWorks encourages risk, questions, and creative exploration while insisting on accessibility, integrity, and professionalism. We are interested in continuously reimagining and innovating the possibilities of performance- how it is created, presented and experienced.
The Theatre Centre
The Theatre Centre is a nationally recognized live-arts incubator that serves as a research and development hub for the cultural sector. We provide artists with infrastructure and resources to make their art – from idea to production. The Theatre Centre is committed to new work and new ways of working. We are a public space, open and accessible to the people of our community, where citizens can imagine, debate, celebrate, protest, unite and be responsible for inventing the future.
Broadleaf Theatre
Founded in 2014, Broadleaf Theatre creates multidisciplinary performance based on local, national and global environmental issues, making little-known topics entertaining and accessible.
Dopolavoro Teatrale
DLT (dopolavoroteatrale) is an international award winning company that is dedicated to innovative and experimental multi-disciplinary productions. DLT offers a brand new form called audience specific theatre. we create anything from theatre shows and installations to fully interactive, urban-immersive creations designed for one single audience member at a time. Whatever the form, the audience always plays a pivotal role in our work and we continue to explore, experiment with and push the boundaries of the relationship between artists and audiences. Founded in 2006 in Florence, Italy by Artistic Director Daniele Bartolini, DLT is now based in Toronto and our works are presented in Canada, Europe and India.
FADO Performance Art Centre
Established in 1993, FADO Performance Art Centre is a not-for-profit artist-run centre for performance art based in Toronto, Canada. FADO recognizes that performance art as a practice has multiple histories and encompasses various regional, cultural, political and aesthetic differences. FADO exists to provide a supportive platform and rigorous curatorial context for the work of Canadian and international performance artists, at all stages of their careers, who have chosen performance art as a primary medium to create and communicate provocative new images and new perspectives.
The RT Collective
The RT Collective is a curatorial team made up of a variable collection of collaborators operating mostly in Toronto (but sometimes in other places) since around 2013. We present screenings and exhibitions, produce catalogues, write essays, host panel discussions, and lead workshops. Operating within a continuously redefined collaborative structure, we aim to examine, question, and ultimately deconstruct traditional curatorial models and institutional structures. In doing so, we propose alternative relationships between curators, artists, and publics, facilitating the development of new models in the creation, presentation, and distribution of art
Why Not Theatre
Why Not Theatre is an agile, international theatre company based in Toronto, Canada, rooted in the values of innovation, community and collaboration. Our work is inventive, cross-cultural, and reflects our passion for the exploration of difference. We challenge the status quo, by examining what stories are being told, and who is telling them. More than just a theatre company, we develop creative strategies to build a healthier and stronger arts ecology. We MAKE and tour critically-acclaimed and award-winning new work, SHARE resources with other companies and artists to produce and tour their work, and PROVOKE change through new producing models and the presentation of work for new audiences. We are led by a core team of Founding Artistic Director Ravi Jain, Managing Director Owais Lightwala, and Executive Producer Kelly Read.
