{"id":120541,"date":"2025-12-24T13:45:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T18:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=120541"},"modified":"2025-12-25T19:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T00:16:50","slug":"preview-tarragon-theatres-third-annual-greenhouse-festival-returns-january-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/12\/24\/preview-tarragon-theatres-third-annual-greenhouse-festival-returns-january-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | Tarragon Theatre\u2019s Third Annual Greenhouse Festival Returns In January 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Graphics
Graphics for Tarragon Theatre\u2019s Greenhouse Festival, L-R: Apology Show (Tiny Bear Jaws); Pulse (Eric Miracle); Greenhouse Festival (Tarragon Theatre); Agitpop (Pearle Harbour); Ramla and the Desert (by Nehal El-Hadi) (Images courtesy of the artists & Tarragon Theatre)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tarragon Theatre\u2019s Artistic Director, Mike Payette and Executive Director Lisa Li have announced the return of the Greenhouse Festival, a showcase of new and in-progress works that expand the boundaries of performance genres. The line-up includes everything from shadow puppetry to magic shows, dance, and a confessional concert.<\/p>\n

The work of three artistic collectives will be featured in the Festival, which runs from January 27 to 31, 2026 in Tarragon\u2019s Extraspace, with other performances and installations located throughout the Tarragon\u2019s theatre.<\/p>\n

Greenhouse Festival is a process-led residency program that emphasizes works that involve an exchange between artists and audience. Audience members are encouraged to explore Tarragon\u2019s various spaces between Extraspace performances to discover new works.<\/p>\n

Tarragon\u2019s Artistic Director, Mike Payette<\/strong>, notes in a statement, \u201cWe are thrilled to usher in the new year with the vibrant and highly celebrated festival of new ideas and creation. Now in its 3rd edition, the Greenhouse Festival warms the winter with residency artists and building activations from exciting Ontario-based talent, and with a new introduction that bridges artists from across the country and showcases them to Toronto audiences. Dive into the world of new work exploration that will help shape the future of Canadian art-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Works featured in the previous two iterations of the Greenhouse Festival have gone on to full productions, including Kevin Matthew Wong\u2019s Benevolence, and Adam Proulx\u2019s Emilio\u2019s A Million Chameleons. Both previously featured works in progress have since toured across the Canada and the US.<\/p>\n

\"L-R:
L-R: Tiny Bear Jaws Artistic Director Elena Eli Belyea; playwright, director, and magic designer Michael Kras; writer, researcher, and editor Nehal El-Hadi; multidisciplinary artist Eric Miracle; award-winning drag performance and theatre artist Pearle Harbour (Photos courtesy of the artists)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greenhouse Festival 2026<\/h2>\n

The 2026 Greenhouse Festival offers three new works that revolve around storytelling, and incorporate music and movement. It will also include a special presentation of Pearle Harbour\u2019s Agit-Pop! and in between performances, Festival goers can explore Love Me Back and Planter Box Cabaret.<\/p>\n

Greenhouse Festival producer jonnie lombard<\/strong> comments, \u201cGreenhouses are defined by their brightness, the walls of windows that let in warmth and light, and allow us peek into the growth taking place. The Greenhouse Festival imagines Tarragon Theatre as such a space, a cozy, bright incubator where everyone inside is a gardener of new theatrical works.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach Greenhouse Artists-in-Residence entered their process with an exciting question of theatrical form and process, with a need for audiences to help answer them. The Festival offers a rare opportunity for artists and audiences to experiment together in the soil of creativity, before a project has reached its final stages, and be equal parts of the photosynthesizing of innovative Canadian theatre. I encourage folks frolicking in the Greenhouse flowerbed to stop and stay a while at the Festival\u2019s offerings and activations, share thoughts with an audience neighbour and make a friend along the way, and take every opportunity to try something new. We can\u2019t wait to grow with you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"L-R:
L-R: Tiny Bear Jaws Artistic Director Elena Eli Belyea; multidisciplinary artist Eric Miracle; writer, researcher, and editor Nehal El-Hadi; playwright, director, and magic designer Michael Kras; award-winning drag performance and theatre artist Pearle Harbour (Photos courtesy of the artists)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Storytelling<\/h2>\n

Apology Show<\/h3>\n

Apology Show is an exploration of accountability and repair. The work is monologue, concert, and research project all at once, where selected members of the audience will be invited to role-play the apology they\u2019ve always dreamed of making.<\/p>\n

Artist: Tiny Bear Jaws<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tiny Bear Jaws<\/strong> is a queer and femme-run cross-Canadian theatre company with a mandate of creating works that create both empathy and the kind of discomforting feelings that produce positive change. The company is dedicated to incorporating digital media as a means of examining the infinite ways that technology influences our world, and creates thoughtful design elements for all their shows.<\/p>\n

Pulse<\/h3>\n

Pulse uses improvisation, hip hop, and collaborative creation as the basis for a theatrical story that is, at its heart, an exploration of belonging, identity, and community.<\/p>\n

Artists<\/strong><\/p>\n

Multidisciplinary artist Eric Miracle<\/strong> blends storytelling and movement in his experimental works. He\u2019s joined by award-winning multidisciplinary creator Riel Reddick-Stevens (she\/her), an artist who is dedicated to making theatre more accessible. Reddick-Stevens studied acting and musical theatre at Randolph College and the National Theatre School of Canada. Her works mixes natural sounds and movement with choral vocals and beats.<\/p>\n

Ramla and the Desert<\/h3>\n

This shadow puppetry\/live animation project brings to life a tale of desert disappearances. It was written and produced by Nehal El-Hadi and directed by Mabel Wonnacott, with puppet design and animation by Heather Piper, music by Waleed Abdulhamid.<\/p>\n

Artists<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writer, researcher, and editor Nehal El-Hadi<\/strong> trained as an environmental journalist and urban planning scholar. Her work explores the relationships with the materials, technologies, and spaces that define our humanity. She also holds a residency at Toronto\u2019s Theatre Centre, where she is developing The Observer Effect, a public space performance that examines the impacts of surveillance.<\/p>\n

Tkaronto-based opera director, arts educator, and puppeteer Mabel Wonnacott<\/strong> has directed and assisted productions across Canada, including organizations such as The Banff Centre, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Toronto City Opera, and the Canadian Children\u2019s Opera Company.<\/p>\n

Interdisciplinary artist and local 829 scenic painting union member Heather Piper<\/strong> studied screenwriting and puppet theatre at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her works in puppetry has been performed for a broad range of audiences, including performances at public gardens, on Broadway, and in both TV commercials and independent film.<\/p>\n

Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer, vocalist, music and film producer Waleed Abdulhamid<\/strong> is known as an innovative vocalist, bass player, and virtuosic percussionist. He has become a busy and respected member of Toronto\u2019s music scene since his arrival in 1991 from Sudan, where he was a child star from the age of six. He counts two Dora Awards among the multiple accolades for his work.<\/p>\n

Free Performances<\/h2>\n

Love Me Back [FREE performance]<\/h3>\n

Somewhere between a magic show and a play, Love Me Back explores the murky realm of love, heartbreak, and connection, along with the secrets hidden in a deck of playing cards.<\/p>\n

Festival goers can enjoy this performance each night between shows at 8:30 p.m. in the Near Studio on a first-come, first-served basis.<\/p>\n

Artist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hamilton-based playwright, director, and magic designer Michael Kras<\/strong> (he\/him) is probably best known for his Voaden Prize-winning play The Team (Essential Collective Theatre\/Theatre Aquarius); No Big Deal (Roseneath Theatre); and The Year and Two of Us Back Here (Broken Soil Theatre). His credits include magic direction and design for international shows such as the Canadian Premiere and North American Tour of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, among many others.<\/p>\n

Planter Box Cabaret [FREE]<\/h3>\n

The Planter Box Cabaret is a space where audience members can hang out and connect between the Extraspace presentations on each night of the Festival from 8:30 till 9:00 p.m. Activations feature local artists such as:<\/p>\n