GROUNDSWELL FESTIVAL 2025
November 17 – 20, 2025
Nancy & Ed Jackman Theatre – Performance Hall (877 Yonge St)
Tickets: Single tickets are $12, available online or at the door.
Join us as we celebrate creation, conversation and community at our 40th annual Groundswell Festival! This November, our annual Groundswell Festival is coming to the Nancy & Ed Jackman Theatre Performance Hall to spotlight brand new works from Nightwood Theatre’s Write From The Hip playwright’s unit (WFTH) led by Program Director Intisar Awisse and Program Associate Mya Wong. Hear new plays from Beck Lloyd, Mason McDonald, Tanvi Vyas, Renée Wong, and Brianna Wright.
GROUNDSWELL 2025 Schedule
4:00 PM – From Page to Production: Making Your Own Work with Rachel Cairns
Description: You’ve got a script, or a semblance of a script, or an idea that won’t leave you alone—now what? This two-hour, hands-on workshop is for writers and theatre-makers who want both a creative sounding board and practical producing tools to move a project from page to stage. Instead of separating “art” and “admin,” we’ll weave them together: as we workshop projects, we’ll refine story and structure and map the plan that carries the work to audiences. Find more information and register here!
This evening’s reading will begin with excerpts from work by Curtain Raisers.
7:00 PM – Magnus is Eating Birds by Beck Lloyd
Show Description: Magnus is Eating Birds is a new play that blends myth and domestic realism into a gothic family fable. It begins with a mythic union between a man and a woman, where silence and power take root. From this origin, a son, Magnus, emerges into a troubled household where cycles of harm repeat. Through shifting tones, sometimes poetic, sometimes naturalistic, the play explores inheritance, silence, and the impossibility of fully breaking from the past without understanding it.
Runtime: 45 minutes
Featuring: Andrew Broderick, Brefny Caribou, and Andre Sills
Stage Directions by: Zoe Marín
7:00 PM – 5-Minute Feminist Cabaret
Celebrating 40 years of Groundswell with special excerpt readings from playwrights of Groundswell past! Join us for the revival of the our fast & fun 5-Minute Feminist Cabaret!
Featuring Readings by: Lara Arabian, Jess Dobkin, Susanna Fournier, Breton Lalama, Rose Napoli, Lisa Ryder, and Andrea Scott!
This evening’s reading will begin with an excerpt from work by Curtain Raiser, Asenia Lyall.
7:00 PM – BABEL by Brianna Wright
Show Description: In a world where social media draws us closer together and AI has the answer for most things, Nim, compelled by circumstance, uses the tools at her disposal to build a connection with a father she has never met. As difficult conversations are brought to the table, secrets are unearthed and unrealized desires are examined, Nim is confronted with many questions, should she welcome The Man she never knew into her life with Open arms or face a reality where certain connections may never develop after a significant amount of time has passed?
Runtime: 45 minutes
Featuring: Dejah Dixon-Green, Janelle Cooper, and Peter N. Bailey
Stage Directions by: Autumn Davis
8:00 PM – 02: 靈異 by Renée Wong
Show Description: In a quiet Toronto home, D lives under the weight of their parents’ traditions. When their parents turn to a self-proclaimed healer, the home is filled with rituals and endless attempts to cure what cannot be named. When J, a mysterious woman enters D’s life, they are pulled toward each other in a force that feels both healing and destructive. As their connection deepens, the family is drawn into a world where the line between the living and the dead, love and haunting, begins to blur.
Runtime: 45 minutes
Featuring: Jane Luk, John Ng, Stephanie Fung, April Leung 梁筱彤, Richard Tse, and Jeff Yung
Stage Directions by: Jobina Sitoh 司徒加恩
This evening’s reading will begin with excerpt from work by curtain raiser, Rahkee Mozaria.
7:00 PM – boyhood by Mason McDonald
Show Description: When a trans man faces an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy, he must confront a medical system ill-equipped to address the intersections of gender-affirming and reproductive healthcare. “boyhood” exposes the tender solace of queer love and chosen family in the age of individualism.
Runtime: 45 minutes
Featuring: Breton Lalama, Kyana Teresa, Taha Arshad, and Fiona Highet
Stage Directions by: Oliver Pitschner
8:00 PM – Kasuku by Tanvi Vyas
Show Description: In August 1972, as Idi Amin begins his expulsion of South Asians from the country, two sisters – Chitra and Nishi – meet in the dead of night along the Ugandan-Kenyan border. Unable to cross the border to safety with her sister, Nishi entrusts Chitra with Kasuku, an African Gray Parrot the sisters have cared for since their teenage years. Kasuku becomes a constant companion as Chitra raises her twin children – Priya and Pravesh – in Kenya.
As Priya and Pravesh grow, tensions from the expulsion spread across East Africa. They learn to navigate the shifting relationships of the Native African and Indo-African communities. Meanwhile, Chitra struggles to understand her children as both seek to step outside of their expected paths. Their greatest challenge arises when the family is thrown headfirst into the violent Coup D’etat of August 1982 and its aftermath. The world shifts rapidly around them, and sacrifices must be made or they risk being separated forever.
Runtime: 45 minutes
Featuring: Navtej Sandhu, Tawiah Ben M’Carthy, Kiara-Kumail, Rebecca Ablack, and Joella Crichton
Stage Directions by: Rahkee Mozaria
1:00PM – The Art of Generative Self-Critique with Intisar Awisse
Join WFTH Program Director, Intisar Awisse, for a 2-hour dramaturgy workshop designed to help emerging playwrights refine their work and cultivate a productive practice of self-critique. Through guided exercises, feedback, and strategies for reflection, participants will develop dramaturgical tools for self-critique and revision, allowing them to assess their work with both critical distance and clarity. Participants should have a complete first draft and be ready to dive into revisions to benefit from this workshop. Find more information and register here!
Nightwood’s Write From The Hip playwright unit is generously supported by RBC Emerging Artists.
Meet the Groundswell Festival 2025 Team
Intisar Awisse
Program Director
Mya Wong
Program Associate
Renée Wong
Playwright
Brianna Wright
Playwright