Troy Foundry Theatre is now accepting submissions for the 2025 Half-Baked Festival celebrating works-in-development and the presentation of in-process creative projects which will be presented September 18 - 28, 2025 in Troy, NY.
We seek projects that wrestle with the absurdity of our time – politics, climate change, capitalism, digital dissonance, identity, and societal transformation. We're drawn to projects that are unhinged, hilarious, desperate, or beautifully broken in their honesty.
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Meanwhile Park is a small, private park in Salt Lake City, UT. The Park hosted its first performing arts evening in 2022. Since 2023, Meanwhile Park has produced and presented a new, one-act play chosen through our Playwright Prize competition. Submissions for the 2026 (and possibly 2027.) Entries into the MPPP should consider the following:
• Plays should run between 30 minutes and one hour including any required or desired breaks.
• The “cast” should be limited to no more than six people. Cast can include actors, musicians, or other artists required to tell the story directly to the audience.
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The Winters Theatre Company will welcome submissions of original scripts for consideration in our 2026 10-minute play festival. We will only accept original submissions (all submissions must come directly from the original playwright/author) for the festival. You must be 18 years of age or older to submit an application, and there is a limit of 1 submission per author. Every play must be 10-minutes or less. There is no specific theme for the festival so all 10-minute scripts are welcome.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** WORTHWHILE CANADIAN INTIAITIVE ***
Back in 1986 The New Republic challenged its readers to come up with a headline more boring than “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative,” the title of a New York Times op-ed by Flora Lewis. They couldn’t. Canada, you see, was considered inherently boring.
As I wrote a couple of months ago, economists have never considered Canada boring: It has often been a laboratory for distinctive policies. But now it’s definitely not boring: Canada, which will hold a snap election next month, seems poised to deliver a huge setback to Donald Trump’s foreign ambitions, one that may inspire much of the world — including many people in the United States — to stand up to the MAGA power grab.
So this seems like a good time to look north and see what we can learn. Here are three observations inspired by Canada that seem highly relevant to the United States.
Other countries are real
I don’t know what set Trump off on Canada, what made him think that it would be a good idea to start talking about annexation. Presumably, though, he expected Canadians to act like, say, university presidents, and immediately submit to his threats.
What he actually did was to rally Canadians against MAGA.
More..
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/worthwhile-canadian-observations
***
Not even Spokane’s visiting production of Hamilton escaped Canadian backlash after President Donald Trump started to talk about annexing the country as the “51st state” earlier this year.
The popular show failed to sell out after many Canadian theatergoers, who can account for up to 10% of ticket sales for Spokane’s annual “Best of Broadway” series, declined to cross the border, requesting refunds. In fact, Spokane boosters are bracing for a summer tourist season potentially dampened by fewer Canadian visitors due to U.S. political rhetoric, threats of tariffs and fears of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
More...
https://www.cascadepbs.org/politics/2025/07/citing-trumps-rhetoric-canadians-skip-spokane-theater-shows/
***
Just before Canada Day, a musical near and dear to Canada’s heart got its own shot at experiencing what St. Louis locals call “Muny magic”: a fully staged production set against the breathtaking sunsets of Forest Park.
In a city all but defined by its equivocal history, Come From Away at the Muny captured yet another tension: the fractured relationship between the U.S. and Canada, spurred by U.S. President Donald Trump’s continuing trade war and past remarks about annexing the country.
Artistically speaking, Come From Away’s Muny premiere signals a new era for the musical. The Mirvish production of the show, which ran for seven years with a medley of co-producers, just two months ago played its final performance at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre. Come From Away’s parallel tour, as well, came to a close this spring.
But as June faded into July – at a time when the relationship between the U.S. and Canada was decidedly fraught – Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical about kindness, empathy and finding light in dark times played a weeklong run in the outdoor Missouri amphitheatre, a gathering space so large it could have accommodated every single one of the 7,000 or so passengers who were diverted to Newfoundland on Sept. 11, 2001.
More...
https://archive.ph/GN9aL#selection-2671.0-2711.333
***
Theatre Kingston: Trump's Tariffs go into effect today, so why not come to our truly CANADIAN production? Playwright GEORGE F. WALKER is a CANADIAN TREASURE! So are our CAST Shannon Donnelly, Emily Elliott and Tony Babcock. Directed by Ian Malcolm. So ignore the American Movies and see LIVE CANADIANS! https://www.kingstongrand.ca/events/parents-night #IAMCANADIAN #YGK #THEATRE #GFWALKER #TARIFFS (and for all you Americans, who need a break from the white house press releases why not come to CANADA for a mini-break (Say you are going to a show!) :)
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGx6CApz4sV/
***
If you’re hitting pause on future travel to the United States, you’re not alone. In March, 32 per cent fewer Canadians drove across the American border compared with the same period last year, and the tourism industry shows no signs of recovery as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to wage his unpredictable trade war.
It’s too soon to tell if many of the approximately 3.8 per cent of Broadway tickets sales attributed to Canadians will go unsold this year. Ordinarily, I’d be heading to New York myself right around now, to catch up on recent Broadway hits as well as the rash of Canadian work geared to play the Big Apple this summer.
But like many Canadians, I’m sitting out this year’s southern travel plans.
This April, however, I had the chance to catch a few shows on London’s West End, and I hardly missed my usual springtime jaunt to the Great White Way. If you’re planning a trip to England – and maybe missing out on a planned excursion to the Great White Way – here’s what to see (and skip) in three of the country’s most storied theatres.
More...
https://archive.ph/ol2LX#selection-2409.0-2433.148
***
One thing the U.S. learned early: Trump’s belligerence has driven Canadians to look elsewhere to spend their tourism dollars. By April there were American headlines about Canadians staying away, reports that this year 32% fewer Canadians had driven across the border compared to the same time frame last year, and even Canadian critics offering West End recommendations to readers who have decided to skip Broadway this year and head to London instead.
Just last week NYC Tourism + Conventions reported that foreign tourism to New York City is now expected to plummet by as much as 14% this year, translating to a loss of up to $4 billion in direct spending. In past years, Canadians have been the second-largest demographic of international visitors to the city (after travellers hailing from the U.K.); of the 13 million foreign tourists that came to New York in 2024, ~1 million of them were Canadian. If there is indeed a significant decline this year, it’ll leave a mark at the Broadway box office: In past years nearly 4% of Broadway ticket sales have been attributed to Canadians.
North of the border, international travel is also down, with American traffic significantly lower than last year while domestic tourism is on the rise as Canadians opt to stay in the country rather than go Stateside. It remains to be seen what those shifts will mean to Toronto’s theaters: Mirvish Productions, the city’s major commercial player, estimates that Americans make up just 4-5% of its audience, according to the company’s sales and marketing director, John Karastamatis.
So far, the international tensions seem to have had a muted effect on attendance at Canada’s two biggest theater festivals. The Stratford Festival in Ontario reports that 18-20% of its audiences this year are American, not quite as high as the 25% pre-COVID high, but not too far off either. In a recent piece in Maclean’s, Tim Jennings, the executive director of the Shaw Festival (right over the U.S. border in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario), notes that this year “4% of Shaw’s U.S.-based audience has been reluctant to commit to bookings, even if those who do are staying an average of a day longer.”
The Toronto theatermakers I’ve spoken to this summer tell me that so far, Trump’s talk of tariffs and trade disputes haven’t yet had a significant impact on Canadian production costs—even for the producers who rely on American vendors for some sets, lights, and other assets. But the general atmosphere of economic uncertainty has prompted an overall drop in consumer spending that’s having an identifiable effect on the theater business.
“Canadians are uncertain about the future and worried about the economy,” says Karastamatis, who estimates that such worries have lately prompted a decline in attendance of about 15% at Mirvish shows. “But it’s a really recent thing, and we don’t know how long it will go on.”
More...
https://gordoncox.substack.com/p/toronto-candada-theater-industry-trump-elbows-up
***
The Canadian “elbows up” attitude was showing. Driving through the countryside from Toronto, we noticed it everywhere, in the nicest northerly way. Maple leaf flaglets fluttering from car windows. “True North Strong” yard signs. Banners suggesting, as if in code, “Never 51.”
But once we arrived at the Stratford Festival, situated among the rolling plains of southwestern Ontario, the gloves came off. Though the season was planned well before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, this year’s productions at the country’s (and likely the continent’s) largest nonprofit theater seemed to be sending a message. The message was clearest in the three gripping Shakespeare productions I saw during a six-day, seven-show visit. But “Annie,” no less than Lady Macbeth, had something to say to Canada’s neighbor to the south.
Until experiencing those Shakespeares in quick succession here, I had never deeply absorbed how so many of the canonical plays are set in motion by the same chaotic figure: a man temperamentally unsuited to the wise use of great power. In “Macbeth” he is the quick-rising warrior whose wobbly personality (and overcompensating wife) bring on a blood bath of internecine carnage.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/theater/canada-stratford-theater-festival.html
--But like many Canadians, I’m sitting out this year’s southern travel plans.
This April, however, I had the chance to catch a few shows on London’s West End, and I hardly missed my usual springtime jaunt to the Great White Way. If you’re planning a trip to England – and maybe missing out on a planned excursion to the Great White Way – here’s what to see (and skip) in three of the country’s most storied theatres.
More...
https://archive.ph/ol2LX#selection-2409.0-2433.148
***
One thing the U.S. learned early: Trump’s belligerence has driven Canadians to look elsewhere to spend their tourism dollars. By April there were American headlines about Canadians staying away, reports that this year 32% fewer Canadians had driven across the border compared to the same time frame last year, and even Canadian critics offering West End recommendations to readers who have decided to skip Broadway this year and head to London instead.
Just last week NYC Tourism + Conventions reported that foreign tourism to New York City is now expected to plummet by as much as 14% this year, translating to a loss of up to $4 billion in direct spending. In past years, Canadians have been the second-largest demographic of international visitors to the city (after travellers hailing from the U.K.); of the 13 million foreign tourists that came to New York in 2024, ~1 million of them were Canadian. If there is indeed a significant decline this year, it’ll leave a mark at the Broadway box office: In past years nearly 4% of Broadway ticket sales have been attributed to Canadians.
North of the border, international travel is also down, with American traffic significantly lower than last year while domestic tourism is on the rise as Canadians opt to stay in the country rather than go Stateside. It remains to be seen what those shifts will mean to Toronto’s theaters: Mirvish Productions, the city’s major commercial player, estimates that Americans make up just 4-5% of its audience, according to the company’s sales and marketing director, John Karastamatis.
So far, the international tensions seem to have had a muted effect on attendance at Canada’s two biggest theater festivals. The Stratford Festival in Ontario reports that 18-20% of its audiences this year are American, not quite as high as the 25% pre-COVID high, but not too far off either. In a recent piece in Maclean’s, Tim Jennings, the executive director of the Shaw Festival (right over the U.S. border in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario), notes that this year “4% of Shaw’s U.S.-based audience has been reluctant to commit to bookings, even if those who do are staying an average of a day longer.”
The Toronto theatermakers I’ve spoken to this summer tell me that so far, Trump’s talk of tariffs and trade disputes haven’t yet had a significant impact on Canadian production costs—even for the producers who rely on American vendors for some sets, lights, and other assets. But the general atmosphere of economic uncertainty has prompted an overall drop in consumer spending that’s having an identifiable effect on the theater business.
“Canadians are uncertain about the future and worried about the economy,” says Karastamatis, who estimates that such worries have lately prompted a decline in attendance of about 15% at Mirvish shows. “But it’s a really recent thing, and we don’t know how long it will go on.”
More...
https://gordoncox.substack.com/p/toronto-candada-theater-industry-trump-elbows-up
***
The Canadian “elbows up” attitude was showing. Driving through the countryside from Toronto, we noticed it everywhere, in the nicest northerly way. Maple leaf flaglets fluttering from car windows. “True North Strong” yard signs. Banners suggesting, as if in code, “Never 51.”
But once we arrived at the Stratford Festival, situated among the rolling plains of southwestern Ontario, the gloves came off. Though the season was planned well before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, this year’s productions at the country’s (and likely the continent’s) largest nonprofit theater seemed to be sending a message. The message was clearest in the three gripping Shakespeare productions I saw during a six-day, seven-show visit. But “Annie,” no less than Lady Macbeth, had something to say to Canada’s neighbor to the south.
Until experiencing those Shakespeares in quick succession here, I had never deeply absorbed how so many of the canonical plays are set in motion by the same chaotic figure: a man temperamentally unsuited to the wise use of great power. In “Macbeth” he is the quick-rising warrior whose wobbly personality (and overcompensating wife) bring on a blood bath of internecine carnage.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/theater/canada-stratford-theater-festival.html
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