play/PLAY: the gallery

A working collection of 70+ North American participatory performances collected by Jenn Stephenson, Mariah Horner, and research assistants Derek Manderson, Jacob Pittini, Hailey Scott, Mary Tooley and Hamish Hutchison-Poyntz. All photography is gathered from promotional material associated with the shows and whenever possible, production information is provided. To see more information on cast and creative team, click the image in the gallery. 

If you are an artist with a participatory performance on the horizon, please connect with us through our contact page! 

4inXchange / xLq / 4 audience members. 1 table. $1000.00 in cash. Limitless possibilities.

Ambrose / Single Thread Theatre Company / Solo audience exploratory ghost story in the Grand Theatre in Kingston.

The Archive of Missing Things / Zuppa Theatre Co. / An audience is led on a digital scavenger hunt of a lost archive, with the help of live actor vignettes, audio excerpts, and an iPad app.

The Assembly / Porte Parole / A staged debate about democracy with a final act inviting the audience to speak their piece.

asses.masses / co-created by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim / A multimedia performance game about labour, revolution and donkeys.

Biidaaban: A Sonic Call to the Future / Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen / Listen to a soundscape by the water at dawn.

Brantwood / Co-created by Julie Tepperman and Mitchell Cushman / An immersive and site specific musical at an old high school.

Broken Tailbone / Carmen Aguirre (Nightswimming) / A salsa dance lesson with monologue about politics and sex.

b side / Co-created by Molly Johnson and Meredith Thompson / A meditative act of witnessing and wandering, giving life to what is hidden in plain sight.

Ça a l’air Synthétique Bonjour Hi / co-created by Burcu Emeç, Michael Martini, Nien Tzu Weng and Roxa Hy / A satirical participatory performance where willing audience members are compensated for their participation.

Café Sarajevo / bluemouth inc. / An immersive experience exploring the borders that divide and unite us, within the framework of a live podcast.

Choir!Choir!Choir! @ foldA / Choir!Choir!Choir! / A crowd of strangers becomes a community choir, located in Kingston, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal connected digitally.

Citation / Lisa C. Ravensbergen / Audio walk meets ritual around Queen’s University Campus.

Club Quarantine / A socially isolated queer nightclub and dance party on Zoom. ​

Collider / Single Thread Theatre Co. / Explore a sci-fi realm in VR.

The Complex / It's Not a Pivot Productions / A game in zoom and gather.town to decide upon a leader of a new society.

Counting Sheep / Lemon Bucket Orkestra / Audience participates in recreated moments from the Ukranian revolution.

culture.capital / Milton Lim and Patrick Blenkarn / A collectible trading card game and live art performance project

The Corona Variations / Convergence Theatre / Six live phone plays

Double Dribble / The Bentway / Exploration of the accessibility of public spaces through a basketball court comprised of nets of varying diameters

Draw Me Close / Jordan Tannahill / A one-one-one VR performance with an audience member and an actor in a mocap suit.

Embrace / Hazel Venzon ft Sawa Theatre / An interactive zoom cooking show

Escape / PushOFF / one on one interactive performance via cell phone

Everyman / Single Thread Theatre Company / Show for one, adaptation of Everyman in a church basement where you are Everyman.

FARCE / Milton Lim, Patrick Blenkarn, Laurel Green / A tabletop card game and incubator for imagining an arts ecosystem.

Foreign Radical / Theatre Conspiracy / Theatre-game hybrid that explores security, profiling, freedom of expression, and privacy in the age of cybersurveillance.

Good Things To Do / Good Things Collective / A show for one in a camping tent, where you befriend a computer program that offers tips on self-care.

Green Rooms / NAC & FOLDA / An international conference live on Zoom

Haircuts By Children / Mammalian Diving Reflex / Children give free haircuts to the public

Imaginary Ordinary / Eric Moschopedis / A community centre meets pop-up performance space. For regular people, by regular people.

Improbable Escapes Kingston / A series of escape rooms and experiences in Kingston.

Intimate Karaoke, Live in Uterine Hall / Dayna McLeod / Cabaret karaoke where participants are invited to sing karaoke into a mic fed into Danya MacLeod's uterus

It Comes in Waves / bluemouth inc. & Necessary Angel Theatre Co. / Canoeing to the Toronto Island to set up an experimental dance party.

The Itinerary: Playtest / Outside the March & Sébastien Heins / An interactive real life video game that’s controlled by the audience and performed live

Landline / XO Secret / Two strangers text while doing a tandem audio-walk in two different cities.

Legend Has It / Rebecca Northan / An audience member is selected to be the hero in a quest to save the world

Less & More / XOSECRET / A participatory show built each night with an audience from feedback from previous shows

Looking At You / Kamala Sankaram, Rob Handel, Kristin Marting / An experimental opera where the an app mines and projects participants' social media during the show.

Lost Together / UnSpun Theatre / A participant shares a story of loss, Michaela and Shira make them something to remember.

Lumina Walks / Moment Factory / A series of unique site specific outdoor immersive experiences.

May I Take Your Arm? / Red Dress Productions / A tactile audio experience where participants are taken by the arm through an immersive installation.

Megaphone / Moment Factory / An outdoor interactive urban art installation exploring public speaking.

Ministry of Mundane Mysteries / Outside the March / Week-long series of personal phone calls

Monday Nights / 6th Man Collective / Live performance meets basketball game, teamwork is the drill we're all running.

Necessary Dream / Up In the Air Theatre / Participants craft dreams to help ease a dreamer’s mind.

New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert / PushOFF / An at-home construction paper concert performance

New Societies / Re: Current Theatre / A game that invites players to create a utopia

Play in Your Bathtub / This is Not a Theatre Company / A site-specific immersive experience taking place in your own bathtub

Plays2Perform@Home / Boca del Lupo / Four plays mailed to your door to be read by your pandemic "bubble"

POLLINATORS / The Yarrow Collective / A participatory gardening installation series that playfully invites urban humans to build an ecosystem.

Pop-Up Love Party (online!) / Zuppa Theatre Co. / A Zoom conversation about the nature of love

[Queer] Blind Date / Rebecca Northan / Improv show where a clown invites an audience member on a date.

Red Phone / Boca del Lupo / An audience-to-audience performance that utilizes the intimacy of a phone call and the technology of a teleprompter

Remixed / Trophy / An auditory show featuring true stories, personalized music, and a hand delivered gift that inspires people to listen and create change in their lives.

Roll Models / Kick and Push Festival / Dungeons and Dragons staged improv play

Saving Wonderland / Gamiotics Studios / A participatory puzzle game on zoom based on Alice in Wonderland.

Secret City Adventures / Series of theatrical escape room games in Toronto.

Seiji's Perfect Day / Popcorn Galaxies / Participants fill in the blanks to create a loved one’s perfect day.

Shadow Sign for Bedroom Protest: What I Dare To Do In The Dark / Upintheair Theatre / A Zoom workshop/gathering to make shadow and/or voice protest signs

The Spectator's Odyssey / DopoLavoro Teatrale / An ambulatory adventure through the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts based on the Odyssey.

Sensory Box / Ghost River Theatre / A tactile play-in-a-box performed live and livestreamed

Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep / Tanya Marquardt / Participants text with an artist's sleeping and waking selves.

Soon, Tomorrow Maybe / Théâtre Déchaînés / A participatory phone call from between a mother and a listener.

The Stranger / DLT / You are the main character in an ambulatory immersive show about being-in-the-world.

Tape Escape / Outside the March / Escape room meets immersive performance set in a 90s video store.

TBD: Liberation Through Hearing / Radix Theatre / A multi-disciplinary event using text from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to study the process of dying and re-birth

The Curious Voyage / DLT / An immersive show where the participant starts in a hotel, hops on a plane and ends up seeing a secret musical in London.

This is Nowhere / Zuppa Theatre Co / Ambient Street Performance about searching for a secret blueprint of Halifax, exploring the city's past and present, and imagining its future

This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear / A Strange Victory Performance / A play to be read together live by a room full of strangers.

Time for Time / compagnie marie chouinard / One by one, audience members tell dancers a wish for them to interpret through movement

To You / Cellar Door Project / A pandemic pop-up porch Birthday party

Trophy / Sarah Conn / A performance and art installation that asks: how have you changed?

Walk Walk Dance / Daily Tous Les Jours / Passers-by walk, run, roll or dance to make music outdoors.

What Happens to You, Happens to Me / Susanna Fournier and CanStage / a meditative audio play for the COVID-19 isolation

Why We Are Here / Nightswimming / An invitation to sing with other people with a political/social/geographical bent.

The Zombie Syndrome / The Virtual Stage / Participants work with actors to stop the zombie apocalypse.

ZED.TO / The Mission Business / 8 month narrative told in real time through interactive events and online content