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Jan 19
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Shakespeare in the Ruff announces its 2026 15th anniversary Season of Love in Toronto’s East End

By | Announcements

MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO, ON (Jan 19, 2026) – Shakespeare in the Ruff presents its 2026 season in Toronto’s East End: a genre-spanning celebration of love and romance that continues our company’s commitment to balancing experimentation with accessibility. 

As You Like It
For our fifteenth annual mainstage production, Ruff presents an adaptation of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It, written by LAMBDA-award-winning playwright Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho), directed by Warona Setshwaelo, and starring Ruff collective member Jeff Yung 容海峯. Pre-show performances by Isi Bhakhomen will take place during our second weekend. The production will have a limited run August 15-30, 2026, in Withrow Park in Toronto. 

The Garden Initiative
A new version of our annual youth program is ready to blossom. Shakespeare in the Ruff presents The Garden Initiative, a summer performing arts intensive specifically for young mothers ages 16-22. Three participants will gain foundational artistic and creative skills in workshops led by professional theatre artists. The Garden Initiative is supported by Jessie’s — the June Callwood Centre for Young Women. 

Marathon Macbeth
New this year, Ruff is scaling up its annual Winter Tale programming from an in-development presentation to a fully realized performance. Marathon Macbeth is a durational theatrical experiment-slash-fundraiser in support of The Garden Initiative. Dora-winners Christine Horne and Dan Mousseau will perform a condensed version of the Scottish Play’s infamous marriage over… and over… and over again. The more money Ruff raises, the longer the actors will go! Marathon Macbeth performs one day only April 12, 2026, hosted by and with the generous support of VideoCabaret. 

Community workshops and gatherings
Ruff continues to offer rich supplementary programming with another season of our podcast Ruff Radio and our virtual book club Ruff Reads. Also returning is our Build-a-Bard workshop series, in a second iteration focused on the dramaturgy of rom-coms, and Reimagining the Canon facilitated by Jeff Ho and Patricia Allison. 

For more information, please visit:
Our website (www.shakespeareintheruff.com)
Our company Instagram (@shakespeareruff)
Our Ruff Reads Instagram (@shakesruffreads)
Or sign up for our newsletter.

About Shakespeare in the Ruff
Shakespeare in the Ruff dedicates itself to challenging the Shakespearean canon by reimagining these stories for the present day, with and for marginalized voices in our community. Our work strives for the integration of Five Key Values: Creative Audacity, Education, Anti-Racism, Respect, and Accessibility. We serve the East End Toronto community, with most of our events happening in or around Withrow Park. 

Now entering our fifteenth year, our annual programming springs from a single Shakespeare play at the centre of each season. Our summer mainstage production in Withrow Park is always a radical adaptation that pushes the boundaries of form and content for outdoor theatre. All our performances are free or pay-what-you-can. At every show, we offer Accessibility on Demand to audiences, which includes: live captioning, street-to-seat guides, pre-show touch tours, audio description, and a roll-a-ramp for mobility devices. We provide free on-site childcare for artists working on our summer production. 

Our winter performance — Ruff’s Winter Tale — offers a counterpoint to the themes of our summer programming. Our Playground skill-building workshops for artists, Ruff Reads book club and Ruff Radio podcast extend the conversation around our season programming. Our summer youth program offers integrated performing arts education to youth, providing hands-on, one-on-one mentorship with professional artists. 

Media requiring further information, interviews, or imagery/b-roll, please contact:
Nathaniel Hanula-James
nathaniel@shakespeareintheruff.com

Oct 15
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R autumn with all of the book covers in a row

October 2025 – Ruff Reads

By | Announcements, Ruff Reads

This month we’re looking at two Roman sources for Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Join us! 

THYESTES  by Seneca, and

METAMORPHOSES (excerpt) by Ovid

Thursday October 30th at 8pm on Zoom

Our guest curator Cassandra Marcus Davey has put together an incredible list of resources to help you find copies of both Thyestes and Metamorphoses in various formats. Find it here: Fall Ruff Reads resources

DM us or contact christine@shakespeareintheruff.com for the Zoom link. (Don’t have time to read but still interested in the conversation? Join us anyway!) 

**CW: Thyestes and Metamorphoses contains scenes of violence, rape, mutilation, and cannibalism.

From the RSC about the sources for Titus Andronicus:

“It owes much to the tale of […] Philomel in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and a copy of this is actually used by Lavinia in the play to explain what has happened to her.

Shakespeare is also indebted to Seneca’s Thyestes, in which Thyestes is served his two sons for supper by his brother Atreus in revenge for his adultery.

Classical tragedy such as that by Seneca was very popular with the Elizabethans, including as it did revenge, bloody murders, brutality, ghosts and long, bombastic speeches.”

Sep 17
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R autumn with all of the book covers in a row

September 2025 – Ruff Reads

By | Announcements

Welcome to Ruff Reads Autumn, a bonus book club session curated and facilitated by Ruff Reader Cass Marcus Davey! This fall we’re diving into one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest (and earliest) tragedies: Titus Andronicus! Here we go!

TITUS ANDRONICUS  by William Shakespeare

Thursday September 25th at 8pm on Zoom

Cass has put together an incredible list of resources to help you find copies of the play in various formats. Find it here: Fall Ruff Reads resources

DM us or contact christine@shakespeareintheruff.com for the Zoom link. (Don’t have time to read the play but still interested in the conversation? Join us anyway!) 

About the play, from the Folger Shakespeare Library: 

**CW: Titus Andronicus contains scenes of violence, rape, mutilation, and cannibalism.

Titus Andronicus overflows with death and violence. Twenty-one sons of the Roman general Titus Andronicus have died in battle, leaving four alive. After defeating the Goths, Titus permits the sacrifice of the oldest son of their queen, Tamora.

Titus helps Saturninus become emperor. Saturninus plans to marry Titus’s daughter, Lavinia. Instead, she marries Bassianus, aided by Titus’s sons, one of whom Titus kills. Saturninus then marries Tamora. The stage is set for multiple revenge plots.

Tamora’s lover, Aaron the Moor, instructs her two sons to kill Bassianus, then falsely implicates two of Titus’s sons. Tamora’s sons also rape Lavinia, cutting off her tongue and hands. To save his sons from execution, Titus cuts off his own hand, but Aaron sends him their heads.

Lucius, Titus’s last son, leads an army of Goths against Rome. Titus kills Tamora’s sons and serves them to her in a pie. In the ensuing events, Lavinia, Tamora, Titus, and Saturninus all die. Lucius becomes emperor and sentences Aaron to death.

Apr 30
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May 2025 – Ruff Reads

By | Announcements, Ruff Reads

Four fictional, century-spanning, interwoven texts exploring extreme wealth and capital? (And the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction?) Let’s go!

TRUST by Hernan Diaz
Thursday May 29th at 8pm on Zoom
DM us or contact christine@shakespeareintheruff.com for the Zoom link. (Don’t have time to read the book but still interested in the conversation? Join us anyway!) 

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