Current Projects
Shadowland's Monday Night Theatre program for youth, held on Toronto's Ward's Island, has been running for thirty years this season!
The program provides kids with a fun and engaging environment to develop valuable theatre skills. Here, they can hang out with friends while learning techniques that will benefit them for a lifetime.
The young company produces a Mummers play each winter. In the summer, stilt workshops are held and participate in the Fire Parade residency.
It is a unique experience that blends creativity, teamwork, and the joy of performance!
STILTS & STORIES
Migration Celebration
Dentonia Park Aug 6-8 & R.V. Burgess Park Aug 13-15
3pm-7pm daily
Free arts workshops! All ages welcome!
Migration Celebration uses theatre arts to honour the vital role of birds, butterflies, and animals in our ecosystems and daily lives. Shadowland artists will be in residence at each park for three days.
Join Shadowland’s free arts programming for all ages, where you can create costumes and puppets, learn music and songs, share stories, experience Indigenous teachings and go on nature walks.
Cameroonian musician Njacko Backo will collaborate with Shadowland’s Chris Wilson and Jim Bish to lead music workshops and provide parade tunes. Alan Colley will offer Medicine Wheel teachings and guide walks to explore the creatures and natural medicines found in the park.
All these activities will culminate in a spectacular parade, where everyone is invited to tour the park in a joyous and colourful celebration of birds, butterflies, and animals.
Dentonia Park Parade: Fri Aug 8, 7pm
R.V. Burgess Pk Parade: Fri Aug 15, 7pm
Dentonia Park: 80 Thyra Ave, Victoria Park Subway, Google Maps
R.V. Burgess Park: 46 Thorncliffe Park Dr., Google Maps
drop in anytime! There's always something going on to discover. Shadowland artists look forward to welcoming you!
We are delighted to have two talented artists join Shadowland this summer. Pearl Koblinsky is an apprentice through the generosity of Studio Lab Theatre Foundation, and Logan Mendes through the Canada Summer Jobs program. Both have expressed great relief at escaping summer retail jobs so they can unleash their creativity making a menagerie of cardboard creatures.
Summer interns
@shadowland
Biidaasige park
opening celebration
Saturday, July 19 & Sunday, July 20
11am to 5pm daily
Parades 2pm & 4pm both days
Join Shadowland artists for the City of Toronto’s opening of the brand new Biidaasige Park located in Toronto’s East Portlands. We are delighted to celebrate this stage of Toronto’s waterfront revitalization and to see more parks in the city. We will run free programming to honour the wildlife that visits our green spaces and waterways.
Everyone and all ages are welcome at our butterfly puppet workshops from 11am to 5pm. Then join in two celebratory parades each day with music, stilt-walking and puppets.
City of Toronto Biidaasige Parks Page
GOOD TO KNOW:
There will be a shuttle bus running from City Hall both days. Info here
On June 1, 2025 we were thrilled to collaborate once again with East End Arts (EEA) and the inspiring young people of East End Kids Pride. Magical Metamorphosis was the theme and Dentonia Park was truly metamorphosed by this glorious, colourful, and loving event. Leading up to the parade Shadowland artists lead free workshops at EEA's St. Matthews Clubhouse to create beautiful butterfly puppets for the parade.
Re-visit the fun on Youtube - by Cass Rudolph, commissioned for East End Arts/East End Kids Pride
East End Kids Pride
WorkshopS & Parade
Light It Up!
5th Annual Equinox
Lantern Parade
We were thrilled to collaborate again with East End Arts, Workman Arts and Crescent Town Club to spread light and beauty in these dark and cold times.
Free lantern making workshops inviting any and all community members were held at Crescent Town Club and Matthew's Clubhouse over the month of March.
On March 22, 2025 at 6.30 pm, participants brought their lanterns to the fifth annual Light It Up! Equinox Parade in Taylor Creek Park. Glowing lanterns, music, stilt-walkers, hot chocolate, and a warming fire will help us push back the dark and imagine the coming Spring.
Hands On! Craft & Storytelling
Anne Barber and Leah Sanchez, completed a workshop series with newcomer women. It is a part of MABELLEarts’ Welcome to the Neighbourhood program, and Newcomer Women Services,
funded by IRCC.
Each week the room was bursting with laughter, artworks and lively conversations.
We celebrated our hands, what they can do, what they mean to us, and how to keep them warm and loved. We made wrist-warmers, felted with wool,
What a remarkable and inspiring group!
We are grateful to MABELLEarts for this initiative and leading the way in recognizing the vital role the arts play in welcoming people to Canada.
Shadowland’s Mummers are always topical, if not prophetic, and December’s show, X AI and I Wonder Y, was right on point. The Wise Knight battled against the Techno Knight’s control over the minds of the populace. Quack doctors – the Three “Musk”eteers, tried their far-fetched remedies to no avail. The People, realizing they were being manipulated, brought the Knight of true knowledge back to life, and took back control of their own lives.
Performances were at St Andrew-by-the-Lake Church, a very cold Kensington Solstice Celebration, and, we were special guests on CBC’s Metro Morning. We are so proud of our stellar group of young performers.
X AI and I Wonder Y
Mummers Play 2024
Light & Shadow
Shadowland’s first video game is available on Steam and itch.io.
Created in collaboration with the brilliant team at Flawed Designs, Light & Shadow is a free, platformer game in a shadow puppetry style designed for young people vulnerable to anxiety and depression. Our character, Po (you!), sets off to follow a shooting star hoping to bring its light into their life. It is a journey of trial and achievement in a shadowy world.
Finding your way isn't always easy, keep going!
Shadowland artists and game developers worked with mental health professionals and a youth advisory to bring this idea to life.
Light & Shadow has been downloaded 163,438 times, in 131 countries.
We have run arts and wellness workshops, based on the game, for youth programs. Contact us if you would like details on this workshop series for your group.
What People have said about Light & Shadow
“A nice platform with cute animation (loved the puppet-like aspect) that is actually about mental health….. Give it a go!”
“An amazing sound track that you want to listen to endlessly. A game about the blues and finding a goal is cool. I strongly recommend.”
“you’ll play as a shadow puppet in a world void of colour. Well, except for the musical notes scattered throughout the world guiding you through your journey.”
"The game itself is a fun play and a good experience and all for FREE…I love to see the shadow play style, it’s so cool and man the cutscenes are so nice. I recommend it a lot.”
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