It’s the end of an era at The Theatre On King (TTOK), with founder Ryan Kerr and Kate Story announcing they are resigning from their roles as artistic director and artistic administrator of Peterborough’s only black-box theatre after over 12 years.
Kerr and Story will be passing the torch to TTOK general manager Shannon McKenzie, who will continue to run the space.
Kerr founded TTOK in January 2013 as a result of a collaboration between the 2003-formed Peterborough Theatre Users Group and Fleshy Thud, a dance-theatre collective led by Kerr.
His vision was for TTOK to fill a void in the local arts scene that resulted from the closure of the Union Theatre — a hub for avant-garde performances and artistic innovation — 17 years before.
“When I started TTOK in 2013 there hadn’t been a small performance space in Peterborough since the Union Theatre closed down in 1996,” Kerr told kawarthaNOW in 2018, when TTOK moved from its back alley home at 159 King Street to its current street-front space a few doors away at 171 King Street.
“That means between 1996 and 2013 there was an entire generation of young artists in this town that had nowhere to experiment or bust their chops, and a lot of us (senior artists) had nowhere to call home or to create our work.”
Since it opened, TTOK has presented hundreds of independent presentations and performances including theatre, improv, dance, storytelling, music, poetry, installations, visual art, and more — including productions created and performed by both Kerr and Story.
“In a space like TTOK, because the costs are low, you can almost do anything you want and break even,” Kerr told kawarthaNOW. “This is a nice small place where people can get on stage the first time. There isn’t another place in town like this where you can actually touch the performers.”
Now, seven years after that interview and after struggles to remain financially viable during the pandemic and fighting to secure the annual municipal funding that helped keep TTOK running, Kerr says he is burned out.
“These last 12 years have taken a toll on me, physically, mentally, emotionally, and every other way you can think of,” he says in an emailed statement.
“It is time to try to take care of myself and my loved ones. All good things must come to an end at some point and I think this is the point at which it must end. I have given this much thought and deliberation and I believe that this is the right choice.”
For her part, Kate Story — Kerr’s romantic and artistic partner and an author, playwright, and performer who has been involved in TTOK since its beginnings — has been dealing with the aftermath of a cancer diagnosis last year.
“I am very grateful not to have cancer any more, and for all the care I’ve received,” Story says in a statement. “At the same time, I’d be lying if I said I feel like the same person. I am not. And although my burn-out from the work at TTOK is nothing like what Ryan has been experiencing, I too was wrung out even before my diagnosis.”
“For those of you who wondered why there wasn’t a lot of theatre at the theatre over the past months, all this is a big part of why.”
As for Shannon McKenzie, who joined TTOK in 2019, Kerr says she been taking on more and more of the day-to-day business of running TTOK — including bookings, bookkeeping, and communication — over the past few years, “so she has a good idea about the workings of TTOK.”
“I wish her all the best and know she — and the energy she brings to the job — will take TTOK into a new phase in these precarious artistic times,” he says.
Kerr adds that he and Story they will be working with McKenzie through the transition over the next few months. One of McKenzie’s first priorities will be signing a new two-year lease for the space, which expires this year.
Before Kerr and Story step away from TTOK, they have one final production to mount — one which they have been working on since 2017.
Death in Reverse: Project Baroness is a multi-disciplinary theatre show that explores Dada art, political resistance, and the relevance of art. An anti-establishment art movement that emerged in response to the horrors of World War I, Dadaism rejected traditional art values and embraced chaos, absurdity, and anti-bourgeois sentiment.
Written by Story with Kerr, directed by Kerr, and presented in collaboration with Public Energy Performing Arts and Trent Radio, Death in Reverse: Project Baroness runs for three evening performances at TTOK from May 8 to 10, with a live-to-radio broadcast and recording by Trent Radio.
“A multi-disciplinary, live, staged radio drama based on radical art?” Story asks. “It’s the kind of project that would only happen at TTOK.”
Along with Story, performers include Aaron Cavon, Kate Alton, Naomi DuVall, Matt Gilbert, Dan Smith, Brad Brackenridge, and Lindsay Unterlander. Benj Rowland will provide the music, with sets and projections by Annie Jaeger with Laura Thompson.
Tickets are $25 or pay what you can (cash only) at the door, available at eventbrite.com/e/1298313443459.
