Public Energy Performing Arts is committed to making art more accessible and inclusive, and that comes with the belief you are never too young to enjoy quality theatre. That’s why they are making a last-minute splash by adding a public performance of an award-winning play made for young audiences to close out the 2025-26 season.
A Theatre Direct Canada production created by Animacy Theatre Collective, Finding Home: A Salmon Journey Upstream will be presented for one afternoon only on Saturday, May 9 at 4 p.m at the Peterborough Theatre Guild.
The presentation will mark the first time Public Energy Performing Arts has ever held a show at the Peterborough Theatre Guild. Including fees, tickets are priced at $18 for adults and $8 for children and can be purchased at publicenergy.ca.
Created and performed by Alexander Simpson and Morgan Brie Johnson, the play is described as a “funny, heartwarming play about friendship, growing up, and the annual salmon run featuring puppetry, clown, dance, and live music.”
The production is stopping in Peterborough while on a tour across southwestern Ontario throughout the spring.
Originally the play was only scheduled for two private performances at Queen Mary and Prince of Wales Public Schools for Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board students, but an additional public performance was made possible with support from the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough — giving Public Energy a rare opportunity to present a play oriented towards families and young audiences.
Geared to children ages 5 to 12, Finding Home: A Salmon Journey Upstream tells the story of Beagle and Soho (Simpson and Johnson), two Lake Ontario salmon who are best friends and do everything together.
One day, Beagle starts to change and gets the urge to set off on an adventure up the Humber River. Sojo doesn’t have the same urge but, as Beagle’s best friend, she knows she must join her.
Together, Beagle and Sojo swim against the current and face obstacles like fishermen, pollution, and sharp rocks and rapids. Along the way, they learn about friendship, what it means to reach maturity, how beautiful it can be to complete your life cycle, what home means, and why salmon are the “rockstars” of the fish world.
Simpson and Johnson are interdisciplinary artists and co-founders of the Animacy Theatre Collective, a Toronto-based collective focused on the creation of experimental and interdisciplinary works, often using humour and physical storytelling to focus on feminist narratives. The show is co-produced by Theatre Direct Canada, a premiere theatre for young audiences.
Finding Home: A Salmon Journey Upstream won a Dora Mavor Moore Award in theatre for young audiences for Outstanding New Play, and was nominated for four others: Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Design, Outstanding Production, and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble.
It was originally staged as an outdoor show in 2001, though was later adapted for indoor presentation during a residency at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre in 2024. The fun and educational show now tours schools to provide accessible art to young people.
“Theatre made for young people respects their intelligence and curiosity, reflecting their perspectives, humour, and struggles while also introducing them to new cultures, ideas, and ways of seeing,” reads a media release from Public Energy Performing Arts.
“In a world increasingly dominated by screens and passive consumption, live theatre gives young audiences an experience of being present, engaged, and emotionally invested, helping them build empathy, imagination, and critical thinking at a pivotal stage in their development. These are qualities that serve them not just as future art-goers, but as people.”
Filled with child-friendly humour, Finding Home: A Salmon Journey Upstream is suitable for the whole family, though it does contain themes of death and dying.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a long-time media sponsor of Public Energy Performing Arts.
