Public Energy Performing Arts is launching its 33rd season with a diverse lineup of contemporary dance, theatre, and interdisciplinary performance, bringing artists from Peterborough and beyond to local stages from October through next May.
The performing arts animator and presenter has announced its 2026-27 season will feature six mainstage productions, with live music or musical guests incorporated into four of the shows.
Along with performances at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre, The Theatre on King, The Mount Community Centre, and the Peterborough Public Library, the new season will continue Public Energy initiatives supporting regional artists, including Rough Cuts, the Creation Lab, the Artist-in-Residence program, and Fuelled by Public Energy.
New this season are Public Energy supporter passes that come with perks, including first access to seat selection at Market Hall, a complimentary drink with a ticket at The Theatre on King, and guaranteed on-site parking at The Mount Community Centre. Passes are $90 for three shows or $120 for four shows (plus fees) and are available at publicenergy.ca.
“Blood, Water, Earth” by Kaha:wi Dance Theatre – October 14 at Market Hall
VIDEO: “Blood, Water, Earth” trailer
The 2026-27 season begins on Wednesday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m. at Market Hall with Blood, Water, Earth, an elemental multimedia dance and music work by acclaimed dancer and creator Santee Tekaronhiáhkhwa Smith and her Kaha:wi Dance Theatre.
A member of the Order of Canada, Smith previously brought Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s The Mush Hole to Nogojiwanong-Peterborough.
Blood, Water, Earth combines dance, music, and visual elements, including lighting design by Andy Moro, pottery by Steve T. Smith, and a score by the late Cris Derksen, with live vocal accompaniment by Binne Kwe Elijah.
The production brings together artists from Turtle Island and Aotearoa, with Kahnyen’kehàka artist Smith collaborating with Ngai Tahu projection designer Louise Potiki Bryant to centre Konkwehon:we and Mana Wahine perspectives.
Curve Lake First Nation musician Missy Knott will open the evening with a musical set.
Earlier that day, Smith will lead two workshops for students at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School.
“Bad Poetry” by Sara Porter Productions – October 30 & 31 at The Theatre on King
On October 30 at 7:30 p.m. and October 31 at 4 p.m., Public Energy will partner with Sara Porter Productions to present Bad Poetry at The Theatre on King.
Created and performed by Toronto artist Sara Porter, Bad Poetry is described as an absurdist “choreo-literary-logistics exercise” combining a lecture-demonstration, dance performance, and queer clowning to explore how embracing one’s own bad poetry can become an act of self-acceptance.
Porter, a writer, educator, and performer whose work combines memoir and movement through a feminist and queer perspective, has presented her work at theatres and festivals across Canada as well as in Scotland, the United States, and United Kingdom.
The performance will include a poetry-creation workshop involving the audience, with musical accompaniment by Peterborough musician Benj Rowland.
“Bodies Under Siege” by Kate Story and Allison Cummings – November 19 at Market Hall
Public Energy returns to Market Hall on November 19 at 7:30 p.m. with Bodies Under Siege, a double bill of new works by Peterborough multi-disciplinary artist and writer Kate Story and Toronto artist Allison Cummings.
Both works respond to experiences with cancer diagnoses from markedly different perspectives.
Story’s Hysterical uses movement and storytelling, humour, and personal reflection to explore their experience as well as broader questions around people with uteruses and their relationship with the medical establishment.
Cummings’ dance work Opponent takes a more visceral approach, drawing on the shared experiences of Cummings and locally born and raised dancer Christy Stoeten, who performs the work. It explores their experiences of diagnosis and treatment and the lasting effects breast cancer has had on their lives, bodies, and creative practices.
Cummings and Stoeten will also offer a creation workshop for community members, with details to be announced by Public Energy.
“Holy Guacamole” by Brendan McLeod – February 5 at Peterborough Public Library
Public Energy’s winter programming will begin on Friday, February 5 at 6 p.m. with Holy Guacamole at the Aylmer Street branch of the Peterborough Public Library.
Created and performed by former Canadian SLAM poetry champion Brendan McLeod, the show reflects Public Energy’s commitment to presenting at least one production created specifically for young audiences each season.
Accompanying himself on banjo, guitar, and ukulele, McLeod combines poetry, rap, and song in a performance suitable for students from kindergarten to Grade 7. He will cover subjects ranging from climate change to lunch-box lettuce while introducing lessons in rhythm, wordplay, and figurative language.
Holy Guacamole will also be presented in local schools in partnership with the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.
“Braids & Heritage” by Stacey Désilier and Jossua Satinée – February 20 at The Mount Community Centre
On Saturday, February 20 at 7:30 p.m., Montreal artists Stacey Désilier and Jossua Satinée will bring Braids & Heritage to Austin Doran Hall at The Mount Community Centre, with live accompaniment by Steven Doman.
Featuring iconic cowboy imagery inhabited by two Black performers, the dance work combines and reimagines cultural forms including line dancing, square dancing, the cakewalk, moonwalk, and twerking.
Playing with their striking physical resemblance, Désilier and Satinée use the cowboy as a jumping-off point for a choreographed exploration drawing both on the past and Afrofuturist visions.
Following the performance, the artists will lead a line-dancing workshop based on some of the movement from the show. Audience members can watch and listen, or get up and join in.
“On Thin Ice” by Drew Hayden Taylor – February 25 at Market Hall
The mainstage season concludes on Thursday, February 25 at 7 p.m. at Market Hall with On Thin Ice, a new mystery-comedy-thriller by Curve Lake First Nation playwright Drew Hayden Taylor.
A New Stages Theatre Brand New Stages production presented in partnership with Public Energy, the play begins on a cold winter night when a young Indigenous couple breaks into a rural cottage after their car crashes through the ice on a lake.
The cottage owners offer to help them, but appear to have more sinister intentions, setting up questions about whether the events are accidental, who is hiding what and whether anyone will survive the night.
Ensuring Public Energy’s shows are affordable to all, tickets for all mainstage performances use sliding-scale pricing to accommodate different income levels, beginning at $20. Tickets are available at publicenergy.ca.
Continuing programs in support of local artists
Along with its mainstage programming, Public Energy will continue Rough Cuts, which launched last season as a low-tech, low-stakes opportunity for local artists to share excerpts of works in progress.
The third and fourth editions of Rough Cuts will take place at The Theatre on King at 7:30 p.m. on November 28 and May 1 respectively, with participating artists to be announced. The series is open to works in any performance genre, from readings and dance to circus and music.
Public Energy is also continuing its Artist-in-Residence program, formerly known as Creative Generator, which assists regional artists in the early stages of developing new work through financial support, mentorship from Public Energy staff, and access to the organization’s administrative infrastructure.
The 2026-27 Artist-in-Residence is drag artist Sahira the Djinn, who will create a documentary about collective transformation and how fragmentation and reconstruction can represent experiences of rupture and rebuilding.
Public Energy’s Creation Lab, formerly called Alternating Currents, will return in April at The Theatre on King. The program pairs local performance creators with experienced mentors and provides time, space, and an honorarium to support the development of new work.
Through its Fuelled by Public Energy program, Public Energy will also provide small financial contributions to four projects and organizations during the season: the Mnoominkewin Gathering, Patti Shaugnessy’s Kina Maamwi, the ReFrame Film Festival, and the Small Dance for a Small Space festival at The Theatre on King.
Public Energy’s 2026-27 season sponsors are V Formation, Jo Pillon with Royal LePage Frank Realty, Hi Ho Silver, kawarthaNOW, Vandermeulen Plumbing, We Design Group, and the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough.
In addition, East City Dental is sponsoring Holy Guacamole and Dr. Laura Lawson is sponsoring Blood, Water, Earth.
Public Energy also receives support from the City of Peterborough, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and and Department of Canadian Heritage.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a long-time media sponsor of Public Energy Performing Arts.
