After five seasons of producing live improv comedy shows and providing improv training for adults, Peterborough’s klusterfork entertainment will be shutting down as of May 30.

According to a media release, partners Linda Kash, Pat Maitland, and Ian Burns have “mutually and amicably agreed” to call it quits after the current session of klusterfork workshops is done — although Kash will continue to offer adult classes under the umbrella of Peterborough Academy of Performing Arts (PAPA).

“The whole thing started as a brainstorm with Linda about a one-off show idea,” recalls Maitland, an improviser herself who also makes a living as a freelance writer, editor, and television producer. “That it turned into a six-year partnership was more than I could have imagined. I feel like I ran away with the circus for six years — it’s been that much fun.”

The trio launched klusterfork in November 2019 with “klusterfork, It’s Christmas!”, a sold-out debut improv show at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough.

The show saw Kash and fellow Second City alumni Paul Constable, Patrick McKenna, Deborah Kimmett, and Ed Sahely join Maitland and other Peterborough performers including Megan Murphy, Dianne Latchford, and Paul Crough. A portion of proceeds from ticket sales was donated to Five Counties Children’s Centre.

After the success of that first show, klusterfork booked seven more live shows over the next two years at Market Hall and staged “klusterfork, It’s Winter! Still.” on February 21, 2020, with a portion of proceeds donated to YES Shelter for Youth and Families. Three weeks later, the pandemic hit, performance venues were closed, and klusterfork’s plan for more live shows was thrown into disarray.

VIDEO: “We are klusterfork!” (2021)

By June of that year, when it became clear the pandemic was not ending anytime soon and a return to live shows was not in the cards, klusterfork began offering weekly improv sessions online to offer socialization, play, and laughter as antidotes for the isolation and fear created by the pandemic.

Some of Canada’s best talent in acting, singing, voicework, audition, and pitching skills participated in the workshops, and klusterfork even brought in some of the country’s top casting agents to give feedback on students’ work.

The following fall, klusterfork returned to live performance with a show at the Gordon Best Theatre to give improv students some much-needed stage time in front of a live audience. Although that show was a success, scheduling regular live shows remained a challenge because of the ongoing pandemic.

With the pandemic waning in early 2022, klusterfork returned to the Market Hall with the improv show “April Fools’ Gold – The Joke’s On Us” in April and resurrected the popular improv comedy series “Impros vs Joes” — where improv professionals mixed with improv students — at the Gordon Best Theatre in May.

After the pandemic was officially declared over in May 2023, klusterfork returned to the Market Hall a month later with the improv comedy show “School’s Out!”.

“Mounting productions in Peterborough, at venues big and small, gave us the chance to engage with fantastic people who worked hard to help us succeed,” Burns says. “And so many local businesses opened their wallets when we asked for sponsorship and advertising dollars.”

Also in 2023, building on the success of its online classes, klusterfork began offering a series of in-person classes. Since June 2020, klusterfork has delivered 57 workshops and engaged with over 250 adult students, many of whom began with the online classes and remained loyal students, taking courses including physical comedy, musical theatre, guitar lessons, sketch-writing, and stand-up comedy.

“klusterfork’s success is Peterborough’s success,” Kash says. “When we started promoting our first show, when no one knew what to expect from us, we received incredible support from the community, from media partnership and promotion, to local improvisors and musicians bringing so much to our list of headliners, and finally to selling out tickets even before opening night. The Peterborough spirit raised us from day one.”

For her part, Maitland says closing klusterfork “wasn’t an easy decision,” but knowing that classes will continue with Kash at PAPA provides some relief.

“PAPA has been offering Peterborough classes for over 18 years, and it’s a delight to welcome back adults and continue the offerings that klusterfork established with so much success,” Kash adds.

klusterfork is planning to host a celebratory send-off called “May the Fork be With You” from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on for Friday, May 2 at The Only Café in downtown Peterborough.

Kash, Maitland, and Burns are inviting well-wishers — including students, performers, and current and former instructors — to join them at the casual drop-in event and to raise a glass to celebrate the success of klusterfork.

“We have many people to thank, and we will, both personally and over social media, in the coming weeks,” Burns says.

The lottery results are in for the performing artists who will be on the bill for the 2025 Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF), considered to be the only Indigenous fringe festival in the world.

NIFF organizers have announced the artists who will take the stage for the fringe festival, which runs from June 19 to 22. Both new and returning artists will gather for performances in NIFF’s new East City home, the Peterborough Theatre Guild, which is located at 364 Rogers St. in Peterborough.

Below are the artists for this year’s festival, with descriptions about each performance from the NIFF website.

Juicebox Theatre (Winnipeg) with their play “Mutt”

Mutt is a show about how we treat and view the world around us in this age, and compares it to old ways of life and thoughts on combination.

Centre for Indigenous Theatre (Toronto) with “Whistling Pine (A Dark Comedy)” by Chris Mejaki

CJ is a young Indigenous man dealing drugs in small-town Ontario. The trajectory of his life takes a dramatic and comedic turn when he’s arrested, incarcerated, and mysteriously contacted by his ancestral spiritual guides. Whistling Pine takes CJ on a spiritual journey of awakening and personal reconciliation.

John-Paul Chalykoff (Sault Ste. Marie) and his puppet friends with “Songs from Gichi-Gamiing”

Coming from Gichi-Gamiing (Lake Superior), Baabii, a furry blue creature from an island on the lake, will be visiting with some of his friends. They will be sharing songs and stories bilingually in Anishinaabemowin and English. There will be time for a Q&A at the end.

Oshkagoojin Theatre Projects (Winnipeg) with “Niin Anihinaabekwe”

Join Bae (short for Ah-nish-eh-nah-Bae) on a brief adventure in her daily urban life. Bae, an Ojibwe woman and “Contrary” (a ceremonial role as a mirror and teacher to society), navigates her day and suddenly finds herself stranded.

This piece reflects the predicaments urban Indigenous folks face, using humour and clownery to grapple with lack of access to traditional territories, knowledgem and connections to land. It deals with themes such as how resilient urban Indigenous folks are and explores how easily blood memory is reignited through reconnection to the land, honouring reciprocity, inherited traditional knowledge, food security and land stewardship.

Indian Way Theatre (Akwesasne) with “My Good Friend Jay”

In short, this play is about Akwesasne. This play is about childhood. This play is about smuggling. This play is about Indigenous sovereignty. This play is about family. This play is about the Mohawks of Akwesasne.

We can focus on the physical and the cultural. How our traditions got tangled in this web of politics and ideologies, which only caused our people to suffer. How we persist and continue. How close and personal the land is to our very livelihood, how people don’t understand and how we don’t really care if you can’t understand. How we say we’re not going to coddle you after everything is done. Not after all the patience we’ve spent already.

Akwesasne is cut into four separate jurisdictions: one district in Ontario, two in Quebec, and one in New York State. To people who are not aware or used to this fact, it’s fascinating. It’s intricate. It begs more explanation and more questions. To us it’s an inconvenient and, most of the time, dull reality. Until we decide it isn’t.

3 Soul Goddess with their drama “Postcards from Colonization”

Three women from different backgrounds explore their relationship to colonization and each other.

Subi-Baba-Yi Dilalan from Cameroon with music and stories in “People of the Forest” (to be confirmed)

People of the Forest is a dance performance that honours the rich and living traditions of the Pygmy communities of Cameroon. Through powerful, symbolic movement, the show invites audiences on a sensory journey deep into the heart of the equatorial rainforest.

NIFF general manager Lee Bolton shared her thoughts with kawarthaNOW on the lottery results for the performing artists.

“We are really happy that the Centre for Indigenous Theatre in Toronto continues to participate in NIFF, offering high-quality productions of exciting Indigenous plays every year,” Bolton said. “It is also really interesting to see that this year we are very much a theatre festival, with solo and collective plays making up most of the performances.”

Bolton noted that theatrical performances made up the majority of applications to NIFF this year, which is appropriate for the festival’s new home at the Peterborough Theatre Guild.

“Peterborough theatre-goers have demonstrated their appetite for all kinds of plays over the years, filling spaces like the Guild and (The Theatre on King) and 4th Line (Theatre), and NIFF offers a veritable banquet of possibilities,” she said.

Following four years at Trent University’s Peterborough campus, NIFF announced it would be moving in 2025 to East City. The venue, a former church now known as the Guild Hall, has played host to a wide variety of performances since 1965.

The 2025 instalment of NIFF will also include Indigenous visual artists for the first time. With the Guild location, NIFF will have access to a space that is regularly used for art exhibits. Visual artists, who will also be chosen by lottery, are invited to apply between now and May 10.

More information about the shows and artists is on NIFF’s website at www.indigenousfringefest.ca. A full schedule for the festival, including special events and vendors, will be available in early May. Ticket sales will start in late May.

Peterborough Musicfest has announced three more concerts for the 38th season of the free-admission summer outdoor music festival, all with an Irish theme in recognition of the bicentennial of the Peter Robinson emigration of Irish settlers to the Peterborough region.

The three Irish-themed concerts take place during August 1 to 10, a week selected to be the focus of the bicentennial celebrations by Nine Ships 1825 Inc., a non-profit organization named after the the nine ships that carried the Irish emigrants across the Atlantic in 1825. The organization chose the week in part because the Civic Holiday, long recognized as Peter Robinson Day in Peterborough, is on August 4.

“We’re thrilled to see Musicfest join the city-wide tribute to our Irish heritage with such an outstanding musical line up,” Nine Ships board chair Brendan Moher in a media release. “This week of Irish music enhances the commemorative spirit of the Nine Ships event, offering residents and visitors an engaging way to honour the legacy of the Peter Robinson settlers.”

On Saturday, August 2, the Toronto-based U2 tribute band Acrobat — named after the famous Irish rock band’s second album — will take to the stage in Del Crary Park.

Then, on Wednesday, August 6, Canadian Celtic rockers Mudmen will perform, with local fiddler Irish Millie opening thanks to sponsorship by Nine Ships 1825.

Musicfest will complete its Irish music hat trick by bringing internationally renowned The Celtic Tenors from Ireland to Peterborough on Saturday, August 9. Formed in Dublin, the trio of Matthew “Gilly” Gilsenan, George Hutton, and Daryl Simpson blends opera, classical, Irish traditional, and pop influences in their signature harmony-rich style.

VIDEO: “Red is the Rose” – The Celtic Tenors

“This is a fantastic opportunity to honour our community’s Irish heritage through music, and align our programming with a moment of shared historical reflection,” says Peterborough Musicfest executive director Tracey Randall. “The Musicfest team is thrilled to be part of this cultural moment.”

Peterborough Musicfest runs from June 28 until August 16 with concerts every Wednesday and Saturday night in Del Crary Park in downtown Peterborough. All concerts are free and open to the public.

The 38th season will open and close with concerts by two famous Canadian musicians who are each making their fifth Musicfest appearance.

Juno award-winning Millbrook native Serena Ryder will open the season on Saturday, June 28, and Juno award-winning Sarnia native Kim Mitchell will close out the season Saturday, August 16.

Musicfest will be announcing additional concerts in the weeks leading up to the season. For concert details and updates, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca.

This story has been updated: James Nelson has been replaced by George Hutton in The Celtic Tenors.

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.

For the penultimate show of its 2024-25 season, New Stages Theatre is presenting a staged reading of Emil Sher’s acclaimed real-life drama The Boy in the Moon for one night only on Saturday, May 3 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre.

Directed by New Stages’ artistic director Mark Wallace, the staged reading will feature Cliff Saunders, Linda Kash, and Sydney Marion, and several local performers will also be lending their voices for the play.

The Boy in the Moon is based on Canadian journalist and author Ian Brown’s award-winning 2009 memoir The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for His Disabled Son, which grew from a series of features he wrote for the Globe and Mail about Walker, the severely disabled son he has with Globe and Mail film critic Johanna Schneller.

Walker has cardiofaciocutaneous (CFC) syndrome, a genetic disorder so rare that only 1 in 810,000 people are born with it. CFC syndrome is characterized by a combination of distinctive malformations of the head and face as well as developmental and intellectual delays.

When Brown began his newspaper series, Walker had just turned 12 and weighed only 54 pounds, was still in diapers, couldn’t speak, and needed to wear special cuffs on his arms so that he couldn’t continually hit himself.

“Sometimes watching him is like looking at the man in the moon — but you know there is actually no man there,” Brown writes in his book. “But if Walker is so insubstantial, why does he feel so important? What is he trying to show me?”

Brown sets out to answer that question in a journey that takes him into deeply touching and troubling territory.

“All I really want to know is what goes on inside his off-shaped head,” he writes. “But every time I ask, he somehow persuades me to look into my own.”

A national bestseller, The Boy in the Moon was the winner of the Charles Taylor Prize for both literary non-fiction and Canadian non-fiction, the Trillium Book Award, and was named a best book by both the Globe and Mail and The New York TImes.

Canadian playwright Emil Sher’s adaptation of The Boy in the Moon was co-commissioned by the Great Canadian Theatre Company and the Belfry Theatre, and premiered at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in September 2014.

“I was drawn to Ian’s book because of the compelling, difficult questions he asks,” Sher wrote in his notes for the original production. “I felt driven to plant many of those same questions on stage. What is the value of a life like Walker’s? It is not a life that can be measured by traditional yardsticks. You need a different measuring stick, let alone a different yard.”

Sher said the stage version of the book “weaves in conversations I had with Walker’s mother, Johanna Schneller, and his sister, Hayley” as well as reflections that Brown shared during an interview in Australia and in an online documentary that aren’t in the book.

As for what audiences can expect from the play, Sher noted “The Boy in the Moon doesn’t serve up any tidy, bite-sized answers because there are none.”

“We’re left, instead, to sort through an experience — complicated, colourful, painful, moving — that has been dropped in our laps.”

The 2017 production of The Boy in the Moon by Crow’s Theatre in Toronto was nominated for three Dora awards in 2018, including for outstanding new play.

“This work is generous, funny, and deeply moving in a way that I’ve rarely encountered,” said Crow’s Theatre artistic director Chris Abraham. “This play challenges us to have more humanity, it challenges us to think about the fundamentally fragile and uncertain nature of parenting and of life, and it is striking for the rare candour of the source material.”

For New Stages’ staged reading of The Boy in the Moon, Cliff Saunders will read the role of Walker’s father Ian Brown, with Linda Kash reading Walker’s mother Johanna Schneller, and Sydney Marion reading Walker’s sister Hayley.

Saunders is one of Canada’s most celebrated actors, having performed on Broadway, in Chicago, at the Stratford Festival, in Toronto, and across the country. Kash is well-known to Peterborough audiences for her comedy and improv work, but is also a dramatic actor who has appeared on stage and the big and small screens. Marion is a rising star who is a recent graduate of the Randolph School of Performing Arts, where she won the school’s triple threat award.

Voice actors for the staged reading include local performers Kate Suhr, Hilary Wear, Laura Lawson, and Maria Luis Belmes. Along with Wallace as director, the crew includes Bruno Merz (Showmakers Peterborough) providing original sound design with stage management by Esther Vincent.

Playwright Emil Sher will be in attendance and will participate in a question-and-answer session with the audience following the play.

Fewer than 50 tickets remain for the May 3rd staged reading at the Market Hall, which begins at 7 p.m. and runs for approximately 90 minutes. The play is recommended for audience members 14 and over due to mature themes.

General admission tickets are $28 ($14 for students, arts workers, and the under-employed) and are available online at markethall.org, by calling 705-749-1146, or by visiting the box office at 140 Charlotte Street.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be media sponsor of New Stages Theatre Company’s 2024-25 season.