Following a major rebrand, Crossroads Theatre is redefining summer theatre in Toronto
iPhoto caption: Michelle Urbano, artistic director of Crossroads Theatre (formerly Shakespeare in Action).
Pack a picnic, grab your bug spray, and head to any Toronto park: Chances are, you’ll find a theatre company. From Guild Festival Theatre in the east to Dream in High Park in Toronto’s largest green space, the city boasts a wealth of outdoor performances — including in and around Weston, thanks to companies like Crossroads Theatre (formerly Shakespeare in Action).
“Free theatre in the park has always been about removing barriers,” says Michelle Urbano, Crossroads’ newly appointed artistic director, describing her organization’s commitment to accessibility.
Terms like “relevant and accessible” have become guiding lights for the company’s mission statement amid its recent rebranding initiatives. In an interview with Intermission, Urbano clarified this mandate by asserting that, at its heart, removing barriers means creating an experience “for everyone.”
“We aren’t going to turn anybody away,” said Urbano. “We try to keep our programs open to a wide variety of ages and lived experiences, and take into consideration the cultural contexts of our audiences.”
By using a public park as its venue, Crossroads is able to consider all of its shows to be relaxed performances. “We give our audience the opportunity to get up and move around,” noted Urbano. “People walking in can come and see as they wish; they can get up and leave at any time. We’re really about creating a welcoming environment for our audience and for our artists and staff. It means being a host through a lens of access and care.”
Urbano first joined the Shakespeare in Action team as a producer for last summer’s production of Otîhêw, PJ Prudat’s Cree-Métis reimagining of Othello. Having studied devised theatre at Humber College before working with numerous other arts institutions, Urbano brings a wealth of experience in producing, storytelling, and puppetry. She also lives in the Weston neighbourhood, which Crossroads has prioritized in its programming since 2019, deepening her connection to the company’s homegrown community.
“I was really inspired by the way the community is connected here, and the way that the organization was connected to its community,” said Urbano. “It was nice to see the really local impact of the work. The more I worked in theatre and in storytelling, the more I began to ask myself, ‘who is this work for?’
“I really felt like Shakespeare in Action had figured that out better than I’d seen before,” she continued. “It felt like the community knew the organization, that it was really the neighbours coming out to see the shows.”
Urbano is the third AD to be appointed within the past five years, since the troublesome circumstances in which company founder Michael Kelly was removed from the leadership position he’d held for three decades. Urbano acknowledges her disconnect from events that occurred before her involvement with the company, but nonetheless thinks deeply about how she’ll carry this checkered legacy into the next chapter.
“I want to honour what happened in the past,” she said, “but not have it anchor me down to any story or incident, or hold us back from growing into what I believe we can be.”
A core component of the company’s rebranding effort has been the change of name from Shakespeare in Action to Crossroads Theatre, announced in April. The new name, Urbano illustrated, is charged with several meaningful connotations.
“The identity of Weston is very attached to the railroad tracks and the river,” she explained. “It doesn’t matter where you are in Weston, you’re always crossing something. There’s always this crossing point where you’re passing over bridges or underneath tracks. The crossroads between those physical attributes is really part of the local identity.
“It also signifies an intersection of ideas, where ideas can come from different places to discover something new,” she continued. “Being a place that has such a mix of people living in it, that is really significant for the kinds of people that we see in our audiences here. And, also, where people are in their lives. A lot of newcomers come to Canada, and come to Toronto, and locate themselves in the Weston and the North Toronto area, so it is a nod to that point where people are experiencing change in their lives.”
Among the most immediately perceptible changes signalled by the new name is the removal of a certain namesake playwright.
“The organization worked on Shakespeare’s works for 35 years, so I think it’s time to see some new people up on that stage,” opined Urbano. “I really loved that the last show the company did as Shakespeare in Action was an Indigenous retelling of Othello. It felt like a really good bridge point, to say we’re really prioritizing different voices on this stage from here on out.”
Bardolaters, however, can rest assured that this decentring is not strictly a dismissal. “I’m not not going to do more Shakespeare,” clarified Urbano. “It’s not like I’m never going to do Shakespeare or touch any kind of Shakespeare, but I’m really interested in what other stories there are to tell.”
In many ways, Crossroads will continue to resemble Shakespeare in Action, reaffirming its emphasis on outdoor summer shows and strong educational programs in schools. “We’re not throwing out the baby with the bathwater,” said Urbano. “It’s not trying to be entirely something new, but it’s trying to explore new phases of its identity.”
Crossroads’ main series this year, titled Summer in the Park, contains three unique performances hosted in Little Avenue Memorial Park. As the warm months begin to wane, the first two pieces have already come and gone. The season began in mid-July with the play Finding Home: A Salmon Journey Upstream, created and performed by Alexandra Simpson and Morgan Brie Johnson, produced in partnership with Theatre Direct and Animacy Theatre Collective. This was followed by a concert performance by the Weston Silver Band.
Fortunately, the third and final instalment of the series, Art Ambulance (created by Clay and Paper Theatre), is still on the horizon. This variety show is heavily inspired by commedia dell’arte and assorted traditions of puppet theatre. When asked for an elevator pitch, Urbano highlighted the restorative power of comedy.
“In the humour, the satire, and the mockery of what is going on in the world, we can experience a kind of relief, and also empowerment,” she said. “This piece was created as a response to the pandemic, and I think a lot of people are still experiencing the effects of that, maybe more than we might know. So I think coming out and experiencing this piece is a great response to the isolation.” She further emphasized the element of spectacle that characterizes all of Clay and Paper’s works, featuring “big, beautiful artworks, and music, it will be lively, bold, and bright.”
Following Summer in the Park, the remainder of the year will be devoted to educational content. November will bring a piece called The Assembly, touring through elementary and middle schools across North Toronto. Created and performed by Deivan Steele and Breanne Tice, this interactive theatrical experience seeks to give young people a hands-on lesson in sustainable community governance. Urbano indicated that Crossroads is currently “in the process of redefining what our education programs will look like,” noting how all “will be centred around a creative process that is rooted in play.” The game-like participatory dynamic of The Assembly certainly looks like a step in that direction.
Though much of what Crossroads has planned for the future remains to be announced, Urbano was willing to reveal that next summer will likely bring another season defined by partnerships with other companies.
“I do want to produce original works with Crossroads Theatre,” she explained. “However, going back to access and care, I don’t want to rush through development phases and burn myself out, and burn artists out, trying to constantly produce new pieces.
“Going back and forth between partnering and producing gives us, as an organization, a bit of breathing air to slowly build new works and to have a slow pace through the creation process,” she added.
Crossroads Theatre’s future has been made glorious summer by this sun of York. Whatever else Urbano’s leadership might have in store, this newly revitalized community organ is filling its lungs with the measured breaths needed for a healthy and bright road ahead.
Reflecting on Crossroads’ civic participation as a member of the Weston Mount Dennis Service Providers Network — a collective of local service groups, mostly comprised of health service organizations — Urbano finds hope in alternative ways of considering theatre’s social function.
“If we start to think about the arts as a health service,” she said, “as something that is a necessary part of life, that will help people be healthy members of communities, I feel like that shift in thinking could do a lot for the arts, and a lot for the people of Toronto.”
Art Ambulance runs at Little Avenue Memorial Park (22 Little Avenue, York, ON) from August 23-25. You can learn more about the production here.
Ryan Borochovitz
Ryan Borochovitz (he/him) is a Toronto-based dramaturg, director, playwright, and academic. He is currently a PhD Candidate in the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto, and holds an MA in Theatre Theory and Dramaturgy from the University of Ottawa. He is the founding artistic director of the (essentially defunct) independent production company, Sad Ibsen Theatre. He currently serves as the co-artistic producer – former literary manager – of Cup of Hemlock Theatre, for whom he produces and occasionally hosts the theatre enthusiasm podcast, The Cup.
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