Digital media and technology are ever-evolving, and so is their relationship to theatre. In this section, you can learn about how theatremakers are incorporating media and tech into their art-making and career-building, as well as read New Crit pieces about work created to be shared online. Two interesting series to explore for a sense of how quickly the conversations change are Gwydion Suilebhan’s Techne—essays written in 2013 and 2014—and Performing the Internet, curated by Kate Bergstrom in January 2021. Check out content from the 2019 Digital + Performance Convening for a multifaceted look at this topic!
The Latest
Essay
How to Embrace the Dramaturgy of Creative Caption Design
Through creative captions, the access tool of captioning becomes a design element with its own dramaturgical perspective. Caption designer McClain Leong introduces some of the design considerations that enable a dramaturgical approach to creative captions.
On 9 March 2026, TORCHES will continue with a conversation with award winning artist James Scruggs who creates live and virtual large-scale, topical, often interactive theatrical productions.
Ash talks with Zoe Lafferty, founder of Artists on the Frontline, about artist-led citizen journalism in Palestine’s Jenin refugee camp and the role of political documentary theatre projects in the current political climate.
Theatre Tech Talks: Artificial Intelligence, Science, and Biomedia in Theatre
Theatre Tech Talks: Artificial Intelligence, Science, and Biomedia in Theatre is a podcast hosted by Tjaša Ferme exploring new forms of theatre interwoven with high tech. In the interviews, Tjaša probes at the "why”s and "how”s to demystify the intricate connection between the biological and artificial, as well as explore the innate wisdom of the body and how new tech can help us get a peek inside of our brains, bodies, and souls.
Parallel Tracks 2.0 gathers diverse voices of Canadian theatre artists and producers to explore the ways in which anti-oppressive approaches are part of our creative work, in live spaces as well as digital ones. Originally commissioned by and presented in partnership with Toronto's Undercurrent Creations, conversations about care, community engagement, and consent take centre stage in this series. From navigating ethics in contracting, to intergenerational storytelling, this series reflects on ways of gathering and collaborating in online creative spaces. This series is in part supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Series
Re-Fest: Re-Circulation
How might we create more organic, empowered, safe, just, or empathic circulatory systems?
Re-Fest 2021’s theme, “Re-Circulation” uses the literal and metaphoric phenomenon of circulation to explore strategies for exchanging art, ideas, and information in unexpected ways, fostering interconnection and creativity.
In this conversation series, software engineers, musicians, culture-shaping collectives, writers, and ritual makers look at how the internet has been and is a critical unsung part of our new narrative. These makers contemplate intention, play, genesis, open-source, context collapse, collaborative mediums, and data collection, and dive into the call to action for a more robust dramaturgy and intention around the World Wide Web.
A series of guides on how to produce your livestream events which prioritize accessibility, inclusion, low carbon practices, and the commons.
Series
culturecapital:online
Two players compete online for sweet art money in culturecapital, the arts economy trading card game
culturecapital is a live art project that takes the form of a collectible card game and living archive. The project is constructed from two sets of data: (1) hundreds of interviews with artists about their experiences making performance in Canada and (2) five years worth of municipal, provincial, and federal public funding data on performing arts companies. Using this information, the game strives to create a context in which players can question, understand, and celebrate how value is determined, shifted, and produced within theatre, dance, and live arts in Canada. No prior knowledge of art or games is required.
Now more than ever, we need artists to challenge assumptions and imagine new futures.
This series of four talks, organised by ArtsEquator, attempts to ask some big questions. Being in the middle of an unpredictable global crisis precludes easy answers. Burning Questions offers a space for regional voices to dialogue and discuss some of the unasked questions facing the arts community.
Weekly live performances that experiment with form
Responding to calls for social isolation, Café La MaMa Live brings La MaMa's 1960s café aesthetic to a virtual platform that links performers and audiences in real time across distance. Guest curators each week give artists a digital platform to share their work with the world.
Series
Techne
Gwydion Suilebhan discusses the impact of technology on theatre.
