Expanding the possibilities
of performance
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August 7-17, 2025
Image by Dave Munro
GAYLORD
Johnnie McNamara Walker
Venue
The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance
Wed Aug 6, 7:00 PM
Sun Aug 10, 8:30 PM*
Co-presented with Citadel + Compagnie
60 Minutes
Ticket Price
$15 / $30 / $45
It was impossible to be a Queer person living in Toronto in the 2000s and not feel the gravitational pull of Will Munro. His monthly party Vazaleen brought gay nightlife into macho rock venues. His y-front underwear-based art projects scandalized the prudes and brought tighty-whities back into vogue. And his beloved bar The Beaver cemented Queen West as the home of Toronto’s alternative Queer scene. But in 2010, after a two-year struggle with a rare brain cancer – at the infuriatingly young age of 35 – he was gone. And Toronto has never been the same.
SummerWorks Associate Artist Johnnie McNamara Walker presents a staged reading of a new play-in-development inspired by this legendary figure. GAYLORD is a love letter to the life and legacy of Will Munro, and a séance for a just-out-of-reach moment in our city’s past.
The full work will premiere at SummerWorks in 2026.
*Stick around after the August 6th performance and celebrate 35 years with us, at Yes T.O. – An Opening Night Party Inspired by Will Munro.
Writer & Performer: Johnnie McNamara Walker
Performers: Brandon Ash-Mohammed, Aldrin Bundoc, Joshua Browne, Keith Cole, Graham Conway, Margo MacDonald, and Sebastian Marziali
Producer: Graham Conway
Dramaturg: Jesse Stong
Development supported through Toronto Arts Council playwrights program grant and Ontario Arts Council recommender grants, as recommended by Buddies in Bad Times, Factory Theatre & Theatre Passe Muraille.
This play-in development reading is presented as part of the Queering Narratives program, generously funded by Community One Foundation.
This is a Canadian Actors’ Equity Association production under the Festival Policy.
*The August 10th performance is designated as a Risk-Conscious Performance. During Risk-Conscious Performances, all audience members are required to wear face masks or coverings in the theatre at all times.
Content: references to sex, cancer, reference to homophobia and transphobia.
SummerWorks Performance Festival
August 7-17, 2025
Tickets on Sale NOW!
Back to the Future | Forward to the Past – an invitation to reflect, disrupt, and imagine – with bold creative expressions that dive deep into temporality, exploring and questioning the past, present, and future, with a gentle curiosity and a critical ferocity.