A PUBLIC DISPLAY OF AFFECTION
24 25 Season
Jonathan Wilson, photographed by Kevin Connery
A Studio 180 Theatre production
in association with
Crow’s Theatre
Written & Performed by
Jonathan Wilson
Directed by Mark McGrinder
March 25 – April 20, 2025
Crow's Theatre, Studio Theatre
Streetcar Crowsnest
345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto ON M4M 2T1
Tuesday-Saturday at 8:00 PM
Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM
Running time: 80 minutes (no intermission)
Mask mandatory performance: Sunday, April 6 at 2:00 PM
Relaxed Environment (RE) performance: Saturday, April 12 at 2:00 PM
(see our accessibility information below for more details)
Tickets: $55.00- $90.00
Artsworker tickets: $30.00
All tickets are subject to applicable service charges and HST.
Limited PWYC tickets are available on Sunday matinees. Tickets will be available in person only at the Crow's Theatre Box Office, starting at noon.
Mixing history, comedy, and poignant reflection in equal measure, A Public Display of Affection, Jonathan Wilson’s deeply personal solo show, excavates the lives, loves, and landmarks of his life as a queer teenager in Toronto.
Deftly inhabiting a cavalcade of characters, Wilson leads us on a wry and intimate exploration of the Village he once knew, the legacy it created, and the future being forged by a new generation.
Jonathan Wilson (The Lion King, The Normal Heart, Gay for Pay with Blake & Clay), a Second City veteran and Dora Award-winning actor, presents a bracing companion piece to his Dora-nominated, playwriting debut, My Own Private Oshawa.
A WORLD PREMIERE
Content Advisory: A Public Display of Affection contains strong language, including homophobic slurs, and discussion of mature and violent themes. Age recommendation: 14+. If you require more information, please email jessica@studio180theatre.com.
Studio 180 would like to acknowledge the generous support of TO Live.
Written & performed by Jonathan Wilson
Directed by Mark McGrinder
Set and Projection Designed by Denyse Karn
Lighting Designed by André du Toit
Sound Designed by Lyon Smith
Stage Managed by Sandi Becker
Production Managed by Aaheli Mukherjee
Beyond the Stage events
Lobby Exhibit: The View from Vaseline Tower – Memories of Toronto’s Queer Village
March 25 – April 20, 2025
Details
Photograph of Ed Jackson (L) and Mervin Walker (R), published in The Body Politic no. 18 (May-June 1975) front cover. This photograph is part of The ArQuives collection.
The View From Vaseline Tower – Memories of Toronto’s Queer Village features photographs documenting Toronto’s Queer community in the 1970s and 1980s, offering a glimpse at the changing landscape of the village, and moments of queer joy. Curated by The ArQuives and presented in partnership with Studio 180 Theatre’s A Public Display of Affection in association with Crow’s Theatre.
Curated by Santana Doran, Yahn Nemirovsky, and Hannah Dickson for The ArQuives.
The ArQuives was established to aid in the recovery and preservation of LGBTQ2+ histories. Its mandate is to: acquire, preserve, organize, and give public access to information and materials in any medium, by and about LGBTQ2+ people, primarily produced in or concerning Canada.
The ArQuives holds one of the largest LGBTQ2+ collections in the world. The library, archival, and artifact collections are open to researchers and we activate the collection through programming and exhibitions. To learn more, check out their website.
Forgotten Epidemic: a conversation with ACT’s senior HIV and AIDS educator Rui Pires
March 30, 2025
After the 2:00 PM matinée
Details
Despite battles over sex education in the school curriculum, what is taught to queer young men is inconsistent from school to school and highly politicized, making any queer-relevant sex education challenging to deliver and easy to ignore. Since 2015, Toronto has seen at least 140 youth diagnosed with HIV every year, three-quarters of which are queer young men. Stay after the performance and join ACT’s Gay Men’s Education Coordinator, Rui Pires, to discuss how generations of young queer men have grown up with HIV in their midst, while popular culture in Canada has forgotten the epidemic. Moderated by Studio 180’s Jessica Greenberg.
Rui Pires is currently the Gay Men’s Community Education Coordinator for the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT). Rui’s close to 35 years of experience working in HIV programs in southern Ontario is not limited to gay men, but also includes working with diverse populations and working solely and jointly with other educators on numerous resources and social marketing campaigns. Along with his regular work facilitating frequent sexual health workshops for gay and bisexual men, he was assigned the task of initiating and coordinating the Totally outRIGHT leadership development strategy for young gay and bi men in Toronto for 12 years.
Cast and Creative Team Talkbacks
April 3, 2025
April 10, 2025
April 17, 2025
Details
Stay after the show and get an insider’s point of view! This is an opportunity to ask questions, learn how creative decisions were made, and hear behind-the-scenes stories firsthand from members of the cast and creative team.
When Silence = Happy Ignorance: Reflections on being young and Queer in Toronto
April 5, 2025
After the 2:00 PM matinée
Details
Travel back from the early 1980s for a contemporary Queer youth perspective. A panel of young queer men who graduated from a past long-running ACT youth program called Totally outRIGHT Toronto reflect on finding their place in a community where many initially thought there was no place for them. Hear what they found out about living, working and playing in a city where their age group is the most financially stressed and the most at risk for HIV. Facilitated by the program’s past staff coordinator, Rui Pires.
Accessibility
Relaxed Environment (RE) Performance
Saturday, April 12 at 2:00 PM
A relaxed environment makes this performance more accessible to those who could benefit from a more open and flexible theatregoing experience. During a Relaxed Environment performance, an audience member can:
- exit and re-enter the theatre freely,
- move around throughout the theatre,
- and make noise or sounds.
Additionally, an access guide will be available that provides information about the performance (directions to the theatre, pre-show warnings, etc). A quiet space will be available to patrons outside of the theatre, along with an access kit with fidget/sensory toys, earplugs, and other access tools to support audience members. To promote a scent-free environment and for people with allergies and chemical sensitivities, we ask patrons to refrain from wearing scented products. Staff will be present and available to answer any questions about the relaxed environment or discuss the content of the show.
Please note that there are no changes to the technical elements of the show (lighting and sound).
Video
Community Partner
AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT)
ACT works to reduce new HIV infections in Toronto and promotes the independence, dignity, health and well-being of people living with HIV and AIDS and those at increased risk of HIV.
Founded in 1983 by a group of community volunteers, today ACT is a leader in efforts to end AIDS in Toronto. Through HIV and sexual health education, prevention and outreach, they are working towards a city with zero new HIV infections, zero HIV-related stigma and discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths.
Company
Jonathan Wilson
Playwright & Performer
For Studio 180: My Night With Reg; The Normal Heart; Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish. Past theatre work includes the Canadian premiere of The Lion King (Dora Award – The Princess of Wales Theatre) and performances in his own play My Own Private Oshawa (Governor General’s Award nominee, Dora/Chalmers Nomination – Tarragon Theatre, New Yorker Theatre). Jonathan was also a writer and performer with The Second City for six shows (Dora Nomination). Other theatre credits include The Drowsy Chaperone, Moonlight and Magnolias (Sudbury Theatre Centre); The Clockmaker (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Possible Worlds, The Duchess (Theatre Passe Muraille); Not To Be Repeated, Medici Slot Machine (Tarragon Extra Space); Cinderella (The Elgin Theatre); This Could Be Love (The Poor Alex); and Annie Get Your Gun (Massey Hall). Jonathan was also writer in residence at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto where he wrote the play Kilt (Dora/New York Drama Desk nominations), which has had productions around the world. TV and film credits include Not To Be Repeated (CTV/The Comedy Network), My Own Private Oshawa (Gemini Nomination – CTV), Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye (Pax Network/CTV), Murdoch Mysteries (CityTV), This Is Wonderland (CBC), Life With Derek (Family) and Monk (USA Network), as well as hundreds of voices for animated series including Skatoony, Iggy Arbuckle (Gemini Nomination), Pearlie and Little Bear.
Mark McGrinder
Director
For Studio 180: (as director) Four Minutes Twelve Seconds; (as an actor) The Laramie Project, Stuff Happens, Our Class, Parade, Clybourne Park, You Will Remember Me, The Nether & Oslo. Mark is the Artistic Director of Studio 180 Theatre. His Studio 180 performing credits include Oslo, The Nether, You Will Remember Me, Clybourne Park and Stuff Happens. He has been a director and/or dramaturg(e) for many of Studio 180’s IN DEVELOPMENT projects and, as the program’s coordinator, has worked to connect creators with the appropriate collaborators required to bring their visions to the stage. He adapted and directed Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish for PANAMANIA, directed Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays and worked as Associate Director for Blackbird, God of Carnage and Studio 180’s 10th Anniversary reading of The Laramie Project. Mark was a member of the acting ensemble at the Shaw Festival for five seasons and he performed in several reviews with The Second City’s National touring company. He has been head or co-writer on several collective creations (Single and Sexy, That Artz Show and The Berlin Show) and his play MacHamlet was presented as part of the Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival. As an artist educator he has worked with high school, college and university students in and beyond the GTA and is continually inspired by the passion and vision of the young artists he has had the good fortune to connect with.
Denyse Karn
Set and Projection Designer
For Studio 180: King Charles III;You Will Remember Me; Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish; NSFW. Other theatre credits include: Othello, To Kill a Mockingbird (Stratford Festival); Intimate Apparel (The Belfry Theatre), Art, The Mountaintop (The Grand Theatre – London); Onegin (The Musical Stage Company); Das Ding (Theatre Smash/Canadian Stage); The Watershed (Crow’s Theatre/Porte Parole); Her2, The Carousel, The Penelopiad, Happy Woman, The List (Nightwood Theatre); Twisted, Stop Heart (Factory Theatre); The Winter’s Tale (Canadian Stage) and Top Girls (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre). Other: Denyse is a graduate of the TMU and NSCAD University. She has received many Dora Mavor Moore nominations and awards, a Chalmers Award and four Merritt Awards (Nova Scotia Theatre Award) for Outstanding Set, Projection and Costume designs. Denyse is a full member of ADC and IATSE Local ADC659. www.denysekarn.com
André du Toit
Lighting Designer
For Studio 180: as Assistant Lighting Designer: God of Carnage, Clybourne Park, The Normal Heart. Past theatre work includes: Fat Ham (Canadian Stage); Qalb, Lady M (Margaret) (1s1 Teatre); Three Sisters (Soulpepper); Universal Child Care (Quote Unquote Collective, Canadian Stage); What You Won’t Do for Love, Prince Hamlet (Why Not Theatre); Here Lies Henry (Factory Theatre); Tres Loin (Bouchardanse); The Queen in Me (COC, Gargantua, Nightwood); Maanomaa, My Borther (Canadian Stage); Italian Mime Suicide (Bad New Days); R+J (Stratford Festival).
Lyon Smith
Sound Designer
For Studio 180 Theatre: Four Minutes Twelve Seconds and Clybourne Park. Selected Theatre: The Donnelly Trilogy (Blyth), Pipeline (Soulpepper), In 7 Days (The Grand) and Witness for the Prosecution (Shaw Festival).
Sandi Becker
Stage Manager
For Studio 180: Four Minutes Twelve Seconds. Other Theatre: Wights (Crow’s Theatre), Hurry Hard (Port Stanley Festival Theatre), A Poem for Rabia, Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers (Tarragon), The Waltz (Factory Theatre), Maggie (Charlottetown Festival), Phantasmagoria 3D, MacBeth: A Tale Told by an Idiot, Requiem for a Gumshoe, Two Weird Tales, Space Opera Zero, The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy (Eldritch Theatre), Simone Half and Half (Black Theatre Workshop), This London Life, The Hobbit, Miracle on 34th Street, Dreamgirls (Grand Theatre), Every Brilliant Thing (Festival Players), The Black Drum (Deaf Culture Centre/Soulpepper), Romeo and Juliet/Midsummer Nights Dream, King Lear/ Twelfth Night (Canadian Stage), Silence (Grand Theatre/NAC), seven seasons with Driftwood Theatre Group. Upcoming Projects: Tell Tale Harbour (Charlottetown Festival/Mirvish).
Aaheli Mukherjee
Production Manager
For Studio 180: Debut. Aaheli (she/her) is a Toronto-based arts enthusiast masquerading as a Production Manager, Producer and Arts Administrator. Recent professional highlights include: PM for the Paprika Theatre Festival since 2022, PM/TD for Crossroads Theatre (formerly known as Shakespeare in Action) since 2023 and PM for the world premiere of Earworm by Nowadays Theatre in association with Crow’s Theatre (2024) & The Caged Bird Sings by Modern Times Stage Company at the Aga Khan Museum (2024). Her passion and work focus on collaborating with emerging artists, engaging with diverse theatre companies, and cultivating spaces where innovative and accessible art can thrive through decolonial and inclusive practice. She is excited to join Studio180 in their presentation of A Public Display of Affection at Crow’s Theatre!