Madgen: Emerging Producers festival 2025

august 21-23, 2025

MADGEN 2025 ran from Thursday, August 21st until Saturday, August 23rd in Toronto’s Danforth community at Theatre of the Beat (2174 Danforth Ave.).
Each of the three productions received two showings, with each night of the festival offering a double-bill, with different food and music offerings daily - though largely scaled back from 2024’s program

The Emerging Producers cohort included Owen Carter, Reena Goze, Paul Smith, and Rhys Whitham (Bio’s below), who were paired with one of the following mentors: Indrit Kasapi (Theatre Passe Muraille), Laura McCallum (Outside the March), Daniel Chapman-Smith (Project: Humanity), & Himanshu Sitlani (Native Earth Performing Arts). Throughout their 16-week residency program, they met regularly their mentors for support, organized video and guerilla marketing campaigns, and attended various learning sessions to gain practical experience in curation, production, and community engagement from established theatre-makers and facilitators on their approaches to production.

In the second phase (festival phase), Emerging Producers then were tasked with using TOTB’s production methodology to create an immersive, community-engaged festival. Having put out a call for new plays in the spring, the 2025 producers each selected their production from these submissions, while the Festival Coordinator, a new position in the 2025 cohort, focused on the production management and marketing of the festival itself, working to present a cohesive festival identity and brand. The cohort each oversaw the hiring of a community dramaturg, and other multidisciplinary artists connected to the themes of their productions, and even hosted a free community BBQ.