Excerpts from the Emo Journals

Excerpts from the Emo Journals

1995 

In the 1990s, the AIDS epidemic in Toronto reached its tragic peak. Friends, partners and collaborators were dying, and the city’s arts community was shaken to its core. These dark years were made even darker by a harsh conservative provincial government whose deep funding cuts devastated an artistic community already in crisis.

When the dust settled, many of the people who had shaped Toronto’s vibrant theatre scene had died, left the theatre or left the city altogether. Splintered and wounded, many would never fully recover from this period of loss, which interrupted a new wave of creativity just beginning to take root.

Excerpts from the Emo Journals emerged from this time.

Our close friend and collaborator Mark Shields was dying. He continued to work courageously on Emo, a play about the end of his world. Dark, tragic and angry, the piece had no words because no words could be found to express our collective grief.

Excerpts from the Emo Journals is a work about the end of a world, as witnessed by those of us who lived through this devastating period in our history.

Artistic and Production Credits

Written and directed by: Nadia Ross and Daniel MacIvor

Consulting director: Daniel Brooks

Performed by: Jim Allodi, Caroline Gillis, Mark Shields and Volker Burger

Lighting design: Andrea Lundy

Set design: Paul Mezei

Soundscore: Richard Feren

Stage management: Jonathon Da Silva