A favourite Toronto indie theatre event returns!
On the second Monday of every month (or there about), The Assembly Theatre presents Sing For Your Supper, a cold reading* series offering a unique opportunity for writers to have their work read in a new light, with no pressure or expectations. The general public is welcome to attend, bearing in mind that these are cold readings and not meant to be polished performances. It promises to be a really fun night for everyone!
Created in 2007 by RedOne Theatre Collective co-founder and Artistic Director Benjamin Blais, Sing For Your Supper quickly became a runaway success within the Toronto theatre community, with events held at various venues, including restaurants, the Gladstone Hotel and Cameron House. Resurrected in 2014 by Benjamin Blais, Brenhan McKibben and Danny Pagett, it ran for three exciting years at Toronto’s popular Storefront Theatre, moving to Tarragon Theatre in 2017, then online during the pandemic. The Assembly Theatre inherited this exciting event as of May 2024, happily playing host at its space in Parkdale.
Sing for your Supper gives playwrights and actors – even those with little to no experience – a chance to meet each other, share ideas and workshop new scripts before an audience, on the fly and outside conventional theatre venues.
– The Assembly Theatre
Read more about Sing For Your Supper, including info on submitting a 12-page scene and info about performing in the reading, here.
About The Assembly Theatre
Based in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, The Assembly Theatre is an intimate theatre space, offering an affordable rental option for indie and emerging theatre artists. The space offers rentals for rehearsals, performances, classes, play readings and one-night events. The Assembly Theatre was created by the Unit 102 Theatre company in partnership with the Leroy St. Theatre company. While it’s no longer home to those two companies, the theatre’s operating staff (who are theatre artists themselves) continue to grow the space’s mandate of offering affordable theatre rentals, as they seek to better prioritize the space’s use by under-represented and marginalized creative communities.
*A cold reading means the actors are reading the scene/play aloud for the first time, with little to no rehearsal.
(Photo credits: The Assembly Theatre.)
Event details
Hosted by: The Assembly Theatre
Type of event: cold play reading series
Date: The second Monday of every month-ish (for example, the event for June 2024 will be on Monday, June 10).
Start time: 7:30 PM ET, with the reading in front of an audience at 8:15 PM ET
Duration: 2.5 hours
Script submission link: Playwrights: submit your script here. Performer sign-up happens in person, on the night at 7:30 PM ET.
Location: The Assembly Theatre, 1479 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON, M6R 1A1
Contact Details: The Assembly Theatre, 1479 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON, M6R 1A1, Canada; TheAssemblyTheatre@gmail.com, theassemblytheatre.com
Accessibility: Please note that, unfortunately, the Assembly Theatre is not an accessible space and, although they are happy to accept scripts from physically disabled artists, they will not be able to accommodate participation in person. There are several steps down from the entrance into the lobby, as well as some steps up into the seating area. The lobby, theatre space and two gender-neutral washrooms are located on one level.
COVID-19 policy: See The Assembly Theatre’s COVID-19 safety measures and policy here.