Dead Name Theatre

• With Representation we seek to provide more opportunities for the immensely talented theatre practitioners who have been denied opportunity because of their marginalized gender and sexual identities. DNT aims to create a rehearsal space that is populated by trans, non-binary and queer creatives, from actors to designers, directors, stage managers and front of house team. Besides providing opportunities, we believe this representation will inspire the next generation. We strive to be the representation we never had as youth.
• In regards to Community, with a rehearsal space where we are the majority, we will be able to tell trans, non-binary and queer stories from a place of authenticity and support rather than tokenism. Our representation on stage is far and few between and can often fall into stereotypes and tokenism in character portrayals of these identities. But if we create as a community, we can offer a more nuanced representation of trans, non-binary and queer characters on stage, simultaneously reducing the toxic and harmful rehearsal practices that our community has learned to survive in. The question we are asking is, “If an actor feels affirmed by their cast, crew and creative team, what level of performance might they be able to reach?”
• Storytelling as Activism, relates to the core of why we do theatre. If we tell a nuanced, authentic, beautiful, heart-breaking and relatable trans, non-binary and queer story, we can begin to reclaim our full humanity from our audience. If we can share in our storytelling what the weight of transphobia, transmisogyny, enbyphobia, queerphobia and homophobia does to our community, our audience might be able to offer us empathy and start to dismantle these phobias in their own minds.

We would like to thank and acknowledge the original and current caretakers of this land who have been fighting on the frontlines against colonization and ecocide from the beginning. Toronto is the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit.

DNT would also like to acknowledge that transphobia, transmisogyny, enbyphobia, queerphobia, homophobia and the erasure and violence our community faces everyday is a direct result of colonization, capitalism and white supremacy. That we cannot dismantle these systemic oppressions without simultaneously working towards LAND BACK. DNT would also like to acknowledge that it is due to the many warriors and activists who have come before us that allow us to have a platform like this today. Many of whom are trans women of colour and those in our community whose identities meet at multiple intersections of oppression. May their voices and histories never be erased.

We invite you to visit Native-Land.ca and learn more about the history of the land you are on.​

• “Native Land Digital strives to create and foster conversations about the history of colonialism, Indigenous ways of knowing, and settler-Indigenous relations, through educational resources such as our map and Territory Acknowledgement Guide. We strive to go beyond old ways of talking about Indigenous people and to develop a platform where Indigenous communities can represent themselves and their histories on their own terms. In doing so, Native Land Digital creates spaces where non-Indigenous people can be invited and challenged to learn more about the lands they inhabit, the history of those lands, and how to actively be part of a better future going forward together.” – Native Land Digital; Why It Matters

Additional Resources

• Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
• The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
• Native Earth Performing Arts
• The David Suzuki Foundation: What Is Land Back?
• Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC: Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization