Toronto's Experimental Puppetry and Performing Objects Cabaret
Concrete Cabaret #17 Summer Fun
All Ages Outdoor Cabaret & Parade
July 5th 2025 2pm and 4pm, in Christie Pits Park
We love being outdoors! This public, all ages, cabaret ended with a puppet and stilt walker parade with giant worms!
Featuring an invited roster:
Emilia White
Maxei
Nathaniel Hanula-James
Concrete Cabaret #16 Basement Edition
Adult Cabaret
April 27th 2024, Live in the Collective Arts Basement Stage
For this Basement Edition show, we got back to our roots. We told our artists to "not rehearse much or at all". Let things be rough, unpolished, untested. Oh goodness we had a blast. We even introduced an audience connective activity that was enlightening. Thanks for joining us, crew!
Featuring:
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Maxei (Daniela Galaviz, Paola Paz, Ruy Nieves)
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Jeff McGilton
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Afsaneh Zamani and Parastoo Amanzaadeh
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Robin Polfus and Honeyball
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Shahara Gaznabi and Anand Rajaram
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Madeline and Sal McKinnell
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George Van Bussell and the Zen Existential Puppet Theatre
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Jane MgGregor
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Eish Van Weiran
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Emilia White
Concrete Cabaret #15 Kid's Revolution
All ages family show!
April 27th 2024, Live at the Owl's Club
We're back again with a Concrete Cabaret's ALL AGES experimental puppetry show! Bring everyone to see our lineup of inventive, experimental, innovative performances with objects! Featuring avante guard face painting, a raffle, free popcorn from wizards, and more!
Featuring:
Emilia White
Sequoia Erickson and Robin Kadirgarmar
Afsaneh Zamani
Maxei
Taylor Tofflemire & Robin Polfuss
Jesse Levine Music
Concrete Cabaret #14 ABC's of Fantasy
All ages family show!
March 19th 2023, Live at the Owl's Club
Concrete Cabaret is launching it's first ever ALL AGES experimental puppetry show! Bring everyone to see our lineup of inventive, experimental, innovative performances with objects! Featuring avante guard face painting, a make-your-own puppet station, free popcorn from wizards, and more!
Featuring:
Emilia White (featured in video above)
Afsaneh Zamani
Maxei
Nathaniel Hanula-James
Robin Polfuss and Honeyball Puppetry
Adam Waito Music
Annie Katsura Rollins and Heather Caplap
Concrete Cabaret #13 (cancelled due to COVID-19)
Thursday October 13th 2022, Live at the Baby G
Featuring
Madeline McKinnell
Eish VanWeiran
Jesse Wabegijig
Daisy Betlej
Robin Polfuss & Honeyball Puppetry
DJ Johnnie Walker
Concrete Cabaret #12 Fruits of Fruition (cancelled due to COVID-19)
August 2022, outdoors
Concrete Cabaret #11 Continued Adventures of Pandemic Potato
An Exquisite Collaboration
Thursday March 24th 2022, online
"Exquisite Collaboration" is a flexible creation process structured through a number of different phases between anonymous creators. This will be our third EC and we have found the process a great way to foster the work of materials performers, while also encouraging cross-collaboration within the community.
Featuring Artists:
Amelia Blaine
Collette Radau
Daniel A. Kelin, II
Daniele Rocha Viola
Emma Ratcliffe
Ethan Joshua Persyko
Fedelis Kyalo
Georgia Bellas
Joylyn Secunda
Madeleine Szlafarski
Madeline McKinnell
Michelle Urbano
Mike Harding
Norah Solorzano and Alex Young
Reid
Robin Polfuss
Sequoia Erickson
Sherwin Rackal
Concrete Cabaret #10 OBJECTO FESTIVAL
November 26th - 27th, 2021, Live at the TRANZAC Club
November 28th, 2021, Exquisite Collaborations Online
Toronto's Experimental Puppetry and Performing Objects Festival happening over 3 days - online and in person!
more info at www.objectofestival.com
LIVE at the TRANZAC Club With:
Corrugated Spectacles
Stephen Jackman-Torkoff
Shahir Krishna
Max Kelly and Matthew Richard
Zen Existentialist Puppet Theatre
Installations by:
Bee Pallomina and Kristine White
Horizon Factory
Music by: Lowfills
Online EXQUISITE COLLABORATIONS Featuring:
Kayla Chambers, Steven Conway, Felicia Cooper, Olivia Costes, Naomi Duvall, Alexa Fraser, Alexander Mantia, Molly McGregor, Zita Nyarady, Greta Papageorgiu & Hugh Probyn, Nina Pariser, Robin Polfuss, Collette Radauz, Eish Van Wieren, and Alex Winfield
Concrete Cabaret #9 SIDEWALK SIDESHOWS
August 8th, 2021 at 2pm and 4pm, Campbell Park
August 14th, 2021 at 2pm and 4pm, Dovercourt Park, with friends Clay and Paper
We created a Future Tales Multiverse with the help of some friends! We took audiences through a carnival-esque experience in their own Westside Toronto park! Including roller coaster rides, refreshments, and magical trash! We had a blast performing in the park for a safely distanced audience. Thanks for joining us.
Featuring:
The Concrete Cabaret Players
Alexander Winfield of Nautilus Theatre
Molly McGregor and Tristan Murphy
Puppet What What
and music by Gabriel Levine, Success Lewis and Woopsie Daisie
Concrete Cabaret #8 SIGNS OF SPRING
April 24th, 2021 7pm, Ticketed event on zoom
Our LIVE lineup includes a variety of LIVE object and puppetry work by artists across North America. We've got ventriloquism, we've got clowns, we've got puppets, shadows, weirdness, and much much more!
What better way to ring in the season than with LIVE signs of life?
Yes, it's SPRING!, it's SPRING!
Performances by:
Max Kelly
Alex Young and Norah Solorzano
Bonnie Kim
Nautilus Theatre
Shaharah Gaznabbi (They/Them) and Rose
Bekky O'Neil
Honeyball Puppetry
and the Concrete Cabaret Players
Concrete Cabaret #7 A VERY SPECIAL Holiday SPECIAL
December 13th, 2020 7pm, Ticketed event on zoom
Seasons are changing. Nights are getting longer. Winter is upon us at the end of a very isolating year. Concrete Cabaret said goodbye to 2020 with their very first holiday special to warm our souls - together - again! The special was full of very special guests, special puns, and special videos working with the medium of performing objects and puppetry.
Featuring: Kith & Kin and Choir, Lynn Jeffries and Paul Zaloom, Ronley Teper, Shadowland Theatre, Daniel A. Kelin, II, Alexa Fraser, Rachel Jackson of Vox Fabuli Puppets, Greta Papageorgiu, Robin RoRo Polfus, Elise Timm-Bottos, Madeline Mckinnell, Vividness (Laura Gillis) and Old Excellent (Michelangelo Iaffaldano)
Concrete Cabaret SIDEWALK SIDESHOWS
September, 2020 @ westside of Toronto
We missed everyone too much. Concrete Cabaret created a mobile puppet theatre to perform with periodically in September, mostly in the westside of Toronto, and often unannounced!
Our little experimental puppet cart show features a 6ft physical distancing ruler, a dragon named Echo, some Year-quil to sleep through 2020, and live music.
Featuring Gabriel Levine, Taliesin McEnaney, Alex Montagnese, Annie Katsura Rollins
Concrete Cabaret #6 EXQUISITE COLLABORATION
June 27th, 2020 at 7:30pm EST on youtube live
Archived here (performance begins at 7:58):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNZcN9OhnNI
This online puppet slam is an exquisite collaboration of 17 participants, working anonymously on different phases of short puppet performances. At the time of the performance, each participant will have participated on four of the final projects, each at a different phase of creation. We like to think this is the virtual puppet version of an exquisite corpse! And, it's a way for us to begin thinking about working and creating and collaborating in this new era - won't you join us?
Participants:
Afsaneh Zamani
Alex Winfield
Bekky O'Neill
Denise Rogers
Elise Vanase
Greta Papageorgiu and Hugh Probyn
Hayley Reap
Maddy Smart
Madeline McKinnell
Michelangelo Iaffaldano
Mirka Loiselle
Monica Emme
Nina Pariser
R. Reid
Robin RoRo Polfuss
Sarah Tracy
Sequoia Erickson
PANDEMIC Classic Concrete Cabaret #5
May 2nd, 2020 @ 100% Germ-free Pandemic Show ONLINE!!!!
Archived here:
https://www.facebook.com/ConcreteCabaret/
Artists:
Robin Polfuss
Alex Winfield
Alexandra Montagnese
Claren Grosz
Molly McGregor
Madeline McKinnell
Annie Rollins and Yung Chang
With a very special host: PANDEMIC POTATO
Classic Concrete Cabaret #4
October 22nd, 2019 @ The 3030
Artists:
Matti Palonen, Kristine White & Jurgita Žvinklytė
Alex Winfield
Trout Lily Theatre collective
Rob and Vonbark as The Zen Existential Puppet Theatre
Sequoia Erickson
Rae Anna Maitland and Joy Ross-Jones
Live Music by Ronley Teper and the Lipliners
Classic Concrete Cabaret #3 - The Future Fossils Edition
(in collaboration with A Museum for Future Fossils)
May 30th, 2019 @ The Tranzac
Artists:
The Gravy Strugglers
Brothers Karamazov
Alexander Winfield
Kristine White and Bee Pallomina
Sarah Tracy & Kevin Hainey
Brefny Caribou & Paddy MacDonald
Cecilia McKinnon
Marisa Boudreault
Live Music by Kosher Dill Spears
Classic Concrete Cabaret #2 - The Chips Edition
March 22nd, 2019 @ The Baby G
Artists:
Haley Reap
Jess & Eliza
Denise Rogers & Em Piro as the TRINKETTS
Alex Dault & Chloe Payne
Lily Sutherland
Libby Hague & Von Bark as the Zen Existential Puppet Theatre
Honeyball Puppetry
Sarah Joy Bennett and Alexandra Montagnese
Jamie Shannon
Live Music by Kosher dill spears
Inaugural Concrete Cabaret #1
October 22nd, 2018 @ The Burdock
Artists:
Max Kelly
Devin O’Brien
Robin Polfuss, Maiko Taku, Lindsay Lee
Murphy Diggon
RAPHAËL LAFLEUR
Abbey Gagnon
Annie Katsura Rollins, Bee Pallomina, Gabriel Levine
Live Music by Max Kelly, Tony Allen and Jesse Corrigan