North America's oldest and largest queer theatre company
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
Founded in 1979, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre built itself into the largest queer theatre company in the world, giving LGBTQ playwrights and performers a stage at a time when few others would.
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Buddies in Bad Times Theatre was founded in Toronto in 1979, at a time when explicitly queer subject matter and LGBTQ playwrights had almost no dedicated venues willing to produce their work on Canadian stages. The company built its identity and mandate directly around giving queer artists a home, staging work that explored gay, lesbian and broader LGBTQ experience well before such subject matter was welcomed elsewhere in Canadian theatre.
Growing into the largest queer theatre in the world
Buddies eventually acquired a permanent home on Alexander Street near the Church-Wellesley Village, and grew over the following decades into what is now widely described as the largest and longest continuously running queer theatre company in the world. The company has remained a central cultural institution for Toronto's LGBTQ community, combining mainstage theatrical productions with a nightclub and performance space that has hosted decades of queer artistic and community life beyond formal theatre alone.
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