It's an all-night performance about great women in Toronto history, and you can star in the show

If you want to catch a show on any given night in Toronto, you'll probably find something in the Entertainment District. But on Nuit Blanche, skip the usual places if you're looking for something truly epic. Like, 12 hours long with no intermission.

When the sun goes down on Saturday, Sept. 23, RendezViews — that parking lot-turned-patio at 229 Richmond St. W — will be hosting an all-night theatrical production called The 52: Stories of Women Who Transformed Toronto. 

Organized by Myseum, a museum dedicated to Toronto history, and led by the institution's executive director Heidi Reitmaier, the show is built around 52 monologues. Those original stories, which were penned by two dozen playwrights, are told from the perspective of trailblazing Toronto women past and present. There are monologues from authors (Margaret Atwood, Lee Maracle), an astronaut (Roberta Bondar), activists (Jean Lumb, Emma Goldman) and athletes (Bianca Andreescu, Angela James).

As for who will be playing these luminaries? Well, if you're brave enough to read off a teleprompter, it could be you. 

As a show, The 52 is entirely reliant on the public's participation, and the 12-hour production will be performed by folks in the crowd. If you'd prefer to just be a spectator, that's totally OK. Volunteer actors, however, will be assigned a monologue at random before taking the stage.

The scripts are short — no more than a minute — and they're technically excerpts of longer works. (The Nuit Blanche production of The 52 is a preview of an exhibition and performance that will open at Myseum in 2024.) 

Local theatre artist Coleen Shirin MacPherson was among the playwrights commissioned for the project, and she previously worked with Myseum on a similar living-history production in 2018: Women of the Ward. 

"For me, [The 52] is about women who made an impact in Toronto — who influenced our lives in ways we don't even realize," says MacPherson. 

Why do their stories matter now? She shared her thoughts with CBC Arts while giving us a quick preview of what to expect at Nuit Blanche.

What's the scene going to look like on Nuit Blanche?

[The 52] is at RendezViews, so people — visitors, participants — can sit, get a drink, watch. There'll be two stages, and participants can put up their hands if they want to actually participate in terms of going up on stage and reading an excerpt of a monologue. 

People — no matter what gender or background — can go up and read. The [monologues] are 20 seconds to 60 seconds, so they're very short. And there'll be a live broadcast to an LCD screen in the venue, so people can watch on the large screen.

Where will you be on Nuit Blanche? Are you going to be on site?

Yeah, I think I'm going to come right at the beginning. It's really kind of exciting because there's all these other playwrights that have written incredible work, so just being able to hear even just a snippet will be really interesting. 

It's also such an experiment to have audience members jump up on stage and read, so I'm interested to see what happens.

And to hear them interpret what you've written as well.

Yeah, exactly!

I understand that the organizers chose your monologues for you, but who did you write about?

It's true, I didn't choose the women. I have written about Kit Coleman, who was Canada's — and apparently the world's — first accredited war correspondent. She went to Cuba to report on the Spanish-American War. 

Flora MacDonald Denison: a social activist and radical suffragist. Bianca Andreescu: the tennis player who won the U.S. Open in 2019 against Serena Williams at the age of 19. I also wrote about Elizabeth Elsie MacGill, the first practicing Canadian female engineer. 

For each woman, I sort of zoomed in on the pinnacle moment in their lives. Oh, except for Elizabeth Elsie MacGill: hers is sort of later in her life, and she's reflecting back. 

What struck you about these women? What about their stories is relevant to people living in Toronto right now?

These are women who were really working for gender equality and working for social change. Sometimes we don't really realize what we have. These were people that were working to make huge changes, so I think for me, researching their stories was about realizing: Wow, what was it like to live at that particular time as a woman? What would I personally do if I had to live with those barriers? Would I have the gumption to stand up and, you know, start the Women's Press Club, for example, like Kit Coleman did? So there is just this sense of perseverance that I think I was really inspired by. 

You also wrote about someone contemporary. I mean, Bianca Andreescu: she's alive and well!

(laughs) Exactly.

Were the living folks involved in the project? Was Bianca involved in the making of her monologue?

We really tried. I mean, she is very busy. I think she was at Wimbledon while I was writing it, but she has read it and we were waiting for any feedback if there needed to be any changes and we didn't hear back.

The project encompasses the stories of living women and those who are not with us, so it's sort of an interesting process. Like, I know that Cheri DiNovo and Rosalie Silberman Abella connected with Myseum [for their monologues].

Like you were saying, you'll be on site for Nuit Blanche, but are you planning to stick your hand up? Are you going to perform that night?

Oh! I hadn't thought of that. Maybe! (laughs) I kind of felt like I was going to be a fly on the wall, kind of watching what was happening. But no, I should! It looks fun!

This conversation has been edited and condensed.

Nuit Blanche Toronto. Saturday, Sept. 23 from 7 p.m. to 7 p.m. toronto.ca/nuitblanche