The Top 10 Toronto theatre artists of 2024
Here are 10 artists who made going to the theatre a joy this year, as well as a bunch more who broke through to new levels of excellence
After covering Toronto theatre full-time for nearly 30 years, what keeps me thrilled and excited is discovering new artists and seeing what they do: on the page, onstage, behind it. At the end of this article is a list of artists who are relatively new (to me, anyway) and who I can’t wait to follow.
Here, in alphabetical order, is my personal and extremely subjective list of the theatre artists who wowed me the most in 2024. Many of them have impressed me for years, if not decades.
Following in the tradition begun by my late NOW colleague Jon Kaplan, artists must have been involved in at least two shows in the calendar year. Because I didn’t see as much as I wanted at Stratford, Shaw and other beyond-the-GTA places, some brilliant people who thrilled me in one show (and who have graced this list in previous years) — Damien Atkins, Peter Fernandes, Maev Beaty, Laura Condlln, Vanessa Sears, among others — aren’t included this year.
To them, and to everyone mentioned in this post, thank you. The coming years aren’t going to be easy. But I’m convinced that the work you do — like that of artists in any medium — will help us make sense of what’s happening.