Black Out Nights

Just as it sounds!  The spirit behind this evening is to provide a space for Black theatre-goers to experience a show made by Black artists in a space for the Black community.  There will be hosts in the lobby to welcome you into the theatre space and answer any questions. When you enter the theatre “house,” the audience will be comprised of Black audience members.

TPM aims to have a Black Out Night event for all of our productions where the playwright/creators are Black when possible. 

All tickets in Theatre Passe Muraille’s 22.23 season follows a Pay-What-You-Can-Afford model, offering 3 price tiers: $12, $35, $65. Those purchasing at the $65 price point will do so with the understanding that their ticket price is helping to subsidize the $12 ticket price, and in doing so, making theatre more accessible for others.

If our ticket price points are a barrier to you, we also have a limited number of subsidized tickets available. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our box office at info@passemuraille.on.ca for questions.

Theatre Passe Muraille welcomes everyone who self-identify as Black to attend this performance. 

However, if someone self-identifies as a non-Black person and demands to enter the room, a member of our staff will be present to chat with this person by welcoming this person to hold a conversation with us. We found that most times, once people hear about the intentions to create a safer space for Black folx, they understand. We still want them to experience the show of course, so we will also help them pick another night to attend and exchange their tickets.

We try our best to have this labour land on a non-Black staff member and we will have non-Black front-of-house, leadership, or technical and production team members present in the lobby to help facilitate such situations. We will also specify across our ticketing and show pages, social media, and other communications that the Black Out Night performance is dedicated to Black audiences.

No. TPM productions typically have a 2-week run (sometimes longer, sometimes shorter) offering several date/time options for our audiences. These shows are open to everyone. One of our major values is to make all of our programming as accessible to everyone as possible. This is why we offer Pay-What-You-Can-Afford price points, as well as a number of access initiatives like ASL-interpreted and Audio-Described shows and an Accessible Transportation Fund.

Black Out Night is in line with this vision, and is usually only one night out of an entire run. It is a community event celebrating the work created by Black playwrights/artists. At the event, we also usually offer Q&A sessions so that the community can have nuanced conversations specific to the Black experience.

Read more about this on our blog

We’re glad to hear! It’s exciting to witness Black Out Nights become a more common practice across theatre companies. While we are not claiming to be an expert of this initiative, we may be able to answer some simple questions. Please send your inquiries to us at outreach@passemuraille.on.ca.

Also consider reaching out to The Black Pledge. The Black Pledge offers a series of commitments to aid live arts organizations in dismantling anti-Black racism at the structural level to affirm and advance Black people working in live performance across Canada:

https://www.theblackpledge.ca/pledge-for-organizations