Fresh ideas spring everywhere in this fine city. If you’re looking for ways to take a breather from Raptors frenzy (just a moment, okay?), live theatre is always waiting with answers.

Continuing at Toronto’s Monarch Tavern, Danny & The Deep Blue Sea is an inaugural production from the LOVE2 Theatre Company; written by John Patrick Shanley as an early breakout play before the Pulitzer playwright went on to international acclaim for Moonstruck and Doubt. A two-hander set in a bar, the plot is deceptively simple: two dysfunctional characters from the Bronx meet in a rundown bar and thus we have our setting. Literally. Ticket holders to this production are rewarded with full immersion. That kind of site-specific theatre is pure adrenaline.

Toronto actor Jennifer McEwen:

This is the way this play should live. It shouldn’t be removed from the audience.

McEwen is the founder of LOVE2 Theatre Company and says its inception was born out of personal agency after an acting hiatus.

If you want to be an actor, you need to get used to waiting around for auditions to come your way. I have come back to the profession not wanting to wait.

This kind of just-do-it moment deserves to be rewarded. The leap from discovering the text at a routine scene study with a savvy acting partner to mounting a play in Toronto’s dynamic performing arts scene is confidence writ large. You can catch the final weekend of this production this Friday and Saturday at 7 pm. Ticket information can be found here.

Over at Soulpepper, they might as well have blasted fireworks with the mounting of The Brothers Size, a spectacular production which ended an extended run last weekend. Will their current production, August: Osage County be as rewarding? That’s my next show, followed by Godspell at the George Ignatieff. For those of you familiar with Godspell, seeing it over Pride Weekend is your best way to embrace the most exhilarating show in town. If you don’t know the soundtrack, and you’re new to the show, I guarantee you won’t leave without buoyancy in your back pocket. Tickets can be purchased here.

Yes, there is room for Raptors fans at all these productions. This fangirl loves it all. Toronto, I’m coming for you.