Stratford Winter Pride: Love Is Love with dancing, drag, gossip, comedy, and, what the town is known for, theatre

16 Jan 2025.

by Drew Rowsome -Photos courtesy of Stratford Winter Pride

Stratford in the summer is all about the theatre festival and is a small town that rolls out the rainbow carpet for LGBTQ visitors. In the winter, dusted with snow but still walkable, Stratford is all about "Love Is Love" as it celebrates Stratford Winter Pride. Events kick off on Friday, January 31 with Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma hosting an opening night reception at the Grayson Mills Event Centre, 114 Erie St with hors d'oeuvres, a cash bar and entertainment. The theme is, what else, "Love Is Love." The next night, Grayson Mills transforms into the venue for the Rainbow Fancy Dinner and Dance. The dinner options are chicken or pasta, the sartorial option is "Dress in your rainbow best." Sunday, also at Grayson Mills, is the Drag Brunch for those who have recovered from the night before's revelry. Doors and bar open at 10am with the buffet commencing at 11am. The spectacular show, emceed by drag king Troy Caplan aka Troyboy Parks and featuring the stars of Troy Boy Entertainment, starts at noon with two 90 minute sets. The queens and kings promise to be available for photo ops and quick quips for as long as it takes after. 

Beginning on Monday, February 3 and running until the end of the festival, Fanfare Books, 92 Ontario St, presents a display and sale of LBTQ literature. Fanfare is an old school independent bookstore packed with smart and enticing reading. Every visit I have found a previously unknown book—their horror section is imaginatively and cleverly curated—and their theatre oriented offerings are often signed by the author. It is quite possible to spend hours browsing and that is before, and after, the display goes up. Queer literature and independent bookstores deserve to be celebrated and supported. Thursday, February 6 Ari Weinberg, casting director at the Stratford Festival and Toronto cabaret darling, hosts "What's Queer This Year at the Stratford Festival" at Grayson Mills. With Robert Lepage (The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark, Totem, 887, Needles and Opium) directing a version of Macbeth set amidst Montreal's biker wars, and two splashy campy musicals (Annie and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) there will be tea, and cocktails, to be spilled.

Friday comes with the first "adult only" warning and we have Robert Watson hosting a Gay AF Comedy Night to thank for that. Fresh off a Canadian tour and a wildly successful Christmas spectacular, Watson says that, ""Stratford Winter Pride is the first place Gay AF Comedy toured to back in 2022. Three years later and Gay AF has performed in dozens of communities across Ontario and now across Canada. It feels correct to be back this year spreading queer joy to the town that started it all for us." He notes that "Stratford is a lovely little city with a great queer community and a big population of allies, we can't wait to bring the laughs to warm up their Winter Pride festivities. We've got a great comedy crew this year, Steve Degay is a musical comedy phenomenon, Kari Johnson always shows up packing the best jokes, and I've got a surprise guest or two in store. And of course I'll be hosting the evening with my usual flair of funny and fabulousness."

On Saturday, February 8 is what Stratford Winter Pride's general manager Bruce Duncan Skeaff, who also calls Stratford "Canada's queerest little theatre town," refers to as the "crown jewel" in the festival: two staged readings of The Laramie Project with, this is a theatre town, an all star cast. Director Rod Dodson says, "In the fall of 1998, I transitioned from teaching secondary drama—having produced and directed nearly 100 plays—to an administrative role with the Avon Maitland District School Bpard. In mid-October that year, the shocking murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, rocked North America. Tortured and killed in Laramie, Wyoming, simply because he was gay, Shepard's death spurred an outpouring of grief and a reckoning with the attitudes enabling such violence. Over the following years, laws addressing hate crimes and protecting vulnerable minorities were implemented."

It also inspired a theatrical reckoning. "Four weeks after Shepard’s death," says Dodson, "an innovative New York-based theatre troupe traveled to Laramie to interview residents. Over six visits, they conducted more than 200 interviews and compiled their journals to create The Laramie Project. Premiering in 2000 in Denver and later in Laramie, the play examined the psyche of a community grappling with its identity and values. It became the most-produced play in the US for two consecutive years." But there was also trauma closer to home. "Five years earlier, Stratford had its own shock: the 1993 brutal killing of 'Dougy' Grass, murdered in his home just 550 feet from the building where I worked for 25 years. Dougy’s death, also motivated by his sexual orientation,devastated Stratford’s theatre community. In February this year, we mark the 25th anniversary of The Laramie Project. I felt compelled, as an LGBTQ+ ally and a friend of Dougy’s, to bring it to Stratford. Stratford Winter Pride offered its arts stage dates. As word spread, the idea gained enthusiastic support from the cast and creatives. The play challenges us to confront personal and community values, giving voice to Matthew, Dougy, and the ongoing fight for equality."

So far the closing night event on Sunday, February 9 is still a mystery with a "special announcement" pending according to the Stratford Winter Pride website. The website also has a special on "Stratford Winter Pride Weddings," discounts on bus fares to the burg of the bard, lots of swag (in case you need rainbow gear for the dinner and dance), and a helpful list of Stratford accommodations. There is a discount for the official hotel of Stratford Winter Pride, The Parlour Inn, but they also recommend my personal favourite during theatre festival season, Foster's Inn, which would be a cozy spot on a winter's night. From where I sit typing as the snow falls, a smalltown Pride, full of Love Is Love, sounds like a warm antidote to the chill of February.