The Reading Warehouse

In a society where the Black male body is both vilified and sexualized, Black Boys uncovers the complex dynamics of the queer Black male experience. Text, movement, and design portray the rhythm and vulnerability of three very different Black men who seek a deeper understanding of themselves, each other, and of how they encounter the world. As they explore their unique identities, their performances rigorously interrogate and playfully subvert the ways in which gender, sexuality, and race are read and performed.

Thomas Antony Olajide is a Dora Mavor Moore Award-nominated, Toronto-based actor from Vancouver, British Columbia, and a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada. His film credits include Inhuman Condition and Mariner. Some of Olajide's theatre credits include Hamlet, King Lear, and A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Stratford Festival; Macbeth and The Winter's Tale for Canadian Stage; and The Whipping Man and Ruined for Obsidian Theatre. In 2014, he received the Stratford Festival's Peter Donaldson Award for Great Promise in Shakespeare and the Classics. Thomas is a recent graduate of the Canadian Film Centre's CBC Actors Conservatory.

Stephen Jackman-Torkoff is a lover, a wandering poet, and a disco dancer. They were born in Toronto and raised in foster care in Richmond Hill. Stephen has acted in several productions across Canada, including Angels in America, Botticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom, and The Glass Menagerie. Stephen is the resident poet with the Queer Songbook Orchestra and toured with them in October 2018 to ten cities across Canada. This year they will be working on a multidisciplinary solo piece called Die Phantasie. After spending a lot of time in institutions, Stephen is now immersing themself in creation and collaboration beyond institutional walls.

Tawiah M'Carthy is a Ghanaian-born theatre artist. His playwright/creator/performer credits include Blue Bird, Body 13, Obaaberima, and The Kente Cloth. Tawiah has worked with theatre companies such as the National Arts Centre of Canada, the Cultch, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Obsidian Theatre, MT Space, the Globe, and InterArts Matrix as an actor, playwright, and/or director. Tawiah is a co-founder of Blue Bird Theatre Collective and Saga Collectif.

Jonathan Seinen is a founding member of Saga Collectif, Artistic Associate with lemonTree creations, and Co-Artistic Producer of Architect Theatre. Most recently, he directed Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land) and Black Boys, and with Architect Theatre, he co-created and performed in Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show and Like There's No Tomorrow. He co-created Charisma Furs with Katie Sly, which was published in Q2Q: Queer Canadian Performance Texts. As a participant in the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction, Jonathan was Assistant Director for Timon of Athens at the Stratford Festival, and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Theatre Directing at Columbia University.

Saga Collectif founded in 2012, is a theatre company that brings to the stage under-represented bodies and voices in a fashion that is risky, honest, and new. They dissect and dismantle, pose questions to unravel identity, ancestry, and place in society. They bravely challenge themselves to move into the unknown to discover personal truths, and hope to
offer themselves as examples for those who see limits and choose to transcend them.