Theatre & Performance Art
EVENING PRELUDE
Friday, Sept. 18
6:45PM
SIGNATURE THEATRE
spilleHOLLE
Featuring last year’s 10-Minute Play Competition GOLD Winners
spilleHOLLE is an award-winning, original dark folklore story inspired by Germanic pagan characters. Set in late 1700’s Bavaria, it follows the toxic maternal relationship between Perchta, a witch, and her daughter Spilleholle. Much like the turning of the authentic 1800’s spinning wheel that serves as the centrepiece to the play, spilleHOLLE explores how cyclical abuse and isolation can create a monster.
Playwrights, Directors & Performers: Natalia Bushnik & Kathleen Welch
Genre: Dark Folklore, Drama, Horror
Approx. runtime: 45 mins
Limited Seating Available
7:15 PM
Wearable Art Competition
GROUNDS PERFORMANCE
Presented by Big Cityyy Arts & The Other Paris Fashion Week
Photo by Sarah Evans @SarahIsEvans
At GRAF 2026, Friday’s Evening Prelude will feature a special interlude grounds performance near the Main Stage. Guests and a panel of judges will be treated to a Wearable Art Fashion Show showcasing artists from across Canada. They’ll select their three favourite pieces to be featured on Saturday.
Founded in 2024, The Other Paris Fashion Week celebrates rural style and local designers with mini events, workshops, and its annual Runway Show during Canada’s national arty celebration, Culture Days. The Wearable Art Competition welcomes artists from across Canada.
FESTIVAL DAY
Saturday, Sept. 19
PERFORMANCE ART
Big Cityyy Plinths
Returning for their third year, by popular demand!
Big Cityyy Plinths, a living sculpture installation inspired by ‘The Fourth Plinth’ at London’s Trafalgar Square, is a series of six engaging performance art pieces that will interact with GRAF visitors throughout the day on Saturday. This year, Big Cityyy Plinths will explore themes of camp, spectacle, and upcycle exploring the intensity of devotion, the ritual and regalia of weddings and the pomp and circumstance of modern Western matrimony. These performance art pieces invite you to please stand and witness the celebration of Queer creativity, and of live art, that is living, breathing and responding to the world, and the audience.
Big Cityyy Arts, an award-winning arts organization, brings creativity to events, campaigns, parties, and communities. They provide solutions, connections, and spaces for cultural communication while energizing and integrating diverse arts and culture into various community events.
Big Cityyy Arts, a homegrown company with European influence and international cultural credits, was founded in Paris, ON, and gained experience in London, UK. The founder, Rubyyy Jones, brings local knowledge, worldly experience, and award-winning innovation. The Head of Design, Prinx Lydia, brings their expertise in costume creation, historical costuming, and textile art to the art equation.
Photos by Sarah Evans @SarahIsEvans
Ontario’s most exciting stage for short-form theatre—17 plays, 10 minutes each, all competing live in one dynamic day.
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NOON
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2:00 PM
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4:00 PM
Saturday, September 19, 2026
on the Coach House Stage