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Sum Theatre

A woman in a purple shirt high-fives a large, person-operated bear puppet made of layered black and brown fabric strips with a paper-mâché snout, standing on a platform in an outdoor park setting. Trees and a colorful sign are visible in the background.

Innovative theatre company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan founded in 2011 by Joel Bernbaum and Kayvon Khoshkam. Sum Theatre was formed as a vehicle to produce a reading of their play My Rabbi at the Belfry Theatre’s SPARK Festival. Bernbaum incorporated the Saskatoon arm of the company the following year. For several years, there were both Saskatoon- and Vancouver-based arms of the company, headed by Bernbaum and Khoshkam respectively. The BC arm dissolved in 2016. For a time, Judy Wensel worked with Sum Theatre as Associate Artistic Director (Regina), giving the company an ongoing presence in that city as well.

The Company is best known in Saskatoon for its unique take on the theatre in the park model which has run annually since 2013. Rather than setting up for a summertime run in a local park, Sum’s productions move from park to park around the city, spending no more than a day or two in any one location. Partnering with dozens of community associations each year, the aim of this flagship annual production is to allow as many citizens as possible to experience a large-scale theatre performance in their own neighborhoods. In recent years, the tour has expanded significantly to include, depending on the year, various neighborhoods in Regina, a variety of smaller cities in the province, as well as rural communities in northern Saskatchewan.

Theatre in the Park productions are collectively created following some version of the following format: a playwright is commissioned to write a short prose story which is brought to life in scenes, songs, and movement sequences by a company of performers; in collaboration with a dramaturge, the playwright then shapes a script from these pieces which is then brought back to the company to be staged. These productions are known for integrating giant set pieces and puppets and for always featuring original music. Every Theatre in the Park performance ends with a member of the Company asking audiences to introduce themselves to one person they do not yet know in order to strengthen community bonds one interaction at a time.

Early Theatre in the Park productions were adaptations of European stories like Alice in Wonderland, The Pied Piper, and Hercules. In their fourth season, their focus expanded with Little Badger and the Fire Spirit (2016) based on a story by Maria Campbell. Later productions were based on Syrian folk tales (The Lion and the Woodcutter, 2017), disability justice (Queen Seraphina and the Land of Vertebraat by Adam Pottle, 2018), and environmental action (The Young Ones by Yvette Nolan, 2019). For its thirteenth season in the summer of 2025, Sum presented Breathe, devised by the ensemble in response to the work of playwright Danielle Roy. The story features a fish that seeks refuge on an island inhabited only by a reclusive dragon; both must adapt their assumptions and beliefs in order the survive (Sum Theatre Website).

In addition to Theatre in the Park, the Company has dedicated itself to performance in other unexpected locations including Theatre in the Pool, Theatre on the Rink, and Theatre on the Trail. They have toured My Rabbi to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, toured a production entitled #consent to schools and community organizations, and partnered with La Troupe du Jour to present a bilingual adaptation of The Hockey Sweater / Le Chandail, an original musical performed by actors on ice skates, adapted from the classic children’s story by Roch Carrier.

A young person in a black swimsuit and shorts balances on a pink floating mat in a swimming pool, wearing a yellow foam costume resembling a crown or helmet with fins on the back. Two other participants, also in swimwear and goggles, are in the water around them, suggesting a playful or theatrical water activity.
Theatre In The Pool: Megan Zong (centre) with Dakota Hebert (background) and Colin Wolf (foreground). Photo by Brad Proudlove.

From 2017 to 2022, Sum Theatre ran its “The Last Sunday” program monthly from October to May. Using art to help audiences process current events, “The Last Sunday” was a commissioned variety night exploring the month’s local, national, and international news. Each event included a local musician, a rant by a community member, a live interview, and a reading of a newly-commissioned ten-minute play. Described by Bernbaum as theatre of the now, it aimed to allow artists to respond quickly, without long development processes or editing. Since 2022, “The Last Sunday” has been replaced by “The First Monday,” a monthly reading of new Saskatchewan plays presented in partnership with Persephone Theatre.

Since 2023, Mac Dawson has been Sum’s Artistic Director. Other key figures in the Company’s history include Heather Morrison who served as Artistic Producer from 2013 to 2020 and Yvette Nolan who worked as company dramaturge for several formative years.

Sum Theatre website: https://sumtheatre.com

Profile by Charlie Peters

Last updated 2025-05-05