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The best things to do in Toronto this weekend: May 13-16

A rollerblader on Lake Shore West heads east

Our picks for the top things to do in Toronto on the weekend of May 13-16 include a Chekhov masterpiece, a comics festival and a livestream concert by a legendary hip-hop group.

Photogrammetry as Creative Archive at the Music Gallery

Photogrammetry is a form of 3D scanning, and you can learn all about it at this workshop from Toronto-based artist Lillian Leung. They’ll talk about their recent project Future through Memory: Chinatown VR Storytelling and share how to make a 3D scan using a computer and basic phone camera. It’s part of the Music Gallery’s Emergents IV: Room Tone, which will also talk about VR.

May 15 at 6 am to May 16 at 9 pm. Free. toronto.ca

The Seagull

Daniel Brooks’s production of Chekhov’s masterpiece was originally scheduled to go up at Soulpepper in March and April 2020, but of course it was cancelled because of the pandemic. Now it’s part of the company’s Around The World In 80 Plays series of audio dramas, with Kristen Thomson, Paolo Santalucia, Gregory Prest, Raquel Duffy and many others voicing the parts. As with the other works in this series, there are lots of tie-ins, including a CBC Ideas podcast, food suggestions, artist interviews and recommendations of nine other plays that help put Chekhov’s work in context.

May 13 to June 30. Pay-what-you-choose. soulpepper.ca

ActiveTO

The city’s popular outdoor exercise program ActiveTO returns to the west end for the first time this year. Re-launched a couple weeks ago, the initiative shuts down roads to vehicle traffic and allows cyclists, runners and pedestrians to take over. Lake Shore West was one of the most popular arteries to close last year but major construction at Roncesvalles and Queen West meant traffic congestion concerns took precedence over distanced exercise this spring. Fortunately, the city has noticed lower-than-usual traffic levels so the strip will close between Windermere and Stadium from Saturday morning to Sunday evening. See the full list of ActiveTO closures happening this weekend here.

May 13 at 7 pm. Free. musicgallery.org

Digable Planets

The Brooklyn hip-hop trio Ishmael Butler (Butterfly), Craig (C Know/Doodlebug) Irving and Mary Ann (Ladybug Mecca) Vieira have been on and off for years, but this weekend they are very much on with a concert livestreamed from Seattle. The group helped define a new sound and attitude for hip-hop in the early 90s with their seminal albums Reachin’ (A New Refutation Of Time And Space) and Blowout Comb, the latter of which heavily emphasized jazz loops and unabashedly Afro-centric lyrics and themes. Their most recent release was a live record in 2017.

May 15. 9 pm. $15 and up. sessionslive.com

TCAF 2021

The new online Toronto Comic Arts Festival is in full swing. This weekend, you can catch panels on comedy and comics, harm reduction, BIPOC representation, a memorial of the late comic artist Richard Sala and a lot more. You can play free games from the Hand Eye Society, peruse a virtual version of Canzine and walk the virtual aisles of the online marketplace.

On until May 15. Free. torontocomics.com

@nowtoronto

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