Community members ARE the Night of Dread event! Clay and Paper Theatre makes available for sign-out all of our NOD Big Fear and Small Fear puppets, plus our Character masks and costumes.

For Puppet and Character Role visual catalogues and more info on sign-out please see the Volunteering section.

The Dufferin Groove is a New Orleans style jazz trio that will entertain you as you arrive and get your puppets from Puppet Central. Or just relax and take in the atmosphere while waiting for the NOD Witches and Magpies to begin their performances.

They’re back! The Witchy Women are a fabulous group of volunteer Witches ready to get their groove on with you! They’ll get you moving and casting dance spells.

The Magpie Club, in its third thriving year, has been made possible with the generous support of the Kiwanis Club of Toronto. Over six weeks, youth 12 to 18, have explored themes around the environment through craft making and stilt walking training. The Magpie Club has created a special vision and message for a better future for themselves and their community through performance and play. Will you get a special message and visitation from a Magpie during their performance?

The Magpie Club has grown under the incredible leadership of Toronto circus artists, Zita Nyrady and this year’s lead teacher Vanita Butrsingkorn.

For more info about the Magpie Club please check out the website Magpie Club section.

Accompanying the Magpies during their performance will be Canadian jazz legend, saxophonist Richard Underhill, the conductor of the Echo Women’s Choir, Alan Gasser, along with singer Emma Whitla of the band, Harmonious Accord.

As the Theatrical Procession re-enters Dufferin Grove Park, you will see before you a circle of light on the soccer field. Please find your viewing spot in the circle, behind the candles.

Please kindly make space for children, seniors and people in mobility devices to sit up at the front.

Puppets (Big Fears and Small Fears), please find your way to the SouthWest corner of the circle. Production Assistants will also be present and will help flag you down and bring you to your waiting spot for the Pageant.

The fire spinners of the New Model Circus Army will continue to animate the space with their dazzling manipulation off flames, as the audience settles and the performers take their places.

Finally, the two Wildmen (masked dancers) will dance in frenzied ecstasy in the middle of the field, as the bands bring the movement to a climactic end. All the lights will go out… And then, your two MC’s, Co-Artistic Director Tamara Romanchuk and David Anderson, will begin the narration of the evening and scenario.

During the pageant, spectators are treated to a community theatrical display in which the Fear of the Year for 2025 is announced and confronted and this year, burned.

At the conclusion of the burning of the Fear of the Year for 2025, your guides will appear at the south end of the scenario circle - three glowing clouds and the moon. The MCs will invite the audience to follow their guides to the Forest of Shadows, a short walk south from the soccer field.

The Forest of Shadows was created by participants of our NOD 2025 Shadow Puppetry workshop, led by shadow puppetry artist Kristine White. Inspired by the theme, Hopes and Fears, the five hanging screens explore images that reflect fears for the world that Clay and Paper Theatre collected from community members across Davenport during our September NOD outreach. To counter our overwhelming fears in these dark and confusing times, you will also hear messages of hope that community members have also shared with us. These will play as a soundtrack as you walk through the corridor of shadow screens we have set up through the Forest.

Please note that after the Concert in the Valley of Resistance and Rejoicing, the Forest of Shadows installation will continue to run for another 30 minutes, until approximately 8:45. Please return and explore this profoundly moving community installation.

For more information on the Shadow Puppetry workshop, please check out the website Workshop section.

Your guides, the three clouds and the moon will lead you slowly through Forest of Shadows and westward towards the Valley of Resistance and Rejoicing.

In this natural valley setting of Dufferin Grove Park (just south of the Basketball Court), you will experience the haunting and visceral voices of the Georgian singing group, Ori Shalva. Led by virtuoso traditional singer and multi-instrumentalist Shalva Makharashvili, Ori Shalva, is Canada’s foremost Georgian polyphonic vocal ensemble, performing one of the world’s oldest and most complex vocal traditions.

Please note that after the Concert in the Valley of Resistance and Rejoicing, the Forest of Shadows installation will continue to run for another 30 minutes, until approximately 8:45. Please return and explore this profoundly moving community installation.