Stealing Home

The rich, the poor, the dreams, the drama.

If you loved The Master Plan, you’ll get a kick out of Stealing Home - a sharp-elbowed satire that pokes fun at our beloved, quirky city of Toronto. It stars Mac, a modest mid-town parking lot whose life is about to be turned upside down – literally – when the City proposes digging him up to build supportive housing.

Our 2025 Fringe cast

Photography by Harris Bailey

Art by Suzanne Courtney

Synopsis

Outraged homeowners fend off porch pirates, a guerilla gardener steals plants to make dubious wellness products, a sleazy developer scents money, the Mayor dithers, and a journalist in a big hat takes notes. Meanwhile Mac, the neglected bit of asphalt, nurses his potholes and dreams of a better future.

Although fictional, Stealing Home skates close to real life Toronto neighbourhoods where local residents shout down all efforts to provide housing for the less fortunate. “We’re not against housing the homeless,” they say. “We just don’t want any here.” Well-heeled residents bemoan petty theft, but this play asks the question: Who is really doing the thieving?

Seven performances of Stealing Home at the Alumnae Theatre! Choose from:

July 4 @ 4:45pm
July 5 @ 8:00pm
July 8 @ 6:30pm
July 10 @ 9:30pm
July 11 @ 6:15pm
July 12 @ 1:00pm
July 13 @ 2:15pm

Tickets

Festival Hub

Did you know that the Fringe Festival Hub has moved to the Distillery District? You’ll find the in-person ticket office and all the fun at the Soulpepper Theatre.

Check out the full program of 108 Fringe shows.

Tsipporah Shendroff (ANTHEA) and Kayne Wylie (PETE)

Anne Harper (NORMA the NIMBY) and David Borwick (MAC the parking lot)

Director

Director Pat McCarthy has vast experience directing at Alumnae Theatre, the Village Playhouse, and the Edinburgh Fringe. Internationally, she directed youth from twelve conflict areas in Peace Camps in Greece, Turkey, and Kosovo.

Cast

David Borwick (Mac) appeared in Terror by Gaslight and The Book of Will (2024) for The Village Players.

Anne Harper (Norma) produced The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble (2025) and directed Rumors (2024) for The Village Players.

JeN Hashimoto (Muffy/Hatman) acted in Gunplay at the Alumnae’s 2025 Fireworks Festival.

Tsipporah Shendroff (Anthea) produced Days Since Bo’s Been Gone at the 2025 Fireworks Festival.

Josh Welsh (Mr Shady/Mayor Wibble) appeared in a wide range of TV, film and stage projects.

Kayne Wylie (Pete) played the lead role in The Hostage, with Toronto Irish Players in 2025.

Crew

Stage manager Bini Shah deftly handled Alumnae’s 2024 New Ideas Festival.

ASM Marnie Brunton is fresh off The Green House for Alumnae’s Fireworks Festival.

Lighting designer and photographer Harris Bailey is technical director at the Alumnae Theatre and has multiple current projects.

Sound designer Nataliya Kozyrina has worked on several Alumnae Theatre shows.

Set and props builder Alta Louise Doyle is lead set designer and builder for act2studioWORKS.

Movement coach Laurel Brown is happiest when creating movement and choreography for performance.

Dramaturg Carolyn Zapf is a luminary of the Alumnae Theatre and has nurtured many of its scripts.

What inspired Stealing Home?

It began as a fascination with Toronto’s reactions to homelessness.

In 2021, the City of Toronto announced plans to dig up a parking lot in Cedarvale to build supportive housing. A local resident told a reporter: "This parking lot ... is the heart of the community". It was the funniest thing I've ever heard. And was the inspiration to begin writing this story, but from the point of view of the parking lot.

Meanwhile, pearls were clutched in Willowdale, where outraged residents delayed 59 much-needed housing units for four long years and the eventual project costs more than doubled.

Today, in 2025, residents are fighting supportive housing on Wardlaw Crescent in Etobicoke. Stories like this play out all over the City.

On one hand, we bemoan encampments and shelters. On the other ... we cherish parking (and parking lots) more than we do housing.

The play has evolved through three iterations, plenty of workshopping and a hugely perceptive dramaturg, Carolyn Zapf, who pushed the playwright to go bigger and bolder. The play also finds great material in the ongoing squawking provided by actual Toronto homeowners.

Story backgrounder

In August 2024, under the name Pave Paradise, we brought this play outdoors to St. James Park, with wonderful support from the Old Town BIA. We performed through blazing sun, heavy rain, and lots of unexpected interactions with the audience.

Here’s what our audience said:

“A wonderful story of colourful characters who weave their individual lives living in Toronto, where homelessness is significant and misunderstood.”

“The audience was able to experience all sides of the political landscape through the talented storytelling of this excellent group of local actors.”

“While described as a work of fiction, I think we all got the drift and recognized the actual real life people and the influence that powerful residents had (for real) to shelve the 60+ unit modular housing project into storage and deprive 60+ people of housing.”