About This Episode:

What do we really know about our dads — and what have we never been able to say out loud? Taylor Trowbridge joins Phil to talk about her new solo show Dads, playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Part stand-up, part storytelling, part audience game, the show invites people to sit with the full range of their experiences with their fathers: the funny, the complicated, and the quietly unresolved.

Taylor and Phil dig into the generational forces that shaped so many dads — wartime trauma, boomer expectations, the rigid masculinity that made emotional connection difficult — and how those patterns echo forward into all of us. Taylor also shares how her brother Dylan is directing the show, why the family collaboration just makes sense, and what it was like to turn questions about her own dad into a piece of theatre.

This episode explores:

What Dads is — and why Taylor wanted to build a show around audience interaction, games, and stand-up
The generational and emotional weight fathers carry, and how masculinity shapes the father-child relationship
Working with her brother Dylan Trowbridge as director, and why no chemistry test was needed
Tool for Rebellion: Taylor's verbatim theatre piece on incel culture, the Toronto van attack, and the limits of empathy
And much more!

Guest: 🎭 Taylor Trowbridge

Taylor Trowbridge (she/her) is an actor, educator, and award-wining playwright. As an actor, she has performed for theatre companies such as Canadian Stage, The Shaw Festival, Nightwood Theatre, Bard on the Beach and SummerWorks Festival, and for TV shows such as The Handmaid’s Tale, Upload, SKYMED, Orphan Black, Murdoch Mysteries and Copper.

Taylor’s documentary play Tool for Rebellion was part of Studio 180's IN DEVELOPMENT program in 2022 and 2023 and received the Equity Showcase Cayle Chernin Award for Theatre. Her new play DADS – a playful, interactive solo show – will be at Toronto Fringe from June 30th to July 12th.

Get Tickets to DADS: http://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/dads

Connect with Taylor:

📸 Instagram: @taylorbluetrowbridge

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