our history
the mcguffin company is an independent Toronto theatre collective. The artistic principals and co-producers are Alison Lawrence and Mary Francis Moore.
The mcguffin company was first formed to produce Alison Lawrence’s solo play Biff at The Gathering Festival in Toronto in 1996. Mary Francis joined with Alison a few years later and together they have produced or co-produced a number of Fringe, Summerworks and Rhubarb! shows: the original production of bittergirl (the play) at the Rhubarb! Festival and Flush at the Toronto Fringe (both these projects produced and written with co-author and fellow performer Annabel Fitzsimmons); Going for Groceries at the Summerworks Festival; and their sold-out, critically acclaimed production of The Catering Queen. The Catering Queen was first produced at the 2006 Toronto Fringe Festival and then in its equally successful remount at the Tarragon Extra Space in 2009. Both bittergirl and The Catering Queen have gone on to be published by Scirocco Drama.
More recently the mcguffin company has produced The Thing Between Us in an independent production at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, and Piece by Piece as part of the 2015 Next Stage Festival at Factory Theatre.
In 2018 the mcguffin company co-produced the Toronto Fringe smash hit Judas Star Supersong, imagined and performed by Dora winning performer Paula Wolfson. The show returned for a two night stand in 2019 at Buddies in Bad Times and toured to Eastern Front Theatre’s Stages Theatre Festival.
The mandate of the mcguffin company is to produce new independent Canadian work featuring women on and offstage, with an emphasis on the actor and the writer.