Applications now open

For the Frost Bites 2026 Place-Based Performance series!

Frost Bites is Hamilton’s only winter theatre festival, and we’re heating up the coldest weeks of the year with bold storytelling, community events, and intimate performances in surprising spaces.

We’re looking for playful, collaborative, creative risk-takers to present site-specific work in non-traditional performance spaces throughout the historic Staircase Theatre building at 25 Dundurn St N.

Got an idea for a short performance that engages with this land, this city, its community, or the building we’re performing in? We want to hear all about it!

The Place-Based Performance series is planned for March 6 – 8, 2026, during Week Two of the Frost Bites 2026 festival.

Learn more and apply to Frost Bites 2026 Place-Based Performance series by October 15, 2025: https://form.jotform.com/HamFringe/frost-bites-2026

HFTco’s Frost Bites Festival is back for ONE NIGHT ONLY with a one-two punch of live on-stage fun!

Part of Hamilton Winterfest 2025, the Frost Bites Double-Header is one packed night of performance spotlighting what’s urgent and emergent in Hamilton’s live arts scene. Plus craft beer from Grain & Grit, and warm bevvies & snacks from Vintage Coffee Roasters!

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– February 13, 2025 @ 7PM –

Hamilton Artists Inc. (155 James St N)

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Tickets are “Pay-What-You-Can-Afford”

$15 General Admission

$5 Community Price

$40 Support The Artists Price (includes a $25 charitable receipt)

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“I laughed, I cried – it was the feel-good hit of the winter.”

– You (in the future)

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ACT 1 – DISCOCAB: Disability Connection Cabaret 4.0

Your favourite Disability Connection Cabaret is back! Join your hosts Carlyn Rhamey (The ADHD Project) and Kit Simmons (Bimbos in Space) with an all new line up of dazzling, daring and disabled artists. From Hamilton and beyond, enjoy live performances of all kinds. Let’s get weird Hamilton!

Producers: Kit Simmons and Carlyn Rhamey

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ACT 2 – Hamilton Cold Reads

The boldest new stories from Hamilton’s next great writers – performed live for the first time! Hamilton Cold Reads is where audiences get to see professional actors performing unrehearsed (or “cold”) staged readings of new scripts by local writers. It’s a relaxed and entertaining event that brings audiences and artists together to celebrate some great new work.

Inspired by Jane Spence’s historic and much-loved Toronto series, Cold Reads finally comes to Steeltown! Between 2003 and 2019, the Toronto iteration showcased new works by authors like Drew Hayden Taylor (God and The Indian) and helped spark the careers of now-established writers like Marcia Johnson (Serving Elizabeth), Brendan Gall (Blindspot, Keep Breathing), and Hamilton’s own Kate Hewlett (The Swearing Jar, Malory Towers).

The Frost Bites Double-Header would not be possible without the generous support of our partners: