Yonge Street is a joyful, comedic show about 5 racially diverse women navigating early university in Toronto.
About The Webseries
"Yonge Street Show" takes its name from North America's longest road, which divides the often, cinematically neglected and underrated Toronto into east and west. This comedic web series is about 5 young racially diverse women, who thrive in school while pursuing a career in a mainly Anglo-male dominated industry, in the heart of the world’s most culturally diverse cities. We follow the ladies as they deal with their secrets and baggage, while coming of age, and navigating racist and sexist spaces; with an emphasis on their joy and resilience.
The Creation
Process
When, where, why and how the show was created.
August 17'
Shadora Chambers, the creator of Yonge Street, and Janie Felix-Lewis, the lead actor, wanted to challenge themselves creatively on YouTube, a platform where they regularly created on comedic content. Shadora then, suggested an idea that she came up with in the fall 2014, a comedic show with a racially diverse cast, that took place in Toronto. She felt compelled by this concept as byproduct of being inspired by Drake, who had recently done a free concert at the ladies university. The artist is well-known for his tenacious and passionate endorsements and love for Toronto. This passion sparked Shadora's love for Toronto which increased her awareness of how her colleagues at film school romanticized New York and other cities while "sleeping on the cultural gold mine, was right at their finger tips." She felt Toronto was too much of an interesting city, too "lit" and vibrant to not highlight in a project. This lead to the development of the show "Mosaic", which is now called Yonge Street.
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Spring 18'
During the spring Shadora Chambers and Jean Kim workshopped the concept, character bios, world of story and developed the direction of the web series. Shifting gears from sketch show/skit type comedy, to a more character driven type of story.
June 18'
Most of the script development and preproduction work was done in June, everything from casting, to location managing, to fund-raising (via. the Jamaican director working full-time in a freezer for the summer, big yikes!).
July - August 18'
We wouldn't have been able to put this all together without the help of our wonderful friends, who shot with us over the course of 8 days in July and August. Our crew was mostly people of colour and was almost exclusively an all-woman crew. More than 70% of season one was shot in buildings on Yonge Street, in Toronto.
September - November 18'
Currently, we are in the post production phase of this project, which will be completed in November. Subscribe to our mailing list to be notified when season one becomes available. Follow us on social media if you'd like to stay updated.