Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Part poetry book, part theatre audition resource, Infinite Audition reflects a transmasculine and disabled experience of the world in a voice that is funny, humane and rooted in deep authenticity.
Infinite Audition is a work that explores all spoken word poetry can be. The sections range from solo performance, to musical, dance and puppetry collaborations, to monologues and audition pieces for trans and non-binary actors from Petch's theatrical and operatic works. Each poem is its own little world: sometimes it is the voice of a hotel, a closet, Medusa's serpent, or surgically removed body parts out for a night on the town. Expect only the unexpected.
"Reading Petch's poetry is like watching a play that starts as a drama, then transforms itself into a circus, and then a joyful opera. This collection is original, poignant and playful."—Farzana Doctor
"Charlie Petch writes with feeling at the nexus of knowledge and experience, obliterating false binary. He foresees futures and remakes classics closer to the truth. This book will come and get you when you forget who you were meant to be."—Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
"'I used to think moths / were enamoured with light / now I know it traps them.' In this brutal, beautiful, and boisterous confessional volume, Petch gives us the gift of a thousand ways of seeing queer life glimpsed in all its raucousness, tenderness, sorrows and celebrations. We are very lucky to have it."—Anthony Olivera
"...this book is a reminder what it means to be a creator, and how brilliantly some hold the most intimate honest-to-god painful truths to their chests, and with all their love, hand it over to us, trusting us to not only hear all these words, but to grasp at them as they float above us..."—Alison Gadsby, The Miramichi Reader
Charlie Petch (they/them, he/him) is a disabled/queer/transmasculine multidisciplinary artist who resides in Tkaronto/Toronto. A poet, playwright, librettist, musician, lighting designer, and host, Petch was the 2017 Poet of Honour for the speakNORTH national festival, winner of the Sheri-D Golden Beret Award from The League of Canadian Poets (2020), and founder of Hot Damn it's a Queer Slam. Petch is a touring performer, as well as a mentor and workshop facilitator. Their debut poetry collection, Why I Was Late (Brick Books), won the 2022 ReLit Award, and was named "Best of 2021" by The Walrus. Their film with Opera QTO, Medusa's Children, premiered 2022. They have been featured on the CBC's Q, were the Writer-in-Residence for Berton House (2023), and were long-listed for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2021. Their solo show No one's special at the hot dog cart debuted at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2024.