The Centre for Designing Change and Ontario Tech University’s launch of PACE Ontario on August 20, 2026, is staged as a one-act play at the Hub Theatre in Oshawa[1]. The production, the first provincial hub within CDC’s national PACE network, has a running time listed as “continuous.”
The set is a single room with a whiteboard on which the word “upskill” is written in a font that appears to be Comic Sans, but the lighting is so dim that no one can read it. The actors, never seen, deliver their lines from offstage via a speaker that periodically emits a static noise the program calls “the sound of reskilling”[2].
The script consists entirely of the press release text, projected onto a screen that advances at a rate of one slide per hour. The audience is invited to participate in the experiential learning portion by filling out a form that is not provided, which the ushers explain is part of the “industry-connected opportunities”[2].
The production’s pacing is self-consciously slow. The intermission occurs approximately 45 minutes in, but the second act never begins because the cast is still waiting for the funding model to be approved.
Verdict: The production achieves its goal of making the audience feel prepared for a future that has not yet arrived. Rating: Two stars. The second act is the funding model, and it’s still in committee.