Before we announce the winners of the 2019 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present…
Jackie Houghton
How to Fail As a Popstar… Is it a love letter or is it a break up song? After watching Vivek Shraya’s debut play, now playing at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Upstairs Theatre, and mulling it over for the better part of a full day, I’m still not sure. I’m also not sure it really matters. […]
Jackie Houghton
Ellie Moon’s This Was the World, now playing at The Tarragon Theatre, Extra Space, endeavours to take on the notions of white privilege and white fragility, and does so unapologetically. It is a study of Professor John Taylor (R. H. Thompson). John is not your overtly racist uncle (or aunt/brother/cousin) that makes family dinners awkward. […]
Jackie Houghton
Jennifer Dallas, Artistic Director of Kẹmi Contemporary Dance Projects, says that she is inspired by choreographers who are playing in the cracks between disciplines. Dallas herself has been able to turn this “playing” into award-winning productions. In Kittly-Bender she successfully brought the worlds of dance and theatrical clowning together on stage, exciting audiences and winning […]
Jackie Houghton
The SpongeBob SquarePants Musical, presented by TO Live at Meridian Hall, was a breakout Broadway success in 2017/2018 garnering 12 Tony Award nominations and is the first in what TO Live is hoping to be an ongoing Broadway series. It is a production that will delight the children in the audience and entertain their adult […]
Jackie Houghton
Clowning is an art. A wise woman who has spent most of her adult life performing as a both a theatre and a circus clown once told me that clowning is an impossible art to perfect because a true clown must be able to balance wearing a variety of hats all while acting the fool. […]
Jackie Houghton
Traditionally, the Gothic aesthetic has dabbled with imagery of the supernatural, haunted castles, and other spooky fare. It is more reminiscent of Stoker’s Dracula lurking around Transylvanian castles than velour tracksuits and cozy log cabins, but this is Canada, eh, and Canadian Gothic needs to represent this nation and its inhabitants. Yes, Canadian Gothic is […]
Jackie Houghton
Set in the British Columbia town of Kelowna against the backdrop of the worst wildfire season in Canadian history, Dock Mother God Society, Blood Pact Theatre’s latest production, is the story of personal, familial, and societal dysfunction that is both tragic and hilarious in its storytelling and delivery. In this one act play, we meet […]
Jackie Houghton
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. Clotheswap (A-) I love a good in-real-life clothes swap, so I was quite excited to see Amanda Barker’s and Dale Boyer’s production, Clotheswap. I was even more happy to see that I could bring my own clothes to the show and that those clothes […]
Jackie Houghton
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. Night Cows (A) A percussive heartbeat punctuates the soundscape of Night Cows/Les vaches de nuits. Eléonore Lamothe sits curled into a broad cowhide chair. The only other objects adorning the stage are a mobile of crows and a beautifully crafted cow skull hung from […]
Jackie Houghton
Sitting high above the crowd, atop her glorious hive at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, is emcee for the evening Busty Beatz. The Queen Bee of Hot Brown Honey, Beatz is definitely in the driver’s seat this evening and she is ready to take the rest of us on a ride, so be […]
Jackie Houghton
Toronto has a complicated relationship with the wildlife that we share our urban terrain with in 2019. To many, maybe most, these animals are pests. They break into our attics and build nests. They poop on our balconies, decks, and heads. They rummage through our garbage leaving a mess in their wake. The pigeons, the […]
Jackie Houghton
After the Fire, the latest offering from indigenous playwright Matthew MacKenzie, is a powerfully dramatic yet darkly comedic take on the aftermath of Canada’s costliest natural disaster, the wildfires that tore through Fort MacMurray, Alberta in May 2016. Presented by MacKenzie’s own Punctuate! Theatre and the Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts in association with Native Earth […]
Jackie Houghton
I am an elementary school teacher. I have participated in hundreds of parent-teacher interviews, but I’ve never had an experience like the one portrayed in Jordi Mand’s Between the Sheets! Oh sure, when I walked into the Small World Centre at Artscape Youngplace, I was transported into what could have been any elementary classroom anywhere […]