Last week was the premieres of two new shows from Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Company. One’s a Canadian 110 minute black comedy written in 1997, the other a 3 hour American drama from 1956 that’s largely considered the greatest North American play ever written. But they’re both, in some way, about morphine addiction– throughlines! First up […]
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Americus is a YA graphic novel by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill, and IT’S FRIGGIN’ WONDERFUL. It has book wars, humorous depictions of various authority figures, unpretentious but nuanced characters, simple but expressive artwork, and a heck of a lot of heart. I love the crap out of this book. I just used all caps—you […]
About a month ago, I was fortunate enough to receive an email from Sugar Cereal Productions founder and artistic producing director Mark Sickler. Back in October we’d briefly discussed his next project, a serialized soap opera, and since then he’d assembled an all-star team of writers- including Ilene Fischer, the director of the company’s last production, […]
Nathan Jendrick is a personal trainer who keeps things simple and to-the-point in this do-it-yourself handbook on how to exercise with no fancy or expensive exercise equipment. As someone who has experience and knowledge in the field of nutrition and exercise, I wanted Jendrick to go deeper and give more information, but I’m not the demographic […]
The latest indie theatre piece to crash down in Toronto’s Factory Studio Theatre is called The Big Smoke, a title which refers to its London setting, not its current location. The piece is essentially a weird solo acapella opera wherein Amy Nostbakken sings the story of aspiring artist Natalie using only an empty stage, some […]
Before the Show It’s been quite a few years since I’ve really, truly cared about the Oscars, but before that I was their biggest fan. They never gave the awards to the right people, and most of the presenters were lackluster, and the hosts seemed to have an incredibly thankless job, but god did I […]
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is a sensational ensemble as a whole. Though its population (and, notably, its audience) is ageing, the vibrancy of music director Peter Oundjian’s baton keeps them at a performance level on par with their technical achievements. In the early February concert series featuring Beethovan’s Emperor Concerto and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, […]
A new company has journeyed to Boston to make its new home with a daring production of the provocative play Some Explicit Polaroids written by British playwright Mark Ravenhill. The Brown Box Theatre Project features local Boston actors with a mix of Boston and New York City designers and, with this show, makes a stark […]