Kelly Bedard

The use of white makeup as a base for exaggerated features has become a fairly standard practice in productions with a sense of heightened reality. This month in Toronto there are three shows all making use of the convention, albeit in wildly different ways. Trudeau & Levesque Their distinctive makeup is arguably the most defining […]

  Kelly Bedard

Warning: Extreme negativity ahead. Why don’t you read Rachael’s piece about all the Friends Thanksgiving episodes instead? Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots (Tapestry) Conceptually, this evening of short opera scenes tied together with corresponding shots of curated liquors was a brilliant idea. How do you battle every simplistic but not altogether unfounded accusation of “long, boring, old, […]

  Lorenzo Pagnotta

Patrons are standing in the lobby of the Big Picture Cinema – yes, cinema! – many of whom know Paul Bellini well. I even strike a conversation with him myself as I took a writing class of his last year. Bellini kindly excuses himself as he has received word that it is, finally, okay for […]

  Lorenzo Pagnotta

As two actresses slyly emerge from a heap of garbage, Renata (Mina James) is pushed along by her mystic uncle named Doctor Garbage (Richard Zeppieri) on a rolling ladder denoting the exit of a plane and, subsequently, a customs booth. The apprehension and fatigue revealed in this young lady’s eyes, so vividly depicted by James, […]