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A drawing of a hooded figure reaching out to a crow who is perched on a stack of books.

Watch Where You Look: Orpheus Learns About Narcissism in ‘Lillian’s Thief’

  • Not So Amateur Amateurs
  • Review

Please note this review mentions sexual abuse.  Despite getting tuned up with a modern setting, Lillian’s Thief: A Modern Orpheus can’t help but look back to classic, old-fashioned tropes.  The play was written by and stars both Sara Beck as Morana and Christian Milanovic as Corvin, with direction by Abby Wolfe and produced in association with Not So Amateur Amateurs.  Beck and Milanovic have a clear connection and rapport that […]

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A man looking very dishevelled. He is on the phone, has a cigarette in his nose, his tie is loosened, and he holds a fish bowl.

Grifting Takes to the Stars: ‘Death of a Starman’ Explores Toxic Masculinity and the Power of Storytelling

  • Interview
  • TK Fringe

Mercury is in retrograde at Kingston Fringe this August as the stars collide in Death of a Starman, starring real life astrologer Zaid Bustami. I had the pleasure of chatting with co-writer and director of the show, Kay Komizara, about toxic masculinity, storytelling, and of course, the stars. Komizara has been a creator for the last 11 years, having worked in Victoria, Montreal, and is now touring Ontario for Death […]

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Part of the poster for 'Lucy Darling In Indulgence' presented by Theatre Kingston. There is an image of Lucy Darling with Theatre Kingston's logo.

Lucy Darling: An Indulgence in Wit and Glamour

  • Review
  • Theatre Kingston

Lucy Darling means glamour in the true sense of the word—as in both elegant fashion and spellbinding mystique. The stage persona of Carisa Hendrix, Miss Darling is a self-described female magician and “classy bitch,” hosting a sophisticated yet scrappy 1950s Hollywood look complete with a smooth drawling accent. Darling is highly recognized for her efforts, as a 15-time Award-Winning Entertainer featured in the Guinness Book of World Records and Ripley’s […]

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Image of a man wearing a clown nose, black hat, suspenders, and patterned tie, pulling cards from his mouth.

A Devilishly Delightful Prelude to TK Fringe: ‘El Diablo of the Cards 2.0’

  • Review
  • Theatre Kingston

A tight 45 minutes of magic served with a citrus twist. Hailing from Ouro Preto, Brazil, Ewerton Martins—better known as El Diablo of the Cards—is a globetrotting magician and card-carrying clown. His last local appearance was at TK Fringe in 2019, where audiences were enraptured by his devilish charisma and skillful sleight of hand. This year, El Diablo is back to kick off Theatre Kingston’s summer programming with two performances […]

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Five differently dressed versions of the same person pose for a photo together.

Creating Characters with Carisa Hendrix: A Lucy Darling Story

  • Interview
  • Theatre Kingston

Lucy Darling is a world-renowned socialite whose dazzling stage magic and improvisational comedy will be gracing Theatre Kingston next weekend.  While Ms. Darling was much too busy to meet me for an interview—and, really, can you blame her? She has places to be!—I recently had the opportunity to speak with Carisa Hendrix, the performer and magician behind the persona. After a delightful potation of Lucy Darling YouTube content, I met […]

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Creepy Clowns, Cups of Coffee, Cringeworthy Cavemen, and Cantankerous Castmates: Come Play By The Lake at Domino Theatre

  • Domino Theatre
  • Review

At Come Play By The Lake, short works by local playwrights take to the Domino Theatre stage and compete for a place in the Eastern Ontario Drama League (EODL)’s One Act Festival.  Ranging from 25 to 55 minutes in length and spanning multiple genres—the 2024 submissions include horror, romance, comedy, and metatheatre—the productions are evaluated by a panel of judges selected from the local arts community. This year, Donna Chambers, […]

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Headshot of Shanique Peart. Background is green leaves.

Creativity from the Ground UP: A Conversation with Shanique Peart

  • Artist
  • Ground UP
  • Interview

Shanique Peart is a Kingston-based multidisciplinary artist who mixes performance and media, with a focus on dance and photography. She’s also a delightful person to chat with—we met for the first time last week, and within minutes it felt like catching up with an old friend.  With two artist residencies and a festival performance around the corner, Peart has a full summer of creative projects planned. As we sat in […]

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Poster for Domino Theatre's annual one acts. Included are the show titles, playwrights, dates, company, times, ticket link, and phone number.

Troublesome Toys in ‘Left Alone’ at Domino Theatre’s One Act Play Festival

  • Domino Theatre
  • Interview

Alone at last? Not so for the characters of Left Alone at Domino Theatre. Domino’s annual one-act play festival, ‘Come Play by the Lake,’ will be staged July 5-6, 2024, featuring four one-act plays. Left Alone by J. Wes Secord begins the performances this year, and I had the opportunity to sit down with Secord and learn about their experience writing and staging the play.  This interview has been edited […]

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Poster for 2024 Skeleton Park Arts Festival. The title, dates, artists, sponsors, and website are noted. There is also an image of a skull and crossbones but the crossbones are instruments.

Singin’ in the Rain: Joy at the 2024 Skeleton Park Arts Fest

  • Review
  • Skeleton Park Arts Festival

The rain never bothered us anyway! At least not at this year’s SPAF. Skeleton Park Arts Festival (SPAF), a grassroots, multidisciplinary art festival, takes place every summer over the solstice weekend in McBurney—more commonly known as Skeleton—Park. With a humble beginning over twenty years ago as a neighbourhood solstice picnic, this free, family-oriented festival has become a beloved and highly-anticipated event in the community. This year’s celebration fell over the […]

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Image of a person with a phone in front of them. Phone shows a picture of them with a phone in front of them. That phone shows a picture of them with a phone in front of them, so on and so forth.

Fun at FOLDA: Exploring the Festival of Live Digital Art 2024, Part Two

  • FOLDA
  • Review

The cardinal rules of theatre: sit still, don’t chitchat, and make sure your phone is on silent and put away. Adrienne Wong chooses to challenge these conventions, exploring our relationships with our devices through audience participation. 

The 2024 Festival of Live Digital Art (FOLDA), produced by SpiderWebShowPerformance, took place from June 13-15. In this section (catch Part One here!), I take a deep dive into SmartSmart, an interactive performance by Adrienne Wong that was staged at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts. In my previous review of FOLDA 2024, I mentioned that the festival promotes innovation, creativity, and reflection, and SmartSmart very much embodies these values.

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Mariah Horner and Tyffanie Morgan pictured in front of the 2024 Skeleton Park Arts Festival poster.

Creativity, Joy, and a Cardboard Pirate Ship: What To Expect at SPAF 2024

  • Interview
  • Skeleton Park Arts Festival

Summer solstice is just around the corner, and the sun has been bragging about it all week long. When it’s unbearably hot out, Skeleton Park (officially McBurney Park) is one of my favourite places to seek refuge—the trees offer generous shade, and there’s usually a light breeze to cut through the humidity that clings to the lakeside city air.  It’s no coincidence that, on the longest days of the year, […]

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Festival of Live Digital Art 2024's logo is in the top left corner. In the top right corner is an image of people skating. In the bottom left corner is a graphic of someone playing the guitar surrounded by many colours. On the bottom right is an image of a woman onstage wearing headphones and a dress.

Fun at FOLDA: Exploring the Festival of Live Digital Art 2024, Part One

  • FOLDA
  • Review

Where can you catch a groovy concert, talk to a multimedia AI interface, and take in a 360-degree film in a dome, all in one weekend? FOLDA, of course!  The Festival of Live Digital Art (FOLDA), produced by SpiderWebShowPerformance, promotes live digital art with the hopes of empowering communities, creating connections, and inspiring critique. The 2024 festival took place from June 13-15, and I was fortunate to have the opportunity […]

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