Kingston Theatre Alliance

It’s tough being a drama critic at the best of times. For Brooklyn-based theatre journalist Mortimer Brewster (Danny Lalonde), the drama is seeping into his home life at a worrying pace.  Mortimer has just promised to marry his long-term girlfriend, Elaine (Wendy Stephen), when a chance peek into his aunts’ window seat reveals that life in the Brewster household is not all as it seems. Aunt Abby (Charlene Wehlau) and […]

A group of young artists puts on a musical about young artists in a festival for young artists. Blue Canoe Productions and the 2024 Juvenis Festival present Rent, directed by Dylan Chenier.  Jonathan Larson’s Rent, loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, tells the story of young artists as they traverse through gentrification, love, and the HIV and AIDS epidemic present in the 80s and 90s. With New York City […]

Kingston’s annual Juvenis Festival run by Blue Canoe Productions is underway and this year’s lineup of shows includes the premiere of Shay O’Brien’s Unknown Caller. The fourth year Queen’s University student has not only written the hour-long piece but is directing the show as well. After reading its mysterious description, my attention piqued and once I was put in contact with O’Brien, an interview was born. I hopped on Zoom […]

“I’ve seen tears in men’s eyes… It was a very emotional time when a man came in and went up to the counter.”  -Relief worker in Barry Broadfoot’s Ten Lost Years: 1929-1939. Ten Lost Years is a play based on the 1973 book of the same name by Barry Broadfoot playing at Domino Theatre this spring. Written by Cedric Smith, George Luscombe, and Jack Winter, and directed by Martha Bailey, […]

The Development Coordinator will be responsible for acting as a community ambassador for the Kingston Theatre Alliance and The Kick & Push Festival through the development, planning, and execution of the initial stages of a year-round development plan to both strengthen the organization’s relationships with existing funders, and identify and pursue new fundraising and sponsorship opportunities. This role can be done in a hybrid work environment until the Festival start in July, at which point the role requires being on-site in Kingston, ON until the completion of the Festival in late August.

Last summer I booked a trip to New York City as I hadn’t visited since I was very young. I was extremely excited as I really wanted to see a Broadway musical for the first time. As I hopped online looking for shows to see, I remember thinking, “Back to the Future the Musical… Why?” I have no hate for the idea—it could be an amazing musical—I was just surprised at the idea of a Back To The Future musical and it having a spot on Broadway. I continued searching and found that around half of the musicals on Broadway at the time were either remakes of hit movies or revivals of older shows. At first, I was surprised but after further thought, it made sense. I recently looked at Broadway.com’s list of current best-selling Broadway shows and saw that four out of the top ten shows on Broadway right now are direct adaptations of former hit movies, while five out of ten of the shows are connected to an already existing popular product or a revival of an old show.

Nine is a famous Broadway musical brought to life by the students of St. Lawrence College’s Music Theatre – Performance program. It played at the Thousand Islands Playhouse this past weekend and was directed by Alexandra Herzog. With music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and book by Arthur Kopit, the story based on the 1963 film 8½  follows Italian Film Director Guido Contini (Felipe De Brito) as he tries to […]

When it comes to theatre criticism, there are dozens of different opinions about its pros and cons. Of course readers have their valued takes but if there’s ever a disconnect that draws a line, it’s usually between the folks writing and publishing a review, and the folks involved in the production. Recently, the Kingston Theatre Alliance (KTA) received an email about a review and subsequent editor’s article, both written by […]

Since my first dreary days as an ArtSci frosh, getting stuck in a crowd of Queen’s students has been a surefire way to bring out my inner Wednesday Addams. As I stood in the Rotunda Theatre’s packed lobby on Thursday evening, noisy whirls of preview-night chatter ricocheting in my ears, I felt a distinct urge to crawl deeper into my own skin. When I realized my arms were crossed and […]

You’ve heard of iPhone, iPod, iPad, but what about iWorld?  Kingston Meistersingers’ production of We Will Rock You!, directed by Rachael McDonald, is a jukebox musical with songs by Queen and book by Ben Elton. Bringing a collection of rock hits to Domino Theatre’s stage, the show flashes forward hundreds of years into the future: the world is run by Globalsoft, a music corporation that has destroyed and banned all […]

Audiences are wondering if all the world’s a billboard as the latest trend in corporate sponsorship emerges in Kingston’s theatre scene. Previously known as Domino Theatre, the new Domino’s Pizza Theatre will soon follow the lead of Slush Puppie Place (formerly Leon’s Centre) in accepting commercial dough.  Rising costs of venue upkeep and drastic cuts to arts funding have been cited as motivators for more local organizations to turn to […]

The prompt: write a play about solar eclipses.  The students of Queen’s University (QU)’s DRAM 251 class were tasked with this in their 2023 fall semester. 24 plays were written as a result and seven have gone on to be dramaturged by the students of QU’s DRAM 339 class this 2024 winter semester. But the collaboration doesn’t end here. The seven plays will have staged readings tomorrow, March 25th, 2024 as […]