Kingston Theatre Alliance

The Performance Blog is a primary resource for audience members, artistic collaboration, critical dialogue, and theatre practitioners. Our platform consolidates events, news, artists, and organizations in the Southeastern Ontario area in an accessible and accountable manner that the region has never seen before. Led by the Editor, the writing team is looking for passionate individuals who are committed to questioning who and what criticism is FOR, all while building a stronger sector for live performance in the region.

Set forth on a journey through the Forest of Arden where love and laughter intersect to create a fascinatingly funny story. As You Like It is written by the brilliant William Shakespeare and Domino Theatre’s production of the show, directed by Peter Aston, is now playing. Personally, I am not a big Shakespeare theatre-goer. I read a few of the plays in high school and saw some live performances, but […]

“The biggest mistake any of us could make would be to underestimate Satan.” –Paradise Lost Paradise Lost is an interesting and unique retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, and the first battle between good and evil. By Playwright Erin Shields and directed by Evalyn Parry, the play is loosely based on John Milton’s poem of the same name. Paradise Lost flips everything we were taught about the story […]

You know how the story goes: boy meets girl, girl meets Satan, Satan tempts girl, girl eats fruit, boy eats fruit, humankind becomes doomed, and for some reason it’s all girl’s fault. Or something like that. Adam and Eve’s fall from innocence has been told and retold across millennia. Perhaps the best-known English-language version (and certainly the one most often assigned to university students) is John Milton’s 1667 epic poem, […]

The sweeping spectacle returns! Birdbone Theatre’s Broom Dance was reviewed last year by Haley Sarfeld and has made its way back to the stage after further workshopping and the incorporation of a new collaborator. As beautifully crafted shadow puppetry, the play follows a few different storylines that explore Slavic, Italian, and Polish folklore. Curated by Aleksandra Bragoszewska, Alison Gowan, and Ekaterina with compositions by Gowan and Ekaterina, Broom Dance bewitches […]

What comes to mind when you think of audience participation? No, for real, tell me.  Don’t want to? Okay, I’ll go first. When I think of participation, the little sing-song voice in my head starts humming Al Simmons’ “Don’t Make Me Sing Along”. This tune was rattling around in my mind when I met with theatre scholars Dr. Jenn Stephenson and Mariah (Mo) Horner to talk about their research project, […]

In the afterglow of Valentine’s Day, Bottle Tree Productions presents a potent potion for theatre lovers: The Witch and The Glitch. With a bubbly cast, spellbinding physical comedy, and lighthearted songs, The Witch and The Glitch provides a much-needed remedy to the doldrums of winter. This musical fable for grown-ups features a book and lyrics by Gord Love, who directs the show, and music by Michael Capon, who serves as […]

Incredible. 

Considering Matthew Shepard by Craig Hella Johnson, for all its complexity, can simply be described as a masterpiece. Performed by The Isabel Voices, the three-part oratorio is an astounding feat. 

As I’ve sat down to write this review, I’ve been struggling with where to start. I’m fervent about giving this performance the praise it deserves yet the intricacies of an oratorio and the accompanying musical vernacular feel unfamiliar to me. However, the story on which Considering Matthew Shepard is based is one the Kingston Theatre Alliance, and myself, feel passionate towards reviewing.

In early February, I sat down with Stephanie Fung, previous editor of the Kingston Theatre Alliance (KTA)’s Performance Blog to ask what’s up with them?!  I met Steph in the summer of 2021, and was immediately drawn in by their simultaneously cool and perceptive nature. They were a mentor for me as I was learning more about theatre criticism in Toronto Fringe’s New Young Reviewers (NYR) Program, and we stayed […]

What is art? On Wednesday, February 7th, I headed on down to the Baby Grand Theatre to catch Theatre Kingston’s production of Bakersfield Mist, written by Stephen Sachs and directed by Jim Garrard. The play follows a 50-something unemployed but previously a bartender, Maude (Rosemary Doyle), as she tries to get her presumed Jackson Pollock painting authenticated—if she succeeds, it can be worth millions.

When I learned that Darrell Christie was starting a new ensemble, I was intrigued, and I was doubly intrigued when I saw Matthew Shepard’s name in the season announcement. After nearly a decade away from choral singing, something about this confluence of elements—a former Cultural Studies classmate starting a new project and an iconic name in queer history appearing as the subject matter—nudged me to return to the choir kid life. 

From the moment I walked in the room, my heart started doing little flips. Everything is pink. Pink chairs, pink table, pink carpet, pink coat rack, the list goes on.  Within the walls of Theological Hall’s Room 106, Queens Theatre Troupe (QTT) has set the stage for their second-ever production: The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine by Robert Morgan, Leah Cherniak, and Martha Ross, and directed by Victoria J Marmulak.  […]