Haley Sarfeld — Kingston Theatre Alliance

They’re young, they’re in love, and they’re in possession of stolen firearms. The Kingston Meistersingers are stealing hearts this season with Bonnie & Clyde, a fast-paced musical based on the story of real-life crime duo Bonnie Parker (Rachel Savlov) and Clyde Barrow (Rowan Engen).  Parker and Barrow’s infamous exploits and violent deaths in the 1930s sparked enduring public interest, inspiring numerous adaptations in the nearly hundred years since their heyday. […]

“Everything is useful. Everything is worth studying.” When I met with Elsa McKnight to discuss EXPERIMENT 1a, I was slightly surprised by her cheerful demeanour. While the show’s marketing has a rather ominous tone—with black-and-red posters that read “Tabula Rasa Laboratory: We Are Always Watching” and Instagram posts with captions like “lean into the uncertainty” and “have you given up on society?”—its creator is warm and chatty, with a distinct […]

Whether you recognize it from the theatre, the cinema, the Victorian novella, or the iconic Arthur song, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an enduring cultural touchstone. With a healthy mix of good and evil, fantasy and drama, this story provides the perfect recipe for a spooky autumn play—which means it’s arrived at Domino Theatre just in time.  Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 gothic horror […]

Amid the bustle of back-to-school season, a new local theatre club offers a charming take on an old collection of stories. Full of thought-provoking subject matter and peppy performances, The Spire’s Seniors’ Theatre Group presents All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Conceived and adapted in 1992 by Ernest Zulia with music by David Caldwell, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten is based […]

Jesse Gazic is a Toronto-based game designer, theatre maker, and Queen’s alum—and this summer, he’s been leading a puzzling adventure to catch an elusive butterfly in High Park. When I first arrived at Queen’s in 2014, I thought Gazic was the coolest person in the very grown-up-seeming cohort of third-year drama students. Though our paths have seldom crossed since he graduated—he’s somewhat elusive himself—I recently managed to catch Gazic for […]

What parts of yourself are you hiding? What do you filter out? Is it safe to be heard? Listen, I’ll be honest—things weren’t going too well for me last Friday. After forgetting my glasses, taking the bus to the wrong venue, and discovering that the lone ballpoint pen at the bottom of my purse had run dry, I almost gave up on seeing What Brings You In.  Luckily, the Kick […]

From singing goddesses to living sculptures, strange and striking works of art have been appearing downtown as the 2024 Kick & Push Festival rolls out its summer programming. Specializing in one-of-a-kind, immersive theatre experiences, the festival’s tenth season offers a range of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it performances from July 25 to August 18.  Corpus Dance Projects’ Divine Interventions made a brief appearance at the start of the festival, bringing celestial wonder to three […]

“I was in the car the other day, listening to music and thinking about loss.” So begins Threshold Theatre’s ABD with Mark the C, a gently humorous memoir of the 60s and 70s delivered from inside a DJ booth. Written and performed by Mark Cassidy and directed by Hume Baugh, the show traces Cassidy’s journey through small-town Ontario as a child of hotel entrepreneurs.  Let’s tackle the title letter by […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]