Articles by Haley
![Image of a man wearing a clown nose, black hat, suspenders, and patterned tie, pulling cards from his mouth.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/El-Diablo-of-the-Cards.jpg)
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 […]
![Five differently dressed versions of the same person pose for a photo together.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/SelfieGroupFinal-All-WEB-FB-INSTA.jpeg)
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 […]
![](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Cast-and-crew-of-Dress-Rehearsal.-Photo-provided-by-Jen-Buder-1.jpg)
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, […]
![Headshot of Shanique Peart. Background is green leaves.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/MOS10217-scaled.jpg)
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 […]
![Mariah Horner and Tyffanie Morgan pictured in front of the 2024 Skeleton Park Arts Festival poster.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SPAF-KTA-square.jpg)
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, […]
![Poster for 'Dressing Amelia'. A woman stands against a blue background holding a jar. The title, playwright, director, ticket price, dates, and presenting company are noted.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/dressing_amelia_graphic.png)
Unpacking Loss with ‘Dressing Amelia’
- Bottle Tree Productions
- Review
On the day of her mother’s wake, Amelia finds herself at a loss for what to wear. It doesn’t help that her dead mum keeps appearing in her childhood bedroom, all smiles and chatter. Written by Chloe Whitehorn and directed by Will Britton, Dressing Amelia unpacks mother-daughter baggage through quippy digs, impassioned speeches, and the ever-tantalizing promise that dirty laundry will be aired. A little bit soap opera, a little […]
![Poster for 'Menopause the Musical 2'. The title, presenting companies, location, and date are noted.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/MTM_KIN_1080x1920_72DPI.jpeg)
A Flashy Homage to Our Hormones: ‘Menopause The Musical 2’
- MODO-LIVE
- Review
The night Menopause The Musical 2: Cruising Through ‘The Change’ came to Kingston, my mother was in town, so naturally I invited her along as a guest expert. She’d seen the original Menopause The Musical on tour several years ago and hadn’t enjoyed it much, offering such sizzling critiques as “I think there’s a certain type of ‘hilarious’ humour that I don’t like,” and “I hate the Beach Boys.” Ever […]
![Poster for 'Arsenic and Old Lace'. Company, title, playwright, director, date, time, location are listed.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Lace-Cropped.jpeg)
The Most Hospitable Murderers You’ll Ever Meet: ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’
- Not So Amateur Amateurs
- Review
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 […]
![Photo of two performers onstage. One is dressed in all black and the other wears a black and white striped shirt and is chained to a wall.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_1915-rotated.jpeg)
Keeping it Kooky with ‘The Addams Family’
- Queen's Musical Theatre
- Queen's University
- Review
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 […]
![There is a red square with a white hole in the middle. In the hole there is a joker holding two slices of pizza.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design3.jpg)
Domino Theatre to Rebrand as Domino’s Pizza Theatre
- Domino Theatre
- Review
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 […]
![Photo of Evalyn Parry. She stands in front of a graffiti covered wall and wears a denim shirt and green coat.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Evalyn-Parry.-photo-credit-Suzanne-Robertson-1.jpg)
Pulling Apart the Scaffolding: Evalyn Parry on ‘Paradise Lost’
- Artist
- Interview
- Queen's University
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, […]
![Cover of 'Play: Dramaturgies of Participation'. It is blue with black and white drawings scattered throughout. The authors, illustrator, and title are noted.](https://kingstontheatre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/download.jpeg)
Getting Real with ‘Play: Dramaturgies of Participation’
- Interview
- Queen's University
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, […]