Festival — Kingston Theatre Alliance

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.

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 […]

Kingston’s annual Festival of Live Digital Arts (FOLDA) is once again on the horizon (and no, that is not a pun directed at HORIZON 360°—a film in this year’s lineup). As a hectic week is underway for the team and busy schedules abound in summer months, I conducted an eight-question email interview with Co-Curator Michael Wheeler about an intensive run alongside FOLDA in partnership with Ingenuity Labs: The StartUp. This […]

On Tuesday, August 15th I was invited to see the first viewing of the Cedar Island Residency performance taking place the following day. I was not told much about the performance, giving me a feeling of nervous excitement. This is the first performance I have ever attended where I did not have much information about it beforehand. The only thing I was told was to meet at the Kingston Marina […]

Feeling curious about seeing a mime roam the ins and outs of a giant translucent bubble? See La Bulle in Kingston this weekend.  La Bulle is a mime show produced by CORPUS Dance Projects and is being presented at the Kick & Push Festival by the Kingston Theatre Alliance and Le Centre Culturel Frontenac.  The show follows a lonely mime, Pierrot (David Danzon / Guy Marsan; the performer at the […]

A deliciously funny show. A Perfect Bowl of Pho is a meta-musical created and written by Nam Nguyen, music composed by Wilfred Moeschter, and directed by Steven Hao. The story is centered around a procrastinating University of Toronto student, Nam, performed by Chris Vergara. The story follows Nam as he struggles to write a musical about… I think you guessed it… Pho.  A meta-musical is a play within a play. […]

An experience I don’t think I will ever forget. One Night Only is a one man show written, produced, and performed by Nicholas Eddie, directed by Sepehr Reybod, and assistant producer is Adrian Chevalier. An audience follows Eddie throughout the night as he is faced with a challenge which can only be completed in the following morning.  This review has mentions of suicide. This show felt like an experience rather […]

Krapp’s Last Tape is a one man show written by the legendary playwright Samuel Beckett and is being performed by Jim Garrard at the Baby Grand Theatre in Kingston. It’s a story about isolation, regret, and accepting one’s fate. Audiences follow Krapp, a 69 year old man as he listens to an audio recording of his 39 year old self.  Krapp is an elderly man who appears to be on […]

A peculiar parlour game, a sauce salesman, a ghost ship, and a little girl behind a door. In Creeping Murmur; Poring Dark, John D. Huston transforms an unassuming hotel conference room into a site of spectral thrills. Though breakfast had barely settled in my stomach by the time I took my seat, I was immediately transported to a late-night world of chilling tales by Huston’s wry, lively storytelling.  Huston presents […]

Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong? Like you couldn’t find “your people”? Are You Catching What I’m Throwing is a one man Circus Theatre Show performed by William Alex Larson. The show follows a man as he discovers his passion for juggling. An audience follows him through the highs and lows of this passion and in the bigger picture, the highs and lows of being accepted by society. […]

No, it’s not a typo—The Fronge Festival is a festival within a festival at TK Fringe, and it’s one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in Kingston this year.  The concept is simple and absurd: at each performance, the audience is offered a list of Fringe shows from another Canadian city and gets to decide which ones the Fronge’s troupe of improvisers will ad lib. Director Kyle Warne performs alongside […]

Intimate and uplifting, The ADHD Project will captivate an audience as Comedian/Storyteller Carlyn Rhamey explores the ups and downs of living her life with ADHD. Through compelling storytelling, she recounts the moment she received her diagnosis, her challenges with bullying, and finally her acceptance of her newly embraced “superpower”.  Before the show starts, instead of waiting offstage, Rhamey talks to the audience. She cracks jokes and welcomes the audience. I began seeing […]