Festival — Kingston Theatre Alliance

In the first few months of the pandemic, virtual activities were beyond popular. From Zoom drinks to Club Quarantine to the rise of TikTok, people around the globe were craving a sense of togetherness that the pandemic was devoid of. Cabin Fever PROTOTYPE seeks to address this phenomenon: can virtual events create a sense of togetherness and unity?

like a surprising combination to some. On May 27, the Watershed Festival presented award-winning composer and DAN School of Drama and Music’s artist-in-residence Leslie Arden’s latest commission The Lancashire Lass, a full-length musical that will receive its premiere at next year’s festival. 

The Watershed Festival continues to explore how and who exactly are the artists examining and developing music theatre as we know it. The New Works Showcase featured a series of upcoming projects at various stages of development from artists across the country, followed by a live Q & A with the creators. 

In a time of creative and collective upheaval, the inaugural Watershed Festival examines the integration of music, drama, dance, and design as musical theatre or opera, exploring those boundaries in order to revitalize the ways those artforms are practiced and understood.

Digital Debris Fest 2, a digital showcase of their year’s work. The digital event featured 15 different artistic iterations that seamlessly incorporated music, digital media, videography, calligraphy, revealing the true interdisciplinary talents of the students. 

semester showcase illustrating what exactly the students are interested and capable of creating. The works we witness have been made by artists who are unseen outside of their work.

rom November 1st to November 7th, I had the privilege of attending the Shortwave Theatre Festival, a festival of radio dramas presented by CFRC. While the festival featured six different radio plays, I had the opportunity to listen to and review three.

In her new radio play The Soundcastle, Sarah Emtage explores what happens if a tree falls in a forest and somewhere, rather than someone, is around to hear it.

This is how playwright and storyteller Ned Dickens describes why a bunch of strangers are collected together on a conference call. From Kingston’s Breakwater Park to my stepdad’s deck in Toronto to the bedrooms of a youth theatre group in India, Luke and the Big Circles is a cycle of four stories in verse and over the phone.

immersive and inter-disciplinary theatre company Outside the March returns to the Kick and Push Festival for their fourth year with The Itinerary: Playtest. Broadcasted through Zoom and enacted through your phone, the performance is literally in the hands of the audience. Players select from a series of actions to be carried out by performers Amaka Umeh and Sébastien Heins, taking us through the death, life, then death again of the one and only: Elaine.

Given the chance to create utopia, what would it look like? Would it be possible? And would we even want to? Fusing strategic gameplay with a theatrical narrative, the Vancouver/Toronto-based company Re:Current Theatre has created an experience that is as immersive as it is interactive.

The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy welcomes you into the room with a few carnival games—one in particular, ‘fast and loose,’ asks audience members to make bets on a piece of rope. Pick a side, any side, and if the knot tightens around your finger, you win. If you’re not caught, you lose. This sets the tone straight away for the show about to be played: either you’re caught, or you […]