Interview — Kingston Theatre Alliance

A new Kingston theatre company is taking on an old classic. To be exact, Two Rabbits One Hat is bringing Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Union Gallery. Playing the notorious title character is Jake Henderson, an actor, researcher, and fourth-year student at Queen’s University. Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Henderson to speak all about the illustrious Macbeth.  This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  Getting […]

“You have to start with a crazy idea. You have to dream really, really big, and then you think about, oh, do I have the budget to do it? Do I have the time to do it? But still, you have to dream big. You have to be ambitious, and then you will actually put your effort into making those things happen, even if you don’t have the money, even if you don’t have the time—the end result will be so much better than if you just want to play it safe.”

Nic Lindegger is ready to leave the nest.
After working as Evalyn Parry’s assistant director on two shows in 2024—first Erin Shields’ Paradise Lost for the DAN School Drama Major, then the independent debut of Sophia Fabiilli’s Why It’s imPossible—Lindegger is spreading their wings as a solo director. When we spoke in December, they had just signed on to direct Victoria Marmulak’s new comedy, Robin and Magpie, which plays this weekend at Theological Hall.

How well do you know your loved ones? In Sharing Is Caring, a group of close friends finds themselves opening up in unexpected ways over the course of a night spent in an old, abandoned church. Written and produced by Grace Delamere, Sharing Is Caring is the fourth new work to be presented by Of The Sea Productions, an independent theatre production company founded in 2023.

In the middle of a prolific career as a dancer and Dora-nominated actor, Cassel Miles found himself losing his passion for performance. After a period of depression, which turned into a ten-year hiatus from professional theatre, he moved from Toronto to the Kingston area—where community connections and a long-awaited project rekindled his passion and brought him back to the stage. 

Student-run theatre strikes again! This January, Queen’s Musical Theatre (QMT) is bringing the renowned Sunday in the Park with George—music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by James Lapine—to Kingston. With over 100 folks involved, the organization has been working for many months on bringing this partially immersive (more on that later) musical to the stage. Director Rachel Rusonik was kind enough to sit down with me during the ever-busy […]

To call Nathan Zhe the co-producer and director of Yu Theatre Society’s Snow in Midsummer: The Silence feels like an oversimplification of his role. After all, he’s also the show’s technical director, sound designer, and live sound programmer, as well as one of two student playwrights who adapted the 12th-century Chinese script to create a non-verbal performance using shadows and movement. 

This December, The Spire is welcoming multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, and multi-Joan. Living Edge Collective is bringing to the stage a workshop presentation of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan. The company strives to engage artists in ecological collaboration, bringing beautiful intention into their work.  Living Edge situates Saint Joan “in this sanctuary of echo and sonic revelry, our production explores the idea of seven different Joans meeting to characterize the many architects […]

“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 […]

At PXR 2024, performance meets expansive realities across physical and digital spaces. Established in 2020, the PXR (Performance and XR) Conference is Canada’s first and only conference on XR (Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality) performance creation. PXR 2024, hosted by Single Thread Theatre Company, takes place in-person in Kingston, Toronto, and Vancouver, as well as virtually, from Friday, November 8th to Sunday, November 17th—local Kingston events are in partnership with […]

The classic saying is, “The show must go on!” Well, so must the review… sort of.  With our small team at the KTA, unfortunately when one of us is struck with sickness, there’s a bit of reworking to be done. This was the case last week, just as we were about to review Theatre Kingston’s production of Boy Beatle. However, we luckily managed to work out a short interview through […]

Become bewitched, bothered, and bewildered in the best way! Bee Dupuis, also known as BeeWitched, wears many hats including drag performer, event organizer, advocate, and chair of Kingston Pride. Recently I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with BeeWitched about performing drag, advocacy work, witchcraft, and the Halloween season.  This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  Dupuis’ drag persona, BeeWitched, is “the embodiment of all the beautiful, but […]