Kick & Push Festival — Kingston Theatre Alliance

When I first arrived in Kingston in 2021, there was a severe lack of Shakespeare in the city, but over the past few years it has been refreshing to see numerous community and student groups bring some of his plays to life. The Domino Theatre with As You Like It, Two Rabbits One Hat with Macbeth, and Blue Canoe with Twelfth Night, to name a few. It is evident that […]

After first visiting Kingston on a grade five field trip, vocalist and 2025 JUNO nominee Andrea Superstein is returning, this time as a performer. She’s eager to be a part of a thriving theatre scene infused with energy and magic that happens over just ten days. As a part of the TK Fringe Festival, Superstein will perform Oh Mother F#@%*!, a show that explores the vulnerable highs and lows of […]

If there’s one thing to learn from attending theatre events, it is that live theatre is unpredictable and that’s just part of its charm. The Kick & Push Festival kicked off its 11th year with a launch event at the amphitheater by Springer Market Square. Fittingly, the opening event reflected both the spirit and the name of the festival. (A quick history lesson: “Kick and Push” comes from a nickname […]

There is something beautiful and a little magical about a family that creates together. The Socrates Sisters, Stephanie Rehm and Eleanor Daly, are writers, producers, and musical composers of a new play Detention, which will be premiering at the TK Fringe Festival this summer. For the longtime educators and first-time playwrights, the journey to this year’s Fringe Festival has been a full-on family affair. “We’re not a big troupe—it’s me, […]

For those who have watched Back to the Future and thought, “I wish I could visit the past!” this is the show for you. Start by finding the entrance to the K&P Trail near Hagerman Avenue where you’ll be surrounded by the buzzing of cicadas and live fiddle tunes played by Jan Leclair on the accordion and Karma Tomm on the violin. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you see an […]

This might not be the first time on stage for Yuriv Popov and Yana Menov—the founder and creative director of Studio Reflection, respectively—but it is their first time performing a piece that is 100% theirs. After translating playwright Igor Yakimov’s The Turing Test from Russian to English, the two get to be their own directors, actors, and designers. With over 50 custom-made video clips, sound clips, and even perfectly timed […]

Alina Siwy and Heiden Jacobi have the kind of creative chemistry that makes collaboration feel effortless. Siwy is currently studying Film at Queen’s with a specialization in Media and Performance Production at the Dan School of Drama and Music. She is also a writer and her newest project, Love? and Other Letters, explores the emotional complexities of loving someone else.  Jacobi is a drama major, actor, photographer, lighting designer, and […]

During my undergrad I took a Fringe theatre course in which one of our weekly topics was simply titled “jem rolls.” There is a good chance that anyone who frequents Fringe festivals will have met him, or at the very least have heard his name. This physical and poetic storyteller has travelled, as he puts it, “from concrete islands to concrete islands across this sea of green,” and landed in […]

In the uniquely Canadian wagon train that is the Canadian Fringe Festival, jem rolls is kicking off his tour in what might just be his favourite city on Earth: sunny, green Montréal. This one-of-a-kind high-energy English performance poet’s career began at the age of 31, when he semi-accidentally stumbled on stage at a ‘terrible’ open mic in North London and never stopped. Feeling liberated by the possibilities of spoken word […]

The tenth day of the tenth month. What better time to read about the Kick & Push Festival’s tenth season?  Although summer may be long over by now, the KTA has just finished wrapping up the necessary paperwork that must come with the annual Kick & Push Festival. As my colleague and Artistic Producer of the Kick & Push Liam Karry recently closed the books on this year’s busy run, […]

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 […]

Hysterical Historical Improv delivers on its promise of making history hysterical. From local group Improv Kingston, local history comes to life in a way you haven’t seen before. Dan Walmsley directs, writes, and performs, with the help of additional performers Jon Britton and Henry Korba-Babcock (as well as occasional promised special guests, although none appeared in the performance I attended).  The premise of this “historical improv” is that Walmsley has […]