Queen’s University — Kingston Theatre Alliance

After brushing off the sawdust and rinsing milkshake residue out of their hair, students from the DAN School of Drama and Music returned to Theological Hall for a second night of TK Theo Fringe—a showcase of short, fringe-style solo performances presented at Theological Hall in partnership with Theatre Kingston. Following an intense evening of site-specific theatre on Wednesday, I returned, too, and experienced what the second (and last) day of […]

I spent last evening exploring Theological Hall and finding theatre in unexpected places. In partnership with Theatre Kingston, Queen’s students in DRAM 339 present the inaugural TK Theo Fringe, a showcase of short solo works that celebrate the style and format of fringe theatre.  Over the course of the two-day mini fringe festival, I’ll be catching as many shows as I can and writing about them in the little pockets […]

About last night…  The Last Night at the Cabaret Solitaire is a musical comedy revue directed by Grahame Renyk. As the DAN School of Drama and Music’s Fall 2023 Drama Major, this high-energy production is a collaboration between over a hundred Queen’s students—30 in the cast and band, and many more behind the scenes.  A show tailored to its ensemble, The Last Night at the Cabaret Solitaire fits these multi-talented […]

Segismund (Trevor Procyk) has spent his entire life imprisoned in a cell by his father, King Basilius (Emma Smyth). Now, Basilius has decided to let him live in the palace as a prince—but if anything goes wrong, Segismund will be sent back to his cell and told that it was all a dream. Trippy, right?  Life Is A Dream (Spanish: La vida es sueño) is a play from the Spanish […]

I have a terrible secret: until Friday night, I had never seen Funny Girl. Not the show, not the movie. I’d never even borrowed the CD from the library, which I did with every other cast album I could get my hands on as a show tune-saturated tween. I have a foggy middle school recollection of hearing Lea Michele sing “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in Glee, but that’s it. […]

An immersive student production transforms the Isabel Bader Centre’s studio theatre into a site of divine reckoning. Branden Jacob-Jenkins’ Everybody is a contemporary adaptation of the 15th-century morality play Everyman. A popular genre in medieval and early Tudor theatre, morality plays typically feature personifications of abstract concepts alongside angels, demons, and an ordinary human protagonist. In Everyman, one man—representing all of humanity—goes on an allegorical journey through the afterlife, addressing […]

I’ll admit, various lines of conflict come into play as I type these words. Not only was I the rehearsal stage manager, but I am a student who is currently attempting to pass public judgement on a show that her professors developed. In juggling how to approach this post, one thing is certain: everything I am going to say has been guided by the knowledge that my professors have passed […]

Prior to logging onto Zoom to watch a live performance of DAN Studio Series: Odyssey, I considered how the DAN School of Drama and Music student festival played a part in my undergraduate experience. In addition to developing friends and connections throughout my years at Queen’s University, these experiences saw the honing of skills in acting, writing, and collaborating. Created and produced entirely by undergraduate students, the DAN Studio Series […]

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.

When we imagine opera, we think of majestic, luxurious theatres revolving around an artistic tradition that has spanned since the 16th Century. Rarely would we imagine opera to present itself as five-minute iterations presented digitally.  Yet, on March 16th, the Musical Theatre Ensemble at Queen’s University, a course facilitated through the Dan School of Drama and Music, digitally presented Aitch Arr, a mini-opera created by Afarin Mansouri and Donna-Michelle St. […]