Queen’s University Archive

Poster for 'Total Eclipse of the Arts'. Animation of the moon partially covering the sun with a QR code in the middle.

‘Solar Eclipse of the Arts’: Merging Science and Theatre

  • Interview
  • Queen's University

The prompt: write a play about solar eclipses.  The students of Queen’s University (QU)’s DRAM 251 class were tasked with this in their 2023 fall semester. 24 plays were written as a result and seven have gone on to be dramaturged by the students of QU’s DRAM 339 class this 2024 winter semester. But the collaboration doesn’t end here. The seven plays will have staged readings tomorrow, March 25th, 2024 as […]

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Two gold wings. Between them is a gold apple.

Traversing through Heaven and Hell: ‘Paradise Lost’

  • Queen's University
  • Review

“The biggest mistake any of us could make would be to underestimate Satan.” –Paradise Lost Paradise Lost is an interesting and unique retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, and the first battle between good and evil. By Playwright Erin Shields and directed by Evalyn Parry, the play is loosely based on John Milton’s poem of the same name. Paradise Lost flips everything we were taught about the story […]

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Photo of Evalyn Parry. She stands in front of a graffiti covered wall and wears a denim shirt and green coat.

Pulling Apart the Scaffolding: Evalyn Parry on ‘Paradise Lost’

  • Interview
  • Queen's University

You know how the story goes: boy meets girl, girl meets Satan, Satan tempts girl, girl eats fruit, boy eats fruit, humankind becomes doomed, and for some reason it’s all girl’s fault. Or something like that. Adam and Eve’s fall from innocence has been told and retold across millennia. Perhaps the best-known English-language version (and certainly the one most often assigned to university students) is John Milton’s 1667 epic poem, […]

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Cover of 'Play: Dramaturgies of Participation'. It is blue with black and white drawings scattered throughout. The authors, illustrator, and title are noted.

Getting Real with ‘Play: Dramaturgies of Participation’

  • Interview
  • Queen's University

What comes to mind when you think of audience participation? No, for real, tell me.  Don’t want to? Okay, I’ll go first. When I think of participation, the little sing-song voice in my head starts humming Al Simmons’ “Don’t Make Me Sing Along”. This tune was rattling around in my mind when I met with theatre scholars Dr. Jenn Stephenson and Mariah (Mo) Horner to talk about their research project, […]

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Poster for Queen's Musical Theatre's production of 'The Prom'. The title, dates, and ticket information are in the poster with a red background and a disco ball.

Unruly Hearts Change Minds in ‘The Prom’

  • Queen's University
  • Review

If nobody has asked you to The Prom yet, take this as a sign to find a date. Mixing teen movie aesthetics, Broadway sensibilities, and contemporary social values, Queen’s Musical Theatre presents a high-energy production in the Rotunda Theatre this winter.  Directed by Noah Solomon, The Prom’s spotlight falls on Emma Nolan (Nicole Martin), a teenager in Edgewater, Indiana. Emma has been banned from bringing her girlfriend to the high […]

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Reviews of TK THEO Fringe posted on a wall. Each review is on a white cue card.

A Dead Tree and an Existential Lamp: Day Two of TK Theo Fringe

  • Fringe
  • Queen's University
  • Review

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 […]

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Reviews for TK THEO Fringe Festival are posted on a blackboard that is on a red wall.

Bathroom Stalls and Blanket Forts: Day One of TK Theo Fringe

  • Queen's University
  • Review

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 […]

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Performers on a stage singing into microphones. The costuming involves flapper dresses, corsets, and some people wearing boxer shorts.

Lavish Looks and Lots of Laughs: ‘Last Night at the Cabaret Solitaire’

  • Queen's University
  • Review

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 […]

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A person in a red cloak and golden hair tie speaks to a person in a black shirt with a moon and stars on it.

Don’t Sleep on Queens Theatre Troupe’s ‘Life Is A Dream’

  • Queen's University
  • Queens Theatre Troupe
  • Review

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 […]

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The cast of Queen's Musical Theatre 'Funny Girl' posing against a large window.

“Hello, gorgeous”: the Fabulous ‘Funny Girl’

  • Queen's University
  • Review

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. […]

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Seven performers dressed as skeletons on a dimly lit stage. It is the cast of Everybody produced by DAN School of Drama and Music.

‘Everybody’ is Flippant and Fatally Funny

  • Queen's University
  • Review

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 […]

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Sweetheart: From a Student, Spectator, and (Former) Stage Manager

  • Queen's University
  • Review

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 […]

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