News & Reviews — Kingston Theatre Alliance

Good Things To Do is an immersive virtual experience “blending dreamy sonic landscape, solitary physical environment and an unexpected use of technology” in order to explore the softness within ourselves the world demands we abandon. From its initial workshop implementing digital design into the live installation at foldA in 2018 to its adaptation for COVID-19 today, Good Things To Do’s full embrace of a computerized form is the very thing that potentiates the theatricality of dream logic.

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.

In a moment where Zoom meetings, doom-scrolling, and our digital worlds seem repetitive as ever, Single Thread Theatre Company’s production of Collider presents a profoundly innovative way to bring digital theatre to Canadian audiences.

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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. 

Turn on any device, log onto any platform, and you will immediately feel how saturated digital content has become. It’s near impossible to escape the overwhelming monotony of endless scrolling, nostalgia culture, and algorithms predicting your tastes before you even develop them.

For arts professionals in Kingston, a silver lining might be slowly beginning to appear. On January 28, 2021, Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson passed a motion that allocated an additional $200,000 towards artists and arts non-profits in Kingston, directly related to the impact that COVID-19 has brought forth on Kingston’s arts sector.

On March 3rd, the Dan Studio Series produced its winter installment, DSS: Jigsaw. There were clear aspects that DSS was able to innovate and progress upon based on the ubiquitous learning curve that creatives faced while adapting to a virtual environment last semester. 

towards cultures outside our own. Live-streamed from Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille, the production was digitally co-presented by the Grand Onstage.  Resembling more of a cabaret than a theatrical play, the performance shifts between musical numbers and anecdotes from the two performers.