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iPhoto caption: Photos of Eric Woolfe (by Dahlia Katz), Catherine Savoie, Evan Klassen (by Jerry Grajewski), and Heather Redfern.
"Arts centres are going to have to apply to a new housing and infrastructure ministry program, which hasn’t been created yet, in order to access funds," says Heather Redfern, executive director of the Cultch in Vancouver. "So I’m very concerned that federal [funding] for cultural infrastructure in this country has completely disappeared."
iPhoto caption: Maria Paula Carreño-Martínez in 'Kill Your Father.' Photo by Galactticaaa.
Q&A: How Expandido Arts Collective is reimagining the Medea myth
Originally written in Portuguese as Mata Teu Pai, Passô’s play reimagines the myth of Medea through a contemporary feminist lens.
iPhoto caption: Photos of Eric Woolfe (by Dahlia Katz), Catherine Savoie, Evan Klassen (by Jerry Grajewski), and Heather Redfern.
"Arts centres are going to have to apply to a new housing and infrastructure ministry program, which hasn’t been created yet, in order to access funds," says Heather Redfern, executive director of the Cultch in Vancouver. "So I’m very concerned that federal [funding] for cultural infrastructure in this country has completely disappeared."
iPhoto caption: Maria Paula Carreño-Martínez in 'Kill Your Father.' Photo by Galactticaaa.
Q&A: How Expandido Arts Collective is reimagining the Medea myth
Originally written in Portuguese as Mata Teu Pai, Passô’s play reimagines the myth of Medea through a contemporary feminist lens.
iPhoto caption: 'Une Traversée' puppet design by Natacha Belova et Tita Iacobelli. Photo by Pierre-Yves Jortay.
REVIEW: Montreal in March? Bring on the puppets.
The 21st annual Festival International de Casteliers featured an energizing series of Quebecois and European productions that took the medium of puppetry in surprising directions.
iPhoto caption: William Ellis and members of the company of 'The Herald. Photo by Albert Hoang.
REVIEW: Jill Connell’s The Herald has a lot to say about potential
There’s so much to love about this smart, strange, and achingly lyrical exploration of labour and purpose. Dramaturgical intentionality falters, however, in the details.
Reviews
iPhoto caption: 'Une Traversée' puppet design by Natacha Belova et Tita Iacobelli. Photo by Pierre-Yves Jortay.
REVIEW: Montreal in March? Bring on the puppets.
The 21st annual Festival International de Casteliers featured an energizing series of Quebecois and European productions that took the medium of puppetry in surprising directions.
iPhoto caption: William Ellis and members of the company of 'The Herald. Photo by Albert Hoang.
REVIEW: Jill Connell’s The Herald has a lot to say about potential
There’s so much to love about this smart, strange, and achingly lyrical exploration of labour and purpose. Dramaturgical intentionality falters, however, in the details.
iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Shucked.' Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.
REVIEW: Mirvish’s Shucked plants row after row of corny jokes
Shucked sits somewhere between a cartoon for adults and a wholesome farm musical.
iPhoto caption: Antonette Rudder and Sarena Parmar in 'The Surrogate.' Photo by Kendra Epik.
REVIEW: The Surrogate cross-examines privilege and parenthood at Crow’s Theatre
If the play sometimes reaches for one issue too many — religion, interracial relationships, infertility — it also underscores how interconnected these issues can be.
iPhoto caption: Marionette design by Ronnie Burkett. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Ronnie Burkett’s Little Willy is a love letter to theatre
Ronnie Burkett and William Shakespeare agree on at least one fundamental truth: there’s no such thing as a bad dick joke.
iPhoto caption: Jeremy Lewis and Violette Kay in 'Whalefall.' Photo by Maxime Côté.
REVIEW: In Montreal, Whalefall explores humanity’s fraught relationship to whales
The show feels like an act of grieving, set on a stage and shared with an audience. Rather than trying to assuage our sadness — or our guilt — Infinithéâtre’s Whalefall lets us sit with our emotions.
Spotlight
iPhoto caption: Nora McLellan for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz. Styled by Sonia Lewis and Dahlia Katz. Hair by Anne May. Makeup by Katelyn O'Neil.
“It’s still always that same technicolour feeling for me," says McLellan. "That little girl and this much older person are pretty much the same. I really do all of my living on stage.”
iPhoto caption: Ma-Anne Dionisio for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
“Art has a very significant healing aspect to it,” says Ma-Anne Dionisio. “The performance aspect, for me, always comes secondary.”
iPhoto caption: Photo by V. Tony Hauser.
“If theatre’s done well, it’s an event. And for the audience it’s very mobilizing,” says Lepage. “Whatever the subject matter is, the people go and they’re stimulated, interested, and they feel intelligent... The most beautiful spectacle is always the spectacle of intelligence.”
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Artist Perspectives
iPhoto caption: Photo of Jordan Laffrenier by Sandro Pehar.
Preparing to direct Slave Play: A travel guide to Richmond, Virginia
Since reading Slave Play, I’ve asked every romantic partner whether or not they experience a racial dynamic between us in the bedroom. No one has given the same answer. What is it that I am asking them to acknowledge in these scenarios? Who is it that I am asking them to hold? What does it mean to hold someone’s history?
iPhoto caption: 'Delirious Night' at the Festival d'Avignon. Photo by Christophe Raynaud de Lage.
At the 2025 Festival d’Avignon, politics were never far off
I’d performed and directed for festivals in Canada and elsewhere, but it wasn’t at all the same as being on the bum-in-seat side. There I was, in Avignon, rubbing shoulders with the umpteen visitors hungry for a good show. I came away feeling that here, theatre mattered. A lot. In the stony fields of Toronto, that can be easy to forget.
iPhoto caption: Set design by Camellia Koo,
Costume design by Judith Bowden,
Lighting design by Leigh Ann Vardy,
and photo by Dahlia Katz. Features Samantha Hill and Amaka Umeh.
A story with no expiry date: Adapting Fall On Your Knees
At this critical political juncture, as so many forces in the world try to mute and silence women, our Canadian stories merit our advocacy and fervent attention.
Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine
When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.
iPhoto caption: Production still from The Nutcracker courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada.
Why should you go to the ballet?
My childhood memories of learning to dance were front and centre for me when I attended opening night of The Nutcracker, performed by the National Ballet of Canada at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Grace Mysak.
Want to see a magic show about race? Wait, what?
You’d be forgiven for the double-take. It’s a fairly common reaction when I tell folks about my work as a magician.