Ottawa’s GCTC reveals 50th anniversary season
iPhoto caption: Posters by Jesús Rivera Zavala
The Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC) has revealed its 50th anniversary season, featuring joyful comedy, big ideas, and a local world premiere.
“Our 2024-25 Season is a celebration of how far GCTC has come in the last 50 years, and a chance to look to the future,” said artistic director Sarah Kitz in a press release.
“The season offers a range of productions – from a classic Canadian comedy, to the high-wire act of an improvised musical, to a coming-of-age story: all brought to life by talented local and regional artists. We couldn’t be happier to share this season of performance with you.”
In a new subscription offer, fans of the theatre are invited to become a GCTC ambassador. This five-play subscription includes a ticket to each of the mainstage shows, as well as to the FemmeVox music series. It also includes discounted tickets to any of the other exciting events at GCTC, plus a guest ticket to a show of the ambassador’s choosing (other than FLOP!).
Further information about the coming season, including the season’s artwork by Jesús Rivera Zavala, is available on GCTC’s website.
The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine
Written by Robert Morgan, Martha Ross, and Leah Cherniak
Directed by Geoff McBride
Starring Maryse Fernandes and Drew Moore
September 24 – October 6, 2024
Ernest and Ernestine are in puppy love. Then they move into a tiny basement apartment together. Can their love sustain cohabitation? A hometown team of Ottawa’s finest take on this Canadian comedy classic.
Beowulf in Afghanistan
Written by Laurie Fyffe
Directed by Kate Smith
World premiere
November 12-24, 2024
A Canadian soldier harnesses the medieval Anglo-Saxon text of Beowulf as a life raft through the clash of battle, and after. Supported by GCTC’s Tributary Project.
FLOP! An Improvised Musical Fiasco
Created by Ron Pederson and Alan Kliffer
Directed by Alan Kliffer
Starring Rob Baker, Jan Caruana, and Ron Pederson
A Klif Entertainment production
December 10-22, 2024
The playwright quit, there’s no sheet music, the choreographer was cancelled, and the director went into rehab. World-class performers scramble to create a miraculous new musical in this high-wire act of skill, comedy, and desperation.
Why It’s Impossible to Raise a Girl
Co-created by Sophia Fabiilli, Sarah Kitz, and Zoë Sweet
Written by Sophia Fabiilli
Directed by Evalyn Parry
Starring Zoë Sweet
A SweetnFab Collective production
January 21 – February 2, 2025
Beth is struggling to stay afloat as a single parent, a working professional, and the 45-year-old resident of her mother’s basement. A show about the complex relationship between mother and child, life’s transitions, and parenting in precarious times.
Vierge
Written by Rachel Mutombo
Directed by Dian Marie Bridge
A co-production with Black Theatre Workshop
March 18-30, 2025
Sixteen-year-old Divine’s only real friend is Jesus. When her family joins a new church she learns that the world around her is not as it seems. With heart and humour, Vierge follows four Congolese-Canadian girls as they navigate Christianity, virginity, and teenage hormones.
iPhoto caption: (L to R) Kelsey Verzotti, Kennedy Kanagawa, and Ma-Anne Dionisio. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
Theatre Calgary announces casting for world premiere musical The Tale of the Gifted Prince
Starring as Prince Ren is Kennedy Kanagawa, known for his recent Broadway appearance in Into the Woods. Joining him is Ma-Anne Dionisio as the Woman, and Kelvin Moon Loh as the King and Magistrate.
iPhoto caption: Headshot by Andy Moro.
Tara Beagan wins 2025 Governor General’s Award for drama
Published by Playwrights Canada Press, her multilingual play Rise, Red River connects environmental devastation with the intergenerational impacts of colonial violence.
Announcing the ON Criticism: 2025/26 Theatre Critics Lab cohort
Caelan Beard (Brampton), Alexandrea Marsh (London), Phillip Dwight Morgan (Toronto), Izzy Siebert (London), Joe Szekeres (Oshawa), and Hunter Weaymouth (Hamilton) will work with Intermission senior editor Liam Donovan and editorial director Karen Fricker in this six-month-long training and professional development program.
iPhoto caption: A headshot of Jonathan Church. Photo courtesy of The Stratford Festival.
Stratford names Jonathan Church as its new artistic director
“The Festival is fortunate to have attracted such a celebrated and accomplished artistic leader,” wrote Stratford executive director Anita Gaffney in a press release.
iPhoto caption: Liz Der, Vivien Endicott-Douglas, Philippa Domville, and Sofia Rodriguez. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Chelsea Woolley world premiere to kick off 2025-26 Nightwood season
A highly physical and unexpectedly comedic work, Enormity, Girl, and the Earthquake in Her Lungs explores refuge, resilience, and survival. At its centre is Vic, a young woman who finds herself in a shelter under extraordinary circumstances.
iPhoto caption: A stock image of Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Port Dover.
Lighthouse Festival reveals 2026 summer lineup
“Our 2026 season is bursting with stories we can’t wait to share with you,” wrote artistic director Jane Spence in a press release.
iPhoto caption: Lauren Gillis and Alaine Hutton in 'Public Consumption.' Photo by Eden Graham.
REVIEW: Lester Trips’ stylish Public Consumption captures the internet’s profound emptiness
Rather than directly representing online life, Public Consumption speculates — with virtuosity — about how the digital world affects our bodies. And the show's findings are by no means comfortable.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Elana Emer.
REVIEW: Icarus Theatre’s DNA paints a disturbing mural of teenage rebellion
While director Erik Richards’ tendency toward snappy, thriller-esque pacing doesn’t suit all of DNA’s more intimate moments, it adds electricity to the drama’s group scenes, bringing playwright Dennis Kelly’s reflections on groupthink and collective grief into clear view.
iPhoto caption: Olivier Normand in 'The Far Side of the Moon.' Photo by Li Wang.
REVIEW: Lepage’s ethereal The Far Side of the Moon is insomniac theatre
The Far Side of the Moon begins and ends with a large mirror on stage, and the show extracts enigmatic power from the tantalizing question of whether its protagonist is losing himself in his reflection, or moving toward self-discovery.
iPhoto caption: 'Kokuho' still courtesy of TIFF.
REVIEW: During this year’s TIFF, two films depicted theatre as a vessel for transcendence
Of the several performing arts-adjacent selections I took in, most affecting were two dramas: Lee Sang-il’s Kokuho and Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. In both period pieces, theatre creation serves as an emotional outlet for an artist navigating devastating loss.
iPhoto caption: Cyrus Lane and Kirstyn Russelle in Barrie run of 'Blackbird.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Talk is Free Theatre’s Blackbird offers a close-up look at two detailed performances
Emerging director Dean Deffett has concocted a tight, straightforward production, primarily of interest as an intimate character study.
iPhoto caption: Sleman Aldib and an audience member in 'The Opposite.' Still from a trailer by Spectrum Associates.
REVIEW: Kitchener’s biennial IMPACT Festival crackled with urgency
Most of the six works I viewed tackled urgent topics, from the convoluted Canadian immigration system to the Palestinian experience of displacement: explorations that line up with artistic director Pam Patel’s curatorial statement, which discusses how IMPACT ‘25 “unpacks what it means to survive, to resist, and to seek refuge” through a global, Indigenous-focused lens.
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