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Ilana Lucas
Ilana Lucas is a professor of English in Centennial College’s School of Advancement. She is the President of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association. She holds a BA in English and Theatre from Princeton University, an MFA in Dramaturgy and Script Development from Columbia University, and serves as Princeton’s Alumni Schools Committee Chair for Western Ontario. She has written for Brit+Co, Mooney on Theatre, and BroadwayWorld Toronto. Her most recent play, Let’s Talk, won the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival’s 24-Hour Playwriting Contest. She has a deep and abiding love of musical theatre, and considers her year working for the estate of Tony winners Phyllis Newman and Adolph Green one of her most treasured memories.
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iPhoto caption: Jane Spidell in 'Twelve Dinners.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Family tensions run high in TIFT’s intimate Twelve Dinners
In the now-closed Twelve Dinners, an autobiographical play written and directed by Steve Ross, audiences received intimate access to an unvarnished version of a younger Ross through 12 evening meals with his parents.
iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Narnia.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Bad Hats’ Narnia is a joyful, heartwarming escape
The spirit of openness and the joy of discovery rule over this Narnia. Open the wardrobe and see.
iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Robin Hood.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Canadian Stage’s Robin Hood panto is anti-capitalist fun for the whole family
Following Ross Petty’s legacy of scene-stealing, Damien Atkins as the evil Prince John is easily the greatest delight of the show.
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: Tony Ofori and Daren A. Herbert in 'Moonlight Schooner.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Kanika Ambrose’s Moonlight Schooner is animated and visually stunning, but its individual pieces don’t come together as neatly as I would've expected.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Fabian Hammerl.
In A a | a B : B E N D, choreographer Aszure Barton aims to rebuild dance from the inside out
“It’s so easy to over-intellectualize dance in general, but B E N D is about hearing and moving to cool-ass music together,” says Barton ahead of the show's run at the Bluma Appel Theatre.
iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Narnia.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Bad Hats’ Narnia is a joyful, heartwarming escape
The spirit of openness and the joy of discovery rule over this Narnia. Open the wardrobe and see.
iPhoto caption: Mazin Elsadig in 'The Comeuppance.' Photo by Dahlia Katz. Set design by Shannon Lea Doyle, costume design by Ming Wong, lighting design by Jason Hand.
Macabre and drama-filled yet surprisingly gentle, The Comeuppance will probably be most compelling to the around-40 crowd who share its specific touchstones and millennial angst from a high-school experience bookended by Columbine and 9/11.
iPhoto caption: Kaylee Harwood with members of the 'Bright Star' ensemble. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Garner Theatre Productions’ Bright Star coasts on charm and likability
Bright Star covers it all: thwarted love, coming of age, family drama, the power of art, the importance of remaining true to oneself. Yet co-writer Steve Martin’s wit, which blazes in plays like Picasso at the Lapin Agile, merely twinkles here.
iPhoto caption: The company of 'Ride the Cyclone.' Photo by Taylor Long.
REVIEW: Shifting Ground Collective delivers heartfelt, overloaded Ride the Cyclone
Director 郝邦宇 Steven Hao hits the carnival bullseye when it comes to heart and fun, but just misses the top prize by expanding the cast and reducing the original’s compelling creepiness.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Dave Malloy’s Octet vibrates with sublime vocal beauty at Crow’s Theatre
Malloy’s intricate a cappella compositions, rich with complex harmonies, are the hymns and confessionals in a show about a support group for internet addiction. Regardless of what form their ego-feeding or doomscrolling compulsions take, the characters know it’s actually about appeasing what they call “the monster” inside — that gaping maw of emptiness that begs for shiny treats in the absence of real connection.
iPhoto caption: The company of 'The Welkin.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: The Welkin careens from raucous comedy to crushing tragedy
The problem with human rights is that, if you believe in them, you have to apply them to everyone. Political opponents. Murderers. Your ex. People whose phones go off at the theatre. Women. The character of Sally puts this theory to a stress test; in bahia watson’s assured hands, she’s gleefully unlikeable, glorying in a storm of suspiciously modern swearing, lacking any flicker of conscience, and biting the hands that are trying to help her.
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