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Spotlight: Alanis King

The 40-year career of Alanis King began much the same way that so many careers in theatre do: in front of very small audiences. “The show must go on if you have the same amount of audience members as in the cast,” was King’s motto in the early days. But today, the multihyphenate Odawa artist has no difficulty finding people interested in her work.

REVIEW: Why Not Theatre’s Mahabharata is a glorious theatrical banquet

This extraordinary ensemble of artists has made something truly harmonious, truly epic: a story that speaks to a mythical past, honouring a range of South Asian artistic traditions while also drawing a direct line to where — and who — we are now.

After getting its wings in Dublin, The King of All Birds takes flight at Toronto’s inaugural Bealtaine Theatre Festival

“We are all coming from somewhere, and we all have ancestors, and we all have this profound connection with not just where we come from but who we come from,” says playwright-performer Martha Knight. “That’s really connected me to the piece and connected me with everybody I’ve worked with on this show.”

REVIEW: Guillermo Verdecchia’s Feast is a fascinating text, but Tarragon’s new production feels hazy

I found the play really resonant and rich and layered. It’s about globalization, privilege, travel, displacement, and inequity, and it brought up many associations and past experiences for me. But I don’t feel that Soheil Parsa’s production fully comes together.

Lighthouse Festival unveils casting for 2025 summer season

The Lighthouse Festival has announced casting details for its 2025 summer season. A mix of returning favourites and new faces will appear in five productions across its two venues in Port Dover and Port Colborne.

REVIEW: VideoCabaret’s Pochsy IV is bizarre, vicious, and hilarious

I can confidently say that you don’t have to have a 30-year-plus background with Karen Hines’ clown character Pochsy to quickly understand her mix of oddball conviction, sly wordplay, and bland narcissism.

Speaking in Draft: Ada Aguilar

“I'm really passionate about the role of stage management as social activism, and as a way to provide safety and support for a production and its people,” says Aguilar. “We put everything of ourselves into these productions, but we also have to be good to ourselves.”

For the creators of Why Not Theatre’s Mahabharata, nothing is more contemporary than an ancient epic

“I’ve been [telling] the company to embrace time as a collaborator,” says director Ravi Jain ahead of the show’s April run at Canadian Stage.

As the trade war rages on, CBC’s PlayME stays true to its mandate of platforming Canadian writers

“I think all five of these shows really help us plant a stake in saying who we are as Canadians,” says PlayME co-creator Chris Tolley.

Alan Cumming and Ari Shapiro promise to hold nothing back in thoughtful but naughty cabaret

“Cabaret is like a smorgasbord,” says Cumming ahead of the show's engagement at The Rose in Brampton. “You can turn on a sixpence. [It’s about] shocking you with the extremes of what might happen. I think we certainly live up to that.”

Speaking in Draft: Veronica Hortigüela and Annie Luján

“Toronto needs to take comedies more seriously,” says Luján. “Comedy is not making people laugh every few minutes. In my mind, if people aren’t peeing their pants, we didn’t work hard enough. I think we can raise the bar on how out-of-control laughing we can make an audience.”

Animal puppets lay bare the effects of climate catastrophe in Dimanche

How can theatre engage with a crisis as enormous as climate change? One answer: go miniature. That’s the approach Belgian theatre companies Chaliwaté and Focus take in their co-creation Dimanche, playing at Meridian Arts Centre on February 21 and 22.