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Ryan Borochovitz
Ryan Borochovitz (he/him) is a Toronto-based dramaturg, director, playwright, and academic. He is currently a PhD Candidate in the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto, and holds an MA in Theatre Theory and Dramaturgy from the University of Ottawa. He is the founding artistic director of the (essentially defunct) independent production company, Sad Ibsen Theatre. He currently serves as the co-artistic producer – former literary manager – of Cup of Hemlock Theatre, for whom he produces and occasionally hosts the theatre enthusiasm podcast, The Cup.
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iPhoto caption: Steven Gallagher for Intermission. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
A love of theatre runs so deeply through Gallagher’s bones that you’d think it was a path he began to follow as soon as he could walk and talk. But for a boy who came of age on a rustic farm in Quebec and favoured sports venues over stages in high school, an eventual career in theatre was hardly a given.
iPhoto caption: Miriam Fernandes as the Storyteller, with Anaka Maharaj-Sandhu as Arjuna and Neil D'Souza as Krishna in Why Not Theatre’s Mahabharata (Shaw Festival, 2023). Photo by David Cooper. Set design by Lorenzo Savoini, costume design by Gillian Gallow, lighting design by Kevin Lamotte, projection design by Hana S. Kim.
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.
iPhoto caption: Kayla Sakura Charchuk, Jay Leonard Juatco, Kimberly-Ann Truong, Jun Kung, and Raugi Yu in Cambodian Rock Band. Set design by Jung-Hye Kim, costume design by Stephanie Kong, lighting design by Itai Erdal. Photo by Moonrider Productions.
REVIEW: Cambodian Rock Band makes scintillating Canadian premiere at Vancouver’s Arts Club
Jumping back and forth through time, it weaves the story of a father-daughter relationship together with high-energy musical performances and meditations on the traumatic effects of the Cambodian genocide.
iPhoto caption: L to R: Louise Duff (Ruth), Meg Farhall (Mrs. Bradman), Corrine Koslo (Madame Arcati), Tyrell Crews (Charles), and Christopher Hunt (Dr. Bradman) in Blithe Spirit at Theatre Calgary. Photo by Trudie Lee.
At Theatre Calgary, Corrine Koslo returns to the role of Madame Arcati after 20 years away
“I’m still flying around a bit but I’m not, you know, leaping six feet into the air and things like that,” says Koslo. “And I don’t need to. Then, I did. That was who I was and that’s who I brought to the table.”
iPhoto caption: Photo by Andree Lanthier.
GCTC to close out season with Rachel Mutombo’s Vierge
Co-produced by Montreal’s Black Theatre Workshop and directed by Dian Marie Bridge, Vierge will run from March 18 to 30 at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre in Ottawa.
iPhoto caption: Photo of Tara Sky by Jeremy Mimnagh. Set design by Shannon Lea Doyle, costume design by Asa Benally, lighting design by Hailey Verbonac.
REVIEW: The Born-Again Crow is an ardent ode to unproductivity
Director Jessica Carmichael’s Toronto premiere production trucks along with the passionate force of an early-2000s emo rock hit, imbuing this systemic critique with rousing, playful life.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Henry Chan.
REVIEW: Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special is a real gem
Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special may not broadcast on Canadian television, but it is, indeed, quite special.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Henry Chan.
REVIEW: Erased at TPM sends its greetings from a precarious future
It’s in the moments of poignant ambiguity that Open Heart Surgery Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille’s Erased really succeeds in firing up the audience’s imaginations, inviting us to try envisioning a better future.
iPhoto caption: Goblin:Macbeth production still by Jae Yang.
REVIEW: Goblin:Macbeth might just leave you gobsmacked
While most of the entertainment comes from the goblins’ antics whenever the Shakespearean text is paused or subverted for comic effect, the secret sauce to this whole endeavour is that it really is an honest-to-goodness staging of that text, designed to showcase the performers’ near-virtuosic mastery of the material.
iPhoto caption: Wonderful Joe production still by Ian Jackson.
‘What the hell do I do with all these puppets?’: Inside the wonderful world of Ronnie Burkett
“More than a few people said to me, ‘so this is your last show’,” says the legendary puppeteer ahead of his production of Wonderful Joe at TO Live. “Trust me, I never said this is my last show. I think that’s maybe a bit of ageism, or wishful thinking.”
iPhoto caption: Michelle Urbano, artistic director of Crossroads Theatre (formerly Shakespeare in Action).
Following a major rebrand, Crossroads Theatre is redefining summer theatre in Toronto
“If we start to think about the arts as a health service, I feel like that shift in thinking could do a lot for the arts, and a lot for the people of Toronto,” says Michelle Urbano, artistic director of Crossroads Theatre (formerly Shakespeare in Action).
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Soulpepper and Outside the March effectively drown Uncle Walt’s highly manicured public image in acetone, leaving the audience with a grotesque portrait that feels at once comically exaggerated and painfully accurate.
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