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Jessica Watson
Jessica is a former associate editor at Intermission, as well as a writer, classically-trained actor, and plant enthusiast. Since graduating from LAMDA in the UK with her MA in acting, you can often find her writing screenplays and short plays in the park, writing extensive lists of plant care tips, or working on stage and screen (though she uses a stage name). Jessica freelances with various companies across Canada, but her passion lies in working with theatre artists and enthusiasts.
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CBC’s PlayME debuts 2026 season, starting with Kim’s Convenience
PlayME has featured work by more than 30 Governor General’s Award winners and nominees, making some of the country’s most celebrated plays accessible to listeners nationwide.
iPhoto caption: Members of the 'Ophis' company. Photo courtesy of Transcen|Dance Project.
REVIEW: Ophis dunks viewers into a gothic experience of Medusa’s psychic landscape
Transcen|Dance Project’s Ophis is a woozy tragedy that courts both playfulness and eroticism, deliberately dissolving the boundaries of stage and audience with an immersive format that’s sometimes thrilling, sometimes terrifying, and sometimes — if you’re a people-pleaser like me — both simultaneously.
iPhoto caption: Headshot of Antoni Cimolino. Photo by Ted Belton.
“You want to choose things that feel important to the moment,” he says about building a Stratford Festival season. “If you choose plays and they don’t resonate, it’s very hurtful. You believe in them and the power of them.”
Rhubarb! Festival director Ludmylla Reis wants artists to embrace ‘the detour’
"We do something formative at some point in the arts, and then we just continue doing that in different fonts until we’re no longer on this earth," says Reis. "The important thing is to know what that is, because you don’t want to be controlled by it. You want to be in control."
iPhoto caption: L to R, top to bottom: 'The 39 Steps' (photo by Raph Nogal), 'Benevolence' (photo by Jae Yang), 'The Born-Again Crow' (photo by Jeremy Mimnagh), 'Dimanche' (photo by Thomas Müller), 'Last Landscape' (photo by Fran Chudnoff), 'The Merchant of Venice' (photo by Kyle Purcell), 'Slave Play' (photo by Dahlia Katz), 'Waiting for Godot' (photo by Elana Emer), 'The Welkin' (photo by Dahlia Katz).
Twelve indelible moments of performance from 2025
With the lights fading on another year of fleeting thrills in dark rooms, we asked 12 Ontario performing arts writers to reflect on a moment that stayed with them. The results mainly stem from Toronto theatre productions, but there are a few surprises weaved in.
iPhoto caption: Connor Mitton and members of the company of 'Sex Dalmatian’s Hot Holiday Spectacular.' Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh.
REVIEW: Sex Dalmatian’s Hot Holiday Spectacular is a peppermint-coated acid trip
Rock Bottom Movement’s surrealist mandate is on full display in this 15-dancer fantasia, which begins with an invitation to let go: “The only thing you need to know is not to know anything at all,” pronounces the Mayor of Sex Dalmatian, the evening’s narrator and the mayor of the titular canine’s mind.
Pakistani-Canadian actor Ahad Raza Mir ‘goes back to basics’ with Brampton production of Hamlet
“The South Asian community in Calgary, and even Toronto, is a whole different story than Brampton in terms of size,” says Mir. “I'm excited to have this show come to a larger group of South Asians: most importantly, young people who maybe want to go into the arts who want to be actors."
iPhoto caption: From top left, clockwise: Nikki Shaffeeullah, Adele Noronha, Michelle Mohammed, Jay Northcott, Anand Rajaram, and Virgilia Griffith.
Tarragon Theatre Announces A Poem for Rabia Cast
Award-winning theatre and film artist Nikki Shaffeeullah’s play A Poem for Rabia will make its debut in a Tarragon Theatre production in association with Nightwood Theatre and Undercurrent Creations.
iPhoto caption: Jeremy Smith and Tom Lillington in Driftwood Theatre's Living With Shakespeare. Original image by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Living With Shakespeare at Driftwood Theatre
Living With Shakespeare is a deeply intimate exploration of Smith’s life and work, using Shakespeare’s words to bring to life some of his most personal, exciting, and challenging experiences.
REVIEW: Shakespeare By Any Other Name at Dauntless City Theatre
Part history lesson, part joyful romp through Shakespeare’s works, the sixty-minute play in the heart of St. James’ Park attempts to return the playwright to the people.
Guild Festival Theatre’s The Drowning Girls Opens in Scarborough
GFT’s final production is the multi-award-winning play The Drowning Girls, a true crime tale about three women married to and murdered by the same man.
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Reveals Their 45th Anniversary Season
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is celebrating with a season that showcases both epic queer stories from history and innovative new works from a diverse roster of artists.
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