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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: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Psychology and ideology collide in Necessary Angel’s austere Winter Solstice
Winter Solstice left me in a state of tension — pondering whether, in a similar situation, I’d be more likely to flirt with or kill a potentially evil man.
Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine
When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.
iPhoto caption: Headshot courtesy of Marcia Johnson.
Speaking in Draft: Marcia Johnson
"The whole reason I started writing was to give myself work, because I just wasn't getting lead roles, I wasn't getting interesting roles, and I knew that I could carry them off," says Johnson. "My goal when I wrote You Look Great Too was for people to say, ‘Oh my gosh, yes, she can play a lead’ — and then I would never have to write again. Then it turned out that writers were more in demand. I thought ‘OK, maybe I’ll write a few more plays.’"
iPhoto caption: Photo by Ann Baggley.
REVIEW: Here For Now’s Dinner with the Duchess is an aching étude on the cost of creative passion
Dinner with the Duchess is a tallying of an artistic life’s costs that builds a symphony out of simple presentation, resounding long past the final note.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Wights sizzles with ambition at Crow’s Theatre
While the play’s genre-straddling form feels slightly too ambitious for its concept, this sheer ambition is exciting, challenging audiences to think, while warning us that we can only go so far with words.
Announcing the winners of the 2024 Nathan Cohen Awards
The Canadian Theatre Critics Association has announced the winners of the 2024 Nathan Cohen Awards for Excellence in Critical Writing, including two writers from Intermission.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Wights sizzles with ambition at Crow’s Theatre
While the play’s genre-straddling form feels slightly too ambitious for its concept, this sheer ambition is exciting, challenging audiences to think, while warning us that we can only go so far with words.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Canadian Stage revives the Ross Petty panto with pop songs, puns, and a pinch of Ozdust
Making a case for the panto’s return, The Wizard of Oz is full of local references and charm, and perhaps even some surprise guests to fill audiences with hometown pride.
iPhoto caption: The Bidding War production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: The Bidding War is a Lear-worthy extravaganza of housing hell
Ultimately, Albert’s play isn’t just about the house; it’s about a sort of cosmic fairness that has never existed, and how we might feel justified in tipping the scales in our favour after seeing the unscrupulous get rewarded again and again.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.
REVIEW: Moulin Rouge! revels in glitz despite a thin emotional core
While Moulin Rouge! remains a fun romp, I wish the musical had embraced emotional truth as eagerly as it did romantic spectacle.
iPhoto caption: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: YPT’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is appropriately sweet
Director Thom Allison’s production embraces Charlie’s many incarnations and tones in a slick rendition that’s both fun sugar high and candy overload.
iPhoto caption: The Lion King production still by Matthew Murphy/Disney.
REVIEW: The Lion King offers audiences a cat’s-eye view of sensory delights
Twenty years after The Lion King’s last open-ended Toronto run, Julie Taymor’s directorial and design concepts remain Pride Rock-solid, spilling out from the stage into aisles, balconies, and above the crowd.
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