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iPhoto caption: Photo by Drew Berry.
REVIEW: An homage to Richard Foreman commands us to change our lives — and our theatre
Richard Foreman's plays usually drew on his personal journals and clocked in around 70 minutes; when he passed away last year at the age of 87, he left behind an invitation for directors to create royalty-free work from those journals. With the recently closed You Must Change Your Life at Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre, creator-director Ilana Khanin took up that offer to ludic, collage-like effect.
iPhoto caption: Peter Wylde for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
In memory of Peter Wylde, the time-travelling acting teacher
What follows is an edited and condensed collage, loosely organized by theme, that only scratches the surface of Wylde’s life and impact.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Drew Berry.
REVIEW: An homage to Richard Foreman commands us to change our lives — and our theatre
Richard Foreman's plays usually drew on his personal journals and clocked in around 70 minutes; when he passed away last year at the age of 87, he left behind an invitation for directors to create royalty-free work from those journals. With the recently closed You Must Change Your Life at Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre, creator-director Ilana Khanin took up that offer to ludic, collage-like effect.
iPhoto caption: Peter Wylde for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
In memory of Peter Wylde, the time-travelling acting teacher
What follows is an edited and condensed collage, loosely organized by theme, that only scratches the surface of Wylde’s life and impact.
iPhoto caption: Uma and Selma Gahd at Les Prix Frankies. Photo by Cindy Lopez.
Hot off covering Festival TransAmériques, Intermission is back reviewing Montreal theatre at this year’s FringeMTL, featuring 105 shows in more than 25 venues.
iPhoto caption: Pearle Harbour in 'Pearle Harbour Walks into a Bar.' Photo by Eden Graham.
REVIEW: Luminato Festival’s Pearle Harbour Walks into a Bar is a sold-out jewel
You’ll get sung to, you may get walked over, and you’ll be peppered with gags that range from corny to salty to dad.
Reviews
iPhoto caption: Photo by Drew Berry.
REVIEW: An homage to Richard Foreman commands us to change our lives — and our theatre
Richard Foreman's plays usually drew on his personal journals and clocked in around 70 minutes; when he passed away last year at the age of 87, he left behind an invitation for directors to create royalty-free work from those journals. With the recently closed You Must Change Your Life at Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre, creator-director Ilana Khanin took up that offer to ludic, collage-like effect.
iPhoto caption: Uma and Selma Gahd at Les Prix Frankies. Photo by Cindy Lopez.
Hot off covering Festival TransAmériques, Intermission is back reviewing Montreal theatre at this year’s FringeMTL, featuring 105 shows in more than 25 venues.
iPhoto caption: Pearle Harbour in 'Pearle Harbour Walks into a Bar.' Photo by Eden Graham.
REVIEW: Luminato Festival’s Pearle Harbour Walks into a Bar is a sold-out jewel
You’ll get sung to, you may get walked over, and you’ll be peppered with gags that range from corny to salty to dad.
iPhoto caption: Melissa James and Patrick Heusinger in 'Paranormal Activity.' Photo by Johan Persson.
REVIEW: Mirvish’s Paranormal Activity summons real screams — but crashes into a cheap shock ending
It’s a spooky, cleverly staged hoot, but audiences might be distracted by one glaring narrative spectre that could use an exorcism.
iPhoto caption: Danny O’Mahony and Emily Kilkenny Roddy in 'Bellow.' Photo by Ste Murray.
REVIEW: This year’s Bealtaine Theatre Festival featured accordions, ketamine, and James Joyce
The festival serves up a curated program of contemporary theatre from Ireland — appreciated, in a city that punches below its weight in terms of international performing arts offerings from countries it doesn’t border.
iPhoto caption: Hailey Gillis and Andrew Penner in 'Tiger Bride.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Soulpepper’s Tiger Bride bites into a rock-’n’-roll-meets-steampunk aesthetic
Although the premise of Girl on the verge of self-actualization is enticing, and one that the trio approaches with clear, affecting lyrics, Tiger Bride stops short of fully embracing the messiness of her metamorphosis.
Spotlight
iPhoto caption: Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Spotlight: Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu
“I always question: ‘How am I going to do it?’ But the moment I get in the room with actors, it becomes clear," says Tindyebwa Otu. "We need to tell stories; we need to be in community. Every show I do, I feel like, ‘This could be the last one.’ I’ve felt like this since I became a mom. And yet, 10 years later, I’ve produced more artistic work than ever.”
iPhoto caption: Nora McLellan for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz. Styled by Sonia Lewis and Dahlia Katz. Hair by Anne May. Makeup by Katelyn O'Neil.
“It’s still always that same technicolour feeling for me," says McLellan. "That little girl and this much older person are pretty much the same. I really do all of my living on stage.”
iPhoto caption: Ma-Anne Dionisio for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
“Art has a very significant healing aspect to it,” says Ma-Anne Dionisio. “The performance aspect, for me, always comes secondary.”
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Artist Perspectives
iPhoto caption: Photo of Jordan Laffrenier by Sandro Pehar.
Preparing to direct Slave Play: A travel guide to Richmond, Virginia
Since reading Slave Play, I’ve asked every romantic partner whether or not they experience a racial dynamic between us in the bedroom. No one has given the same answer. What is it that I am asking them to acknowledge in these scenarios? Who is it that I am asking them to hold? What does it mean to hold someone’s history?
iPhoto caption: 'Delirious Night' at the Festival d'Avignon. Photo by Christophe Raynaud de Lage.
At the 2025 Festival d’Avignon, politics were never far off
I’d performed and directed for festivals in Canada and elsewhere, but it wasn’t at all the same as being on the bum-in-seat side. There I was, in Avignon, rubbing shoulders with the umpteen visitors hungry for a good show. I came away feeling that here, theatre mattered. A lot. In the stony fields of Toronto, that can be easy to forget.
iPhoto caption: Set design by Camellia Koo,
Costume design by Judith Bowden,
Lighting design by Leigh Ann Vardy,
and photo by Dahlia Katz. Features Samantha Hill and Amaka Umeh.
A story with no expiry date: Adapting Fall On Your Knees
At this critical political juncture, as so many forces in the world try to mute and silence women, our Canadian stories merit our advocacy and fervent attention.
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: Production still from The Nutcracker courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada.
Why should you go to the ballet?
My childhood memories of learning to dance were front and centre for me when I attended opening night of The Nutcracker, performed by the National Ballet of Canada at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Grace Mysak.
Want to see a magic show about race? Wait, what?
You’d be forgiven for the double-take. It’s a fairly common reaction when I tell folks about my work as a magician.