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iPhoto caption: Siphesihle November in 'Flight Pattern.' Photo by Karolina Kuras.
Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc came out of the Second World War; Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern emerges from the world of wars we live in today. The double bill might be asking: What role, if any, should dance play in times of crisis?
iPhoto caption: Clare Coulter in 'Queen Maeve.' Photo by Jae Yang.
Clare Coulter brings a lifetime of experience to Judith Thompson’s Queen Maeve at Tarragon
“This is the first stage play I've done in such a long time,” says Coulter, “but I feel I've really learned what the stage asks of the actor: that they go beyond what we used to call the footlights and settle in to where the audience is.”
iPhoto caption: Siphesihle November in 'Flight Pattern.' Photo by Karolina Kuras.
Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc came out of the Second World War; Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern emerges from the world of wars we live in today. The double bill might be asking: What role, if any, should dance play in times of crisis?
iPhoto caption: Clare Coulter in 'Queen Maeve.' Photo by Jae Yang.
Clare Coulter brings a lifetime of experience to Judith Thompson’s Queen Maeve at Tarragon
“This is the first stage play I've done in such a long time,” says Coulter, “but I feel I've really learned what the stage asks of the actor: that they go beyond what we used to call the footlights and settle in to where the audience is.”
iPhoto caption: Ordena Stephens-Thompson and Tony Nappo in 'The Neighbours.'
REVIEW: In Nicolas Billon’s The Neighbours, everyone’s a bystander
Green Light Arts’ The Neighbours, playing at the Tarragon Theatre Extraspace, encourages audiences to reconsider their assumptions about the comfort of spectatorship.
iPhoto caption: Deborah Hay in 'Piaf/Dietrich.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Opposing personalities collide in Piaf/Dietrich at London’s Grand Theatre
The show succeeds in showcasing Piaf and Dietrich's vulnerabilities by portraying them as a form of star-crossed lovers — destined not just for fame, but each other.
Reviews
iPhoto caption: Siphesihle November in 'Flight Pattern.' Photo by Karolina Kuras.
Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc came out of the Second World War; Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern emerges from the world of wars we live in today. The double bill might be asking: What role, if any, should dance play in times of crisis?
iPhoto caption: Ordena Stephens-Thompson and Tony Nappo in 'The Neighbours.'
REVIEW: In Nicolas Billon’s The Neighbours, everyone’s a bystander
Green Light Arts’ The Neighbours, playing at the Tarragon Theatre Extraspace, encourages audiences to reconsider their assumptions about the comfort of spectatorship.
iPhoto caption: Deborah Hay in 'Piaf/Dietrich.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Opposing personalities collide in Piaf/Dietrich at London’s Grand Theatre
The show succeeds in showcasing Piaf and Dietrich's vulnerabilities by portraying them as a form of star-crossed lovers — destined not just for fame, but each other.
iPhoto caption: Ma-Anne Dionisio, Nikko Angelo Hinayo, Kennedy Kanagawa, and Kelsey Verzotti in 'The Tale of the Gifted Prince.' Photo by Harder Lee.
REVIEW: Theatre Calgary’s The Tale of the Gifted Prince is a dazzling new musical
The world premiere production stuns, delivering audiences a larger-than-life musical flush with Broadway splash.
iPhoto caption: Johnnie McNamara Walker in 'The Heterosexuals.' Photo by Greg Wong.
REVIEW: In the Maritimes, The Heterosexuals unpacks the traps of heteronormativity
Watching Johnnie McNamara Walker make a space for himself with a Fredericton audience was captivating. As a performer, he’s wickedly charismatic. He talks with his hands, asks with his brow, and paces to keep up with his frenetic writing and delivery.
iPhoto caption: Pip Dwyer, Jeanie Calleja, and Natalia Bushnik in 'Night at the Grand Guignol.' Photo by Jack Woolfe.
REVIEW: Eldritch’s Night at the Grand Guignol features spurting blood and severed eyes
The show hits the pulpy B-movie bullseye at which the indie company has long taken aim. Over the course of four playlets, a catalogue of deaths unfurls — shlockily! gorily! — in macabre locales.
Spotlight
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.”
iPhoto caption: Photo by V. Tony Hauser.
“If theatre’s done well, it’s an event. And for the audience it’s very mobilizing,” says Lepage. “Whatever the subject matter is, the people go and they’re stimulated, interested, and they feel intelligent... The most beautiful spectacle is always the spectacle of intelligence.”
iPhoto caption: Marie Farsi for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
“I’ve learned how truth is revealed in translation, and I feel like that’s my job as a director,” says Farsi. “I have to translate the piece from the page to the stage, and all the meanings that can be derived from that process of translation.”
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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.