Editorial Submissions

Intermission publishes a wide variety of content, including reviews, Artist Perspectives, and features.

REVIEWS

Intermission reviews professional theatre across Canada. We also sometimes cover dance, opera, performance art, and interdisciplinary work.

We welcome review pitches from freelance theatre critics based anywhere in the country. We value reviews that are thoughtful and informed, but accessible to a general readership. We’re committed to publishing writing from viewpoints that the field of theatre criticism has historically undervalued.

Guidelines and notes:

  • In your pitch, tell us about the production you’d like to review (including details like dates), and why it looks interesting. If you’re new to Intermission, send along a couple writing samples.
  • Be concise.
  • While we’re open to formally playful criticism, the vast majority of our reviews run around 700 words and involve a mix of description, analysis, and evaluation. We recommend reading several of our published reviews before pitching.
  • If we’ve never covered a show in your city, don’t let that dissuade you — all the more reason to inform us of what’s going on! 
  • If you’re based in Toronto, consider pitching reviews of smaller-scale productions first — we’re unlikely to send someone we haven’t worked with to a major opening at Mirvish or Canadian Stage.
  • When considering what to pitch, keep in mind that we tend to assign reviews at least a month in advance; productions can be in any language, but reviews must be written in English; and we rarely cover shows running less than a few days, unless they’re part of a larger festival.
  • If you don’t have a specific production in mind, you’re welcome to send a general expression of interest in reviewing, complete with writing samples.
  • Our standard rate for reviews is $150.

To pitch, email liam@intermissionmagazine.ca with “REVIEW PITCH” in the subject line. We aim to respond to all pitches within four weeks — if you haven’t heard anything by then, feel free to follow up!

ARTIST PERSPECTIVES

We welcome pitches from artists and other theatre professionals for personal essays and opinion pieces on industry-related issues and artistic concerns. Successful pitches will be guided by our editors and published as an Artist Perspective on our site. Please note that Artist Perspectives cannot be related to a specific show the writer is interested in promoting.

Guidelines and notes:

  • All voices and writing styles are welcome.
  • Send in a pitch, rather than a full article (unless you already have a draft ready to go).
  • If we do accept a pitch, we suggest a word count of 800–1,000 words for finished pieces.
  • We go through a rigorous editorial process on all articles; expect to work on several drafts before the piece is ready to be published.
  • We recommend reading several published Artist Perspectives before pitching.
  • Artist Perspectives are unpaid.

To pitch, email liam@intermissionmagazine.ca with “AP PITCH” in the subject line. We aim to respond to all pitches within four weeks — if you haven’t heard anything by then, feel free to follow up!

FEATURES

Many of our partnership agreements include feature-length articles, often interviews with key creative personnel. We don’t take pitches for such articles, but are happy to hear from freelancers interested in writing them. If you’d like to be considered for feature assignments, please send an expression of interest, complete with writing samples, to liam@intermissionmagazine.ca. Rates for features start at $250.