They’re back! A new class of 37 Dramatic Arts students at Brock University are this year’s DARTcritics. As part of their work in the course DART 3P95/6: Studies in Praxis – Theatre Criticism, they will be reviewing nine productions in the Niagara region and in Toronto. First up was a visit to the Shaw Festival to see t…

DART fourth-year student Keavy Lynch recently finished a six week internship at the Shaw Festival this summer. Here is a consolidated list of blog posts from her time there.   Thoughts around the Table May 13, 2014 In the first, she muses on tablework – the early phase of a rehearsal in which the director, performers a…

Here are highlights from the recent colloquium, The Changing Face of Criticism in the Digital Age, held at Brock University this March. Videos edited by Dramatic Arts students Jessica De Hoog, Emily Ferrier, Misha Harding, James Keating, Nicholas Leno, Brianne Lidstone, Hayley Malouin, and Kendra Neaves. Theatre in Nia…

Critic in Residence Nicholas Leno writes,  Dr. Jackson Carter (Tanisha Minson) The apocalypse has reached London, not 28 days later, but right now! Last week St Catharines’ Dragonfire Players were in London, Ontario performing their newest show The After Year for the London Fringe Festival. I began following Dragonfire…

30 January 2014: At the end of their embedding, and having read some of their classmates’ review responses to the production, the five students following the process of The Valley reflected on their experiences. Here are excerpts from what they wrote:  Anthony Kuchar writes: In all the years I’ve been working and study…

Critics in residence Nicholas Leno and Hayley Malouin write, How can we write an ending to a weekend that has been the most hectic, fun, and inspiring experience we’d had since making this little ol’ town our home? We aren’t quite sure, but we’re definitely going to try. If you loved In The Soil as much as we did, then…

Critic in residence Hayley Malouin writes, “We are all Creator-made. And the Creator does not make junk.” On Sunday evening Debajehmujig Theatre Group presented The Global Savages, an hour-long event sharing the cultural and spiritual history of the Anishinaabeg people. It is not so much a performance as a kind of heig…

Critic in residence Hayley Malouin writes, Let’s get one thing straight: we refuse to stop gushing about In The Soil. As our criticism for the festival comes to a close (this year’s, at least!), and with it my engagement with Once, Nick and I wanted to have a post-festival chat with Twitches and Itches artistic directo…

Critic in residence Nicholas Leno writes, Well that’s all folks! In The Soil is wrapped up and the shows are over. Or are they? Yesterday Hayley and I sat down with some artists from In The Soil to discuss the future life of projects that premiered in this year’s local arts festival. Among them, still sporting the bean…

Critic in residence Hayley Malouin writes, Things that grow in the soil: carrots; leeks; potatoes; brilliantly unique homegrown festivals! Playing Sunday night at the Mikado, Suitcase In Point’s appropriately titled The Dirty Cabaret III brought the 2014 In The Soil Arts Festival to a close. Stuffed full of raunchy jok…