DART Critics Class 2015-16

“And what’s a woman worth? What’s life worth? Without self-respect!” These questions are posed in Mrs. Warren’s Profession, directed at the Shaw Festival by Eda Holmes. Sex work and feminism, two of the show’s themes, are hot-button topics in 2016—I can only imagine the taboos against them when the play was first perfo…

  Caroline Coon writes:   So this is it! After long days of interviewing seniors, scriptwriting, improvisation that usually ended in hysterics, and lots of dance rehearsals, we are in our final week of touring! It’s been an incredible experience, and I’ve learned so much about collaborative theatre. Not only that, but…

Sarah Bradford writes: No talk of kings and queens, nor of heroes and dastardly villains — the Shaw Festival’s 2016 production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town places a spotlight on ordinary people in an extraordinary way. Director Molly Smith strips to its essence an American classic about life, love, and death. Dr. Gibb…

Ben Fallis writes: Poor would be one way to describe Essential Collective Theatre (ECT)’s newest production of the same name, playing at the First Ontario Performing Arts Center. The latest iteration of Suzanne Ristic’s one-woman show starring ECT’s artistic director (and Brock’s own) Monica Dufault and directed by Kar…

Simon (Devin Mackinnon) and Jake (Edmund Stapleton). Photos by Barsin Aghajan. Hannah Anderson writes: Laughing and learning – what more could you want from a children’s show? These are just two things that you will do while watching Carousel Players’ Spelling 2-5-5, directed by Jessica Carmichael, which played in Robe…

That Ugly Mess promotional image from the In the Soil Festival Welcome back, readers! Since we’ve been quiet for quite some time now, we will reintroduce ourselves. We are Raylene Turner, Alex Tomulescu, Jonah McGrath, Heather Allen, and Andrew Von Lukawiecki. For our Theatre Criticism class we are working as embedded…

April 28, 2016 Maria Evers and Michael Fusillo write: We two were granted one last opportunity to visit our friends involved with Mrs. Warren’s Profession. The cast and crew were not called for any work in the Royal George Theatre on that particular day, so the ensemble made use of their Festival Theatre rehearsal spac…

February 22, 2016 Nikka Collison, DJ Johnston, Justin Reesor and Jarrod Vandenbogaerde write: Never underestimate the power of footwork. The beginning of the week of Major Predictions, Barbara workshops was all about table work, and that makes sense given the nature of this project – a staged reading. Much of the work…

February 25, 2016 Caroline Coon, Sarah Bradford, Johnathan Clancy, and Daryl Hunter write: February 16: We entered Robertson Hall in the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre at 7:20pm with excited anticipation. The cue to cue was well underway so we made sure to enter as quietly as possible. This was our first time wit…

Caroline Coon writes: Photo by Johnny Hockin Stepping into the Dramatic Arts theatre, I didn’t know what to expect; but I certainly didn’t anticipate a show presenting opera, babies, feminism, and machine guns. With a cast of two and a handful of props that can fit into a tiny suitcase, Death Married My Daughter takes…