Welcome to the first post in our blog series on the Brock University Dramatic Arts winter mainstage production of Top Girls! Written in 1982 by Caryl Churchill and directed for DART by faculty member Danielle Wilson, Top Girls is an exploration of and critical look at women and their relationships to power and success.…

Emma McCormick and Kristina Ojaperv write… While a vision may look good in theory, it is how the cast and creative team build a show in rehearsal which gives that vision substance. On January 25th and 31st, we attended rehearsals of This Will be Excellent after meeting with director Erin Brubacher. Rehearsals take plac…

Emma McCormick and Kristina Ojaperv write, As our journey into the evolving form of embedded criticism begins, we feel the title of Jordi Mand’s new work sums up our first impressions – This Will Be Excellent. Embedded criticism provides an inside look at the process of a show’s creation, through discussing the initial…

Essential Collective Theatre (ECT) is a St Catharines staple. Their latest production, The Welland Canal Play, takes another local icon as its subject matter, tracing the complex and contentious history of the Welland Canal’s construction. Here, critics Sumer Seth and Kristina Ojaperv share their thoughts: Sumer Seth w…

The Shaw Festival is coming into the last few months of its season, but it is not too late to experience the energetic and captivating ensemble work of the casts of both The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide To Capitalism and Socialism and the Key To the Scriptures (my review of which you can read here) and The Divine: A…

A corporate executive, a female pope, a 13th Century Japanese concubine, a warrior peasant, a turn-of-the-century world traveler, and an obedient Renaissance wife sit down to dinner.  The ensuing conversation is the iconic set up for Caryl Churchill’s feminist examination, Top Girls, playing this season at the Shaw Fes…

One of the best parts about covering the St. Catharines theatre scene is being able to see both the germination of a production and the work of friends and colleagues at the same time. When Essential Collective Theatre popped up on Facebook with a new show titled Senior Stories and a list of senior citizens homes they…

She Stoops to Conquer is a stellar success at the Stratford Festival. Opening on June 4, Oliver Goldsmith’s classic comedy is brought to life for contemporary audiences by director Martha Henry and her tremendously talented cast, who tell the story of genuine characters in an outrageous world. Goldsmith’s comedy is set…

Lady from The Sea by Henrik Ibsen plays at the Shaw Festival this season, reminding audiences of a type of love that is all consuming, just like the open ocean. As the titular character, Moya O’Connell captures the very essence of that once familiar feeling of lovers gone by. Jenny Hval and Susanna’s “I Have Walked Thi…

While DARTcritic Elizabeth is a set of fresh eyes on Peter and the Starcatcher, other DARTcritics have been embedded in the piece throughout its rehearsal process. You can read their pieces here. Peter Pan may long to stay forever young, but Rick Elice’s Peter and the Starcatcher has some growing up to do. Playing this…