Having returned to the rehearsal room once more, half of our embedding team remarks on the changes they witness.  Hazel Adie and Frances Johnson write,  We arrive for our second and final visit to familiar smiling faces. This rehearsal is a week and a half away from Essential Collective Theatre’s first performance of T…

The second half of our embedding team offers further insight into their visit to The Team‘s rehearsal room.  Hazel Adie and Frances Johnson write, “Holy shit! – that’s not the line,” the actor Laura Welch shouts as she starts a run-through of a scene, and the room dissolves into helpless giggles. This moment is one amo…

After interviewing part of creative team for Essential Theatre Collective‘s production of The Team, our five embedders split into two groups to provide a broader range of perspectives and more coverage of the process.  Dani Shae Barkley, Jonah Pace, and Kristina Testa write, On the chillyafternoon of March 1st, we appr…

This year, our student embedders become one of The Team, as they follow the creation process of Essential Theatre Collective‘s upcoming show. To start, they met with director Colin B. Anthes and designer James McCoy to discuss their vision for The Team. Hazel Adie, Dani Shae Barkley, Frances Johnson, Jonah Pace, and Kr…

Emma McCormick and Kristina Ojaperv write, At last, the day for excellence arrives – the first performance of This Will Be Excellent. Arriving at Oakridge Public School early on February 5th, we are excited to see the culmination of the many rehearsals that came before. The show is set up in the gymnasium, with the fin…

Emma McCormick and Kristina Ojaperv write, A technical rehearsal for a show with no lighting design is definitely not your typical tech. Our next rehearsal visit is during the series of technical and dress rehearsals, in the final days before This Will Be Excellent’s first performance. These rehearsals, however, operat…

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…

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…

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…