The second production we have students embedding is The Horse and His Boy at The Shaw Festival. Their first order of business was to meet the director, Christine Brubaker. Alexandra Chubaty Boychuk, Shannon Fletcher, Matthew Lazaris-Brunner, and Danielle Woodcock write, Photo by Peter Andrew Lusztyk. Design by KeyGordo…

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…

It’s been over a week since Essential Collective Theatre’s world premiere of Our Lady of Delicias opened at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre and I’m still bumping into people buzzing about it. Politically charged, hilariously delivered, and satisfyingly ambiguous, it’s a play that sparks discussion, discussion t…

DARTCritics saw a preview of Air during In The Soil, and now the full production is set to premiere at Hamilton Fringe. With the festival just around the corner, DARTCritics Nick and Alex called Tottering Biped Theatre’s Artistic Director, Trevor Copp, to discuss his work on the production. NICK: We saw The Stag Hunter…

One of the most interesting things about In The Soil is its dedication to local art and artists. So strong is this dedication that they were happy to host the end of a much longer run of Stolen Theatre Collective’s production of The Dumb Waiter. The show Premiered April 10 at the Courthouse Theatre, and has already cre…

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 is residence Hayley Malouin writes, Sunday night on the hillside just behind Rodman Hall, seated around a fire boiling cedar tea, Manitoulin Island’s Debajehmujig Theatre Group will present The Global Savages – an experience that blurs the lines between performance and storytelling; myth and history; theatre and…

Critic in residence Nicholas Leno writes, In the not too distant future our over-populated planet is nearly wiped out by a deadly super-virus that kills its hosts in their sleep. A year has passed since the virus’ spread, and Jackson, hero of Dragonfire Players’ new show The After Year, leads a group of survivors as th…

Embedded criticism involves an arts writer following a creative process closely and generating writing about the process that reflects this insider knowledge. The term was coined by London (UK)-based theatre critic and blogger Andrew Haydon in April 2012 and expanded on by the New York City-based arts writer and advoca…