Essential Collective Theatre hits the mark in almost every aspect of their production of Hannah Moscovitch’s East of Berlin, but in trying to broach some difficult subject matter, the company may be taking risks with audiences involving a large number of university students. Some issues raised toward the end of the pla…

Hello DARTcritics readers! Welcome to the first in a series of articles written by myself and my colleague Kristina Ojaperv, about our work following the making of Inferno, a new production by DopoLavoro Teatrale (henceforth DLT). Throughout the coming weeks, we will dive into various areas of interest: the conversatio…

To close out the coverage of Essential Collective Theatre‘s The Team by our critics, the non-embedding students attended the premiere and closing of the show last month. The Team ran at Theatre Aquarius from March 14-16, and at the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre from March 20-23. Check out what these new pairs of…

The other half of our embedders give their final thoughts on The Team to close out DART Critics’ time embedding with Essential Collective Theatre. Dani Shae Barkley, Jonah Pace, and Kristina Testa write, The creative team engages in their “Check-out” circle. Photo by Kristina Testa. When we walked into the Robertson Th…

Hazel Adie and Frances Johnson write, Feeling almost as excited as if we were about to step on stage ourselves, we take out seats in the Robertson Theatre. Director Colin Anthes steps forward to thank us all for attending and gives a land acknowledgement. That calm, confident voice now so familiar from rehearsals is li…

Carousel Players is known for bringing thought-provoking theatre to a younger crowd as they tour their inventive creations to school gyms across Southern Ontario. Their latest play Whole World explores themes of communication and understanding through the story of Omar, a young refugee who has newly arrived in Canada.…

Still in two groups, one half of our embedding team returned to The Team‘s rehearsal room once again and share their final observations. Dani Shae Barkley, Jonah Pace, and Kristina Testa write,  Returning to the Suitcase in Point rehearsal space, we are quite excited to witness the progress that the artists of The Team…

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…