Let me sum up emerGENce Theatre‘s Turtleneck playing at the Tree of Life Theatre in five words: it is so absurdly good. Brilliantly cast, darkly hilarious, unexpected–there is just no way this show should be missed. Vickie (Karen Scobie) is a modern ‘woman with a past’ recovering from sex addiction. Introduced to Louis (Bryce Fletch) by activist Darcy (Annie Tuma), things appear to be moving forward—until Vickie’s secret past bursts back into her life. Written by Brandon Crone, Turtleneck cou

I have never been an intuitive user. If the door says push, I pull. So if something isn’t really obvious and straightforward, I can very easily miss it. What does any of this have to do with user experience design? Well, I’ve always been fascinated by the way sites operate with the expectation I’ll know to push even if I need to pull because common sense is ‘a thing.’ Take internet shopping as an example. I was recently on the IKEA website poking around for a new mattress and bed frame. I want

Interactive media is really about building a narrative that stretches beyond traditional mediums and genres. The purpose of the field is to interact–hence the name. How interaction is accomplished is another matter entirely. It can be done through obvious mediums, such as a game, or in a way that is (and should be) virtually unnoticeable, like the functionality of a website. At its core, interactive media is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary form of artistic-expression. And, as with an

When Shelley Marshall suggested the interview take place at her Full Bawdy Loft, I didn’t realize until I arrived that it was, in fact, her loft; a lived-in space that she was inspired to adapt for the October run of her show Hold Mommy’s Cigarette. The eclectic 1970’s inspired set dominated the room. She gave me a tour, showing me some props and describing the lighting design for her show, opening tomorrow. I felt like I was invited into her home, shown family trinkets, and invited to ask my q

There is a punchline to Circle Circle’s A Man Walks into a Bar playing at the Factory Theatre Studio as part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival. But it’s more like a gut-punch: it hits low, it hits hard, and it hits close to home. And everybody needs to see it. A woman (Rachel Blair, who also wrote the show) attempts to tell a joke with the help and encouragement of a man (Blue Bigwood-Mallin). Moving in and out of the world of the joke wherein a woman server repeatedly encounters a male patron

You ever have a piece of art you hate — like really, really hate — and you wonder why and how that thing managed to not only get made but get funded, too? Wunderbaum’s Looking for Paul: Inez van Dam vs. the Buttplug Gnome, done in association with Richard Jordan Productions, RED CAT, Theatre Royal Plymouth, and Summerhall, and playing at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre, tackles just such a question — and it does so in an unforgettable fashion. A combination of comedy, moral fluidity, and chaos 

Here’s a question for you: ever wanted to see a micro-example of pervasive racism on a Canadian stage? Well, if you ask me, Canadian Stage’s Spotlight South Africa festival has the perfect show: Chandelier at Berkeley Street Theatre. Performance artist Steven Cohen describes his work thusly: “by my moving in a chandelier-tutu through a squatter camp being demolished-and filming it–that’s what I’m doing…a digital painting of social reality…” Essentially, Cohen is attempting to “shed light on wha

This thesis suggests the limitations of the term ‘closet drama’ when applied to marginalized playwrights from the early modern and modern periods. Using four case studies, two British playwrights from the early modern period, Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639) and Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673), and two Americans from the modern period, Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) and Marita Bonner (1898-1971), I argue that these dramatists used printed play-texts to subvert social restrictions relating to gender, sexuality, class, and race, access new spaces, and reframe and confront traditional narratives. Each of my case studies examines how print served a specific performative and political purpose for individual playwrights in specific socio-historical contexts. My aim is to highlight closet drama’s cultural significance as an alternative method of artistic engagement and encourage canonical acknowledgement of unconventional dramatic work.

At my second show of the Toronto Fringe Festival I had an interesting conversation with a volunteer. Both of us were puppet show fans and both of us were struck by the sheer amount of puppetry available at this year’s festival. Not counting children’s shows, there are at least seven separate adult puppet shows—assuming adult puppet shows are rated PG and up–that indicate a resurgence in puppet popularity. Toronto, Ontario, and even Canada has a wide selection of puppet companies. Toronto, for i