Louise Pitre’s one-woman autobiographical musical, On the Rocks, is playing at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille
On The Rocks is Theatre Passe Muraille’s season opener. It’s also Louise Pitre’s first play. It’s an autobiographical one-person musical. As well as writing the play, she wrote the lyrics. W Joseph Matheson wrote the music.
This was a highly anticipated show; opening night was sold out so I went on the second night. Opening nights are fun, there’s a definite buzz, but second nights are good because the audience isn’t as weighted with family and friends so the reaction is less biased.
Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille’s annual Student Creation Week opened their doors to four GTA high schools offering workshops and intensives to help students hone their creative theatrical talents
Last Friday night, I had the pleasure of attending Theatre Passe Muraille’s Student Creation Week performance. It was an honour to be invited to this very special event. For those who have not heard of the Student Creation Week program, I encourage you to check out the page on the TPM website.
Theatre Passe Muraille hosts the Student Creation Week annually. It is an inspiring way for this theatre to kick-off its season. Theatre Passe Murialle has been dedicated to producing new original works—particularly collective creations such as this—since its founding 46 years ago. Continue reading Theatre Passe Murialle’s Student Creation Week→
FeverGraph’s adaptation of John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger is filled with raw, probing performances playing in Toronto’s historic Queen West district
A faded copy of Look Back in Anger has been collecting dust on my shelf for over ten years. In preparation for my review of FeverGraph’s “physical and auditory deconstruction of John Osborne’s classic text”, I finally cracked it open to see what it might have to say to me. This is precisely what FeverGraph has done: dusted off this play to unveil whatever insight it offers now, almost sixty years after it was written.
The venue at 1093 Queen Street West has a rough, transformed-space atmosphere. The performance area is long and narrow, with the audience facing each other at opposite sides of the stage. There is a very intense intimacy with the actors that results from such close proximity; they are, at times, only a foot away from the audience. Continue reading Review: Look Back in Anger (Fevergraph)→
Toronto’s Angelwalk Theatre kicks off their season with tick, tick…Boom!, the emotionally driven autobiographical musical by Rent creator Jonathan Larson
I find that modern musicals can be kind of hit or miss for me. I’ve seen some that I’ve absolutely loved right from the first number and I’ve seen others that I just haven’t connected with. At first I thought that tick, tick…BOOM! was going to fall into the miss category.
The first two numbers just didn’t touch me in any way. I found myself thinking that the music sounded generic, as if I’d heard it before in other musicals. Not that I could tell you which musicals I thought I’d heard it in.
And then…BOOM! With the third number I was hooked.
Simeon Taole brings raw intensity and emotion to his role of Winston in The Space Between, his one man theatre show playing at Toronto’s Distillery District
I seem always to be dashing to the Distillery District, desperately hoping not to be late for some theatrical experience. It’s a shame because I hardly ever have a chance to actually enjoy the area. Thankfully, I made it to the Ernest Balmer Studio only a few moments late and found that the front of house staff had been holding the show for a few tardy individuals (of which I was one).
