Toronto’s Mirvish Theatre announces a season of musicals with something for everyone

I won’t lie, the show I was most hoping would be announced at today’s launch was The Book of Mormon.  Obviously I was not the only one. It was the first show announced, and in the opening bars of the music, before a word was spoken, the audience erupted into cheers.

The Book of Mormon (brought to us by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park and Team America fame) will be playing at Mirvish in the coming year. There are a few other shows that I’m personally pretty excited about, like La Cage Aux Folles, and Honeymoon in Vegas.

Below you’ll find more details on the season, and some pictures from the launch to whet your appetite. Continue reading Mirvish announces its 2012 – 2013 season, including Book of Mormon →

Ronny Burkett’s Penny Plain at Factory Theatre in Toronto is far more than a playful puppet show

These days we have a tendency to think of shows involving puppets as light fun fare meant for children. Let me assure you, this is not the case with Ronny Burkett’s Penny Plain, currently playing at Factory Theatre.

The show is funny, but it’s also heartbreaking and dark, and it is most definitely not for children.  In fact, the Factory Theatre website notes that children under 14 will not be admitted into the show, and with good reason. In parts it’s downright scary, not to mention more than a little creepy.

It’s also wonderful.

Continue reading Review: Penny Plain (Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes | Factory Theatre) →

University of Toronto’s Hart House classes in Toronto offer Empowerment Through the Arts – for anyone moved by an image, a word or an idea.

There’s little in this world I love more than learning something new.  Technically any learning goes to personal development, but the best kind of learning is stuff that is both fun AND intended for personal development.

The biggest life-changing learning I ever did was in my grade 10 drama class. It taught me how to interact with the world in a whole new, and far more effective, way. It also started an introduction to my passion – theatre – but that was a ways down the road. In my business-world career doing performance measurement and program evaluation I used the skills I learned through arts classes every day.

That’s what Hart House is offering with its “Empowerment Through the Arts” classes.  I don’t doubt that these will offer you skills that you will use in all sorts of areas of your life. In addition to their previous offerings in Filmmaking, Photography, Music and Theatre Arts, they now offer classes in Comedy, Creative Living & Careers, Movement/Dance and expanded Voice offerings.

It’s a wide ranging selection, with offerings from The Art of Conversation and Communication to Free Your Inner Comedian to Art of Acting: Finding Personal Liberation and Authenticity. Generally, the classes are aimed to those who but do not already have training in the specific class they are taking. There’s a full list of the various classes here, most of which begin the week of January 29.

Continue reading [Sponsored] Hart House 2012 Winter Classes – Empowerment Through the Arts →

Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience steals the stage at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre

What I really want my whole review for Kim’s Convenience, now playing at Soulpepper, to say is “The show is fantastic, you should really go see it.”  Unfortunately, I suspect that kind of thing won’t cut it.  So, I’ll work on telling you about the piece, but just remember, it’s wonderful, and you should go see it.

Continue reading Review: Kim’s Convenience (Soulpepper Theatre) →

Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre presents The Golden Dragon, a play that will make you laugh and leave you thinking

The Golden Dragon, currently playing at Tarragon Theatre, is a well executed piece of theatre that will make you laugh, cringe, and think about stuff you wish wasn’t really happening in this world.

If you like your theatre in the form of traditional linear storytelling, with realistic costumes and characters, a play you can ‘lose yourself in’, this will not be a show for you.  You will never forget that you’re watching a play. If the cross-gender, cross-age and cross-ethnicity (is that a term?) characters doesn’t pull you out of the experience enough, then the spoken stage directions and occasional ‘nudge-nudge-wink-wink’ type of action to the audience will.

Continue reading Review: The Golden Dragon (Tarragon Theatre) →