Samantha is both a writer and a fan of the arts and has been able to find numerous ways to pair the two. Aside from being an editor here at Mooney on Theatre, she's a photojournalist for Been Here Done That, a travel, dining and tourism blog that focuses on Toronto and abroad and previously for Lithium Magazine, which got her writing and shooting about everything from Dave Matthews Band to Fan Expo. She's passionate about music, theatre, photography, writing, and celebrating sexuality -- not necessarily in that order. She drinks tea more than coffee, prefer ciders over beers, and sings karaoke way too loudly. You can follow her on various social media including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Picaza is a contemporary dance performance by The Inamorata Dance Collective as part of this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival. I’ll be honest, when I first selected this production to be part of my Fringe experience this year, I did not know it was a dance show. I was drawn to the description on the Fringe site — the story of a young woman’s journey to self awareness, through the metaphor of a magpie (‘picaza‘ in Spanish) the one bird who can recognize their own reflection.
But the dance element makes me nervous. I don’t have a dance background, often I’ve left a dance experience feeling like I just didn’t get what I just saw. Most of the language of dance is lost on me so I approached Picaza with distinct apprehension. And though I still may not have fully “got it”, I can happily say that I enjoyed it.
This is a hard one. Shadowlands, playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival, ended quite a few hours ago and I’m still staring into space deciphering what I just saw. On the surface, it’s one of those non-linear pieces of storytelling where each bit and piece at first glance makes absolutely no sense until you follow the rabbit hole to the end.
Only thing is, this story is also told in darkness with shards of concentrated light meant to direct your attention for a bizarre and intriguing effect.
When approaching the ticket desk for Office Hours, playing at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival, the welcoming volunteer cautions you with a trigger warning — frank and candid discussions of PTSD ahead. The kind of PTSD that often haunts those who have witnessed war first hand.
I was expecting a show like this to be explosive. What I found was that it came just short. And, well, perhaps that’s a good thing.
I’ve seen shows similar in style to that of NASTY, Maelstrom Art Collective‘s contribution to this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival. It’s not really a play in the standard sort but more a narrative told through movement and spoken word. Not plot driven but point driven and often a student/recent grad manned production. Out of the similar productions I’ve seen, NASTY stands as one of the better ones.
What could be a heart-wrenching and agonizing story is anything but. 