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.
Real life and storytelling play out side by side in Cineastas playing as part of Toronto’s Luminato Festival
Art imitates life. It’s the most fundamental principle of creating art — create what you know. It’s seen throughout every art form out there — from still life to motion picture, from writing to dance. In Cineastas, presented at the Luninato Festival, we see just that. Argentinian theatre director and author Mariano Pensotti presents a living, breathing slice of life, the results of numerous interviews with filmmakers in Buenos Aires detailing the bonds between their private lives and the stories they create for the screen.
Pensotti followed the filmmakers from their days on set to their personal lives at home, candidly capturing their interactions to create Cineastas. What you see on stage is a meticulously designed split-level stage that both seamlessly and jarringly blend the intimacy of the personal day-to-day with the written and imagined world of created art.
Racism at the birth of Rock n’ Roll, The Ballad of the Young Offender plays at Sidemart’s Theatrical Grocery in Toronto
Crow’s Theatre‘s desire to be the central hub for theatre in the East End is off to a great start. They’re opening a new space in 2016 and to introduce themselves and make their presence known to the Leslieville/Riverdale area, they’ve launched The East End Performance Crawl — a series of site specific solo performances running the stretch of Queen Street East from Broadview to Greenwood on now until Sunday, June 1.
Part of the Crawl is the zany and eye-opening show The Ballad of the Young Offender which features Kyle Gatehouse as blues connoisseur and rock music historian Johnny Hyacinth. His story is of the legendary (but fictional) bluesman Sonny St. You and his trial for inciting rebellion in young people during that critical time when electricity met folk music to create Rock n’ Roll.
Mooney on Theatre is giving away two tickets to The Third Annual Shakespeare Challenge, the upcoming gala fundraiser for Shakespeare in Action at Arts and Letters Club (14 Elm Street) on Wednesday May 21, 2014 at 7 pm.
To be entered into the draw for a pair of tickets just send an email to contests@mooneyontheatre.com
with the subject line “The Shakespeare Challenge” by 12 pm noon on Monday May 19, 2014.
See below for details about the gala and how the contest works.
Canadian Stage presents the Toronto premiere of The Tempest Replica at the St Lawrence Centre
For just under a week, Canadian Stage brings the Toronto premiere of The Tempest Replica to the Bluma Appel Theatre. This magnificent deconstructed version of one of Shakespeare’s final plays is told through dance, mime, sound, projection, and a very creative use of costuming to bring the story to life. Marrying the two worlds of Shakespeare with contemporary dance, this production is something truly unique and unlike anything you’re likely to have seen before. And it’s only on for a very limited time. Continue reading Review: The Tempest Replica (Canadian Stage)→
Sawah brings Middle Eastern music, dance and culture to the Fleck Dance Studio in Toronto
I try my best to stay away from descriptive words that have become horribly clichéd. But when it comes to certain art forms, in particular dance and music, I find myself at a loss for words and revert back to the classic yet overused. Case in point, for me, would be belly dance and Arabic music. As a westernized Chinese woman, I’m far from a connoisseur of Middle Eastern culture but nonetheless I’m drawn to its beauty and mystery. There’s a strong sense of sensuality, exoticism, and allure that I find captivating. It was just enough for me to acquire a couple coin scarves myself and sign up for belly dance classes at my local gym.
When I heard that Arabesque would be performing Sawah (which translates to “wanderer” in Arabic), an immersive experience of Arabic music and dance, this weekend at the Fleck Dance Theatre, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a bit of escapism.
Mooney on Theatre is giving away two tickets to 
