Make fun of amateur improv performances as you will, but one of the most important ideas I’ve learned came from improv training: “Yes, and…” I competed in the Canadian Improv Games as a high-school student, and that’s when I learned a lot of standard improv concepts and exercises. “Yes, and…”…
One of my pet peeves is when critics make arguments about characters played by multiple actors (for example, in theatre) based only on the text of the script. We see this kind of argument a lot in when, for instance, historians assess the accuracy of plays that depict historical figures,…
Because I loved their production of The Magician’s Nephew last year, I went to see the Shaw Festival’s 2019 production of that other seldom-adapted Narnia story, The Horse and His Boy. This adaptation took a few more liberties with the original, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (particularly since the…
(But first order of business these days: EFF NAZIS. Or better yet, NAZIS CAN GO EFF THEMSELVES. I’m not wasting perfectly good swear-words on proud white supremacist garbage scum.) The older I get, the more convinced I am that one of the most valuable high-school experiences for my professional life…
As a Jew, I’m torn when I read debates on whether it’s right to write stories with sympathetic Nazi characters.
When I was about sixteen, I was obsessed with Andrew Lloyd Weber’s hit musical The Phantom of the Opera. I’d seen it on a family trip to London, and to my teenage self, it was the epitome of epic: all the well funded special effects anyone could ask for, dashing…
I did it! I got a copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by being patient and waiting until it was my turn to borrow it from Toronto Public Library. More amazingly, I avoided all but the slightest spoilers in the months between the premiere of the play and…
I already knew theatre was valuable to me. It taught me skills I still use in my career. It helped me become more confident in the way I conduct myself day-to-day and opened my eyes to new ideas and ways to see the world. But despite all that, I’ve always…
The other day at the gym, I overheard a group of teen guys chatting about their graduation ceremonies and who’d get to sit at whose table. They talked about a girl who “never asks you questions back, like, no matter how many times you ask her. She just gives you…
I’ve got nothing exciting to talk about this week because my brain is fried. Why, you might ask? Because acting will do that to ya. Don’t worry, your brain is in no permanent danger if you come to see Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters (Toronto, Red Sandcastle Theatre). But your funny bone might…