David Rotenberg, founder and artistic director of the Professional Actors Lab, demonstrates the importance of authenticity in both acting and writing with a live reading event. He’ll be joined by his some of his more prominent acting students, who will give dramatic readings of his latest novel, A Murder of Crows. Featuring performances by James McGowan (The Border), Demore Barnes (Hannibal), Carrie-Lynn Neales (Seed), Ennis Esmer (The L.A. Complex), and Jonas Chernick (The Border).
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David Rotenberg: On the Art of Believability
Funke Aladejebi of York University’s Harriet Tubman Institute takes us back to Toronto between 1950 and 1970 as part of the Toronto Public Library’s History Matters series. Learn about the Black Power movement, and how black organizations used education to combat racism.
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History Matters: Black Power in Toronto
Soup Can Theatre presents a short-run double bill of two classic works that were both ahead of their respective times. Samuel Barber’s contemporary opera A Hand of Bridge focuses on themes of jealousy, unrequited love, marital infidelity, and bisexuality. Sartre’s No Exit finds three strangers in Hell, faced not with eternal torture, but with the pain each others’ words, thoughts, and actions inflict. A Hand of Bridge will be backed by a live 14-piece orchestra.
This listing originally said, incorrectly, that both No Exit and A Hand of Bridge will be accompanied by an orchestra. In fact, only A Hand of Bridge has that distinction.
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A Hand of Bridge and No Exit
Sorry Twi-hards, this has nothing to do with vampires. Fresh Blood celebrates the work of emerging Canadian choreographers from a number of dance backgrounds. Each choreographer has five minutes to showcase their work. Featuring Meredith Andersen, Daina Ashbee, Rhonda Baker, Sarain Carson-Fox, Emilio Colallio, Justin De Bernardi, Michelle Fox, Kurtis Herd, Anali Reizvikh, Leslie Glen, Jacob Niedzwiecki, Jillian Peever, Alysa Pires, Amanda Pye, Rhanda Jones, Anjelica Scannura, Elke Schroeder, and Colleen Snell.
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Fresh Blood
We could watch funnyman Pat Thornton do standup for hours and hours. In fact, we have—several times. The comic headlines all this week at Yuk Yuk’s Toronto alongside some hilarious guest performers.
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Pat Thornton at Yuk Yuk’s Toronto
If you’re looking to expand your cultural knowledge of Latin America, look no further than the aluCine Festival. This showcase of all things Latin American features a wide variety of events, including film screenings, art installations, and workshops.
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aluCine Latin Film and Media Arts Festival
Tonight (March 19), the second-annual Sound Image Music Photography Contest and Exhibition kicks off with a party. Judges Stephen Carlick (Exclaim! photo editor), Lucia Graca (creative director of Analogue Gallery), music photographer Barrie Wentzell, and Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning will start the evening by announcing the contest’s winner. The two-week-long exhibition features work from Courtney Lee Yip, Brian Patterson, Jess Baumung, Kevin Calixte, Roger Cullman, Vanessa Heins, and more.
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Sound Image Music Photography Exhibition
fu-GEN Theatre Company presents the Canadian premiere of Lauren Yee’s cheeky and insightful play, Ching Chong Chinaman. The ultra-assimilated Wong family don’t quite fit the Asian-American stereotype: teenaged Upton ignores chores and homework to play video games, and his sister Desi’s math scores are less than stellar. Upton’s solution to both problems? Hire an Asian indentured servant with an American dream. Starring Zoe Doyle, Brenda Kamino, Oliver Koomsatira, Richard Lee, Jane Luk, and John Ng.
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Ching Chong Chinaman
If there’s one thing that’s particularly impressive about Second City’s new mainstage show, The Meme-ing of Life, it’s how well balanced it is.
As the title implies, Meme-ing is nominally a show about the internet, and certainly there is a fair bit of internet-centric humour. (One sketch, about a boy who falls into a YouTube-induced coma that can only be cured by reading, is particularly on point.) That said, it isn’t just a series of jokes about cat videos. Instead, it’s a well-thought-out show that manages to offer something for pretty much everyone, without stretching itself too thin.
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The Meme-ing of Life is an Epic Win
It’s hardly news nowadays when an actor disrobes onstage, giving an audience a glimpse at what’s underneath a costume. It’s another thing entirely when the theatre itself strips down to its bare bones.
For Canadian Stage’s production of THIS, by Melissa James Gibson, a Canadian playwright gaining popularity in New York City, artistic director (and director of the play) Matthew Jocelyn and set designer Astrid Janson did just that to the historic Berkeley Street Theatre in Corktown.
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THIS Reveals a Theatre’s Bones
The Toronto Comedy Brawl is in the middle of a growth spurt. Despite humble beginnings, Ian Atlas’ amateur competition has grown from 64 participants to, this year, a few hundred.
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Toronto Comedy Brawl Welcomes Amateurs into the Fold
