Comic book fans and cinephiles, this weekend’s your last chance to check out an exhibition that highlights the amazing work of makeup artist/special effects designer guru, Gordon Smith. Internationally known for his work with the X-Men films, here you’ll be able to take a closer look at several characters up close (including Wolverine, Mystique, Toad, and Nightcrawler). Don’t miss this chance to see the extreme detail and hard work that went into making these comic book characters come to life.
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X-Men Master: Gordon Smith
This will be a first outing for Girls Night On, a new monthly sketch showcase that will feature some pretty super lady comedians, including Second City alums, Canadian Comedian Award winners, and many others. Produced by Carly Heffernan, Ashley Comeau, and Laura Cilevitz. It’s a new series, so it’s hard to know what to expect, but something tells us there will probably be plenty of laughing involved.
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Girls Night On!
Indie rock band Beliefs has a new album out. To celebrate, the group is making a tour stop at the good ol’ Garrison. If you’re into dream-pop type bands like Beach House, you’ll be sure to like this. You can stream the whole album on the band’s Soundcloud page, here.
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Beliefs
If you’re searching for something to do this Easter weekend, consider spending it with your favourite dude. The Dude’s Passover: The Big Lebowski is yet another holiday screening of the classic cult film. You get two drinks with your ticket, indoor bowling, and, of course, plenty of laughs to be shared all around. (Those of you who went to the New Year’s Eve screening know how much fun this is.)
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The Dude’s Passover: The Big Lebowski
Looking to go back to the good times of yesteryear? Let Panic, Toronto’s self-styled retro party, take you there. This weekend’s edition is a particularly special affair, as they’re celebrating their 10th anniversary with a spotlight on ’80s icon Depeche Mode. Also, the first 50 people get a free retro mix CD by DJ Lazarus; a few copies of Depeche Mode’s new album will also be given away.
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Panic Retro Party, With a Spotlight on Depeche Mode
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
When’s the last time you attempted to reconceptualize the dimensions of space? If it’s been a while, you might consider checking out a new exhibition called I Thought There Were Limits, which aims to do just that. This particular exhibit is unique in that the artwork forms a relationship with the site itself (in this case, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery). The work on display is brought to you by curator Julia Abraham (as part of the MVS degree in Curatorial Studies at the University of Toronto). The artists include Karen Henderson, Yam Lau, Gordon Lebredt, Kika Thorne, and Josh Thorpe.
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I Thought There Were Limits
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
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
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
The Whipping Man is a 2011 John Gassner New Play Award–winning play that’s set during Passover in 1865. The show tells the tale of a confederate officer who has returned home after the Civil War to find his family missing, but two former slaves remaining. While waiting for the family’s return, the concepts of master and slave, and those of slavery and war, are explored. Directed by Philip Akin and starring Sterling Jarvis, Brett Donahue, and Thomas Olajide.
(Bonus tip: you can save 25 per cent off tickets to the March 16 and April 4 shows by buying them through Toronto-based publisher Bookclub-in-a-Box.)
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The Whipping Man
Classic comedy series Theatresports is back for another season of improv hilarity. Now in its 30th year, this comedy tournament continues the tradition of allowing the audience members to choose the content of the scene and letting them judge the results; finals will be held at the end of May. Among the planned guests are comedic greats including Lisa Merchant and Craig Anderson (Canadian Comedy Award winners), Kerry Griffin (Second City alum), and many more.
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Theatresports
Rhyme Reason or Otherwise is a play about Debra, whose pregnancy forces her to reexamine her love life, her religion, and her identity. It’s written by Rachel Ganz, directed by Jeremy Hutton, and performed by the Hart House Players.
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Rhyme Reason or Otherwise
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
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
