Results tagged “performingarts”

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

Urbanist is a photo series that will look at developments, architecture, trends and activities happening in various cities––including our own––to inspire the urbane urbanist at home to make Toronto a better place. While Toronto has been making headlines in recent years for its investment in artistic institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Ottawa has been in the spotlight of late because...

Martin Knelman, writing in the Star, once apologized for the lacklustre exterior of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts by describing it as a building that "has to be experienced from the inside out rather than the other way around." What better way to reinforce the impression that the performances showcased inside are principally targeted at an elite class than by plopping down a building that offers little to those standing on...

Fresh from this year's successful stab at World's Largest Thriller Dance, Toronto is looking to weasel its way into the Guinness Book yet again. This time, with a big-ass Christmas stocking.

As Torontoist reported yesterday, the Hummingbird Centre is changing its name to the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, marking the second change in corporate naming rights during the venue's half-century existence. Support of the site has ranged from a philanthropic brewer (O'Keefe Brewing head E.P. Taylor) to a multinational media company.

As of Friday, it's no longer the Hummingbird Centre, but instead the Sony Centre. You know what? All performing arts venues should be renamed so that they sound like something you would find at your local mall. It gives the whole experience more delicious corporate flavour.

The grand dame of Toronto's performing arts venues, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, celebrates its 100th birthday tomorrow. To mark the event, the Mirvishes have organized a free open house from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., during which you can go on a self-guided backstage tour, eat free grub at the BBQ in front of the theatre (weather permitting), or catch a tribute performance from the original members of the 1969 Canadian cast of Hair. (No word on whether they'll get naked onstage again.)

Bluma Appel, philanthropist and patron of the arts, died last night in a Toronto hospital from complications of cancer. She was 86.

This Sunday, July 8 from 12 to 9 p.m., Mirvish Village will host the first Pedestrian Sunday outside of Kensington Market. The neighbourhood is home to the landmark discount store Honest Ed’s and is a collection of boutiques, studios and restaurants, founded and named for the Mirvish family in recognition of Toronto’s retail show biz entrepreneur Ed Mirvish.

Every weekday, we pick an image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve!

Beginning Friday and running until July 1st, the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival is smoothly bringing over 60 swingin' musicians to play in venues all across town in what apparently is Canada's best jazz festival. Take that, Montreal!

The National Ballet of Canada kicked off its summer season last week with an impressive triple-bill performance at the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Ever wanted to know what goes on in the kitchens at the Royal York Hotel? Or see if the interior of the Gooderham Flatiron Building is as cool as its exterior? Or finally know what’s in that loft above the Pure Spirits building at the Distillery District?

What's that you say? You were out of town last fall when Daniel MacIvor's Here Lies Henry got remounted at Buddies and was the best thing since sliced bread? You were clinically dead in January when Monster, the second awesome remount of the one-man shows MacIvor created with Daniel Brooks went up? Well, cancel your trip to the Sea of Tranquility, because you have exactly 14 more chances to see the final remount, House, before it closes on April 1st and MacIvor, Brooks and Da Da Kamera officially retire these shows and disband their company forever.

How cool would it be if you could design a Toronto city street from scratch, top to bottom? How wide would it be? How many lanes? Would it have a streetcar? A bike lane? Would the buildings along it be residential, retail, or mixed?

By now, following the blog and mainstream media firestorm, almost everyone has seen this week's most discussed web clip involving a bride from hell and a bad hair day. The Star covered the buzz today with comments from Norman Jewison(!), the viral video was discussed this morning on NBC's Today show and it's been viewed almost 2.5 million times on YouTube. The big debate: it it real or fake?

If you’re turned off at the idea of classical music concerts because they seem like an activity for the high society rich, think again. There are plenty of ways to enjoy Toronto’s healthy classical music scene on the cheap or for free.







Toronto Symphony Orchestra


In an effort to infuse some young blood into its increasingly grey-haired audience demographic, the TSO offers $12 concert tickets to people aged 15 – 29 who become part of the tsoundcheck card program. You can sign up for the free card here or visit the TSO Customer Service Centre at 212 King St. W., 5th floor (across the road from Roy Thomson Hall) to pick one up in person. Then, simply flash the card along with photo ID to order special tsoundcheck tickets that usually become available a week or so before the performance. The card is good for up to two tickets per performance, so you can bring a guest who can be any age. As for the quality of the seats – well, don’t expect front row centre. But at $12 for tickets that routinely cost more than $100, it’s too good to pass up.








If you’re under 30, you can check out the COC in its swanky new digs that the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts for a mere $20 per ticket. A block of 150 specially priced Opera for a New Age tickets are reserved for each production and go on sale about a week before opening night. Discount tickets for Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Jan. 31 – Feb.23) and Faust (Feb. 1 – 24) go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. Buy them in person at the Four Seasons Centre (145 Queen St. W.) or online using the URL above. There’s a limit of two tickets per person per opera – and bring photo ID.

Canadian Opera Company









National Ballet of Canada


Sharing the Four Seasons Centre with the Canadian Opera Company is the National Ballet of Canada, which offers a limited number of rush tickets for its performances for $30. You can buy them in person from the box office starting 11 a.m. on the day of the show. The 07 seasons kicks of with The Taming of the Shrew which runs March 10 – 18.








Free classical music is happening around Toronto all the time. The University of Toronto Faculty of Music’s Thursdays at Noon series (at Walter Hall in the Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queen’s Park Cresc.) features lectures, solo recitals and ensemble performances from faculty members, students and guests.

There’s also the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in the lobby of the Four Seasons Centre on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon, and on the first Wednesday of every month at 5:30 p.m. Classical, jazz, world music and modern dance is on the program.

Free Recitals!

What does the international community say? U.S. President George W. Bush calls the verdict "a milestone in the Iraqi people's effort to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law". The UN and European Union criticize the former Iraqi leader's death sentence. Vatican representative, Cardinal Renato Martino, calls the sentence "eye for an eye vengeance". Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay refused to comment.

There's a lot of Henry Moore in the city of Toronto. After so many years of public school trips to the AGO, it took a fine art education to convince this writer that Moore wasn't a Canadian sculptor.

Theatre people often get a bum deal. Humiliating auditions, selling the car for acting classes or singing lessons or to fund a play, producing blood, sweat and tear-filled work and for what? To end up emotionally drained, penniless and with nothing but a collection of tap shoes and wigs to keep them warm at night? So is life on the stage. And, damn it, they deserve recognition for it.

This is the inside of the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, well you won't be seeing it tonight. Not unless you have a ticket to the fancy-pants opening night gala ,which apparently is sold out. Don't fret opera lover. You can join the rest of us plebs outside at Nathan Phillips Square where they'll be simulcasting the concert which will feature Canada's greatest living working tenor Ben Heppner. Just before the concert they'll also be showing Animate Opera, a series of NFB shorts done by kids aged 4-18. The "curtain" drops at 6:30pm tonight.

Torontoist was recently invited to take a peek inside at the soon-to-be-opened Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, better known as Toronto's opera house. Being one of the most highly anticipated buildings in Toronto history, we have to say we were more than a little curious to a look inside.

Seems like it's just bad news piled upon bad news for the city's small theatres this fall...

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Tall Poppy Interview - Noah Kenneally, Puppeteer

Mayor Miller unveiled plans for his 16-month TO arts public relations venture yesterday, oddly titled 'Live With Culture.' Naturally, this venture has a website. Ultimately, Livewithculture.ca will offer free entertainment listings, but for now its just an info page about the mayor and his monumental adventure in arts and crafts. Some of the other events tied to 'live with culture' do seem pretty cool - a 40th anniversary of City Hall photo retrospective, and a month of visual and performing arts in the subway. And somehow this experiment in cultural boosterism is also supposed to create 2,000 new jobs in the city. We'll live with a performance artist if it means new jobs for the city.

Looking to spruce up your resume? The stage production of "The Vagina Monologues" and V-Day Toronto are spending March seeking Toronto's next Vagina Warrior. Successful candidates must have made a positive contribution to helping create and maintain a violence-free social environment in the GTA. Knowledge of women's issues is not required, but would be considered an asset.

Selon le chercheur américain Richard Florida, Toronto arrive en première position pour l'importance de son noyau créatif, qui regroupe les emplois liés à la technologie et à la culture. Toronto est suivi de très près par Montréal.

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