Ilana Lucas has been a big theatre nerd since witnessing a fateful Gilbert and Sullivan production at the age of seven. She has studied theatre for most of her life, holds a BA in English and Theatre from Princeton and an MFA in Dramaturgy and Script Development from Columbia, and is currently a professor of English and Theatre at Centennial College. She believes that theatre has a unique ability to foster connection, empathy and joy, and has a deep love of the playfulness of the written word. Her favourite theatrical experience was the nine-hour, all-day Broadway performance of The Norman Conquests, which made fast friends of an audience of strangers.
Electric performance anchors this revival of Vitals, now on stage in Toronto
Vitals, by Outside the March playwright-in-residence Rosamund Small, has received several productions and many accolades since its debut, including the 2014 Dora Awards for Outstanding Production and New Play (Independent Theatre category). New theatre company Theatre Born Between devotes its premiere production to the one-woman show, presented in stripped-down form at The Commons Theatre. Thanks to a strong performer and some unique staging elements, the company proves that this urgent script doesn’t need an elaborate production to remain vital.
An “insightful look at the moral complexity of an untold story,” now on stage in Toronto.
Most Canadian history classes, if my experience is any indication, teach very little about African involvement in the first World War – many of those important details tend to get lost under the narrative of Canada coming into its own as a nation. It’s those missing pieces in our knowledge that spurred Zazu Oke and Vince Deiulis of Theatre Nidāna to create Gods Like Us, now playing at the Factory Studio Theatre, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting.
Janice Jo Lee’s play tackles white supremacy with brutal honesty but also song and humour, is now playing in Toronto
The original title of Will You Be My Friend, a Green Light Arts production now playing at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, was Janice Lee and the White Supremacy Showdown. Both titles fit the work, but the former was used for marketing reasons, “so that you would come,” Kitchener-Waterloo playwright and solo performer Janice Jo Lee says. Lee’s brutal honesty, surrounded by appealing songs and humour, makes the show an iron fist in a slowly-removed velvet glove.
Sarah DeLappe’s stunning debut play takes the stage … er … soccer pitch in Toronto
The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe, shortlisted for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, features a demographic who has a very hard time being taken seriously while facing ultra-serious pressures: teenage girls. This teen girl squad is a highly-competitive soccer team, vying for the eye of university scouts while navigating their complicated interpersonal relationships and their place in the world. DeLappe’s adept hand with this complex world makes it hard to believe this is her first play, and its critical reception is justified. This production, by The Howland Company and Crow’s Theatre, brims with vitality, humour, and heart; it’s one of the best shows I’ve seen in some time.
A site-specific promenade performance at Toronto’s Fort York is an interactive history lesson
One of the performers in Talking Treaties Spectacle, “a mobile performance artfully sharing Indigenous knowledge and history” presented by Jumblies Theatre at Historic Fort York, reveals that he used to think that treaties were large, ornate gilded papers preserved in books, argued over by lawyers from both sides and fairly agreed on by everyone. This turns out to be anything but the truth: treaties have often been unequal, deceptive, neglected, and even misplaced.
Electric performance anchors this revival of Vitals, now on stage in Toronto
An “insightful look at the moral complexity of an untold story,” now on stage in Toronto.
Janice Jo Lee’s play tackles white supremacy with brutal honesty but also song and humour, is now playing in Toronto
Sarah DeLappe’s stunning debut play takes the stage … er … soccer pitch in Toronto
A site-specific promenade performance at Toronto’s Fort York is an interactive history lesson