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.
Canadian Comedy Award-winning duo and Fringe mainstays Peter N’ Chris would like you to know that they have been doing comedy together for ten years – or maybe eight. In their latest Toronto Fringe Festival offering, Peter Vs Chris, they intend to go mano a mano for the last time, and only one will be left standing on the Tarragon Theatre Mainspace stage (this is, in some ways, a literal statement: there is a lot of falling down). As is befitting a Peter N’ Chris show, this may or may not be true, but part of the duo’s delight comes from the way they are always able to keep the audience just slightly off-balance.
Many people find improv — particularly in front of an audience — to be terrifying. An equally large number find singing in public to be just as daunting. To promise what Songbuster Musical does in their Toronto Fringe Festival show, Songbuster – An Improvised Musical, therefore, takes an enormous leap of faith: an hour-long musical, created and performed in real time at the Randolph Theatre, on the spot.
Well, in tonight’s improvised musical, a priest may have lost his faith, but I didn’t: an extremely talented cast of comedians and musicians largely delivered on their promise on opening (and closing) night.
To procreate, or not to procreate? In All KIDding Aside (Christel Bartelse/DutchGirl Productions), currently running at the Toronto Fringe Festival, Christel Bartelse (creator of previous Fringe shows Chaotica and ONEymoon) takes to the Tarragon Theatre Extraspace stage to make the biggest decision of her life.
The No Bull$#!% History of Invention, playing at the St. Vladimir Institute during the Toronto Fringe Festival, is a stylistic sequel of sorts to company The House of Style’sThe No Bull$#!% History of Canada. It’s a lighthearted lecture that takes the audience through some of our greater and lesser-known world-changing inventions, and the fascinating men and women who came up with (or stole) them. Unlike the brassiere or toilet, it’s probably not going to change your world, but like the telephone, it’s a perfectly nice way to spend an hour of your time.
