All posts by Megan Mooney

Megan loves being in the thick of all things theatre, but her ultimate goal is to promote theatre to the world of non-theatre people. It was the same when she was the theatre writer for blogTO, or the Fringe Correspondent for CBC Radio One‘s Here and Now, as it is as the founder of Mooney on Theatre. Her basic belief is that there is theatre/performance out there for everyone to love, they just need to find it. This is not to be confused with the idea that everyone should love theatre for theatre’s sake, in fact, as obsessed as she is with theatre, even *she* doesn’t love all types of theatre.

What counts as theatre to you?

by Megan Mooney

baseball

When you think of theatre, what do you think of? I’m betting for the most part people think of a proscenium arch, actors on a stage behind that arch acting out a story for the audience.

One of the best lessons I have ever learned about theatre I learned in my first year of university. I was in an ‘Introduction to Theatre’ being taught by Ric Knowles. Ric taught us that theatre was everywhere. We went to a baseball game, to a religious ceremony, we went to dance performances and the opera, and we even when to a few shows that could be considered almost ‘traditional’ theatre.

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Exciting Times Ahead

by Megan Mooney

Well, theatre in Toronto is heating up for the summer (ha ha, get it? summer? heat? man, I’m just sooo funny).

There’s the Dora’s next Monday, a great celebration of theatre in our fine city. The trick is, will we all be awake enough to go since it’s right after the Pride parade.

Then there’s the Fringe festival July 2 – 13, which I have heard being affectionately called “summer camp for grown ups”.

Then in August there’s the Summerworks festival August 7-17.

Plus, of course, there’s all sorts of other non-festival things going on.

Gotta say, I love this city!

A Midsummer Night's Dream at LuminaTO

Review by Maarika Pinkney

Midsummer Night's Dream at LuminaTO

When I entered the Canon Theatre, my expectations soared through the roof. I was about to see an international, highly acclaimed performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at LuminaTO!

There was fabulous jungle gym set (though only exposed once Act II commenced) and three drum kits at the sides of the stage just waiting to be played. Once the play began the lighting was done so perfectly it portrayed every emotion and separated each location flawlessly. There were also large hanging cloths and ropes hanging from the ceiling, just teasing me with visions of Cirque de Soliel-esque acrobatics.

However, despite being thoroughly impressed by the set and lighting design, I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy what happens to be my favourite Shakespeare play.

Continue reading A Midsummer Night's Dream at LuminaTO →

Can't wait for the real thing

by Megan Mooney

As is to be expected with these things, the launch of this puppy (aka website) has been a bit rocky. There’s a number of contributing factors, ranging from there being no time to breath, to a lack of available breathing time.

Unfortunately that means that there hasn’t been a ton of content up lately, and also, the layout is still the very very basic layout/design we started with. But not to worry my fine friends! Soon there will be a new design! Soon there will be new content! Soon there will be new… no, wait, that’s about it, new design, new content.

The new launch will be this weekend, so that we can coincide with all the great stuff being put on by LuminaTO and make sure we’re live for Fringe.

This of course will not be a ‘final’ version. First of all, it’s the web, there are no final versions, but also, this is a growing baby, we’ll be tweaking it along the way – so, if you have any suggestions or things you’d like to see, just let us know.

Stay tuned folks!