In the past several years, a phone call has begun to seem almost invasive, the unhappy middle between in-person nonverbal cues and the ability to carefully craft one’s sentences in text. Now that we can’t be in the same place, and screens are tiring and omnipresent, perhaps it’s time for a resurgence. Convergence Theatre’s The Corona Variations, written and directed primarily by Julie Tepperman, is theatre inspired by our current anxieties about the world around us and the changes to our lives as we knew them. It’s theatre that “phones home.”
Every industry has been hit hard by COVID-19, and the performing arts are no exception, with a projected $500 million loss in ticket sales for arts organizations in Toronto alone. Seasons are cancelled, artists are out of work, and people are scared. Conversely, however, there has been an explosion of innovative creation since the lockdown, with livestreamed sing-alongs, balcony concerts, writing challenges, and virtual rehearsals.
Paying tribute to Wayne Leung (1981-2019): passionate theatre advocate and MoT Managing Editor
I first met Wayne in 2011 when I interviewed him for the position of Assistant Editor at Mooney on Theatre. I remember sitting across from him with my Managing Editor at the time, Mira Saraf, and feeling like I was interviewing myself. It was an eerie feeling. His philosophies on theatre and business felt like a complete match for mine. Even the examples he used when answering questions often felt like word-for-word matches to ones I’d used in my own interviews for other positions.
Toronto artists perform Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical as a benefit for Puerto Rico
Before there was Hamilton, the phenomenally successful hip hop musical that conquered Broadway and much of the English-speaking theatre world, there was In the Heights, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical about a Dominican-American community in New York’s Washington Heights neighbourhood. Now, a group of Toronto theatre artists is coming together to perform an in-concert version of Miranda’s seminal, semi-autobiographical show to raise funds for Puerto Rican hurricane relief via The Hispanic Federation.
We asked director Matt Lacas (Corpus Dance) a few questions about the project.
Jerusalem, Life After, and Orphée+ win big at the 39th Dora Awards
Toronto artists perform Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical as a benefit for Puerto Rico