Editors
Megan Mooney – Publisher
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.
Wayne Leung (1981-2019) – Managing Editor from 2012 to 2019
Wayne will be sorely missed. His death from an apparent heart attack was a loss not just to Mooney on Theatre, but also to the Toronto Theatre Community at large. You can read our publisher Megan Mooney’s tribute to him here here.
Wayne was a writer, editor and corporate communications professional who was thrilled to be a part of the Mooney on Theatre team. Wayne loved theatre ever since his aunt brought him to a production of Les Misérables at the tender age of ten . . . despite the fact that, at that age, the show’s plot was practically indiscernible and the battle scenes scared the bejeezus out of him. Wayne’s current list of likes ran the gamut from opera, ballet and Shakespeare to Broadway musicals, circus and Fringe theatre. Outside of the theatre Wayne’s interests included travel, technology and food.
Samantha Wu – Editor
Samantha is both a writer and a fan of the arts and has been able to find numerous ways to pair the two. Aside from being an editor here at Mooney on Theatre, she’s a photojournalist for Been Here Done That, a travel, dining and tourism blog that focuses on Toronto and abroad and previously for Lithium Magazine, which got her writing and shooting about everything from Dave Matthews Band to Fan Expo. She’s passionate about music, theatre, photography, writing, and celebrating sexuality — not necessarily in that order. She drinks tea more than coffee, prefer ciders over beers, and sings karaoke way too loudly. You can follow her on various social media including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Lindsay Young – Editor
Lin Young is a PhD candidate at Queen’s University by day, an insatiable theatre-goer by night. She truly loves seeing innovative indie theatre, the strange sort of hole-in-the-wall shows that big companies would never take a risk on. She’s seen plays in basements, gardens, bars, and in old dilapidated houses, to name a few. She’s always on the lookout for the next theatrical experiment in the city, and loves seeing shows that have some quality of fantasy, historicity, or strangeness to them – especially if they involve puppets! She tweets about theatre, comics and the 19th century at @linkeepsitreal.
Jess Gillis – Assistant Editor
Jess is an East coast transplant to Toronto who stumbled into her love of theatre via her social media gig at Ballyhoo Push Pin Media, and stumbled into review writing via an open call to cover the 2015 Fringe Festival for MoT. In addition to writing for MoT, she also blogs about dating, white supremacy, fat politics, theatre, graphic design, and sex at thejessgillis.blogspot.com. She’s a self-taught freelance graphic designer by trade, and a visual artist by passion. She sells and displays her wares at jessgillis.com. She’s passionate about laughter, anti-oppression, sex workers’ rights, body positivity, vegan food, cycling, good TV, and swimming. If you want to follow her foodie, nail art, and pet sitting posts, you can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @TheJessGillis
Senior Writers
S. Bear Bergman
S. Bear Bergman has great faith in the power of theatre to make change, and has been putting his money where his mouth is on that one for some time. A writer, performer, and lecturer, Bear works full time as an artist and cultural worker and loves to see as much live performance as possible, making this a fantastic gig for him.
Istvan Dugalin
Apart from his (pathological?) obsession with airplane disasters, Istvan is a filmmaker and film enthusiast, but began his creative adventures in theatre. Starting out as an actor, he soon discovered a preference for life behind-the-scenes. He has experience in lighting design, stage management and production management, but his passion is writing and directing. With several short films and an indie feature under his belt, film has been his focus in recent years, but theatre has been calling him back. You see more of his critical writing at his film reflection blog: http://captiveviscera.wordpress.com/
Dorianne Emmerton
Dorianne is a graduate of the Theatre and Drama Studies joint program between University of Toronto and Sheridan College. She writes short stories, plays and screenplays, and you can visit her website at www.dorianneemmerton.com to find her publications, some of which are online so you can read them for the low, low price of free. She’s also a speaker and a storyteller and a host of Sex City on the CIUT radio station. She likes beer, cheese and summer and hates pants. You can follow her on twitter @headonist if you like tweets about cats, books, sex, food, toddlers, LGBTQ stuff and leftish politics.
Sam Mooney
Everything Sam knows about theatre she learned from her amazing daughter Megan – the Mooney in Mooney on Theatre. Sam’s one of those people who used to find theatre intimidating. Not the big shows, but anything a little less than mainstream.
Her top two theatre memories:
- Taking a 7 year-old Megan to see Charlie’s Aunt at one of the lavish old rococo theatres in London. After looking around at the gilt, the ornate plaster, and the velvet Megan said, “I didn’t know that ordinary people could come to a place like this.”
- Going to a matinee performance of Fences on Broadway in 1987 when at least half the audience were suburban Baptists. They talked to the characters, shouted encouragement, disapproval, and warnings. When the play ended and the audience was standing waiting to leave, the woman in the next seat hugged her and said, “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Wasn’t that the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen?“
Other Contributors
Vance Brews
Like many struggling actors, Vance Brews mostly uses his training as an actor to critique other people’s works. For him, theatre is one of the most personal and intimate types of art. He takes great joy in seeing companies push boundaries and explore new or powerful ideas. He’s also a big fan of sketch comedy and improv. He remembers a matinee of Sally Clark’s Moo with four people in the audience, where it seemed everything that could go wrong did. Yet, with props failing, costumes ripping and general chaos besetting the cast, they soldiered on and entertained that audience with gusto. Theatre is dedication.
Madeleline Copp
Madeleine Copp saw her first show when she was four years old and it was love at first sight. She pursued a bachelor’s in theatre production and design and English literature, culminating in a love for flexible, innovative, and diverse theatre artists that challenge all our preconceived notions of the stage. Her thesis, Printed Voices: Women, Print, and Performance pushed for new interpretations of closet drama from the early modern to modern period in the hopes of seeing more female playwrights included in the performance canon. Since graduating, Madeleine continues to seek out unexpected, startling, and challenging works that leave her angry, speechless, and wonderfully confused.
Keira Grant
Keira Grant has enjoyed a passion for music and drama her entire life. From her grass roots in school and church musicals she went on to a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music from York and a Master’s of Music from Western in Literature & Performance. Keira worked very hard to inject a radical, anti-oppressive perspective in discussions with class-mates and professors alike while learning to perform the works of countless dead white men. Although she currently spends her days helping her employer constructively address the Nurse Jackies of the health care system, she does so with a song in her heart. Keira is very excited and eager to share beautiful and challenging music with the smart and sexy people gathered here tonight.
Catherine Jan
A former freelance translator in Paris, Catherine Jan now enjoys writing in Toronto and about Toronto. Especially about Toronto theatre. She also blogs about translation, copywriting, editing and other word-related past-times at Catherine Translates. Are you on Twitter? Join @translatetrad‘s 2,000 followers who keep up with her workin’ girl tweets.
Chris Klippenstein
Chris is a graduate student at the University of Toronto. She works with medieval and early modern English literature, especially between the 14th and 16th Centuries (the best centuries). Chris divides her time between grad school, improv, and writing; her work has appeared online in The Globe and Mail and onstage at the McGill Drama Festival. Her favourite playwrights are Peter Shaffer and Shakespeare. You can read more from Chris at chrisklippenstein.wordpress.
Ilana Lucas
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.
Mirette Shoeir
Mirette is a performing arts enthusiast who put together her Masters of Theatre and Performance Studies from York University, and her Bachelor of Business Administration to become an arts administrator. She believes in the power of the performing arts to transcend language and loves supporting new work. In her capacity as marketer, fundraiser and producer she has worked with companies such as Obsidian Theatre, the Toronto Fringe Festival, Volcano and Peggy Baker Dance Projects. She is currently the Marketing Associate for Sue Edworthy Arts Planning. She is on a mission to see as much theatre as possible, making this gig with Mooney a great way to subsidize her addiction.
Ashima Suri
With her love of theatre, dance and writing, Ashima Suri jumped on the opportunity to write for Mooney On Theatre. Ashima is an award-winning, established dance artist with her own dance theatre company called Limitless Productions. In her own work, she uses art as a tool for social change. As a reviewer, she seeks out shows that speak to the diversity in the community. She loves to watch innovative shows that break the norms and challenge the audiences.