Monthly Archives: March 2024

The long weekend in a theatre town

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca What happens on a long weekend in a theatre town? For starters, a new indie puppet musical and a musical theatre classic, an insightful and captivating comedy about teenage girls, a musical revue, a new play … Continue reading

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The Expanse Fest is back for a 19th annual edition, ‘re-framed’

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Expanse, Azimuth Theatre’s 19-year-old movement arts festival, a “celebration of ALL bodies onstage,” is back, March 28 through April 4. And, says Azimuth’s co-artistic director Morgan Yamada, it’s been “re-framed” for the hard-edged realities of our … Continue reading

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‘My love letter to queer and trans kids’: The Adventure of Young Turtle launches Expanse Festival 2024

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca One morning this week, I went on an undersea excursion backstage at the Westbury Theatre, and I met an apprehensive moray eel. Their body was once an air compressor hose, their eyes Gatorade bottle lids, and … Continue reading

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Back-combing the ’60s: Hairspray at the Jube, a review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Something has happened to the light-hold flexible Hairspray we’ve always known. It’s gone Ultra-Clutch. In a world of chronic downsizing — of prospects, budgets, the polar ice cap … — there’s something reassuring, in theory, about … Continue reading

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Springboards, Workshop West’s signature new play festival, is back

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Springboards is back this week. And with it, our annual backstage pass to the world of artistic creation, where new plays get born and develop. Workshop West Playwrights Theatre’s new play festival, which returned after a … Continue reading

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An evening in the park with Sondheim and up-and-comers at MacEwan, and more

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Last night in a packed theatre I got a chance to see the only musical in the repertoire where the rhyme of “rapturous” and “capture us” floats through the air. Both apply to the experience of … Continue reading

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Three musicals and a comedy: snow reason to stay home, the weekend onstage

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Edmonton, you have choices on stage this weekend, including a delightful and insightful comedy that sees into the complicated lives of teenage girls, and three musicals that land miles apart on the musical theatre spectrum  — … Continue reading

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A groundbreaking musical about making art: a rare chance to see Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George, at MacEwan

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “There’s a part of you always standing by, Mapping out the sky, Finishing a hat….” Something rare and special is happening this week at MacEwan University: a production of Sunday In The Park With George. There … Continue reading

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The Edmonton Fringe in crisis, and you can help: our beloved summer theatre festival launches a campaign to sustain it

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The Edmonton Fringe, our beloved summer theatre festival, has announced it’s in crisis. And the community that this the oldest and biggest of the continent’s fringe festivals has done so much to enhance and enliven, needs … Continue reading

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Building a robot and making friends: fresh and funny Robot Girls premieres at Shadow Theatre, a review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It’s fresh. It’s funny. Its sharp-eyed insights into the fraught high-stress lives of junior high teenage girls are blended into fast-acting chemistry in Trevor Schmidt’s winsome, hilarious, often touching, new comedy Robot Girls. It’s a tricky … Continue reading

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