Author Archives: Liz Nicholls

The fascinating mystery of Mrs. Houdini: Louise Casemore’s Lucky Charm premieres at Found Fest

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca You know how a question slides into your brain at an oblique angle — and takes over — when you’re really supposed to be thinking about something else? Actor/playwright Louise Casemore has been there. And the … Continue reading →

Posted in Previews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The fascinating mystery of Mrs. Houdini: Louise Casemore’s Lucky Charm premieres at Found Fest

Putting the Find back in Found: the festival of unexpected encounters with art and artists is back

Posted on July 5, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca What will you Find at Found? Surprise! “Experiences you can’t find anywhere else,” says Whittyn Jason, the director of the festival of unexpected encounters with art and artists. Common Ground Arts Society’s Found Fest is back … Continue reading →

Posted in Features, Previews | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Putting the Find back in Found: the festival of unexpected encounters with art and artists is back

The season on Edmonton stages, highlights part 2

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Remembering the 2024-2025 theatre season — in its performances, its design inspirations, its risky experiments, its moments of magic (and/or crazy live-ness) — and its saddest, most irreplaceable losses. Start with those. The passing of wonderful … Continue reading →

Posted in Features | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The season on Edmonton stages, highlights part 2

Fun at camp: Freewill goes for the bold strokes in As You Like It. A review

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The first hint that Freewill Shakespeare’s As You Like It will go for the bold strokes is that Orlando (the magnetic Braydon Dowler-Coltman), in ball cap and sunglasses, roars up to the stage, to an overture … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Fun at camp: Freewill goes for the bold strokes in As You Like It. A review

Rediscovering the self you’ve lost (with sun and sea): Shirley Valentine at the Mayfield, a review

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca At the Mayfield, you have a chance to see a vintage show get a new lease on life — just like its heroine.  Shirley Valentine, a 1986 solo play by the Liverpool playwright Willy Russell, is … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Rediscovering the self you’ve lost (with sun and sea): Shirley Valentine at the Mayfield, a review

Troy O’Donnell has a history with the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, and this year’s As You Like It

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The play that opens Friday in a park overlooking the river valley is all about finding yourself on an excursion to the great outdoors, “the green world.” No wonder the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, which has gone … Continue reading →

Posted in Previews | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Troy O’Donnell has a history with the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, and this year’s As You Like It

Remembering the season in Edmonton theatre, highlights part 1

Posted on June 25, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In Goblin:Macbeth, the brilliant Spontaneous Theatre production that came to the Citadel’s Highwire Series this season, one of the goblin stars wonders aloud what the strange human ritual called theatre is actually for, anyhow. And he … Continue reading →

Posted in Features | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Remembering the season in Edmonton theatre, highlights part 1

The sound of Silence: a new opera at NUOVA Vocal Arts, a review

Posted on June 24, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Silence. Now there’s a puckish name for an opera. With Silence, NUOVA Vocal Arts has taken in hand an expansive, richly imagined 1999 play by the English playwright/screenwriter Moira Buffini. This new addition to the opera … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The sound of Silence: a new opera at NUOVA Vocal Arts, a review

Get festive: it’s a four-festival weekend on (and above and near) Edmonton stages

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca We sure do know how to get festive in this town. It’s a FOUR-festival weekend on (and above and near and beyond) Edmonton stages. So a toast is in order. •At the Exchange Theatre in Strathcona, … Continue reading →

Posted in Features, Previews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Get festive: it’s a four-festival weekend on (and above and near) Edmonton stages

Play into opera: Darrin Hagen turns his hand to writing a libretto. And the rest is Silence, premiering at NUOVA Vocal Arts

Posted on June 19, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Darrin Hagen has written plays, songs, stories, essays, queer histories, a memoir, an award-winning film documentary. He’s created drag cabarets (and sometimes starred in them too), devised queer tours, hosted web series, created music videos. He’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Previews | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Play into opera: Darrin Hagen turns his hand to writing a libretto. And the rest is Silence, premiering at NUOVA Vocal Arts