Category Archives: Features

Raising funds for Ukraine: theatre steps up. A play, a playwright, Pyretic Productions, and the Blyth Festival

Posted on March 9, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It started with the discovery of a hand-written diary, the journal in which Lianna Makuch’s grandmother recorded her flight, on foot, from war-ravaged Ukraine in 1944.  That wrenching chronicle, and an anniversary of the full-scale Russian … Continue reading →

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Meet the Mischief-makers, creators of comic havoc (witness Peter Pan Goes Wrong at the Citadel)

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The three creators of Mischief Theatre‘s Peter Pan Goes Wrong were in town last week to watch the North American debut of their 2013 play unleash theatrical chaos on the Citadel mainstage. The trio of Londoners … Continue reading →

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Theatre rooted in the land: Ayita, premiering at SkirtsAfire. Meet creator Teneil Whiskeyjack

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The mainstage centrepiece of the 10th anniversary edition of SkirtsAfire — the multidisciplinary arts festival devoted to celebrating and showcasing women and non-binary artists — is a new play. Distinctively Indigenous in its inspiration, creation, and … Continue reading →

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Ten years of SkirtsAfire: amplifying the voices of women and non-binary artists

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It’s been a decade, amazingly, since Annette Loiselle and a couple of her actor friends, Sharla Matkin and Nadien Chu, sat at the Carrot Cafe, plotting over popcorn, red wine, and lopsided statistics.  For years Loiselle, … Continue reading →

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Old Strathcona here they come: for the first time in Workshop West history, a theatre of their own

Posted on February 23, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Workshop West Playwrights Theatre is moving.   Come March 1 you’ll find the venerable company, age 43, in their own theatre, in the heart of Edmonton’s entertainment district. Welcome to the newly christened Gateway Theatre in … Continue reading →

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A home of their own, in the entertainment ‘hood: Rapid Fire Theatre at 41

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca They’ve dreamed it for years. Now, at age 41, Rapid Fire Theatre finally has a home of their own. And it’s in the ‘hood that’s their  traditional home base, Old Strathcona.  Edmonton’s premier improv company is … Continue reading →

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Melanie Piatocha: theatre has lost a bright talent and a questing spirit

Posted on February 15, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In this bleak mid-winter of theatre, heartbreaking news of the January death of actor Melanie Piatocha at 36 seems particularly cruel. The abrupt loss of a talent so expansive, and a quester so spirited, so restless, … Continue reading →

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Someone on your side: Berend McKenzie, Catalyst Confluence Fellow, reaches out to outsiders

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “This is about visibility!” declares Berend McKenzie with the kind of go-for-the-gusto velocity that makes time fly when you talk to them. “This is about opportunity! This is about being in the room where it happens!” … Continue reading →

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New faces in theatre: meet theatre creator/ designer Even Gilchrist

Posted on February 5, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

They’re young, adaptable, and creative. And as theatre returns in this late-pandemic grind, and the doors open to live audiences, we’ll be seeing the work of these theatre artists light up, and transform, the scene here, on- and backstage. You’ll … Continue reading →

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New faces in theatre: meet composer/lyricist Simon Abbott

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Liz Nicholls

They’re young, adaptable, and creative. And as theatre returns in this late-pandemic grind, and the doors open to live audiences, we’ll be seeing the work of these theatre artists light up, and transform, the scene here, on- and backstage. Meet … Continue reading →

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