Category Archives: Previews

Let the journeying begin: Northern Light Theatre announces a new season

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The journey. After two years of our collective fretfulness — isolation, scrambling on the ground, pivoting on one foot, running on the spot as the world crumbles — theatre’s favourite metaphor gathers new dimensions. Journeys, and … Continue reading

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Under the big top: after two years Freewill Shakespeare Festival is back in the park

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The geese are milling around backstage in the greenest of green rooms. A crew is planting marigolds on the route between the gate and the stage. The mosquitos are working out their ensemble numbers. Sound cues … Continue reading

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Trying to ‘do gender right’ through the trans lens: Re:Construct, at RISER

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Playwright Even Gilchrist was in full producer mode at home one morning last week, making a cake for his new play. The play? Re:Construct, premiering Wednesday at the Backstage Theatre in RISER Edmonton’s 2022 series. The … Continue reading

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Creation and destruction: the story of an artist in Stone and Soil, at Nextfest. Meet playwright Gabby Bernard

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It’s not random chance that the role Gabby Bernard wrote for herself in her first full-length solo play is an artist character. It’s a sign of the age. After all, theatre artists have had two years … Continue reading

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Strangers on a train: the real-life story that inspired Omisimawiw, at Nextfest. Meet playwright Shyanne Duquette

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Strangers on a train. Imagine the scene (with special thanks to the ETS): a young woman on the LRT, heading towards class at the university, notices another young woman on the LRT. There’s just something about … Continue reading

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The building of Pressure, at Nextfest. Meet playwright Amanda Samuelson

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Amanda Samuelson remembers the moment Pressure began to build.  Her play, which gets a workshop reading at Nextfest Saturday and then becomes Nextfest’s first-ever official Fringe show in August, began in the winter of 2018. In … Continue reading

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Nextfest 2022, live and under one roof, at the new Roxy

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca When you ask Nextfest artistic director Ellen Chorley what’s new at the festival this year, she laughs. “Everything!” she says of the 27th annual edition of the influential multi-disciplinary festival that showcases and celebrates emerging artists. … Continue reading

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Destination Fringe: Edmonton Fringe Theatre is back with a moniker, a live festival, and a curated season of productions

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca The Edmonton Fringe is back, live, this summer, for a big 41st edition, in a place where that really matters. And its name speaks volumes: Destination Fringe. Yes, fellow travellers, as live theatre emerges from the … Continue reading

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The strange cycles of theatre: Shannon Blanchet returns to Teatro to direct the vintage comedy thriller Evelyn Strange

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Every once in a while the world of live theatre pulls off one of those satisfying but fanciful multi-strand time loops that wouldn’t be out of place in a play. Opera is involved; so is comedy. … Continue reading

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The inheritance of war and the passion for freedom: Alina is a Ukrainian story

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca In early 2015, a 19-year-old woman left Kyiv, and everything in her life there — and she went to the front line of the war zone in eastern Ukraine. Alina was not a soldier. She was … Continue reading

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