Tag Archives: Grindstone Comedy Theatre and Bistro

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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EDMONten is back, to showcase full-length 10-minute plays

Posted on September 29, 2021 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca They’re new, they’re full-length, and, impossibly, they’re 10 minutes long, curtain up to curtain down. EDMONten is back this week, live and online from the Grindstone Comedy Theatre, for a second annual showcase of six original … Continue reading →

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Happy Valentine’s weekend: have some theatre with your champagne

Posted on February 12, 2021 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Let’s try to ignore for the moment the origins of Valentine’s Day as a feast day in honour of a martyr, and, more recently, a massacre. Or the source of a bottomless supply of gummy limericks, … Continue reading →

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Giving 2020 the kiss-off (and welcoming 2021): how to be festive on New Year’s Eve

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It’s entirely possible no one will see your party shoes. But if there was ever a New Year’s Eve to hoist a glass of bubbly and cheer loudly, it’s got to be this one. And it … Continue reading →

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The experimental spirit lives on in Edmonton theatre, live and in unusual hybrids

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Calling the pandemic an “obstacle” to live theatre, or maybe a “challenge,” is a bit like saying COVID is the flu. The pandemic has had a devastating effect on an art whose raison d’être is the … Continue reading →

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Off the cuff and on the spot: Gordon’s Big Bald Head makes (up) a movie

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Hey, tonight I was in the virtual audience at the Grindstone, i.e. the invisible sweatpants brigade online at home. And I was watching an amazingly dexterous improv duo onstage do, off the cuff, something that is … Continue reading →

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Gordon’s Big Bald Head infiltrates movie history in Good Head, at the Grindstone

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca They are smart. And they are funny. But there is nothing cautious, or predictable, or even sane about the entertainment proposition that the deluxe improv troupe Gordon’s Big Bald Head offers the world. They own a … Continue reading →

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Impossible? EDMONten, a showcase of full-length 10-minute plays

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca If we didn’t know it before, we do now, after six months of theatre trying hard and being ingenious on screen, size isn’t everything. (And as for duration, haven’t you asked yourself what’s happened to your … Continue reading →

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Signs of life: live theatre is coming back, with cautious first steps

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca And they’re back! Very cautiously, of course, experimentally, a little tentatively, with ultra-sanitized jazz hands. And not full-blast: nary a large-scale musical in sight, needless to say. But live theatre is starting to be back … … Continue reading →

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When the curtain doesn’t open: strange nights without theatre

Posted on March 19, 2020 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It’s a strange feeling. I’ve spent most of my adult life encouraging people to go to live theatre. Exhorting people to share the excitement, the fun, the surprise, the laughter and the tears, the shared gasp, … Continue reading →

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