Tag Archives: Vern Thiessen

Crime plays: The Ballad of Peachtree Rose, a new thriller from Nicole Moeller, opens the Workshop West season

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Who are the monsters?” That’s what playwright Nicole Moeller wonders. It’s what she’s always drawn to wonder in her plays, and the answer is never clear-cut. She asks again in the new high-speed thriller that premieres … Continue reading

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Vern Thiessen to leave his post as Workshop West artistic director

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Time to move on,” says Vern Thiessen of his decision after five years to leave his post as artistic director of Workshop West Playwrights Theatre, effective Aug. 31. He won’t be leaving Edmonton, though. “I need … Continue reading

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All about the playwright: Workshop West celebrates the big 4-oh

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca It was not one of those storied red carpet openings, where everyone knows that history is being made and dresses accordingly. But then, what little Canadian theatre starts that way? Four decades ago, a sometime playwright/ … Continue reading

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No one’s staying home this weekend: why would you? A wealth of choices on E-town stages

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca  At the U of A’s Studio Theatre, it’s back in the USSR with Lenin’s Embalmers, Vern Thiessen’s black and absurdist 2008 tragicomedy (imagined from a true story) about two competing Jewish biochemists landing the unenviable joint … Continue reading

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Thou Art Where? A roving production of Shakespeare’s Will in a cemetery, a review

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Thou Art Here!, a company that does Shakespeare meet-and-greets in unexpected locations, takes us to a graveyard. It’s dusk. Five ghostly women appear through the trees in the distance and come towards us. As the daylight … Continue reading

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Mrs. Shakespeare gets her voice back, in a graveyard: Shakespeare’s Will with Thou Art Here!

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “A woman dancing on a grave.” That’s the image that inspired the roving outdoor production of Vern Thiessen’s Shakespeare’s Will opening Thursday in a cemetery near you, says director Andrew Ritchie. So decisively did that image … Continue reading

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The art of Indigenous storytelling comes to life: meet Josh Languedoc

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “I’ve always been a storyteller,” says the Saugeen First Nation playwright/ actor/ improviser/ director Josh Languedoc. “It’s just been there … in my bones.” He can thank his Indigenous heritage, and its great oral tradition for … Continue reading

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Fringe review: Gemini

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “What can I get you?” It’s a world of first names and smiling informality. It’s where people go to escape their lives temporarily, or take an undemanding break from solitude or commitment. Your secrets are safe; … Continue reading

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Bringing Canada to New York: Soulpepper on 42nd Street

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Last week in New York I had the excitement of seeing what a top-drawer Canadian theatre company, venturing forth, can bring to the stage in a highly demanding world theatre capital.    Coming from away for … Continue reading

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Workshop West announces its upcoming 39th season

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca At the centre of Workshop West Playwrights Theatre’s upcoming 39th season, announced Thursday, is the world premiere of a new play by Edmonton’s Beth Graham. In Pretty Goblins, by the multi-talented actor/playwright (The Gravitational Pull of … Continue reading

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