How Much is Enough of an Audience?

When talk turns to low show attendance here in Vancouver, inevitably someone in the crowd is going to blame either the ‘Great Outdoors’ or our ‘Natural Beauty’ as the single greatest enemy in our fight to fill seats. This weekend’s long-awaited approximation of summer to the tune of 30+ degrees certainly put up a good [...]

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On the Difference Between a Critic and a Reviewer

Terrific article by Chris Dupuis over at his newly re-christened site Time and Space, in which he offers a modest proposal for a new model of responsibility for our critics. It’s a great contexualization of the actual job, and the post itself follows the very guidelines that he propounds within it. Chris puts some responsibility [...]

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The Art of the Business Part 6: Managing your Flow…

For a downloadable or streaming audio podcast of this article, click here. A bunch of years ago, when Julia Cameron first published her book The Artist’s Way, I, like most other artists I knew, went out and bought a copy, and started working my way through it. I loved it; I was doing my exercises, [...]

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Praxis Service Announcement

Dear Gentle Reader: We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to stop by and visit the site. Readership has been steadily increasing for the last little while, and the number of you that are checking us out regularly is both humbling and exciting. We are most appreciative and would [...]

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This One Goes to Eleven: Peter Boychuk

Meet Peter Boychuk: Man of Many Hats. A young published playwright with a number of regional awards under his belt already, a Studio 58-trained actor who has performed on stages across Canada, and by turns director and dramaturg of mainly new works. And for his day job: arts administrator. Peter is the Director of Communications [...]

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Canadian Critical Culture Called into Question

Now first off, I know a lot of you are thinking: “we have a culture of criticism?”. Well, apparently we in fact do, and the UK Guardian’s Andrew Haydon offers as proof the web site of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association. Now I know a lot of you are thinking: “we have a Canadian Theatre [...]

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Your City and You: When Ambitions Collide

What influence does your city have on you as an artist? And I’m not talking about the personal components that make up your particular chunk of the city; your friends and teachers and peers and whatnot, I mean the city as a unique entity, with a personality and a look and ambitions all its own, [...]

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Talking Point

If, as so many people say, theatre has become irrelevant (and I don’t think it has; I think it’s relevance has gone underground during the tornado of triviality that has swept through the last 25 years)  it may be because theatre artists, in the desperate need to simply survive, have lost an awareness of the [...]

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My First Impressions of Vancouver – by Guest Blogger Jessica Ruano

In the line-up for Sandra Oh’s Celebrity Speakers appearance at Magnetic North the other week, I bumped into Emma Lancaster, the Festival’s wonderful and hardworking publicist. “Hey Simon”, she says to me while indicating the young lady she was talking to, “you should meet Jessica, you’re both theatre bloggers.” As if on cue, we both [...]

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This One Goes to Eleven: Laura Efron

The key to the success of our industry, in my opinion, is dedicated and impassioned arts administrators. Laura has been a soldier in that cause for years now, and I’m thrilled to welcome her to TOGtE. She has worked with many Vancouver arts orgs, among them See Seven, the Jessie Richardson Awards Society, Pacific Theatre [...]

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Well, that was fun. What’s next?

And so the (finally) sunny West Coast bids a fond adieu to Mag North (or ‘Canada’s National Festival of Contemporary Canadian Theatre in English’ for long. Canafestconcanatheng? Seriously guys, nothing snappier jumps to mind?). Traditionally with me the close of a run portends a short bout of postpartum, so I suppose I’ll be dealing with [...]

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Fringe Marketing

With Mag North behind us, our festival thoughts turn towards the country’s un-juried festival circuit: the Fringe is on its way. We’ll be taking a look at Canada’s other Fringes in anticipation of our own on in September, and looking for some advance on shows to watch out for. The Montreal Fringe is in full [...]

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No sets please, we’re Canadian.

When we talk about the value of theatre (and we do here in the theatrosphere, a lot), the heart of these conversations usually lands somewhere around the word ‘experience’. As in: what experience does the theatre offer its patrons and practitioners that no other art form can provide? Ask this question of most theatre-makers and [...]

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Talking Point

Theatre is everywhere. Theatre is that weird and wonderful conversation you overhear in a bar, the ugly argument you catch walking by an apartment window, the rope’s-end meltdown you witness on the walk to work. We give money to theatre artists to see what happens next. Simon Ogden

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This One Goes to Eleven: John Cassini

One of the great success stories of the Vancouver acting world, John started down his career path at Simon Fraser University, moving on from there to New York to study and work in theatre. He is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio. Returning to Vancouver, John helped found the storied Gastown Actor’s Studio and [...]

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