This one goes to eleven: Spectral Theatre Society

I wish a stage company like the Spectral Theatre Society on every city. Operating from their theatrical lair deep in the heart of the Downtown East Side, these guys wear their love for genre fiction on their sleeve, and produce consistent, well branded work. You always know the experience in store for you at a [...]

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One more chance to catch Ashes

I had a load of people asking me if and when they could get another chance to see Bill Marchant’s recent play Ashes after I flipped my lid for it on World Theatre Day. There’s one more chance to catch this roundly excellent production this coming Friday, May 1 at the Metro Theatre: 1370 Marine [...]

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My very own marketing Simonar…er, Seminar. Wanna come?

This is an important section of history for the Independent Arts. Something amazing is happening right now, a consciousness shift into a new way of how we deliver our work and our message to our audience. It’s about what we have to do now to sell ourselves, and get our art distributed. It’s an amazing [...]

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This one goes to eleven: Lois Dawson

Continuing our TOGtE Stage Manager series, we are proud to present you with Ms. Lois Dawson: professional SM, theatre buff and all around social media socialite. You can read about her consistently updated love for the stage at her own blog here, and have a #theatre conversation with her most times of the day here. [...]

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Creative marketing watch – Merch edition

My name is Simon. I’m a huge theatre nerd. If I establish a relationship with a company, or a band, or a festival, I’d pay money to show it. There are a lot of people just like me. I’ve got a relationship with these guys solely through our social media connections, where they continue to [...]

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Creative marketing watch – web edition

Image courtesty of Nick Keenan Artketing Inc. When it comes to getting the brand and the message out to the people, there is no industry that has such a perfect inversely proportional equation of cash<creativity as the Independent Stage. How can we plug this equation into our marketing operations to tip this see-saw back the [...]

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New on the V-list: The Zoo Story

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The best comment threads, Isaac always has

Theatrosphere Yoda Isaac Butler published his first post on Parabasis* on June 18, 2004, and he still remains required reading for working theatre artists. There’s a busy comment thread going on this post (which was, in turn, inspired by this post by the Phantom of the Blogosphere, 99 Seats), in which the community gets busy [...]

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Writing vs. Acting

This is a guest post by Raphael Kepinski, a winner of last year’s Solo Flights Emerging Playwrights Competition presented by the Solo Collective and The Playhouse Theatre Company. Raphael returns this year to perform one of the ’09 winning pieces on April 13. Details at bottom of page. Solo Flights, The Emerging Writers Competition:  Writing [...]

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New on the V-list: Spectral Theatre’s Late-Night Double Feature Returns

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Ok sure, he’s a dick, but from a certain point of view…

…is there any bigger compliment to a piece of theatre? Especially a piece of LaBute… As reported by Daniel Lehman in Blogstage: In the middle of a performance of Neil LaBute’s reasons to be pretty this weekend, actress Marin Ireland ([below] right) was reportedly the target of one male audience member’s anger when she delivered [...]

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This one goes to Eleven: Cameron Mackenzie

Cameron’s Stage resume runs the gamut from set and props design to director to clown to actor to drag queen…and back to director. He is the Artistic Director of the newly inaugurated Zee Zee Theatre which just launched with Cameron’s passion project Whale Riding Weather at the PAL. After having seen the production myself all [...]

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Ashes: two-minute load in

I’m a sucker for behind-the-scenes extras. Bill Marchant’s Ashes, the play that I took in on World Theatre Day at the Firehall, was the kind of work that ensures I will always want to make Independent Stage. Astonishing work at all levels. Greg Bishop, the director of the play and proprietor of Eye Heart Productions, [...]

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Talking point

Offending the audience is part of the function of theatre… Charles Spencer in The Telegraph

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New Van theatre blog alert…and an invitation to kick off one of your own

When Vancouver is recognized as one of the top theatre cities in the world, Sabrina Evertt is going to have to accept her fair share of responsibility. After shooting out the other end of the theatre program of UVic she immediately rolled up her sleeves and went to work, producing and directing the kind of [...]

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